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Cutting the cord [Goodbye Cable?]
DustyBottoms
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
After spending a collective 2 days on the phone with Verizon this month, I'm almost completely sick of how much I pay them for their incompetence and the frustration they bring me. I've seriously considered dropping cable in the past, as we aren't extremely heavy TV watchers - though I do have a few concerns, mostly based on some of the programming to which we'd like to still have access. I'm looking for stories from people who have successfully cut the cable and moved to exclusively internet-based TV solutions. I have a PS3 and would be willing to purchase an AppleTV and perhaps jailbreak it, as we are a Mac family and I wouldn't mind being able to take advantage of AirPlay, among other things. A few concerns as follows:
I am a HUGE Mets fan and I try to watch every game. I do understand that I fall under the MLB.tv blackout and would not be able to watch live. Does anyone have any experience with proxy servers to get around the blackouts?
My wife sometimes likes to watch the Today show in the mornings. Is there any way we can continue to watch something like this?
Does Hulu Plus include TV shows like America's Got Talent? We aren't heavy reality-TV watchers but there are a few shows out there that we do follow.
Occasionally we have the TV on as background noise when we are doing other things. I suppose we could attempt to move to podcasts/music/other stuff to fill this aural hole in our lives, but what about stuff like Food Network, HGTV, etc? Is there any way we can access that?
Again I'd love to hear your stories about cutting cable out of your lives and your advice as to which methods I should consider in order to make the plunge myself.
I am a HUGE Mets fan and I try to watch every game. I do understand that I fall under the MLB.tv blackout and would not be able to watch live. Does anyone have any experience with proxy servers to get around the blackouts?
My wife sometimes likes to watch the Today show in the mornings. Is there any way we can continue to watch something like this?
Does Hulu Plus include TV shows like America's Got Talent? We aren't heavy reality-TV watchers but there are a few shows out there that we do follow.
Occasionally we have the TV on as background noise when we are doing other things. I suppose we could attempt to move to podcasts/music/other stuff to fill this aural hole in our lives, but what about stuff like Food Network, HGTV, etc? Is there any way we can access that?
Again I'd love to hear your stories about cutting cable out of your lives and your advice as to which methods I should consider in order to make the plunge myself.
DustyBottoms on
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The white noise thing is easy, just grab Netflix and toss up some documentaries about subjects you find interesting. I use my iPad + Netflix for that white noise effect now.
Are Mets games broadcast on a channel that is available "over-the-air" in your area? If so, antennae is the way to go.
I've lived without proper TV for about 7 years now. It helps that I'm not in the black out zone of my fave MLB team though! I've also grown a greater appreciation for listening to live sports broadcast on the radio. ESPN.com/radio was my favorite and only mode of enjoying the NBA Finals this year.
Of course, that won't help you with the Mets games, as they're on SportsNet NY if you're close enough to be blacked out. Regarding proxy servers, they do work. You might have to play around quite a bit to find the right one, though. If you do a google search, you can probably find some decent instructions. As a bonus, if you're Internet company is a partner with ESPN, you can watch ESPN3 on your computer to catch games that might be on there (games of the week, etc.).
My wife and I recently cut the cable up in Canada, and we're now subsisting on a combination of Canadian Netflix, streaming purchases, and DVD purchases. We're not at all sports nuts though, I'd wager that'll be the tripping up point. Is there a bar or something near you that shows the games? You could always catch most of them after the fact, and pop out once a month to catch a game live or something.
Or maybe try to find someone in your social circle who is a big fan as well and organize some viewing parties at their place.
So long as you're not incurring a penalty by cancelling the cable, there's no reason not to try it. At the very least, almost every provider I know of will waive the new customer fees if you decide to come back, nevermind the fact that you might be able to negotiate a new subscriber discount or something similar.
I live in an apartment complex and they don't allow rooftop antennae. I'm not even sure if I could put one out in front of my apartment. Will an indoor antenna get me enough signal? I live in the middle of Long Island and most of the broadcast centers are reasonably far away, in NYC and Connecticut.
Is there any reason for me to consider getting an AppleTV? I like the Apple ecosystem but their iTunes prices for content seem high. I feel like I would only consider using it for Netflix/Amazon Video/etc. but my PS3 can already do that.
One thing I'm having trouble finding - it seems that Verizon's internet-only prices are ATROCIOUS compared to what I already pay which includes cable. Is there somewhere I should be looking for cheaper internet service that may be available in my area, or does Verizon actually have some reasonable internet-only plans that are cost effective? It seems they really want to lock you into their bundles.
There's a website where you can add yourself to a petition to get HBO to do HBOGO without the cable subscription. You put in some info and how much you'd be willing to pay per month. Regardless HBO will never stop with their cable subscription, but its worth a try!
Shogun Streams Vidya
I know in Chicago WGN does OTA for Cubs games and another channel does OTA for Sox games. This only applies regular season though, playoffs are different. Not that the Cubs have to worry about it...
We've been without cable/sattelite for a little over 3 years now. I don't miss it at all. With a $120 antenna, I can get almost 50 OTA channels around Chicago, all the broadcast neworks, PBS etc. Anything else, Netflix or the internet take care of for me. Having an HTPC hooked up to the TV is a good idea too.
