Cutting the cable TV cord

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
I have discovered that the various mainline streams (like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and AppleTV and others) are offering enough decent content that I find myself watching those more frequently than the Cable TV channels. I rarely watch first run episodes when they are initially broadcast, instead watching what my DVR captured.

So I'm considering cutting the cord, and keeping my Frontier FiOS (formerly Verizon FiOS) for home internet only.

My questions: I know many on PoA have cut the cable cord. For those folk,
  1. Can you provide some information on how much you are saving?
  2. Are you purchasing seasons of favorite programs/shows to watch?
  3. What is your before/after spending on TV entertainment?
  4. Do you miss having cable TV service or regret your choice of sending them packing?
 
Dropped Direct TV years ago and switched to net based programming. Here are some details:
- Cable news GONE! Likely helped my blood pressure more than anything else. Don't miss it at all! (Reminded every week I spend at a hotel.)
- The BS with the recorder is GONE - just queue up what you like, when you like.
- NetFlix is a wash right now. Different programming and I lost a few items I liked when they did. Still good.
- Hulu - not worth the headache for me.
- Amazon Prime - that is worth the effort
- Apple iTunes/Movies - meh

Local TV is good and free - and the "go fly" local weather is good enough for a big local picture. Weather station apps and various aviation websites paint the larger picture with details. Many of the networks have apps for Apple TV or Roku so you can get Star Trek or whatever isn't otherwise available on Prime.

The biggie is having control over when you sit behind that mind wasting device. More time can be spent doing pretty much anything else. But even so, I still spend WAY too much time sitting than I would like.

The biggest downer: internet speeds. When it is down when you are watching something interesting, well the wife sends me off to figure it out. Ugh...

(Another good one to kill is Facebook - what a pice of political trash these days. I'll likely live 5 years longer with Cable and Facebook out of my life.)
 
Dumped the dish and put up an antenna a couple years ago. We're well sited for an antenna and have a choice of around 40 channels, although some are redundant (same network).
We have high speed Internet from the cable provider, which feeds the Roku....Netflix, Amazon Prime movies...oh, and there's a lot of content on youtube tv/movie-wise. $60 for the internet...cable tv would've 'started' at around an additional $60 more.

Jim
 
  1. Can you provide some information on how much you are saving?
    Probably $30/mo, but we had basic package as it was, so it's not like we had an expanded package with movie/sports channels galore.
  2. Are you purchasing seasons of favorite programs/shows to watch?
    No, we had Hulu for a while but really didn't use it too much after the first year. We currently just run SlingTV (mostly for ESPN/comedy central) and Amazon Prime because the wife is a Prime member anyway.
  3. What is your before/after spending on TV entertainment?
    We probably spent per month: $60 for cable, $50 internet, $10 Hulu. Now we spend $65 internet (rate went up, not a different internet package), $20 SlingTV, and $10 Amazon.
  4. Do you miss having cable TV service or regret your choice of sending them packing?
    Don't miss them a bit, and I wish I didn't have to use them for internet, but they're about the only game in town (Cox). If I could get Google fiber, uVerse, or FiOS, I'd do it just to get away from Cox and their never-ending fee increases for the same internet service.

    Truth be told, I have an Amazon Fire Stick which has been hacked and I can watch just about any TV show, series, or movie I could imagine for free, but I honestly don't use it much. Our breakdown of TV usage probably looks something like: 55% OTA channels, 25% SlingTV, 10% Amazon Prime, 10% Other App Streaming.

    My parents recently cut the cord from DirectTV, and are probably saving close to $80+/month, but they had a more expensive channel package and are using the same OTA, SlingTV, and Roku setup we have.
 
Just cut it this week. Was paying $77 a month and the best deal they could offer was $104. NOPE and NOPE.

Right now I am trialing most of the services.

Hulu - interface sucks and a lot of the content is available elsewhere
Youtube - Interface is good, DVR is good, they have local channels line up is a little weak, they don't have apps yet for Roku or Fire so have to wait on that.
Sling - Decent interface lower cost although you pay an extra $5 for DVR capability and they have some extras you can buy as well.

