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Ditching Cable
SeñorAmor
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I am strongly considering ditching cable, and I want to make sure I have all my bases covered for the things I currently watch. I'm also looking for advice on additional devices/services that I may not have thought about.
I've long thought about cutting cable completely, and with my bill skyrocketing this month because my "promotion" expired, I'm super close to cutting the cord. I currently have Charter 60mbit internet, which I'm happy with, and will be keeping as there are no other providers in my area.
I have a Netflix streaming subscription and I think I will be getting either Hulu+ or the Amazon streaming service (perhaps both). I'm also looking at building my own HD antenna for picking up local channels. While I'm not a fan of Hulu+'s commercials, I guess they're a small price to pay for a greatly reduced monthly bill.
My wife and I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but my research shows most of the shows we watch (Hell's Kitchen, Last Man on Earth) are on Hulu+. We're also both big football fans (go Packers!) but I think I can get that over the air, so that's covered. I will likely miss Sportscenter, but I can watch that at the gym should I have the urge to watch it. The only thing I can't seem to get is the ability to watch Brewers' games. An MLB sub will let me watch the game after it's over, but I like to watch the games live. Unfortunately, MLB's ridiculous blackout rules prevent that.
My kids like cartoons, but again I think Netflix and Hulu+ have me covered.
Finally, apps. We have two tablets and two phones, all Android, and two Chromecasts. Netflix works with my Chromecasts and it's probably safe to assume the Hulu app does too?
I think I'm ready to rid myself of the exorbitant cable tv pricing once and for all.
Anything I'm missing?
Thanks in advance.
I've long thought about cutting cable completely, and with my bill skyrocketing this month because my "promotion" expired, I'm super close to cutting the cord. I currently have Charter 60mbit internet, which I'm happy with, and will be keeping as there are no other providers in my area.
I have a Netflix streaming subscription and I think I will be getting either Hulu+ or the Amazon streaming service (perhaps both). I'm also looking at building my own HD antenna for picking up local channels. While I'm not a fan of Hulu+'s commercials, I guess they're a small price to pay for a greatly reduced monthly bill.
My wife and I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but my research shows most of the shows we watch (Hell's Kitchen, Last Man on Earth) are on Hulu+. We're also both big football fans (go Packers!) but I think I can get that over the air, so that's covered. I will likely miss Sportscenter, but I can watch that at the gym should I have the urge to watch it. The only thing I can't seem to get is the ability to watch Brewers' games. An MLB sub will let me watch the game after it's over, but I like to watch the games live. Unfortunately, MLB's ridiculous blackout rules prevent that.
My kids like cartoons, but again I think Netflix and Hulu+ have me covered.
Finally, apps. We have two tablets and two phones, all Android, and two Chromecasts. Netflix works with my Chromecasts and it's probably safe to assume the Hulu app does too?
I think I'm ready to rid myself of the exorbitant cable tv pricing once and for all.
Anything I'm missing?
Thanks in advance.
SeñorAmor on
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As for the MLB stuff, sports are the last bastion of live TV, and that probably won't change for a while. All of those lucrative multi-billion dollar contracts the 4 major sports have? Yea that's why sports on the internet is a bitch. I'm a huge sports fan so for me ditching cable isn't a reality because there's no way to replicate what I can get on TV (legally). I'd ditch my cable entirely if there was a way for me to just give money to the sports leagues to watch their games, all of them, live.
to get to your actual question about MLB.tv, I would imagine a VPN that told it you're living anywhere outside of the Brewers' "home" zone would work. MLB wouldn't like it, but unless they're actively trying to stop VPN traffic (I have no idea if they do) there wouldn't be much they can do about it.
That's only $26 a month. My cable sub just jumped to $70ish a month and that's not counting the extra $20 for the DVR service.
Am I missing something? (I purposely left Amazon out as I'm not entirely sold on it just yet.)
for example, you could look at something like Sling TV which gets you access to a set of channels streaming, starts at $20/month. Might be worth looking at.
MLB is even worse. You're right, you can't watch any games for your home team, unless there is some VPN trickery you can employ. I'm not sure if that works or not - you could do some research. For me as a baseball fan, I couldn't deal with not being able to watch games live - the ability to watch them later with MLB.tv is useless to me. Not sure how much you watch - but I watch at least part of nearly every game during the summer.
Another thing to consider is what deals your cable company offers - would your internet price go up if you don't also have cable? Cable companies are also VERY receptive to lowering your bill when it jumps up, or getting you one of the "new customer" deals, if you call them up.
Isn't MNF on ABC, too, or something?
As for lowering my bill, I've tried several times to lower my bill. I've called and asked for different promos or anything they can do to get my bill back to what I had been paying for the past 5 or so years, but this time they're playing hard ball and refusing to compromise. I have no loyalty to Charter's TV service, but I am stuck with their internet service.
I guess you're not much of a football fan then
have you told them you're going to cancel your service? asking for lower rates is one thing but usually when you actually say you're cancelling that's when you end up getting deals.
