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Have you cancelled your Cable / Satellite TV service?
- Thread starter palmerc2
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No more cable TV program here as well
Have dropped Cable TV a couple years plus now and don't regret it one bit. OTA certainly is limited and at times when the weather kicks up the incoming stations disappear, or reception is poor, but in time it all returns. Actually, given the quality of most shows these days, ie Reality TV, American Idol, etc it's pretty much not there and not our cup of Joe around here. We enjoy a good movie or shows like Kevin Spacey's House of Cards via Netflix.
I do miss MLB, but come NFL time it's not a problem at all - they so far have managed to escape Cable TV's greed net ... that's pretty much it for sport .... othewise, usually it's Netflix, sometime Hulu Plus, and when a good movie shows up it's Itunes.
Don't really miss the commercials, for sure. Well at least much less so with Netflix and iTunes.
Also have 27 inch iMac ... makes for very nice second TV with all the trimmings of choices galore ... that's my true reason for dumping Cable TV ... Choices/options. That and less monthly $$$ .... of course, I still use Cable for Internet and Voice. That is my next project, dump Voice and stick with iPhone ... as for Internet, not much competition out there with the same quality you get with Cable. Monthly bill is reasonable, so far.
My .02 ...
Have dropped Cable TV a couple years plus now and don't regret it one bit. OTA certainly is limited and at times when the weather kicks up the incoming stations disappear, or reception is poor, but in time it all returns. Actually, given the quality of most shows these days, ie Reality TV, American Idol, etc it's pretty much not there and not our cup of Joe around here. We enjoy a good movie or shows like Kevin Spacey's House of Cards via Netflix.
I do miss MLB, but come NFL time it's not a problem at all - they so far have managed to escape Cable TV's greed net ... that's pretty much it for sport .... othewise, usually it's Netflix, sometime Hulu Plus, and when a good movie shows up it's Itunes.
Don't really miss the commercials, for sure. Well at least much less so with Netflix and iTunes.
Also have 27 inch iMac ... makes for very nice second TV with all the trimmings of choices galore ... that's my true reason for dumping Cable TV ... Choices/options. That and less monthly $$$ .... of course, I still use Cable for Internet and Voice. That is my next project, dump Voice and stick with iPhone ... as for Internet, not much competition out there with the same quality you get with Cable. Monthly bill is reasonable, so far.
My .02 ...
My wife and I are about to get rid of Dish and go with a Roku box and the HD antennae for our local networks. We asked Dish about getting a special pricing package since we've been with them for nearly eight years. But they told us those were for new customers only. If we want to leave, they don't care. Didn't offer us anything to stay.
We live in city, so the signal will be great. When I lived about 100 miles away in another town, a buddy of mine had one of those small HD antennae set-ups in his apartment. Crystal clear picture from that far away, so I doubt I'll need an outside set-up in city.
My wife is the one who'll have to make the adjustment. She's the kind that will just fine something, anything to watch just for background noise. I can't do that. I have three or four shows I'm dedicated to, and the rest of the time I read. I'm not a big TV watcher. Not a big sports fan either. I follow my college football team, Alabama, and there's no lack of nationally-broadcast games either on CBS or ESPN. Most of the time, I watch at a friend's house anyway.
So, besides the small initial investment of the Roku box and the HD antennae, the Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions will save me nearly $60 per month.
We live in city, so the signal will be great. When I lived about 100 miles away in another town, a buddy of mine had one of those small HD antennae set-ups in his apartment. Crystal clear picture from that far away, so I doubt I'll need an outside set-up in city.
My wife is the one who'll have to make the adjustment. She's the kind that will just fine something, anything to watch just for background noise. I can't do that. I have three or four shows I'm dedicated to, and the rest of the time I read. I'm not a big TV watcher. Not a big sports fan either. I follow my college football team, Alabama, and there's no lack of nationally-broadcast games either on CBS or ESPN. Most of the time, I watch at a friend's house anyway.
So, besides the small initial investment of the Roku box and the HD antennae, the Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions will save me nearly $60 per month.
I dumped almost everything years ago. I kept the lowest tier of cable TV ($15US for the five-ish major networks and about 18 channels of public TV, government, religion, and "don't know never watched 'em"). The kids outgrew the cartoons on PBS Kids so now the only show we watch on cable is American Idol because we record it on Tivo. I keep cable because if I cancel the TV portion my Internet connection cost goes up by $15. We do Netflix and rentals from the library. I can get the same channels and more OTA in high def but we don't watch them. I bought my own cable modem to save their monthly rental fee so my bill is $67/mo. The wifey watches some stuff on the Internet that we used to pay for (HGTV, Lifetime, etc.).
Just dropped DirectTV. Currently paying $24 for Netflix, Hulu+ and Aereo (live in the Boston area). We supplement using iTunes for shows not on Aereo/Hulu.
As I've explained to my friends, my wife watches all those Real Housewife shows on Bravo. They range from $20-25 on iTunes. You can buy a full year of shows for roughly a month of cable.
Couldn't be happier (well except for having to pay for Real Housewives...).
As I've explained to my friends, my wife watches all those Real Housewife shows on Bravo. They range from $20-25 on iTunes. You can buy a full year of shows for roughly a month of cable.
Couldn't be happier (well except for having to pay for Real Housewives...).
Cancelled my Comcast about a year ago. Get everything through my Roku, including Netflix and Hulu. I also have Plex set up on my Mac at home so I can stream movies, shows, and music to any smart TV, Blu-ray player, and Roku in the house. Plex also has a large variety of channels, including local tv stations. I recommend it for everyone. I will also be getting an Apple TV soon so I can mirror the stuff on my iMac and iPad. For local channels, I just hooked up an HD antenna which also goes to every TV in the house. All this transition to cable-free took less than a day. Bills dropped by 60%. Awesome.
