Just "cut the cable"

[Undecided]

But the misnomer of "cutting the cord" -- aside from the fact that I previously had Dish Network -- is your Internet connection. I had Windstream but it was too slow and got bogged down when I did multiple things on it. So now I'm with Comcast, the only other option around here that isn't some satellite service with a limit of like 15 GB per month. Comcast's autopay does NOT work and has made me miss payments a couple of times. I now just know not to bother trying, but I'm stuck with them until Google Fiber or someone else can expand out here to save the day. Comcast has good speed, but they try to ruin it with all the sales email and CALLING ME ALL THE TIME TRYING TO SELL ME TV.

I cut the (tv) cord about 5 years ago - the same time I moved and switched from Comcast to ATT Uverse. Well, I just switched back to Comcast, internet only, a week ago. I'm happy with the speed (105/10 plan, actually getting ~125/12) and the price ($45/mo. for first year). Latency could be better - at my last place, it was 3-5ms; now it's 30-32ms. (Zoom 5341J modem.) But that's really more important for twitchy online games and 30 is probably just fine anyway.

That said, I am dreading mixing Comcast in my life again. Oh man I hope they don't call me.

There are so few shows or even channels that interest me, that it makes no sense to subscribe to these insane packages for TV. I just wish shows showed up on iTunes/Netflix/Hulu/web right as they are broadcast. Heck, I'd even settle for a week later. But look how long Game of Thrones takes to show up! http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

 

[D.T.]

So we've mostly not wanted/needed anything "live", we catch up on shows a little later than they air (via AppleTV apps: FXNow, Fox, CBS), but we wanted to catch the Emmys tonight in real time. It's on ABC, and while the app does offer live, it's only in very limited areas at the moment.

So I grabbed an extra (one of probably 20 ) coax cables I had in my Big-Box-O-Cables© , stripped off ~8" from one end, connected the other to coax input (just hung it behind the TV), scanned for channels, and now we've got beautiful HD via OTA I even watched the start and finish of the Daytona 500 (the Fox PQ is especially glorious). So the Emmys are covered.

Also setup HDMI _back_ to the AVR (via ARC), so out OTA audio sounds terrific

[EDIT]

ABC, not CBS, didn't' want to confused anybody (as much as I'm apparently confused )

 

[Michael CM1]

I cut the (tv) cord about 5 years ago - the same time I moved and switched from Comcast to ATT Uverse. Well, I just switched back to Comcast, internet only, a week ago. I'm happy with the speed (105/10 plan, actually getting ~125/12) and the price ($45/mo. for first year). Latency could be better - at my last place, it was 3-5ms; now it's 30-32ms. (Zoom 5341J modem.) But that's really more important for twitchy online games and 30 is probably just fine anyway.

That said, I am dreading mixing Comcast in my life again. Oh man I hope they don't call me.

There are so few shows or even channels that interest me, that it makes no sense to subscribe to these insane packages for TV. I just wish shows showed up on iTunes/Netflix/Hulu/web right as they are broadcast. Heck, I'd even settle for a week later. But look how long Game of Thrones takes to show up! http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

Yeah I've noticed that with the HBO stuff. They want you to subscribe. Good news is in April you should be able to do that without any TV service. It'll probably be $20/month, but honestly it will kind of be a better Netflix if you're looking for newer movies. Netflix has done well at building up numbers and TV shows, but its new movies selection stinks. I want to see the second Thor movie and I still don't think it has hit Netflix. That's why I canceled my Netflix subscription and got Sling TV -- which won't really pay off until AMC gets on there and college football season -- and will probably get HBO Go.

But yep, still in bed with Comcast. I've got a 25Mbps connection, which is fine for one person. However, it's amazing how quickly you can hit a data cap of 300GB if you need to download TV seasons or re-download your entire movie catalog because your external hard drive died and you now have one with RAID 1 because dammit that's a lot of time and effort spent purchasing some movies and ripping your old DVDs and BDs.

I don't speak from experience on that last part or anything.

 

[Chocolatemilty]

Just "cut the cable"

My entire family and I cut the cord back in December while on my winter break. Directv pulled out all the stops to keep me, even offering free AT&T Internet for 16 months to stay (I was very tempted until I researched and found their internet is trash in my area). From there, I set up four ATVs in the house downstairs and upstairs bedrooms. Next, I paid a "thank-you" charge to my good friends to use their Comcast and NBA Gametime/NHL Center Ice logins, including the Comcast TV Go app which gives us more on-demand and live tv setups for some of the cable channels like Bravo and ABC Family and all the news channels. Activated all of the channels possible including WatchESPN and am able to watch all of the NBA and NHL season. To get around location firewall, I set up a proxy through our AirPort Extreme for our ATVs to use routed away from our usual IP and location, so Lakers (not much to watch this year unfortunately), Clippers, and LA Kings games aren't blacked out. Plan on going halves with my Oakland's A friend down here in SoCal for MLB.TV for my Dodgers, and we are in business for $20/month for Hulu and Netflix, one-time charges to my good friends for their logins, and $65/month Internet. $85/month for entertainment vs. $185? So long, cable!