We will probably go with Sling for now. May switch to Youtube when the app comes out. We already have Amazon Prime so that is there as well.

Check out Pluto TV. It has a very cable like interface and while it pulls most of it's content from other places it puts it all in one place for you. If you like MST3K they have a bunch of it.

It is a little hard getting used to not just watching what is on but deciding what to watch.
 
Dropped both the tv and phone on our service. Cut about 125$ a month off the bill. Ooma for phone, at about 5$ a month. Picked up NetFlix and use the free part of Hulu and some Amazon Fire stuff. I only miss a couple of series, but then again I hardly have any time to watch the tube. I think I've watched about 6 whole hours of tv since we cut it 4 years ago. The kids are are the only ones that watch anything anymore.
 
Never paid for it

I just use amazon and some more sketchy free sites for the movies and TV not as current on amazon or netflix.

For the price of cable TV I just dont see the value.
 
20 + years with no television.
We have a TV but it is for occasional viewing of a Netflix movie (once a month maybe) or maybe a YT series or Amazon Prime vid which are free.

20 years x (I hear some people pay) $100/mo = $24,000
What to do with all that free time?
a) not get fat in front of the TV
b) go outside and enjoy fresh air or take on a project
 
Karen and I discontinued our Dish Network service over 3 years ago. We were paying just over $30/month for the most basic package plus local Atlanta channels.

Our internet is about $70/month for 40mbps via cable.

We subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and CBS All Access. We were subscribed to the first three even when we had cable. Virtually all of our content comes through our AppleTV, now that there's an Amazon video app.

We do have occasional moments of frustration trying to watch something live. But as I said in my recent Samsung TV thread, we're never without something to watch. Almost too much.

I recommend the video podcast "Cordkillers" for discussions of devices, services and content available without cable or satellite. A fun watch.
 
Hell, for $30 a month you want to deal with all the clunky interfaces?



SoonerAviator said:
  1. Can you provide some information on how much you are saving?
    Probably $30/mo, but we had basic package as it was, so it's not like we had an expanded package with movie/sports channels galore.
  2. Are you purchasing seasons of favorite programs/shows to watch?
    No, we had Hulu for a while but really didn't use it too much after the first year. We currently just run SlingTV (mostly for ESPN/comedy central) and Amazon Prime because the wife is a Prime member anyway.
  3. What is your before/after spending on TV entertainment?
    We probably spent per month: $60 for cable, $50 internet, $10 Hulu. Now we spend $65 internet (rate went up, not a different internet package), $20 SlingTV, and $10 Amazon.
  4. Do you miss having cable TV service or regret your choice of sending them packing?
    Don't miss them a bit, and I wish I didn't have to use them for internet, but they're about the only game in town (Cox). If I could get Google fiber, uVerse, or FiOS, I'd do it just to get away from Cox and their never-ending fee increases for the same internet service.

    Truth be told, I have an Amazon Fire Stick which has been hacked and I can watch just about any TV show, series, or movie I could imagine for free, but I honestly don't use it much. Our breakdown of TV usage probably looks something like: 55% OTA channels, 25% SlingTV, 10% Amazon Prime, 10% Other App Streaming.

    My parents recently cut the cord from DirectTV, and are probably saving close to $80+/month, but they had a more expensive channel package and are using the same OTA, SlingTV, and Roku setup we have.
Click to expand...
 
I look into it once in a while. What I’ve found is with the package prices for Spectrum, aka Time Warner, it is within $10 or so when I keep internet and phone and subscribe to a couple of places like Netflix, Acorn, Sling, whatever.

So I stay with cable package to minimize the need to deal with different companies in the event of problems.

Cheers
 
I never did have cable from the beginning. In fact, I disconnected the cable in the attic and plugged it in to a mast mount TV antenna hanging off the rafters, and pointed it towards the broadcast towers. Internet has been dial-up and later DSL. When the 'hood was retrofitted with fiber optic last year, Xfinity discovered that a cable had never been run from the box across the street to the house so they had to install one.