I got rid of cable (except for the local channels because it cost less to have those and my internet then it would have been for just intenet) a year ago. I'm a TV junkie and haven't missed my cable one bit. Between Hulu Plus, Netflix, and torrents, I have kept up with all my shows without issue. I also worked out a deal with a buddy and gave him my Netflix login in trade for his HBO GO and Watch ESPN login, so I have those going for me too. And thanks to MLB.TV and an awesome birthday present from my girlfriend, I get to watch all the Texas Rangers games. 
It's not bad, but I do have a few issues:
1. It lags more than I'd like. I have a 50/10 connection, so I'm not sure what the issue could be. But even when I set it to "Auto" it still was buffering like crazy during the NHL Stanley Cup and nothing else was going on in my house at the time.
2. There is no "continuous watching" capability. Basically what that means is, you select a show from the guide (say it's from 7-7:30), once that show is over at 7:30...you have to manually select the next show to watch. It won't just continue onto the next show (from 7:30-8). I pinged them about this and they said it was a feature that would be coming in the future.
3. Another issue I found was when you add the website to your homepage as an icon...you lose the ability to sleep your device when AirPlaying to your Apple TV. I've sent this in as a bug to them as well, but as of today, that is still an issue. However if you access the site straight from Safari, you can sleep it just fine.
Interesting. I'll give it a shot when it comes to town. Thought it might be easier than using an antenna (the DVRing aspect, that is).
I'm not discouraging you to use the service. Trust me, it's a hell of a lot easier then setting up an antenna and a DVR to it. Just wanted you to know some of things I ran into that I haven't seen mentioned a lot.
I had just cut the cord last week. Paying strictly for Internet service for $40/month.
My setup: I have an Obi100 box set up for my home phone (if it wasn't for a security system I would've also axed the landline), ATV 3, w/ Netflix, Hulu+, HBOGO & Watch Espn (shared login from a fam member), & a Mohu leaf antenna for OTA local HD channels.
Couldn't. Be. Happier.
Well....... There could be Amazon Instant Video
I would love to cut cable, and I tried a little while ago. I had two issues:
1. My setup could have been more elegant, but it wasn't girlfriend-friendly.
2. The mlb.tv backout rule.
Issue 1 can be solved with money; it seems aTV + eyeTV + Services would be fine.
Issue 2 cannot be solved easily at the moment. I would absolutely subscribe to mlb.tv every year if they would just not black out my local team!
1. My setup could have been more elegant, but it wasn't girlfriend-friendly.
2. The mlb.tv backout rule.
Issue 1 can be solved with money; it seems aTV + eyeTV + Services would be fine.
Issue 2 cannot be solved easily at the moment. I would absolutely subscribe to mlb.tv every year if they would just not black out my local team!
Nope. Would like to.
What's stopping me is live news, HBO series like True Blood and Game of Thrones, and live NFL games.
If you're interested in keeping your home phone, try out this setup w/ Google Voice. I was skeptical, but I have it all set up & works great. FREE. There is also a way to port your home # (if its important to you to keep).
http://www.obihai.com/index.php
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Thanks for posting that.
I currently use NetTalk. ($70 initially for the hardware and first year's service, $30/year after that)
But obihai looks like the same service for less $ ($40 for the hardware, service is FREE!)
Have you tried Aereo -
Aereo is not available in a many cities but it just became an option in Atlanta. It carries the major networks live and is only $7 a month - most importantly is has Airplay functionality to the AppleTV. And should have NFL once the season starts..... Thoughts???
Aereo is not available in a many cities but it just became an option in Atlanta. It carries the major networks live and is only $7 a month - most importantly is has Airplay functionality to the AppleTV. And should have NFL once the season starts..... Thoughts???
No prob just spreading the knowledge
How to port your existing # (about 3:00 in, but the entire vid is great).
http://youtu.be/txN0bRBC3YI
I'm 26 and have never paid for cable - when Aereo came to my region (Southern New Hampshire) - I jumped at the opportunity.
The AirPlay streaming works great (Roku app is enticing)
It is wonderful being able to watch the big event TV stuff - like sports, Oscars, etc.
It is also a delight to be able to watch Jeopardy again - that is something Hulu doesn't offer and I still enjoy the show, but couldn't watch before now. It is also great to have the local news and Seinfeld.
The DVR capability is really nice and works great. The web app installs itself as a unique app - it does not relaunch Safari, but its own special web app thingy.
You need to leave the screen on while AirPlaying, but beyond that it is great. I'm enjoying the service and will continue paying for it - with Netflix, on demand iTunes and Aereo I really have all I'll ever want for video entertainment.
(Another nice thing is the AirPlay seems to support the Apple TV's IR Remote for fast forward, rewind, play/pause - not sure if this is universal, but I seem to remember that working)
Seems like Aereo is pointless for me cuz my Mohu antenna picks up pretty much all of my local HD channels.
Great idea/service tho. I may need it one day if I buy my next house where I can't pick up locals.
Great idea/service tho. I may need it one day if I buy my next house where I can't pick up locals.
That's the thing, not everyone can get the OTA channels easily. I searched for my address on that site everyone links to and I am not in service of any of them.
With Aereo though, OTA is available to a wider range of users. And for $8/mo, it's a steal.
Just wish they'd fix the issues I mentioned above.
What's the problem with red sox and MLB.TV? It looks pretty heavily advertised here: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?c_id=bos Though it's kind of expensive...