Cutting the Cable/Satellite Cord
 

Anyone besides me thinking about, or has done this?

With the ps3 having decent Netflix and Hulu Plus and Playon apps now, and over the air network tv, along with other ITV, I'm getting very close. Netflix streaming covers my movie fix, and between Hulu, Netflix, Playon and over the air network access I'm pretty much covered.

If I didn't need my NFL Sunday ticket, I think I'd cut the cord

I mean $20 bucks a month for netflix and hulu, the rest is free, as opposed to a close to $100 a month DTV bill, most of which is for channels and crap I never watch?

Who's with me?

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I tried to cut my Direct Tv and they gave me 4 free months. So come February it is gone:banger

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I am really wanting to do this, but my kids would rebel!

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I have till February with Direc and then I am either switching back to Dish Network or quitting it all myself.

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If it weren't for sports, I'd have no need for tv at all. I'm real close myself.

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Not me. I pay good money to Dishnet for my 200 channels of crap. They finally threw in HD for life, so now I get to watch crap in HD. Life is good.:)

Larry

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I only have cable internet, and that is a write off for the business. Never had cable since I left University. Even the basic cable channels not have perfect streaming on their sites...

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yup, we do not have either..
hd antenna gets us NBC and a bunch of PBS stations ... and ALMOST CBS
then there's netflix, hulu, occasional purchase from amazon online tv thing...

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I can't live without Espn, MLB, and NFL networks!

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I have been contemplating it for awhile, the kids seem to watch nothing but netflix. The meager list of channels we do get from Comcast are pretty useless.

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Weeellllllllll......The ps3 has the
MLB ticket, Hulu has the NFL network, Playon on the ps3'has espn..... Just sayin':r

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I canceled Direct a few months ago and haven't missed it a bit. I got netflix and bought an antenna which gives us 3 PBS stations, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and a 2 or 3 others.

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Going with the concept, I have Cox cable. I can't see cutting the cord. It provides my internet and basic cable. Not sure I could get my standards like the history, TLC, TBS, etc type channels. I also like surfing the channels, you never know when something catches your interest.

I know I have not watched the big 3 in over 7 years with the exception of NFL football games. In the rare possibility they have any programming that I might like, TBS or TNT will buy it from them. So it's a year old... still gonna be new and fresh to me and I'm not the water cooler type chatter, so being up on what's on the tube has little bearing to me.

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I did this a year ago and I couldn't be happier. My digital antenna brings in all the local stations and the networks , CBS, NBC, ABC. The netflix is adding a ton of new movies everyday to instant watch. They have all the kids programming you could want, not to mention that netflix has the starz and signed a new deal with a group to bring movies to netflix before they hit TV.

I use a gaming computer as my media center, and really the only thing I miss out on is ESPN (brighthouse has a stupid non agreement with them), but channelsurfing.net or firstrow.net takes care of any sports I need.

Saving $60 + a month might not sound like much, but to me it's been great.

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All of these channels are either on hulu or you can go to the stations website to stream any show. And that way you can also watch any show you may have missed as most keep the whole season.

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been considering this for a few months now.

what is playon?

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I have thought about it, but then I would miss out on my sports

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I watch most of my "tv" on the internet becuase almost every major channel and all popular shows and movies gets streamed. Alot of them in HD.

You just have to know where to look. ;)

BeerAdvocate, there are many more sports options than cable/dish on the web. I several laptops and a pc. On Sunday's I will have 4 different games going at times. You can watch virtually any game of any sport that is being televised. Sorry Sunday Ticket holders, you are getting hosed.


All are streamed in HD. :)

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I quit cable a year ago. I need a set of rabbit ears, because right now I get 0 channels. I do however have my pc hooked up via hdmi.

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I'm in the process. I bought a Roku box to stream netflix and hulu plus (got the Netflix running, and it's pretty awesome) in my living room to my LCD tv

Now I need a decent antenna and I'll be ready to cancel the cable TV service.

I do have older TVs in my bedroom and spare room where I work out, and I guess I'll need to get converter boxes along with antennas for those to be able to pull in any channels :td

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I'd love to do this but its just not possible for me.