So I have high speed Internet, and broadcast HD TV at the same time. My service is Internet only. I have no plans to incorporate paid TV or movie streaming. I'm paying about sixty bucks a month, which was roughly what I was paying for telephone service with DSL.
 
If it helps the discussion, I currently don't have telephone service with FiOS, even though it is offered. Like many individuals, cell phone service suffices for the limited # of calls I do make or receive while at home.
 
paflyer said:
Hell, for $30 a month you want to deal with all the clunky interfaces?
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean. The Amazon Fire Stick houses all of the apps (Amazon, YouTube, SlingTV, Kodi (free movies/shows). I don't find the FireTV terribly clunky, but your opinion may differ. I don't have an issue clicking on an app, or using voice control on the remote to search for a movie/tv show. Is it as seamless as using a cable box? No. However, I can watch any tv show or movie at any time I want, which I can't do with cable unless I remembered to DVR it in the first place. $30/mo is all I save because I wasn't spending that much to begin with, and my ISP is making up for lost cable-subscription revenue by jacking up the rates on internet service (only running 15MB down/2MB up).

If I switched to DSL, I could probably save another $20+/month for faster internet, but I'm wary of the reliability of DSL.

Also, for those of you watching OTA channels, there's an app called TitanTV which is a full TV guide. My LCD tv has a guide, but it's clunky and hard to scroll through, the TitanTV app is much easier and supports user-customization.
 
I can't get all the TV networks via antenna here so I'm at about $50/mo for cable+$50/month for internet(same wire). I use local recording tuners to avoid having to deal with the cable companies stupid interface, same as I would with an antenna. Usually when I was able to use an antenna I'd buy shows per-episode or per season that I wanted to watch before they hit Netflix from cable networks($2.99/episode). So having cable probably has a net cost of about $30/month more since I would still have Netflix and Amazon prime.
 
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We can not get OTA here either.
 
We cut the cable about two years ago. We also found ourselves watching pretty much just the shows we recorded with the DVR. In fact,we were "binge-watching" episodes before we knew it was a thing!

It got to the point that we realized we were paying over $250 per month for just DirecTV (!) We bought a couple of ROKU devices (around $40 each), connected them to our home network, and signed up for a couple of services (some we already had). Newer televisions (Smart TVs) and game consoles have that ability built-in, so that expense can even be eliminated.

We currently subscribe to Netflix and Hulu Plus (about $10 per month or so), and also Amazon Prime (we buy WAY too much stuff from Amazon). If we want a movie that isn't included in a monthly subscription, we can use VUDU or Amazon and rent/buy it that way.

For local channels, we bought an HD-Digital antenna for each TV we'd want to watch local stuff on. The ones we got run about $30 a piece.

I'm estimating we save at least $150 per month. The only thing we miss out on are the sports channels, but those can be subscribed to as well--we just couldn't justify it based on how much our viewing habits have evolved.
 
Dropped Dish a month ago. Had our DSL upgraded to 20Mbps. Running Hulu Live on a FireTV Stick. Dish was $ 76 a month, DSL went up $10 and Hulu Live is $40. Will probably replace the FireTV Stick with a Roku box. The Hulu Live interface does leave much to be desired and has some bugs like channels not showing in the MyChannels list. I have an antenna to put on the roof at some point and will be able to get additional stuff with it. I'll stick Hulu Live and what is available through Prime.
 
One word of caution with the apps on your smart TV they are rarely updated. The Hulu app on my TV would not do live TV. Buy the Roku or other device it is worth it.
 
Netflix, Prime, Kodi with Poseidon, Triton, Mobdro, Terrarium TV. All on my FireTV
 
DFH65 said:
One word of caution with the apps on your smart TV they are rarely updated. The Hulu app on my TV would not do live TV. Buy the Roku or other device it is worth it.
Click to expand...

That's what I was going to say. The Roku/FireTV/AppleTV are better because they won't be outdated so quickly and can have new services/apps added quickly. Canned SmartTV apps aren't really a big focus for tv manufacturers, so if they get an update at all, it's rare.
 
