Bandwidth Usage & Cost Savings
Bandwidth Usage
The big downside of cord-cutting, for subscribers of certain ISPs at least, is of course bandwidth usage. Bandwidth caps are a serious factor for millions of people, and when you switch your primary source of entertainment from cable or satellite to streaming options, things can get tight.
While we personally don’t have to worry about bandwidth caps here, we took a look at our own bandwidth usage during our trial with our cord-cutting setup. These numbers won’t be perfect — with so many factors at play it’s difficult to isolate both devices and usage types that are exclusively related to cord-cutting — but they’ll hopefully provide a rough guide as to what you can expect when you cut the cord.
In September, before cutting the cord, we used 202GB at home. This represented all of our standard Web browsing, video chatting, an Xbox game or two, and some additional streaming that we do regardless of the status of our cable subscription.
When we shifted entirely to online sources in November, that total jumped to 545GB. That includes multiple hours of kids shows per day, an episode or two for the grown-ups at night, and a few movies here and there throughout the week. While this jump of more than 300GB isn’t insignificant, it should be manageable for those with increasingly common 1TB monthly data caps.
A quick related note on Internet speed: most people will just need to worry about their bandwidth usage but some may also be constrained by the speed of their connection. We’re fortunate to have ISPs in our area that offer up to 300Mbps, but if you’re stuck on DSL or other slow connections the feasibility of cord-cutting will be significantly reduced. Even if you already have no problem streaming a show or two from Netflix or Amazon, you’ll need to consider the bandwidth demand when everyone in the house needs to stream, and you’ll want to invest in a router with QoS features to prevent any one device from hogging all of the available bandwidth.
Cost Savings
While bandwidth usage is a negative factor for cord-cutters, one of the positive reasons to pursue this strategy is to save money. The monthly costs for cable and satellite packages have ballooned in recent years, and many subscribers are paying in excess of $100 per month for a large number of channels that they may never even watch.
When cutting the cord, you trade that large monthly bill for several smaller bills: Netflix or Hulu, Sling TV, a Plex Pass, etc. There’s also the upfront costs to consider, such as building a Plex server or storage array, buying a TV tuner, and buying media playback devices like the NVIDIA Shield.
While everyone’s own costs and savings will be different based on what content they want and the suitability of their existing hardware, here’s a look at our cord-cutting setup:
Initial Hardware Costs:
NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro ($300)
WD 8TB external hard drive ($185)
HDHomeRun Connect Duo ($99)
Channel Master CM-4228HD ($90)
Our upfront costs totaled about $675. While seemingly a bit pricey, this gives us a great media playback device (the SHIELD) that can also double as a quite capable Plex server, a large external drive for Plex media and DVR recordings, and the ability to watch and record over-the-air television broadcasts. If you’re looking for a lower upfront total, consider opting for the non-Pro SHIELD ($179) or a smaller external hard drive. If you plan to subscribe to a streaming service such as YouTube TV anyway, you could also save some upfront costs by ditching the antenna and network HDTV tuner.
In terms of ongoing subscription costs, we opted to use the aforementioned YouTube TV at $35 per month (due to previously discussed issues with live TV currently present in Plex). We also picked up a Plex Pass, which ranges from $3 to $5 per month depending on whether you pay quarterly or yearly. There’s also a lifetime option for $120 if you plan to stick with Plex for the long haul. That puts our monthly cord-cutting costs at $38 per month (we pay yearly for Plex Pass).
So how does that compare to our cable costs? With our previous cable provider (Cincinnati Bell), our monthly cost was about $111 just for TV. That’s for the provider’s “Elite” channel package ($76.99), the standard DVR fee ($12.99), the upgrade fee for an “HD” DVR ($7.99), and a total of about $13 in taxes and other fees. Keep in mind, too, that this package does not include premium channels such as HBO or Showtime.
Based on these numbers, we’re saving about $70 per month with our cord-cutting setup, a number we could increase in the future if Plex’s live TV implementation gets better or if we decide we don’t need YouTube TV or any of the other paid subscription services. That means that we could pay off our initial hardware costs in less than 10 months, and then bank the difference going forward.
I’ve run into a few issues
I’ve run into a few issues since I’ve cut my cord a few years ago. First off Plex doesn’t always detect my downloaded shows but I’ve got my TV connected to my PC so it’s just annoying.
Second my new Amazon Fire stick was using half my bandwidth ALL THE DAMN TIME. Ended up plugging the usb into the tv instead of the wall. If I didn’t live in the boonies it wouldn’t be an issue but 5mbps at best just can’t handle Amazon constantly buffering shows I might watch.
3rd… Too damn many app choices makes it frustrating. My new TV is “Smart” but not as good as the fire stick. The same app will buffer more and look worse on my TV. But my TV doesn’t slow my network as much as the stick… But my stick has Alexa. Damn you choices!
That’s very odd re: Fire
That’s very odd re: Fire stick. I’d factory reset and enable the data monitoring under Preferences. It will specifically show how much data all the apps use Including Fire TV Home and Fire TV System.
