Cutting the Cable/Satellite Cord

[CigarNut]

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...

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by CigarNut

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...

Use a friend or relative's cable company login to watch HBO.

Plenty of sites have shows after the next day as well. Image quality can vary.

[Blak Smyth]

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?

[363]

Originally Posted by Blak Smyth

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?

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

[Digs]

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

[Blak Smyth]

Originally Posted by Digs

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

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

Originally Posted by 363

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

Nice, I am gonna try this tonight! Thanks.

[Chainsaw13]

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.

[G G]

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.

[Flynnster]

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.

[Bill86]

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.

[Flynnster]

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.

[mosesbotbol]

I am internet and antenna only all year. I miss cable, ain't gonna lie... We make due. Shows preferences change.

I miss The O'Reilly Factor the most!

[weems]

I did it for about a year. I had to go back, partly because I can't stand not being able to watch live football at home, but the biggest reason was to shut my spouse the hell up haha.

[Chainsaw13]

Thanks for all the feedback. Bill, you make a good point about bandwidth caps and something I'll ask about. I also have to see how much my internet bill will be after dropping the tv part. It may not make sense price wise if it goes up too much and then you add on Netflix or Hulu.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

Thanks for all the feedback. Bill, you make a good point about bandwidth caps and something I'll ask about. I also have to see how much my internet bill will be after dropping the tv part. It may not make sense price wise if it goes up too much and then you add on Netflix or Hulu.

Find or get a couple of buddies to split a Hulu account. I think one account does 4 devices. I use a friend's account. There's also a free service called Plex which has some "unsupported apps" that let you see movies that are currently in theater, along with about every show you can think of.

We watch a lot of Warner Bros. Archive which is a pay service for a ton of WB movies of the past. I love Edward G. Robinson, Boggie, Cagney, so almost every Friday we some sort of 30' era movie on the TV.

[Shaneg]

I've been cableless for years- netflix, and Hulu are the only things I need, and have a good wing place up the road for sports as needed.

[G G]

My ISP has no bandwidth caps thank the Lord. If they did it would probably be a hugely different story around my house. Good point though.

[Dude Here]

I haven't had cable in almost three years now, and don't miss it one bit. It's Netflix, Amazon Prime and local channels at my house. We just got the local antenna at the beginning of the year so I could watch the Superbowl.

My wife and I have never been big TV watchers, so it wasn't a very difficult transition getting away from cable. We still have shows we watch on occasion (She loves that Once fairy tale show) and we keep up with The Walking Dead by just buying episodes on Amazon.

Cutting the cord to cable was one of the best decisions we've made if you ask me. It was getting really hard to justify spending the money we were on just a few select channels.

[dave]

Went without cable for two years, but caved and went back to the cord.
-Burned through most of what we wanted from Netflix and Amazon Prime.
-Less and less of those two services offerings are HD anymore
-Missed sports and news -- not really much comparison between Badger football through a choppy P2P stream and a Big Ten Network HD broadcast
-Wife is working from home now and really likes HGTV (and others) in the background.
-We are watching more On Demand now than Netflix/Amazon

At $121 w/taxes for (extended?) basic cable and internet with 3 HD boxes, it's about $60 more than internet alone was. Not cheap, but worth it to us for now.

Note: During the years that we cut the cord, but used Cox for internet, we accidentally found that Cox bled local channels (Big networks and a few PBS) through the same wire....so we weren't exactly without the entire cable TV menu.

[Flynnster]

One thing that helps with cutting the cord is being comfortable with torrenting things. It's really easy to get almost anything in great HD quality.