Shepherd said:
Netflix, Prime, Kodi with Poseidon, Triton, Mobdro, Terrarium TV. All on my FireTV
Click to expand...
How do you like the Poseidon/Triton stuff? We've just been using Exodus lately, but I have heard decent things about a few other variants.
 
SoonerAviator said:
How do you like the Poseidon/Triton stuff? We've just been using Exodus lately, but I have heard decent things about a few other variants.
Click to expand...
I'd like to know of a few other good Kodi apps/whatever as well. Use Exodus for everything but dont want to depend on one developer.

Been using Netflix for years as an addition to Direct tv. With YouTubes new deal I'm just about ready to cut the cord. My only concern is live sports. Its debatable how much of it I'd actually "miss"... definitly could do without a lot of it and the games I want to watch are rarely on.

Super Bowl I'll want to watch. How are you guys watching sports??

I'd love to cut the cord for good. Can I buy an airplane with $150 per month?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
Broadcast HD covers all of my sports needs, but I'm not a sports fanatic either.
 
SlingTV covers my sports in addition to OTA. You can add/cancel SlingTV at any time, no contract. Only want it for football season? Fine. Want it for a month to catch a game or two? sure.
 
SoonerAviator said:
How do you like the Poseidon/Triton stuff? We've just been using Exodus lately, but I have heard decent things about a few other variants.
Click to expand...

I like the Poseidon format better. It gives you details on the quality of the shows, and lists them 1080, HD, SD top down.
 
paflyer said:
Yikes, you can barely stream with that.
Click to expand...
Honestly we never have any issue with it buffering, even with 1080 content. We don't have any 4K displays, so we haven't ventured into that arena yet. We'll almost certainly have to upgrade once enough 4K content exists and we purchase a 4K LCD.
 
We got rid of the cable some time ago. The savings were enormous, we were being gouged in cable. We have Sling for television programs, Netflix for lots of stuff, and Amazon Prime. We got Amazon for the free shipping, but we probably watch as much if not more if it than anything else. Were it just me I wouldn't even bother with Sling, but the Mrs. likes it. Netflix is well worth it, and Amazon even moreso since you get the free shipping along with the TV stuff.
 
The only cable that goes into our TV is the antenna cable. Provides decent entertainment (from fake news and real news), otherwise we watch movies discs. Nothing really useful on cable worth the ransom they extort. Never saw the benefit in paying money for commercials. I'd rather be flying!
 
Netflix has totally spoiled me for adless watching. I can't bear tv anymore. But hubby still watches all kinds of stuff on it so we have to keep paying.:(
 
liking this idea more and more.

Ok so with a digital antenna, can you split/boost the signal for several tv's?
 
paflyer said:
Yikes, you can barely stream with that.
Click to expand...

Actually you can steam HD with 1/3 of that, 15MB will steam 4k too I believe, now if you have like 20 kids and they are all streaming from their own device not so much
 
denverd1 said:
liking this idea more and more.

Ok so with a digital antenna, can you split/boost the signal for several tv's?
Click to expand...
You can, just put the booster as close to the antenna as possible. It's usually fine as long as you aren't trying to feed 8 tvs with it. Otherwise, just use a smaller HD antenna for the longer runs/lesser used sets. I have an antenna mounted up in the attic and get perfect reception year-round to our 2 tvs just running on the house-installed coax, no booster.
 
James331 said:
Actually you can steam HD with 1/3 of that, 15MB will steam 4k too I believe, now if you have like 20 kids and they are all streaming from their own device not so much
Click to expand...

It's just the wife and I at the moment (17-month old hasn't asked for a tablet yet, lol), and we generally aren't streaming to more than one device at a time anyway. I'm sure if she were streaming to her tablet, I was downloading updated sectional charts on mine, streaming an HD movie, and downloading music on the computer we'd have an issue.
 
It gets even easier to cut the cord if you become a bit of a pirate. Heck even stuff i have access to legally i'll torrent. Just easier to have it on a harddrive and control it with your phone streaming it to whatever device in your house.
 
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