The only high speed internet access I have is satellite. Which regulates how many MB of download I can have typically about 400 meg. 1 show will blow that out of the water. Whats more the X-box Marketplace isn't compatiable with Hughes.net (or so Microsoft told me. How quaint. )

The only other option out here is dial up. Oh boy.

Gonna be a long time before I can get out from under the thumb of the conglomerates it looks like.

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Sorry bud, you're on your own.:D

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I have tried that.... Specifically Burn Notice. I have found watiching a tv show in the little window applet they provide isn't all that pleasing to me. The only real advantage I saw to it was being able to pause it. I have not tried Hulu, maybe I will give it a look. Generally though I am computing and watching tv at teh same time. I anly have room for one monitor on the desk, so a split screen isn't an option.

An aside is the wife is NOT computer not internet savvy and has no desire to be so. If there is once sight I could select a channel or specific show, maybeeeeee.

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I'd love to, but Animal Planet HD, Discovery HD, History and nat geo hd, fox soccer hd, and fox news......just can't cut it.

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There is a little button on the bottom right for full screen and many of them have an HD button as well.

Furthermore, hulu does have a lot of the shows in one place. If my 4 year old daughter can do it (she actually started doing it when she was 3), I am sure it's not that big of a learning curve.

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For the sports games and channels

www.Rajangan.net

You all are very welcome

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400 MB??? That sucks!
Do you get cell phone service at your house? Have you looked at a cell modem? Check out millenicom.com... THey have a cap but if you buy the modem it is 10GB...

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How is the resolution on these various streaming options? I'm intrigued, but I'm addicted to HD...

Cheers,
G

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I looked in to it (It's what I used to do for a living after all :) ) however the service at my house is spotty. The terrain doesn't lend itself to sustained data rates worth a hoot. Even my smart phone has issues.

HughesNet uses what they call a FAP or Fair Access Policy. Basically says how much you can download in a 24 hour period. This includes your E-mails, uploads, etc. So I don't watch many video's as you may imagine heh

Once you exceed that speed, they cut you back to dial up.

Not to mention you have the same weather issues with the Sat ISP that you have with Sat TV. Weather, rain, cloud cover, etc.

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bummer!
we had millenicom with an antenna, it worked ok. then DSL came out here, was the best day ;)

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Would love to see at least DSL.

Drives me nuts everyone talking about "High speed this" "highspeed that" and "Everyone has access to highspeed, what are you crazy?" mentality some companies have now.

Just gahhh!

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I rock cable internet, but I've been cable TV free for 2-3 years. I almost forgot we didn't have cable. I watch everything from my computer always have always will. I wish they would get Fiber optics out here though. Comcast sucks, they are the reason we don't have cable.

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I've been on an internet only diet for 4 years now. The best thing is that there is more and more content online every day. As mentioned before the only thing I miss is all of the sports, but that doesn't motivate me to switch back. To each their own, but I am very happy with my set up!

Re: Cutting the Cable/Satellite Cord
 

There are a few sites that allow live streaming of sports...

Also, get a digital tuner card for the PC and build a $2 antenna...you'll get all the local channels in HiDef...so Sunday Games are not missed.

I cut my Dtv bill in half because i wanted to cancel service but they wouldn't let me go...I'm missing the big channels but Mom gets to keep her shows that only Dtv offers. I still get to watch most sporting events.

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You can get channels that are close with a cheap antenna. There is a website (http://www.antennaweb.org/) that tells you what you need to receive certain channels. I am missing two local channels with my cheapo antenna. Although if your TV has a a qam tuner you can leave your cable plugged in and get a lot of channels.

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Haven't watched on the tube in over 2 years. Everything I want to watch can be streamed online- hockey, MMA, first run movies, TV, etc.

Canadians can watch Hulu and CBS by installing Hotspot Shield.

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Bumpity bump. Looks like the availability on HULU and other services makes it easy now

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I am trying to cut out the Dish. I have Hulu on a Roku and Netflix streaming. I also use Amazon for rentals. I just haven't pulled the plug yet due to a couple shows I want to keep. Must... cut... cord...

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Interestingly enough I believe Time Warner pushing back on the networks and their little spats might push the networks further and further to broadcasting through the internet and possibly doing an pay per channel network subscriptions directly to the end user.

I fully believe ESPN is the reason cable still has any viability in major cities. Remote areas are still another story.