I know many folks have people still tethered to cable they can source content from. Use them to your advantage, but make it worth their while too! Cable cutting is possible!

 

[davedev100]

Some Thoughts

Just random thoughts from my experience.

Public Library-dvds are free to borrow and your county library system usually has a massive collection of dvds which you can order online. You can even get new releases if you go to your local library the right day of the week.

Hulu-hulu fills in for a lot of TV shows.

Amazon Prime-mentioned but have to love the videos + free shipping.

Acorn-if you love BBC, the Acorn Media channel seems to stream just about everything on the BBC

NHL On Ice-more a cautionary tale about sports channels. Review all the restrictions before signing up. I didn't re-up with NHL this year because of all the blackouts and they don't show the playoffs(?!?)

 

[2010mini]

My entire family and I cut the cord back in December while on my winter break. Directv pulled out all the stops to keep me, even offering free AT&T Internet for 16 months to stay (I was very tempted until I researched and found their internet is trash in my area). From there, I set up four ATVs in the house downstairs and upstairs bedrooms. Next, I paid a "thank-you" charge to my good friends to use their Comcast and NBA Gametime/NHL Center Ice logins, including the Comcast TV Go app which gives us more on-demand and live tv setups for some of the cable channels like Bravo and ABC Family and all the news channels. Activated all of the channels possible including WatchESPN and am able to watch all of the NBA and NHL season. To get around location firewall, I set up a proxy through our AirPort Extreme for our ATVs to use routed away from our usual IP and location, so Lakers (not much to watch this year unfortunately), Clippers, and LA Kings games aren't blacked out. Plan on going halves with my Oakland's A friend down here in SoCal for MLB.TV for my Dodgers, and we are in business for $20/month for Hulu and Netflix, one-time charges to my good friends for their logins, and $65/month Internet. $85/month for entertainment vs. $185? So long, cable!

I know many folks have people still tethered to cable they can source content from. Use them to your advantage, but make it worth their while too! Cable cutting is possible!

You do realize you are bragging about paying your friends to circumvent their paid tv contracts on a public forum, right???

 

[Chocolatemilty]

You do realize you are bragging about paying your friends to circumvent their paid tv contracts on a public forum, right???

I shared my experience of cable cutting to make it better for my family and myself and worthwhile for them as they elect to keep their cable service, but have it subsidized just a bit. Not seeing where the bragging is coming from and where the problem lies.

 

[2010mini]

I shared my experience of cable cutting to make it better for my family and myself and worthwhile for them as they elect to keep their cable service, but have it subsidized just a bit. Not seeing where the bragging is coming from and where the problem lies.

The problem is it most likely violates the terms of their contract. In other words it is stealing

unless their TV provider allows them to create unique 'sub-accounts' like mine does for family members of my household.

I am very certain their TV provider did not say it was ok to "sublease" their access to you. But I leave it up to your conscience. I will say though....putting stuff like this on the web..... Maybe not a great idea.

 

[Chocolatemilty]

Just "cut the cable"

The problem is it most likely violates the terms of their contract. In other words it is stealing



unless their TV provider allows them to create unique 'sub-accounts' like mine does for family members of my household.



I am very certain their TV provider did not say it was ok to "sublease" their access to you. But I leave it up to your conscience, but putting stuff like this on the web..... Maybe not a great idea.

That's exactly what was done - a "subaccount" with a comcast email for myself to use. I read the contract before asking them to make sure it's not a violation of the ToS since it was the main subscriber who created the subaccount. There was nothing in the language that specified where these subaccounts can be used (I suppose you can say a loophole was found).

Conscience? With a cable company? Haha, as a consumer that's been robbed many a time by Time Warner, Comcast, and DIRECTV, I don't have much remorse.

All I'm doing is possibly peaking the minds of the OP and subsequent readers to see if this is an option. It isn't stealing if it's within the ToS.

 

[Eniregnat]

Irony is cutting the cable and still having to use them your ISP

I cut the cable over a decade ago and love and I didn't add services when we moved in together. Now that I think about it, we have been together a long time.

We do have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime, but rarely watch anything together any more. Since the birth of our child there just isn't any time. Our cherished moments alone together are spent watching a Bob's Burgers episode every couple of weeks while our toddler is sleeping.

 

[oneMadRssn]

The problem is it most likely violates the terms of their contract. In other words it is stealing

This is a ridiculous connection/jump people make all the time on this forum and it is completely illogical.

