[noconflict]

I would love to cut the cord permanently, but as a huge sports fan, the alternatives to cable aren't quite there yet.

I spent the past year streaming streaming NFL Red Zone and TNT for the NBA Playoffs using my parents's cable login info online. I casted both to my television (didn't have an HDMI out adapter for my laptop) and the quality was not on-par with HD video from a cable box, despite a 100Mbps connection. This is mainly due to the transcoding happening when casting, however, even when using the WatchESPN app on the Amazon Fire TV, I experienced similar video quality. Further, the lag between "real-time" (when I see reactions on Twitter or from my friends watching on cable) and what I saw was about a minute or two. As a huge fan who craves content now, I find that lag unacceptable for me, and hardly consider it live television.

I understand I am likely in a small minority, even for sports fans, but the current cord-cutting options are just not adequate for me. I will be adding cable service in August in preparation for football season.

[rconti]

NHL has a $150/yr subscription where you can watch any of your team's games... as long as they're playing out-of-market! It makes you wonder what the point of it all is.

[cweiss]

And not on network TV. PQ is not nearly as good as regular TV, you can't easily time-shift or pause (spoiled by TiVo).

I've always started my NHL season trying NHL Gamecenter and always ended up canceling it within a few weeks and paying through the nose for Center Ice (which comes out to ~$90/mo with pre-requisite cable).

[undershirt]

I watched the NBA playoffs on Sling TV, which had ESPN and TNT. But I couldn't watch the Finals because it was on NBC.

I wish I could watch local broadcast TV from my computer. But when broadcast TV went digital, it made it harder to get a decent signal. Partial signals on digital are a lot worse than it was with analog.

[dmfdmf]

Are you in the Bay Area? NBC is on VHF and very strong through out the bay. You could pick it up with an FM T-style antenna but not the UHF bow type antennas.