Cutting the Cable Connection

[SilverBeach]

Have any of you successfully transitioned from cable tv to antenna plus roku or other streaming service alternative? I already have the roku, and I am determined to get rid of cable tv. I have been researching antennas to get broadcast networks free, and reading this really good site, disable your cable. Cable is just too expensive for someone contemplating retirement like me.

[SpoonfulOSugar]

I will be following this thread with great interest.

I detest TWC, but they have the internet cornered here . . . . 

[Maggie Mae]

Cut the cord!

We've been cable free for years. We have an antenna but it doesn't work well, and there is nothing on anyway. 

We never really were big on tv though. I find it to be really boring and most shows are so formulaic.  Plus I don't have hours to just sit there, watching other people do things. 

I have a few shows I like. Hbo now works well for me, but the web viewer kind of sucks. Amazon Prime has the same issue. Netflix doesn't have a very good selection. 

I don't care about watching broadcast tv though. And I don't mind waiting for most shows. 

[PennySycamore]

I'm not cutting the cable.  Several of my kids have but I think that my husband and I have realized that there is just too much we like on cable to give it up.  We also don't get good reception on broadcast networks without it.  I don't watch that much of the Big Three, but I do love PBS!  My daughter who lives on the other side of Paris Mountain get good reception of broadcast TV with an antenna.

 

[pook]

We cut the cord several years ago.  Mr. Pook thinks it was the best decision we ever made while I am on the fence because I really do miss just turning on the tube and channel surfing.  We do have Netflix so that's a compromise, I guess.

...also, I am in my early 40s and have not had a cell phone since I was 27 years old.  I think I miss cable more.

[Tesseract]

We gave up satellite two years ago. The only option for Internet at a reliable streaming speed, is Comcast (ugh!), but we only pay for Internet, not cable. We already had subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon Prime. So, we got a Roku, and added Hulu Plus.  

This seems to work fine for us. I watch just a couple of network shows and Hulu has those the day after they air. My son streams mostly from YouTube, but also uses  Hulu and a couple of other channels on Roku.  I do miss Al Jazeera English, but can access it online. 

If you want more network programming, there are services you can add for $10-$20 like CBS All Access or Sling TV. Also, I think HBO and other movie channels now offer stand alone services on different streaming devices.

I love not having the bill, and after we adjusted, things have been pretty smooth. Hopefully, you'll find a good alternative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Maggie Mae]

7 minutes ago, pook said:

We cut the cord several years ago.  Mr. Pook thinks it was the best decision we ever made while I am on the fence because I really do miss just turning on the tube and channel surfing.  We do have Netflix so that's a compromise, I guess.

...also, I am in my early 40s and have not had a cell phone since I was 27 years old.  I think I miss cable more.

See, I never got into channel surfing. It annoys me when people (parents, college roomate) can't just pick a station or turn it off. My dad, especially, likes it for "background noise," and I'd much rather listen to music or silence over a laugh track or commercials. Respectfully, what is it you like about it?

I think that the longer i go without cable or broadcast tv, the more I hate advertising. And the grumpier i am about popular shows, lol. 

[louisa05]

I like live sporting events too much and streaming them is just too unreliable. 

But we live in a small town and our cable + landline + internet bill is cheaper than my mother's cable bill alone in a bigger city. If we cut cable, we'd actually pay substantially more for the other two and then paying for all the streaming services (and getting equipment for it as we don't want to watch everything on a laptop) would mean we were spending almost the same amount and missing sports. So, no, thank you. We'll keep our cable. 

[Maggie Mae]

2 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

I like live sporting events too much and streaming them is just too unreliable. 

But we live in a small town and our cable + landline + internet bill is cheaper than my mother's cable bill alone in a bigger city. If we cut cable, we'd actually pay substantially more for the other two and then paying for all the streaming services (and getting equipment for it as we don't want to watch everything on a laptop) would mean we were spending almost the same amount and missing sports. So, no, thank you. We'll keep our cable. 

We stream sports just fine. And the only equipment we have is an hdmi cable to hook the laptop to a tv. 

[louisa05]

5 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

We stream sports just fine. And the only equipment we have is an hdmi cable to hook the laptop to a tv. 

Still would not be cost effective for us as other bills would go up substantially. We have a small local cable company that is extremely reasonable and bundling actually makes it more reasonable. We would save less than $20 a month by dumping cable because of the other two bills going up (right around $18 last time my husband checked). Netflix streaming is $7.99 a month for one screen--we have two televisions hooked up to cable and the ability to hook up a third. Amazon Prime comes out to $8.25 a month. Neither of those would get us the live sports we want. To get my favorite sport, I'd have to pony up another $40 a year minimum to stream it. So now we are at almost $235 a year when we get a savings of only around $216 a year by dropping cable. And we still haven't bought the hdmi cord. 

