March Madness (2023)

It's college basketball playoff time, and while we're half-way through March, and though the finals are in April, the March Madness name sticks around.

So, for the die-hard college basketball fans, or for the casual college basketball fans, how do you watch the tournament if you're a streamer?

It's not that hard, really. There are four networks carrying the games, and all are available with various streaming packages, as well as some games, including the Final Four, available over the air.

CBS

The Tiffany Network is carrying games from every round, and has the Final Four and Championship games.

• Over the air/antenna (free)
• Paramount Plus (Premium) ($10/month)
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
  
• Fubo TV ($75/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($75/month)
  

TBS

The former SuperStation has games from the first four rounds, from the field of 64 to the Elite Eight.

• Sling TV (Orange) ($40/month)
• Sling TV (Blue) ($40/month)
• Sling TV (Orange+Blue) ($55/month)
  
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
  
• Fubo TV ($75/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($75/month)

TNT

Some games from the first two rounds are available on TNT.

• Sling TV (Orange) ($40/month)
• Sling TV (Blue) ($40/month)
• Sling TV (Orange+Blue) ($55/month)
  
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
  
• Fubo TV ($75/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($75/month)

truTV

The former Court TV (not the current over-the-air version) channel is carrying games from the first two rounds.

• Sling TV (Blue) ($40/month)
• Sling TV (Orange+Blue) ($55/month)
  
• YouTube TV ($65/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($70/month)
  
• Fubo TV ($75/month)
• DirecTV Stream ($75/month)

The cheapest way to watch everything is YouTube TV. If all you care about is the Final Four, an antenna is cheapest, with Paramount Plus Premium next cheapest way.

However you want to do it, however many games you want, you can include March Madness in your Streaming Life.

Why don't the TV channel numbers match?

You may not realize this, or you may but not understand why it's so, but it's actually pretty common for the channel number by which you know a TV station to be different than the actual channel.

Tyler the Antenna Man explains more:

[YouTube]

If you don't have an antenna to pick up local stations, it may be something worth looking into. I went for so long without an antenna and wish I had put one up earlier. It's made a positive impact to my Streaming Life.

Microsoft Office privacy concerns

I've become more and more concerned about privacy over the years, and sometimes will take a day here to offer tips and suggestions that are not specifically streaming related, but important enough to consider.

Microsoft Office is the most popular office suite -- the video explains this -- but has some serious security issues. Naomi Brockwell looks at the issues, and alternatives to Microsoft Office:

[YouTube]

I have used different office suites, and no longer use Microsoft Office. This saves me money, as well as improves security, so this is a win for me. Perhaps it will be for you too.

Bnadwidth issues?

One of the things about streaming that can cause a lot of aggravation is when things suddenly don't work as you think. There are many things that can interfere with with your streaming experience, and this video from Britec09 offers some useful suggestions.

[YouTube]

This isn't all encompassing, and doesn't address everything that can cause problems, but it does offer some good suggestions, and is worth looking into. It may improve your Streaming Life.

Tablo and deleting recordings

I love Tablo. It's a great way to watch over the air TV.

Tablo is a DVR system, but the network-connected devices also allow you to watch live over the air TV on any TV connected to your network. And, to tell the truth, I use Tablo that way more than I do with recordings.

Many do use it for recordings, however. And there is one thing about Tablo that can cause problems with recordings. That's deleting the recordings.

Sometimes, you want to protect a recording from deletion. This is something that some DVRs offer. Tablo, however, doesn't let you protect individual recordings, though they do allow protection of recordings. It's just the way they go about it that is a little unusual.

In a recent Q&A, Tablo addressed the issue:

While Tablo DVRs don't have a 'recycle bin' or 'undelete' option, they do have a feature called 'protect'.

Within the RECORDINGS screen of all Tablo apps, when you select a specific program you'll see a PROTECT option. On most platforms this will disable the DELETE button on the recording, requiring a user to UNPROTECT the recording before being able to delete it.

Not having a recycle bin makes it impossible to recover an accidental recording, and protecting all recordings in a series makes it problematic if you want to erase a recording after you watch it. In other words, the most likely scenarios are the very ones for which they did not account.

I still am a fan of Tablo. But if they were to fix this obvious system design flaw, it would make everyone's Streaming Life better.

Thanks AT&T but no thanks

I so want to like AT&T. Really I do. But they seem to go out of their way to make things so hard.

I use AT&T Wireless, having switched from Verizon, and have overall been happy. There have been some things I didn't like, but overall, I'm good with the switch.

Of course, since they have my email address and phone number (it's a new number, as I retired the old number from a different area code), AT&T will send me marketing offers, such as ACP (the cheap Internet discount for which I don't qualify) and Fiber, which is not available here.

That last one is really an irritant to me. They have my address, so they know they don't offer the service at my house, but they promote it anyway. And every time they do, I check, and sure enough, it's not offered here.

They do offer service, just not good service. Did you see the speed?

Three mbps? Three?

Living in a small town, we are ignored by large companies and don't get all the products and services. I'm used to that. But I don't understand why they offer me things they don't or won't provide to me. I'm not going to settle for something less in my Streaming Life.

Data caps for Spectrum

An online report says that Spectrum customers are about to experience data caps.

Welcome to my world, Spectrum users.

I've been with Comcast for several years, and have dealt with data caps this entire time. I have to say that only a couple of times have I surpassed the caps, and each time was unrelated to streaming. Well, mostly unrelated.

One time, I set up a new computer and had the iTunes settings so that it downloaded everything I had purchased. I thought it was set for new purchases only, but no, it was set for all. And I did this before I went out of town for a few days, so it downloaded about a TB of files, which busted my data cap.

Something similar happened a second time. Not exactly the same, but it was another out of the ordinary thing that busted the caps.

Normally, I don't have to worry about going over, so I haven't complained a lot about the data caps. But a lot of people do complain. And a lot of Spectrum customers have boasted about the lack of data caps on that system.

No more. According to Cord Cutters News, Spectrum is about to impose caps on customers:

Now on May 18th, 2023, Spectrum’s deal with the FCC will end, and it is expected that Spectrum will impose data caps.

Right now, only a handful of major providers do not impose data caps in some form. Most customers may never go over 1TB of data it is possible. Streaming Netflix in 4K will go through 1TB of data in about 171 hours. That works out to be roughly 7 hours of 4K streaming every day in a month.

Now, most streaming is not in 4K. With Netflix HD, it works out to be about 500 hours of streaming to hit 1TB. That works out to be over 16 hours of HD streaming every day in a 30-day month.

Whether or not Spectrum imposes the caps -- and I don't doubt they will -- it probably won't impact a lot of people. Like me, they probably won't go over. And while I don't like the idea of data caps, it is a part of my Streaming Life, though a part I don't like.