Yes, what the user above described is a breach of some contract. In fact, from his account, he's not even a party to the contract - so really all he has done is induced someone else to breach their contract. In no other words is this stealing. Breaching a contract is not only legal, it is a matter of right, and sometimes it is necessary and efficient. It is not a crime, and it shouldn't be a crime.

Stealing necessarily requires taking something and depriving the rightful owner of some form of ownership. For example, shoplifting an iphone case from Best Buy is taking that iphone case and depriving Best Buy the opportunity to sell it - one of it's rights as rightful owners. That is stealing.

In the above scenario, there is no taking, no depriving, nothing. It's ONLY an inducement to breach a contract, which has no relation or connection to stealing.

If people are actually serious about reducing piracy and getting content creators the profits they deserve, we must stop calling everything stealing to the point that it makes the word meaningless. How about you write a letter to your congressman about raising or removing the statutory cover fee for composers, instead of worrying about whether this one buy has caused someone to breach their agreement with a cable company (which I'm sure is perfectly moral itself).

 

[akm3]

Money wise, it isn't a MAJOR savings, but it's a savings. $60 cable bill is gone + $9/mo for Netflix + $10/mo increase on my internet bill since I am no longer "bundled" with cable. So I'm netting about a $40/mo savings.

Any other suggestions for a cable cutter in search of simple ways to get media content to his TV?

$40/mo invested at 7% for 10 years is $6,920

 

[2010mini]

This is a ridiculous connection/jump people make all the time on this forum and it is completely illogical.

Yes, what the user above described is a breach of some contract. In fact, from his account, he's not even a party to the contract - so really all he has done is induced someone else to breach their contract. In no other words is this stealing. Breaching a contract is not only legal, it is a matter of right, and sometimes it is necessary and efficient. It is not a crime, and it shouldn't be a crime.

Stealing necessarily requires taking something and depriving the rightful owner of some form of ownership. For example, shoplifting an iphone case from Best Buy is taking that iphone case and depriving Best Buy the opportunity to sell it - one of it's rights as rightful owners. That is stealing.

In the above scenario, there is no taking, no depriving, nothing. It's ONLY an inducement to breach a contract, which has no relation or connection to stealing.

If people are actually serious about reducing piracy and getting content creators the profits they deserve, we must stop calling everything stealing to the point that it makes the word meaningless. How about you write a letter to your congressman about raising or removing the statutory cover fee for composers, instead of worrying about whether this one buy has caused someone to breach their agreement with a cable company (which I'm sure is perfectly moral itself).

Breach of contract is covered by civil law. So yes if you breach a contract the other party can seek compensation in court or binding arbitration. The above example does (IF he is in the same market as that cable company) constitute depriving said cable company. They pay PER customer (physical address) for the rights to transmit content. Now giving that content away to another without compensation IS piracy (stealing)

And you can be criminally liable if you PAY a third party to steal from Best Buy. If you read the users post he ADMITTED to paying.

 

[Chocolatemilty]

Well, that escalated quickly.

We scoured the ToS from Comcast in earnest to see if we were breaching the contract. Since there isn't a "contract" per se, merely a ToS, we found for there was no language specifying a limit on where and/or how the subaccounts can be used, which I attributed to what could be called a "loophole" earlier. Again, my intention was not to steal content, but to source it. Indeed SlingTV has enticed us here and if Dish can further that service, we'd most likely become a subscriber.

Now, I can see where it could be a problem if my friend was "daisy-chaining" his account whichever way. There's a chance some flagging could be done by Comcast. However, this is quite possibly a very low-level thing happening since it's one subaccount to his main one. Not sure Comcast has the time or wants to commit resources to finding out where his entitled subaccount is being accessed from (much like how quite a few AT&T unlimited users still tether, for example).

 

[oneMadRssn]

Breach of contract is covered by civil law. So yes if you breach a contract the other party can seek compensation in court or binding arbitration. The above example does (IF he is in the same market as that cable company) constitute depriving said cable company. They pay PER customer (physical address) for the rights to transmit content. Now giving that content away to another without compensation IS piracy (stealing)

And you can be criminally liable if you PAY a third party to steal from Best Buy. If you read the users post he ADMITTED to paying.

First, what makes you so sure every cable contract is limited per physical address? For example, my RCN ToS allow sharing with family members without qualifying where that family must be living. RCN also specifically advertises the ability to stream while away on vacation in a different physical location.

Second, you again make the jump from accessing content in violation of a contract to piracy to stealing, without any logical explanation. Yes, it's maybe a contract violation, depending on the specifics of the contract. I don't agree that accessing content without compensation is the definition of piracy. That is far too over-inclusive. And again, all piracy (which this is not) is not per se stealing.

You're not doing anyone any favors, especially not the content creators, by escalating this minor potential contractual and technological loophole into a serious crime. Someone sharing a cable login should not lumped into the same group as being a member of EZTV.