I'm too proud to submit if they were to call my bluff, so I wanted to make sure cancelling was an option.
If they tell me to pound sand, I think Netflix, Hulu, and an HD antenna will cover most of the stuff I'd lose.
Another option is to look into radio streams for live games, so you at least can listen to them.
Now that HBO went no-sub-required, I'm starting to look more into non-cable options. My wife watches about 4x as much TV as I do, and I can pretty much leave most of the shows I watch.
I'd suggest you try a ~3 month trial, where you keep your sub, but use it as little as possible; to see if you can cope without it.
This might be what I was thinking about when I saw MNF games on ABC. I don't recall ever seeing any Thursday night Packers games on a local channel, though it must have been broadcast locally or I would have had an absolute shit-fit, which I don't recall having.
Cable bill finally hit $150, so I'll be paying it and having them cancel the tv portion when the month ends. Parts for the antenna will be purchased shortly and hopefully I'll be able to survive on local channels, Hulu, and Netflix.
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My wife is apprehensive and it annoys her to no end that I keep talking about this and am going through with it, but I'm actually rather excited about the prospect that I may like not having cable.
I'll be saving $80 a month (minus Hulu) that I can put towards better things, like cigarettes and Jolt for my kids.
I am crying, over here in Canada, cable + 30mbs internet hits $160, internet alone, 25mbs is $70....a month.
That doesn't mean I think the prices are reasonable, There is zero reason they need to be that high, but Canadians don't get gouged compared to US prices nearly as much as people assume.
Now, granted, I didn't have it properly mounted in my attic, and was testing it by holding up in my bedroom, but I guess I expected something more than a garbled connection to the local Fox affiliate.
I know it wasn't optimal conditions, but it was so disheartening to get nothing.
2. Have you checked out any of the sites that show you where to point it? http://www.antennaweb.org/
TV Fool told me exactly where to point it and I used a compass to get as close as I could while holding the thing with one hand.
My dad -- who helped me build the thing -- thinks the metal bars we used for the whiskers may have been galvanized. I'm not a tools-y guy so I can't say for sure, but if it's true, there's a very good chance that it's the cause of my shitty reception. We're going to replace the whiskers with something else and re-test.
@SeñorAmor very cool that you made your own - hopefully you can get it working!
A comparable antenna runs a good $100 and I built mine for maybe $30.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over how hard I'm laughing at that.
Yep, because that's how Comcast gets you. They make sure they spread certain important channels through out various premium packages, and so to get NBC Sports, for instance, requires you to buy in to a top tier sports package that contains a bunch of other shit you don't care about. They also, of course, give you a "promotional price" at first, so you get complacent with the pricing, until one month you're bill goes from 140 to 230 bucks.
I've been planning to cut the cord ever since, just working up the willpower to call and deal with Comcast's inevitable stream of bullshit when I try and cancel.
I expected to at least see other channels since the rest of the affiliates are in the same area as the FOX affiliate, but got nothing. It's raining cats and dogs and I did the test from within my bedroom, so I'm sure that didn't help any, but it's a step forward. This weekend I'm going to put it up in my attic and try again.
Progress!
Amazon's flat antenna with a claimed 50 mile radius and power amp is $50. I only know because it's in my wish list - thinking of cutting as well. I bought a $15 one from monoprice to get a rough idea of the coverage I can expect and signal came in pretty sharp while I was just waving it around in my hand.
My thoughts on Prime is it's not worth it for just the streaming. They have a Pandora type music thing as well so that's cool, but I have not been impressed with their video offerings. Current TV is one to seasons behind, and movies are about a year behind, with a good size older collection. And of course the shipping, but at least around here, my last two orders came faster when I selected the slowest No Rush option.
Immediately found 12 channels.
ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and a couple of crazy-ass ones I've never heard of (Me Television, I think was one).
I have to properly secure the thing and then figure out how to get coax from my garage to my main splitter in the basement, but I think I'm good to go, all for about $30-40.
My experience is that Prime is nice to have for the shipping if you order from Amazon a lot and the streaming tv stuff is a nice little bonus. I wouldn't pay for Prime if thinking of the streaming as the main feature. They frequently have most seasons of a show for free and then the last 2 seasons are $3/episode, stuff will go from free to $3/episode out of nowhere, etc. I'm not even talking quality, in demand shows, but stupid stuff like "Ancient Aliens" and "Weird or What?" where I'm probably the only prime subscriber who actually watches it.
Luckily, we order enough from Amazon that the charges saved from shipping pay for the fee. I'd say roughly half to 2/3 of our membership fee is covered during Christmastime shipping, alone.
I'm still being lazy about setting up the antenna I've had kicking around the house. I need to try that out.
And then presumably apologized, right?
Apologize to a $20 cable?
Or do you mean a human being? I try not to deal with those in brick and mortar stores until I absolutely need to, which in this case I didn't.
8-)
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