Cutting the cable cord....

[Trish.Glenn]

How much do you all spend on Internet? I would love to cancel cable but here we bundle and the Internet only price seems so high.

Sorry Should have mentioned that I do have an HDTV antenna for my room and love it. It works awesome!!

 

[momof3ds]

Our current Internet bill is 50 a month. That includes taxes and everything else. It's DSL with 10-12mbps.

Our Internet & sat bundle was $150 a month when we added in all the taxes, etc. I called for a deal and dish refused. After we cancelled, they came father us with a deal.

Even the cable bundles are at least 80 here plus another 20 in taxes.

 

[snoopy5386]

There's a member here who posted a really great link to see what you should be able to receive where you live: tvfool.com. Just enter your address and it'll show you a colorful list of stations. You should receive the ones in green very strongly. If you don't then it is probably something wrong with the antenna or the antenna jack in your television.

I have tried this site and I get no stations in green and only a couple in yellow. This is the problem and there isn't much I can do on my end to fix it.

 

[wiigirl]

You might need an outdoor antenna.

I got one off of Amazon, changed my world

 

[Alesia]

How much do you all spend on Internet? I would love to cancel cable but here we bundle and the Internet only price seems so high.

I always wonder that, too. Our cable only costs about $10 more than just internet and phone, so it's completely worth it. In fact, we didn't have cable for years, but then a few years ago we realized how cheap it was to add it. It's only $2 more per month than hulu plus would be, and we actually have access to the shows we watch.

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

I got one off of Amazon, changed my world

Outside antenna's rock
That is all we have ever had, and with the advent of digital tv
we went from 5 stations to 17 stations- and we live in a remote, rural area, an hour's drive or more to the closest tv station.

Our antenna- which came with our home, is on a rotary frame that we can turn- and this does make a difference.

 

[huskies90]

How much do you all spend on Internet? I would love to cancel cable but here we bundle and the Internet only price seems so high.

I always wonder that, too. Our cable only costs about $10 more than just internet and phone, so it's completely worth it. In fact, we didn't have cable for years, but then a few years ago we realized how cheap it was to add it. It's only $2 more per month than hulu plus would be, and we actually have access to the shows we watch.

I am in the same boat here. I bundle our cable, internet and phone (I need a house phone for our house alarm). Every 6 months I call the cable company and bargain for whatever deal they are offerering. My monthly bill is between $85-$105 per month for all three services depending on the deal at that time. I think that is pretty good and with all the sports we watch, I don't think Hula and an atenna will cut it.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Before we made the jump to ditch cable, I did my research. We never watched live TV. Everything was TIVO'ed or DVR'ed. I made a list of each show and the network it was on. I then went online and made notes of which were available via Hulu and iTunes. We then got a 30 day free subscription for Netflix and did the same thing. The last thing we did was get Amazon Prime. That was a $79 fee for the year, we use Amazon enough to justify the cost for one year, which we will reevaluate next summer.
We ditched cable over the summer and for the most part we don't regret it. There are a few things I miss, but not enough to get cable back.
We had Comcast for phone/internet/cable. My bill went from $245 a month to $95 a month. We kept the phone and the high speed internet (not the highest speed).

Netflix is good for older seasons, and other shows that are now off the air. Hulu is good for current stuff but a lot of shows don't stay on very long. Some of the episodes expire, typically after 4 weeks. I don't like the Hulu commercials, and I hope they will go to a second tier fee for no commercials, I would be willing to pay it.

Overall we are all happy about ditching the cable. And have saved a fortune. The best part though, not having to watch the same Disney show for the thousandth time just because they want noise on in the background. the kids have discovered Rugrats, Mythbusters, older Doctor Who episodes and other things that they actually sit down and watch, because it's new to them.
And I have found that I don't watch as much mindless TV as I did before. I'm a reformed channel surfer. LOL

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

I have tried this site and I get no stations in green and only a couple in yellow. This is the problem and there isn't much I can do on my end to fix it.

According to my report (look near the bottom of the page) on tvfool,
if you have yellow and even red, an exterior antenna would work well for you.
Being on a hill only helps
And that would probably save you a lot of money in the future.
Free tv costs nothing.

 

[mrsklamc]

I wish we'd gone cable-free sooner than we did.We watch less TV and what we do watch is much better because we're intentional about what we watch-and usually no commercials!. All the stuff you mentioned is available on network TV, if you can get it to come it. After probably two years the only time I was frustrated was Tuesday when the network cut away from the Rose Parade and didn't show the band I was watching to see, when it was shown on HGTV. But, there are videos of it on Youtube so it turned out to not be a big deal.