 

[schlotz]

This goes back to what we all learned from our parents very early on. We didn't understand contract law, nor ToS but we did know right from wrong. Maybe we should apply our upbringing and do what we were taught.

 

[oneMadRssn]

This goes back to what we all learned from our parents very early on. We didn't understand contract law, nor ToS but we did know right from wrong. Maybe we should apply our upbringing and do what we were taught.

Hah. In that case, anything that helps stick it to Comcast, Time Warner, and the other cable monopolies is the right thing to do.

 

[gertruded]

Hah. In that case, anything that helps stick it to Comcast, Time Warner, and the other cable monopolies is the right thing to do.

One thousand up arrows!!!!

 

[sdilley14]

$40/mo invested at 7% for 10 years is $6,920

I like the way you're thinking.

 

[campyguy]

I like the way you're thinking.

Me too, and I'd love to find anywhere *legal* I can get a guaranteed 7% return on my coin over 10 years...

 

[iMas70]

I've been looking I to this more and more lately. My DTV contract will be ending in a few months. I pay for 150+ channels but only watch 20. I tried an OTA antenna a few months ago but the picture quality wasn't that great. I'd like to be able to get most of the local channels (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox). The other channels that I watch are between 269-288 on DTV. My kids sometimes watch the kid's channels but not as much now that they are getting older. They've been watching Netflix on their iPads for the last few months.

Something that I'm wondering is do the cable companies/DTV make much effort to try to keep you as a customer when you want to cancel? DTV has some very good prices for new customers. Of course those go Up a lot after a year.

 

[AppleDeviceUser]

I did that about 10 years ago, best decision ever

 

[oneMadRssn]

I've been looking I to this more and more lately. My DTV contract will be ending in a few months. I pay for 150+ channels but only watch 20. I tried an OTA antenna a few months ago but the picture quality wasn't that great. I'd like to be able to get most of the local channels (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox). The other channels that I watch are between 269-288 on DTV. My kids sometimes watch the kid's channels but not as much now that they are getting older. They've been watching Netflix on their iPads for the last few months.

Something that I'm wondering is do the cable companies/DTV make much effort to try to keep you as a customer when you want to cancel? DTV has some very good prices for new customers. Of course those go Up a lot after a year.

Regarding OTA - if you got some channels in poor quality, odds are placement of the antenna or an amplified antenna would help you greatly. I have an unamplified mohu leaf on one TV, and 2 inches left right, up down on the wall make the difference between perfect signal and frequent choppy cutouts. I spent 30 minutes one day moving it around little by little on the wall until I found the perfect placement. The other TV has an amplified antenna and it gets perfect signal pretty much anywhere I put it.

Regarding effort to keep you - I can't speak to DTV, but RCN threw a lot of great offers at me in order to try to keep me as a customer. The way they did it is they let me cancel initially, and then a day later someone called me and emailed me asking me what it would take to get me to undo the cancellation. That person apparently had much more authority to give me better than advertised prices. I didn't take their offer, but it was interesting to hear them. My advice would be to not be afraid to go through with a cancellation and make it final. If they want you back, they will make it very easy to undo.

 

[campyguy]

I've been looking I to this more and more lately. My DTV contract will be ending in a few months. I pay for 150+ channels but only watch 20. I tried an OTA antenna a few months ago but the picture quality wasn't that great. I'd like to be able to get most of the local channels (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox). The other channels that I watch are between 269-288 on DTV. My kids sometimes watch the kid's channels but not as much now that they are getting older. They've been watching Netflix on their iPads for the last few months.

Something that I'm wondering is do the cable companies/DTV make much effort to try to keep you as a customer when you want to cancel? DTV has some very good prices for new customers. Of course those go Up a lot after a year.

You've made some good points here, and I agree all of them.

I'm hanging on to my cable TV via Comcrap for at least another month or so. I was a cord cutter for several years but signed up a year ago to catch up on some shows that my clients kept talking about, so I needed to stay current in order to be more "social" - I was happy with being a year behind shows like Justified and SOA and Castle but they'll all be done soon and I can go back to cutting that cable. I already have Comcast Business Class internet so I know that price won't go up.

After seeing Dish cutting the price of their DishWorld English package a month or so ago from $15 to $10 per month but not changing the programming gives me hope that there won't be going up. A couple of friends have been paying about $20 for the DishWorld Arabic package over IP for around 7 years now without a price increase...

Now we just need a Sling TV app for my ATV...

 

[tbradnc]

You really have to pay attention...

We currently have ~200ish channels with DirectTV at $76 per month (this is not a promo price).

Hulu - $8.99 month
Netflix - $8.75 month
Amazon Prime - $99/year
Sling - $20 month
HBO streaming- $15 month

Before it's all over instead of giving DirectTV $76 every month I'm spreading approximately the same amount to 4-7 other companies in dribs and drabs.