And we can't DVR college football or the World Series anymore. Heck...with only those two options, we haven't even got sports yet. And did I mention that living in said small town means we are too far to get local stations via an antenna? 

Yeah, no. Not even. 

[Maggie Mae]

3 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

Still would not be cost effective for us as other bills would go up substantially. We have a small local cable company that is extremely reasonable and bundling actually makes it more reasonable. We would save less than $20 a month by dumping cable because of the other two bills going up (right around $18 last time my husband checked). Netflix streaming is $7.99 a month for one screen--we have two televisions hooked up to cable and the ability to hook up a third. Amazon Prime comes out to $8.25 a month. Neither of those would get us the live sports we want. To get my favorite sport, I'd have to pony up another $40 a year minimum to stream it. So now we are at almost $235 a year when we get a savings of only around $216 a year by dropping cable. And we still haven't bought the hdmi cord. 

And we can't DVR college football or the World Series anymore. Heck...with only those two options, we haven't even got sports yet. And did I mention that living in said small town means we are too far to get local stations via an antenna? 

Yeah, no. Not even. 

I wasn't trying to argue with you about your choices. I'm pointing out for others who might be reading that there are ways around the sports issue (which was our biggest hurdle) and the equipment cost. 

I have Amazon Prime for the shipping. I almost never use the streaming service. I tried a few times and I don't like the player. I can't change the settings so it's always trying to stream in hd, then it buffers, goes to very low res, and then tries to cycle back to hd. HBO Now has the same issue, with the web based viewer. I usually watch hbo on my tablet, with head phones, on my bike (on a trainer, of course). The hbo app works great. 

For NFL games we use streaming services that fall in a grey area of legality, or the nfl site has a subscription service. It's nice, no ads.

MLB streaming is ridiculously expensive, and you are still subject to the blackout rules. So I just don't watch a lot of baseball anymore. I don't miss it as much anymore. 

I don't follow basketball or hockey. 

I might have to subscribe again for the Olympics. 

I did find someone who streamed curling, which was nice, since our club has been closed for two years now. 

College sports are easy enough to find online, if you know where to look. I'm kind of over college football though. Also not sure on the legality of the streams. 

At first I missed being able to talk about stuff "everyone" had seen. But it seems like fewer people are really having water cooler chats about tv anymore. 

 

[AlysonRR]

We never thought we would drop DirecTv - we were early adopters and LOVED the convenience of using a DVR. 

But the kids typically stream on their devices and really only watched one show on satellite, and it was available online, too.

Everything I watch is available via HuluPlus or can be otherwise watched on my computer. It's more of a pain because I sometimes have to go hunting for a show, but we're saving over $100/mo.

When we want to watch something together we stream to the tv (Netflix/Hulu/Amazon) via the kids' game system. 

[clueliss]

I cut the cable last fall.  (although disclaimer I live in an apartment with 'free' 'basic' cable - which amounts to some but not all locals, shopping, religious and things like C SPAN, news and oddly US which I have set up on my not flat screen old tv).    My cable was administered through my apartment complex and is dumbed down DISH - without the perks (like being about to set up online viewing things you would if you had real dish).

So I cut the cable - kept internet.  

I have roku.  and an antenna.  I get the locals minus the CBS affiliate which must be geographically blocked or something and is therefore fussy.  

Hulu gives you most (but not all) shows on Fox, ABC, NBC.  I also have AmazaonPrime and Netflix (which I'm finding a bit limited these days in selection but keep for a few shows I watch that are netflix based).   I tried CBS All Access (which admittedly I got for Big Brother) but did not keep.  If they would add the option in all markets to see a live feed I would have kept it.  My market doesn't have this option.  

The PBS app for roku is nice but again not everything is there.  (I do get PBS via antenna).  

I will probably add HBO access next month because well Game of Thrones.  (and then drop when GOT is finished - although frankly you can get a lot of things on Amazon by the episode or season as they air.  I'm doing this with The Walking Dead).  

I also have discovered the YouTube app for roku so i can watch things in full screen (and blame Buffy for my current enjoyment of Tales from the Green Valley (not to be confused with the Arndt's Vine Valley)

For me it is less about saving money and more about taking control from the companies with a monopoly.  

I have become a binge watcher of shows and oddly do not miss the DVR much.  

