Cutting the cord - Options for moving away from cable tv

The Fire TV Stick 4k is amazing. It does everything you want, and it's fast because of the newer 1.7gz processor. I got mine up and running. The hardest part was getting the back cover off the remote to put the batteries in. There's videos on YouTube that show how to do it. Just push on the back cover hard while pushing down on the little indentation on the back of the remote and the entire cover slides off. A co-worker shared some movie apps from his google drive with me. I downloaded them to my Google Drive, loaded them on my stick using the ES Explorer App, and have so much content now. Here's the steps you want to do when setting up a 4k Fire Stick.

1. Set it up with your wireless network and sign into your Amazon account.
2. Turn on ADB and 3rd party apps so you can download anything. This is in the privacy settings. Also turn off everything where it wants to send back statistics.
3. Speak to Alexa on the remote and tell her to find the Downloader App. Run this app so it appears in your list of apps. Use this to download apps from the web.
4. Speak to Alexa on the remote and tell her to find the ES Explorer App. Run this app and log into your Google Drive account.
5. Download APK files using either the Downloader App, or the ES Explorer App. In my case, a Co-Worker shared his Google Drive with me, which had all the apps in it.
6. Install files and open them. They will appear in your Apps section along with some default subscription services which you can remove.

Services I now have installed.
Downloader App (You need this to download files from the web)
ES Explorer (Share APK Files for your Google Drive)
Cinema HD
Free Flix
Shack TV
MobDro

The co-worker shared the last 4 apps from his google drive with me. I was up and running in minutes. For everyone else, you can search YouTube for videos on how to install those apps.
 
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Buk Naked said:
Please explain a little what each of these are.

Also, are you running a vpn?
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Not running a VPN. Don't feel there is a need as everyone jumps on the IPTV bandwagon.

Click the links to see what each app does. These are all Android APK files that load on the Amazon Fire Stick 4K.
Cinema APK - Download Cinema HD v1.4.2 on Android, PC Fire Stick
FreeFlix HQ, Free HD Movies TV Shows and Anime App on Android
IPTV | Shack Television.com
Mobdro APK Download Latest Version Mobdro

You download the APK file to your Google Drive, install it on the Fire Stick using ES Explorer (Google Drive), and it's like any of the subscription services, and all the movies come up for free (except for Shack TV which is subscription based). I don't know how these sites get away with streaming all those movies for free, unless it's the ads they run on the site and they go until they get shut down. You can view Youtube videos on each service, more are coming out all the time. That's the cat and mouse game.

Seriously, buy the Fire Stick 4k now for $39 while it's on sale through the Superbowl.
 
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NoGodForMe said:
The Fire TV Stick 4k is amazing. It does everything you want, and it's fast because of the newer 1.7gz processor. I got mine up and running. The hardest part was getting the back cover off the remote to put the batteries in. There's videos on YouTube that show how to do it. Just push on the back cover hard while pushing down on the little indentation on the back of the remote and the entire cover slides off. A co-worker shared some movie apps from his google drive with me. I downloaded them to my Google Drive, loaded them on my stick using the ES Explorer App, and have so much content now. Here's the steps you want to do when setting up a 4k Fire Stick.

1. Set it up with your wireless network and sign into your Amazon account.
2. Turn on ADB and 3rd party apps so you can download anything. This is in the privacy settings. Also turn off everything where it wants to send back statistics.
3. Speak to Alexa on the remote and tell her to find the Downloader App. Run this app so it appears in your list of apps. Use this to download apps from the web.
4. Speak to Alexa on the remote and tell her to find the ES Explorer App. Run this app and log into your Google Drive account.
5. Download App files using either the Downloader App, or the ES Explorer App. In my case, a Co-Worker shared his Google Drive with me, which had all the apps in it.
6. Install files and open them. They will appear in your Apps section along with some default subscription services which you can remove.

Services I now have installed.
Downloader App (You need this to download files from the web)
ES Explorer (Share App Files for your Google Drive)
Cinema HD
Free Flix
Shack TV
MobDro

The co-worker shared the last 4 apps from his google drive with me. I was up and running in minutes. For everyone else, you can search YouTube for videos on how to install those apps.

Buy the Fire Stick 4k now while they are on sale for the Superbowl ($10 off).
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man that sounds like way too much trouble. i'll just download what i want to watch every once in a while from broadcasthe.net and iptorrents, thanks.
 
havax said:
man that sounds like way too much trouble. i'll just download what i want to watch every once in a while from broadcasthe.net and iptorrents, thanks.
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The difference here is the remote makes it easy for the women to search for the movies they want on the TV. The remote can turn on the TV and change the volume, along with picking movies. Yeah, there's some work to install these apps, but once they're on the Fire Stick, that's it. Easy to find something to watch. If the apps fail, there's always Amazon Prime. The thing that makes this Fire Stick so good, is it's 4k, the picture is great, and it's fast because of the 1.7Ghz processor.
 
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maybe he's already covered this, but it's kind of interesting ngfm abstains from all social media accounts because of privacy issues, but uses alexa
 
dang thanks for the sweet tips on opening battery doors, ngfm! i have been struggling with this problem for decades!
 
Tried to go with ps vue a while back but it wouldn't work because of their geolocation issue. Not sure if they've fixed it since.
Tried slingTV and it wasn't terrible but then switched to Hulu Live and couldn't be happier. Has all the sports stations I want and Disney for the kids. I have the cloud dvr and iiirc my bill is $43 a month.
 
There were no directions on the battery cover door and I didn’t want to bust it. So I looked up a video on YouTube that showed how to take it apart. The person in the video said many have asked how to get the battery cover door off. Hulu is on the fire stick as a subscription service so are a bunch of others.

The Alexa devices have grown in my home without me trying. First it was a dot that Ashley gave me. Then it was an echo for music in the kitchen. Then echo show from my parents house. Then my TV works with Alexa the AC works with Alexa. And now I got a fire stick to get free movies.
 
Hulu live is good but it doesn't have CBS live which is weird, or nesn. I do have it though.

I also have YouTube TV, which is great but still misses some stuff I like.

And I have Netflix

And Amazon

I think I'm paying more now than when I had cable but at least I have control.
 
You have the illusion of control

They are controlling you, every purchase, every choice you make and every thought you have. They have all been carefully curated especially for you.

You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater for instance, because you are trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent - wasn't it who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you.
 
Falhawk said:
Hulu live is good but it doesn't have CBS live which is weird, or nesn. I do have it though.

I also have YouTube TV, which is great but still misses some stuff I like.

And I have Netflix

And Amazon

I think I'm paying more now than when I had cable but at least I have control.
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I think it matters where you live. I have cbs, cbsn, and cbs sports on mine. My parents were thinking about it and they were missing a couple of local networks as well
Edit: had to look up what nesn was... I think I get somewhat of my local equivalent: fox sports Detroit (get all the lions, tigers, wings games).
 
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