15/5 should be fine for streaming Netflix. I think we have 16/3 from Comcast at the moment, and everything streams HD with next to no buffering, even at peak times. If I'm running bittorent it'll drop to SD and buffer more, but is still watchable.
15/5 is more than sufficient to stream. I stream exclusively at 10 down/1 up, and it's ultra-high HD on Netflix for movies that have it. I also use Vudu to rent movies/buy TV shows and can do the HD (don't bother with the HDX as I don't have an big audio system on my TV).
I'm on like 8/2 right now and every device in my house can run Netflix streaming at the same time with no issues.
I doubt it will ever happen, since they are owned by a cable company and all.
What are the other OTA channels you can get with an HD antenna? we only have like 5-6 network broadcast channels here, (not counting PBS or whatever).
Yeah, I'm on like 6/1 and Netflix works fine, bumps up to HD, etc.
I strongly suggest trying it, however - i have friends who are perfectly happy with Netflix and an antenna to pull in over the air local broadcasts (in beautiful HD).
We primarily use Netflix (streaming only) and Amazon Prime for our video watching needs that we can't pull OTA. Also, OTA HD is so very good. I considered doing a DVR solution through a media center PC for OTA broadcasts, but eventually decided I didn't care enough to bother.
15mbps will be sufficient to stream any HD media, but you won't be able to get much performance out of any other download, stream, or program while streaming HD if you want 1080p.
The Verizon price structure is deliberately tiered to make triple plays cheaper. Internet-only plans are made to be exorbitant.
As much as I love being off cable, I know that if I ever move to a Fios area, I'll be on the triple play (and this is from someone who's never had a landline).
Edit: On the plus side where else ya gonna get 150/65, eh, eh?
/shameless shill
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Eventually, we got DSL in my area, then cable internet, so my wife began watching shows and I entered my WoW era, which forced me to upgrade my hardware for the first time in 6 years. Spent an insane amount of my free time playing WoW, then as I was getting burned out by it, Netflix's streaming service became available here (Canada), so I've been watching a lot of shows & movies since then.
The only thing I really wish I had was ESPN. I actually paid 5 bucks for a Play On sub for the EURO tournament, and will get more when college football season rolls around. Play On also grabs stuff from a ton of other cable channels, such as Food Network. I just watched an episode of Chopped, for example.
Also, since you have a PS3, download PS3 Media Server for streaming music and other media files from your computer to your PS3. I think it also has plugins to do Youtube and such, but I haven't tried it.
Just as a note, we have the lowest level Cox internet, and get HD Hulu and Netflix streaming, as well as full 1080p streaming over PS3 media server and internet browsing at the same time, so you will be more than fine with 15/5.
From what I understand, you just need the log-in/account information, so if you know someone who has HBO you can borrow their HBO.GO when they're not using it; don't know if multiple streams are allowed or not.
Unless you're right next to a station there's really no way to tell for sure until you've tried one out. I'm twenty miles away from most of my local stations and can barely receive two. My sister is 40 miles from the closest station but can receive more than sixty channels with the same indoor antenna.
I live about 40 miles from downtown Chicago, a large number of stations broadcast off the Sears Tower and Hancock Building, and I can pick them up with this antenna with minimal fuss. Depending on the weather, I can get broadcasts from South Bend, Indiana and Milwaukee, too. The antenna's on the third floor, inside our loft/attic.
Ironic thing is I sell DirecTV for a living. Can't stand TV, but I use it to pay my bills.
Any device, really. It's honestly better on PC.
RE: Multiple devices - you can login with multiple, start on one, then start on another, but the next show you try to watch on the first will say "someone's already streaming".
Doesn't look like I will be doing this any time soon though - wife doesn't want to lose access to her ISP email. I wish there was a way of keeping our accounts active even after leaving Verizon. She just switched emails last year after we got married, before I knew how evil Verizon is. Had I know I would have had her just get a gmail. I'm perfectly okay since I'm an apple freak using iCloud but she has some job applications out and other stuff that require her to still have access to the email.
If that's the only thing holding you up, you may be able to pay a small flat monthly fee (like 5$) to get the Verizon address forwarded to another e-mail after you leave. I did something similar to that when making the transition off my old e-mail to a web-based e-mail solution.
I don't know if American ISPs will do the same.
Weren't you planning to remain with Verizon on a 15/5 service, though?
You have to have ESPN as part of your TV subscription to use that service.
Nope.
It's that way for their comcast and verizon services, but ESPN 360 is available for free as long as your internet provider is an affiliate. I've got Comcast high speed internet but not cable, so I can't do the Comcast widget or HBO go but ESPN 360 works just fine.
edit: I haven't used it in over a month though, so unless they changed it recently, in which case you're right.
Interesting, maybe I'll have to try it again. I have TWC and it didn't work when it first came out, and all of the web services don't allow me to use it either.
When I started using it like a year ago comcast had just switched to Xfinity but it wasn't available for me yet even though comcast was listed, and I actually had to call ESPN (no shit, I called microsoft and comcast first, and they directed me to ESPN) and I gave them my IP address, after which they added my subnet and I was online two days later watching Cricket live at 2:00 AM.