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Yep. This most recent fiasco between DirecTv and Viacom has pretty much pushed me over the edge.

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The one problem here is that first run shows (like True Blood) from HBO are not available online unless you have an HBO subscription or want to wait a year for the DVDs...

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I think if I could get the internet on my TV I would be fine. Can I hook up a laptop to my TV easily?

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If your laptop has a HDMI imput and so does your TV yep! I do it sometimes and you just switch your laptop to projector mode

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I was thinking about and got netflix back a few months ago bit do not like it. There is only so many 15 year old & B grade horror movies one can take :r

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Yah I hardly ever use their streaming, just not enough current product available.

Nice, I am gonna try this tonight! Thanks.

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Time to dig up an old thread. Now that we've progressed with more online streaming in the last couple of years, has anyone who's cut the cord regretted it? I'm really leaning toward doing it, as I just got notified my bill will be going up again next month. $130/mo for internet and their HD channel pack. No movie channels. And that's with a $25/mo discount.

Re: Cutting the Cable/Satellite Cord
 

Ha, I had forgot about this thread. Just went back and re-read it.

I did in fact quit satellite tv in February of 2011 when my contract ran out. Bought 2 Roku XD/S and hooked them up to my TV in the living room and the bedroom. Started out with Netflix and Hulu +. Since then I have upgraded the Rokus a couple times and have them on 3 TVs in my house, My Grandfather's old house next door, and my Dad across the street has one all working off my account. The one at my Grandfathers old house is only for the couple times a year someone visits and stays there. I have an outdoor wifi network and they all kick off of that with no problem. I pay like $11.99 a month for Netflix cause it allows me to stream to 4 devices. Oh yeah and I also have a Roku 2 left over from the upgrades and I have it in a little pack that I take to whichever station I am working at and use it while at work. I have never regretted cutting off the satellite. We watch more TV and more of what we actually want to watch now than we ever did before. I also use Playon. I caught it on sale for like $29.99 for a lifetime license about a year ago then paid the $5.99 for the HD upgrade when it came out. We watch most shows on Playon now, and if it wasn't for my Dad I might just cut Netflix off. Playon has these add on scripts that aren't technically supported by Playon and we use one called 1Channel. It has pretty much every movie and every tv show ever made. I guess it's not technically all legal like. There are lots of other plugins for it that will give you cable packages and allow you to stream ESPN, Movie Channels and pretty much anything you get on cable and it's all streamed live. You have to have a pretty good processor to process the playon but if you do it works very well. Every now and then it will buffer more than I like but it's bearable for me. We have been watching the Waltons for the last month or so and also watch Bones, Chicago Fire, etc. using playon all the time.

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I haven't had cable for 4 years now, and while I do miss it sometimes, I've gotten quite used to it. One thing that makes it a lot better is having either a hardline (hdmi or other) or wireless (chromecast is my choice) connection to the tv.

This way, anything that isn't on netflix, or hulu, or broadcast, I can simply download from somewhere and play it to the tv.

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I haven't watched TV in years (8 or so), don't regret it. I see some people are looking to go this route, here's my thoughts.

To anyone contemplating doing this here's something to think about, bandwidth. Does your provider have a bandwidth cap? What is it? Is that really enough should you use only streaming services.

Right now instead of TV I'm having a 50/10 business line installed without a bandwidth cap. That should run around $100-$125 a month, this depends on your modem handling it or needing them to provide you one and if you get any kind of incentives to switch over. I think the best they offer is usually $10 off your bill each month with a 3 year contract.

Basic cable internet with caps won't support a family (or 3+ people) using streaming services all month, usually there is a fee attached to extra bandwidth use. Also several users streaming can put a decent hurting on your internet speeds and a business line is unaffected by multiple users streaming.

Check what options are available, make sure if you have any kind of bandwidth cap it is over 500GB a month. If it's just you, 300gb or so might be enough but typically the monthly fees for extra bandwidth run you more than a better service plan would should you go over.


EDIT last I remember being told netflix streaming is around 1-2 gigs of bandwidth per hour.

Re: Cutting the Cable/Satellite Cord
 

Here in Chicago, we've never run into any bandwidth caps. With 4 college guys, Netflix running on at least one computer almost constantly, online gaming, and torrent programs open all the time, we end up using a lot.