They don’t to my knowledge “hide” data usage for preloading any shows. Also for the Featured Content on the home screen you can turn off Video and Audio Autoplay. Nothing should be constantly downloading in the backgroud, I have multiple Fire TVs and they don’t east up all my data.
I’ve settled on Roku TVs &
I’ve settled on Roku TVs & Devices, Tablo for OTA w/DVR, Netflix and Sling TV with cloud DVR service. I save $50 over the cable equivalent even after the increase suffered by dropping triple play from Comcast. The experience is consistent from remote to GUI on all devices at all locations including away from home support for all the above. The only setup I have occasional glitches with is a WiFi connected Roku TV on my patio all other are hardwired and set to max quality including 4k Netflix. Most important My wife and grand kids use it all with ease.
Do you have a problem with
Do you have a problem with the Shield TV going to sleep and not waking up? When that happens with mine the only solution is to unplug the power and plug it back in.
No, I haven’t experienced
No, I haven't experienced anything like that frequently. Maybe four or five times in the two years I've owned a Shield I've had it lock up and require a power cycle. But that was usually related to installing new apps or emulators.
You’ll need to do factory
You’ll need to do factory reset. if that doesn’t fix it you probably have a defective device and should try to get service. if it’s within 30 days just return it for another.
I wonder if your TV viewing
I wonder if your TV viewing experience would have been better with an HDHomerun Extend instead of a Connect. The Extend is more expensive but has a built in H.264 encoder which greatly reduces bitrate and bandwidth. I missed a sale on one a month ago. I have an older HDHomerun similar to the Connect right now.
I never liked Plex, personally. It never worked well and although it was pretty, the functionality never lived up to the hype. I use Kodi for local media and specific apps for paid content. HDHomerun’s TV app has finally gotten very usable.
I’ve thought about this, too.
I've thought about this, too. Our primary test server at the office is based on a Threadripper 1950X with a 10Gbps network, so it should be more than capable of handling multiple uncompressed OTA streams, but there might be something else going on that would be resolved by having H.264 come right out of the tuner from the start.
No it wouldn’t have helped.
No it wouldn’t have helped. Plex Live TV is incredibly buggy. It’s well known issue that Live TV will work perfectly with any app that can stream from HDHOMERUN Except for Plex. DVR stability is also not great. They simply have a very buggy home grown DVR. The rest of Plex works great even with severely mixed devices. Just don’t rely on it for Live TV and DVR. It is excruciating to use in it’s currently GUI if you have more than 10 channels. Complete lack of information on programs and bizarre to navigate. RIP MCE, the best DVR setup that ever was…And that was like 20 years ago…
I have found the Roku is
I have found the Roku is easiest for our family as an interface to use so I have one of them for each tv. With Netflix, Amazon prime and couple of aps/subscriptions for specific special interests and running Plex on a desktop with a home run covers most of what we want. I did find I have to set plex to send lower res streams 720P when streaming to vacation home served by another ISP to prevent annoying buffering.
I use the Roku boxes and
I use the Roku boxes and PlayOn running on a PC as a server. It works well and PlayOn is handy because not only can it stream content from the DVD’s and Blu-Rays that I have ripped and stored on that machine but it can also be set up to batch record a series from Netflix etc. My wife has done this several times when a series was going to no longer be available.
At the nearly $700 cost you
At the nearly $700 cost you could have gotten an OTA TiVo with Lifetime Service which would have been an all around rock solid OTA recording/playback system which also itself supports Plex.
I used to use TiVo then went Plex/PlayOn/OTA and after about 2 years of that I’m actually considering ditching it and going back to TiVo. It’s far more solid and reliable than Plex/PlayOn which both take constant monitoring to make sure they’re running let alone working correctly.
According to CES reports
According to CES reports there is an upcoming hardware DVR unit with built in Dual OTA ATSC tuners that can be built upon with additional SiliconDust Network tuners. This will likely have the same interface as the HDHomeRun DVR software solution and have the same ~$35 annual fee but nothing has been confirmed yet.
Also, Plex DVR is reportedly going to gain a traditional guide within Q1 of this year. So by the end of march it should available.
For Antennas, I found works
For Antennas, I found works best is two Leaf 60’s each plugged into unused outlets and facing in different directions, between the two it gives the whole house a perfect signal for local channels. In a window is even better as long as there’s no metal screen over it, or hung on the wall between two studs, not over top of them. We use the new Firetv with addons and Kodi for national news and things like that to stream.
Interesting idea, are they
Interesting idea, are they showing up as two different tuners or combined?
It sounds like he is using
It sounds like he is using signal stacking but I could be wrong. If it’s the other thing they show up as 2 different tuners and Plex can see both. You can cherry pick which channels from which tuner you want. That’s a very expensive way of doing it. You are better off with a HDHOMERUN Dual or Quattro and a antenna like the 4228HD in the attic etc.
It would be interesting to
It would be interesting to see an update on this. Plex has improved a lot in recent months and as this setup seems to rely a lot on Plex I think it could take care of at least one of the issues. Nvidia has also come out with a major update that could be accounted for.
Also I think it would be worth adding to your setup Playon. Being able to record streams can do a lot to beef up you library legally. It also makes it easier to switch between services and get access to new content.