 

[pook]

@Maggie Mae no worries, I just grew up channel surfing and it's so mindless.  That's what I like about it.  I just don't want to have to sit down and really think about what I want to watch on Netflix, start something watch it for a bit then load up something else.  Channel surfing is mindlessly faster.

[AlysonRR]

I do like binge-watching almost as much as I liked the DVR. I get annoyed with weekly shows now, and not knowing whether a show will be on that week or preempted for something else. Give me a season of 23 hours with no commercial interruptions and I'm happy :-)

Since stopping cable I've binge-watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, West Wing, Star Trek Voyager, Stargate SG-1, and any number of others I can't remember right now. I like to multi-task while I work on the computer and re-watching old series is great as background tv.

[salex]

We dropped cable 2 or 3 years ago and went with Netflix streaming, and over time loaded PBS and bought a cheap antennae, so can get some regular network/local options (But not always... )

We mostly missed keeping up with Game of Thrones, but for the difference in what I'm paying (About 200 less per month from my previous cable and internet) I could buy each season, as it comes out (instead I get it from the library)

Most movies, I get from the library, and I've been seeing some offers for cable /internet bundles that would be cheaper than just the internet, but I don't much trust TWC.  That said, my other options seem to be ATT who we would not use if our only other option was cans with strings.

My town was supposed to get Google fiber, but political infighting caused us to be left out.... Gotta love local politics.

 

[EyeQueue]

We cut the cable connection about 3 years ago. Cable was getting ridiculously expensive, and I have the unfortunate habit of getting way into trash TV ( Flava of Love...the one with Brett Michaels...can't remember name), so it was both a money and time savings for us (although Netflix binge-watching, so YMMV).

We now have an antennae to capture the big networks (although sometimes they don't come in very well), and have Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, and Amazon Prime subscriptions, plus there are a smattering of free services such as Popcorn (this allows you to watch some movies with one or two commercial breaks).

Plus, we watch DVDs (the libraries around here have a pretty good selection).

On 3/12/2016 at 4:14 PM, Maggie Mae said:

<snip>

I think that the longer i go without cable or broadcast tv, the more I hate advertising. And the grumpier i am about popular shows, lol. 

This! From the time my daughter was about 4 until she was 7 or so, we didn't even have a TV turned on. Every once in awhile, after she went to bed, we'd watch something on TV, but we didn't want her exposed to so much advertising, and the mindless content of many programs.

With the services we subscribe to, it's cheaper than cable and no commercials (or, with some, at an absolute minimum).

[Quivering Uterus]

PBS shows are generally available free here: http://www.pbs.org/video/

Scroll down, there's more than news and such, 

I recently enjoyed, "My Life as a Turkey"  A real life biologist that raises a batch of turkeys from eggs and how there is so much more to the animals that he never expected to learn.

[campused]

This is a timely thread as tonight is the first night without our beloved Directv. We just bought a new house and have a baby on the way so we decided the $120/month bill could get cut and buy us a nice piece of furniture by the time our house is built and we move in (Or like, a shit ton of diapers, i guess)! We have an Apple TV and stream Netflix, Hulu and (my parents') HBOgo. I'm definitely going to miss mindlessly watching my 600lb life and Catfish and dumb shows that I'll never get around to streaming but secretly love. I do like putting CNN or msnbc on during these political seasons so I think I'll miss that too. Otherwise, this feels much better for the budg! 

[SilverBeach]

@campused, Hulu has a ton of shows that were on cable, search for your favorite programs by name. If you have Amazon Prime, it has a ton of tv shows also. Roku has its onbstraming news channel and left t of other news options. Enhoy saving that money!

[ScreamingIzzy]

We've been without cable for a year or so now. We stream Amazon with no problems through our Roku (though we had to ditch the router the cable company leased us and buy our own to make it work well), and we have Hulu, and a digital antenna. 

It's saved us a bundle (even with the equipment upgrades) and we don't miss cable at all.

[SilverBeach]

2 hours ago, ScreamingIzzy said:

We've been without cable for a year or so now. We stream Amazon with no problems through our Roku (though we had to ditch the router the cable company leased us and buy our own to make it work well), and we have Hulu, and a digital antenna. 

It's saved us a bundle (even with the equipment upgrades) and we don't miss cable at all.

I think this is the route I am going to go. I already have my own router. Thanks for your input!

[ScreamingIzzy]

1 hour ago, SilverBeach said:

I think this is the route I am going to go. I already have my own router. Thanks for your input!

Sure! We were shocked at what we were paying to lease what ended up being a truly craptacular router. Everything worked better with the new one, and it paid for itself is a couple of months.