 

[Kies99]

Comcast does not advertise it, but if you call them and say you only want local channels you can get a cheap package. Ours is $10 a month and we get somewhere around 20 or so channels. We also have Netflix streaming so all told we pay less than $20 per month with tax.

 

[msbatchelor5]

We went NO CABLE a few months ago. We have an external antenna -$100. We got Apple TV to efficiently stream Netflix and HULU + -$100. We already had a TIVO to record shows and it works fine with the antenna (you can buy one w/o too much difficulty).

So after an initial $200 investment we now have $15 Netflix/Hulu bill per month and we are going to cancel HULU because the TIVO is enough to manage our network TV needs. There are 2 cable shows that we love so we order those over Apple TV for <$35 per season.

We will now spend $7.99(Netflix) instead $100 per month for TV. The only thing I miss is HGTV.

Ha! This is exactly what we do/ have and exactly the only thing I miss.... HGTV. Ha!

 

[Schmoodle]

We cut the cable almost two years ago and don't miss it a bit. We are 2 teens and 2 adults, don't watch sports except DH for World Cup. We have one TV connected to antenna, so can get network channels and PBS, and boxee to stream other stuff through Netflix. We also have a Kindle fire and DS can stream through his XBox. And our desktop computer, of course.

It didn't even take any adjustment. We overlapped cable for a month to see if the transition would work, but never watched the cable at all that month. In short, there are plenty of screens and plenty of options to keep us happy.

 

[JB2K]

Our family got an HDTV and wireless blu ray player for Christmas and now have the ability to stream netflix, hulu plus, amazon prime, etc. and we are seriously considering cancelling our direct tv subscription. For those who have done this, what do you miss? We don't watch sports so that isn't an issue, but how do you watch things like the nightly news, special events like the Ball Drop in Times Square on NYE, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, Disney Christmas Parade, news coverage after major world events like Hurricane Sandy, Sandy Hook, Snowmageddon, presidential debates, etc.? Normally I'd watch CNN for this stuff, but that won't be an option. I've never not had cable or satellite tv in my entire life so this will take some adjusting, but the savings seems worth it!

OK, here's life without cable/satellite, by the numbers...

• No live sports (you've already stated this is not an issue). However, for NFL fans, most games are covered on CBS/FOX/NBC. As MLB goes, some Blu-ray players, to include the Playstation 3, does offer access to MLB.tv for a nominal annual fee (the big negative on this is all of your home team's games will be blacked-out while live and available for viewing, later).
• Nightly news/other live current events - by using a simple antenna, you should be able to stay connected to the world around you, as unless you live in a really remote area, you should be able to receive your local ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC/PBS affiliates.
• Now, as TV programming goes, Netflix/Hulu Plus is really a "hit-or-miss" thing -- unless you spend most of your entertainment time on TheDIS, there may be some TV programs you might miss. I strongly recommend giving both Netfix and Hulu Plus a 30-day trial to see if their programming is what you really want/like, as though both get glowing reviews, here, I wonder if those reviewers are speaking more from the wallet...

Hope it works-out for you...

 

[JB2K]

I have tried this site and I get no stations in green and only a couple in yellow. This is the problem and there isn't much I can do on my end to fix it.

But you're in New Jersey? Normally, that state is pretty well covered with stations out of NYC (North) and Philly (South) -- Trenton area can receive both sets...

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Ha! This is exactly what we do/ have and exactly the only thing I miss.... HGTV. Ha!

Ha! It is probably for the best. I was a bit addicted to house hunters and I would get seriously ticked off at huge houses people in other parts of the country could get for 1/2 of what my 2000 sqft Cape is worth in the Northeastt

 

[lovehoney]

We cut the cable right before Christmas. I miss my dvr the most. I know we could get tivo to record but I can't justify the expense.

I'm finding we have a lot more time to do things now.

We already had netflix that the kids watched off the wii, and we bought a bluray for Christmas so we have netflix on that too. I did purchase Amazon Prime because DS12 got a kindle fire for Christmas, but we don't use it very often for videos. We have rented a couple of time from Amazon so that was handy.

 

[mrsklamc]

Some tv shows are available the next day through the channel's website, too..

 

[snoopy5386]

OP here. Irony of ironies, we do have an external roof mount antenna, I just never noticed it before.

Of course I just spent the last 2 hours trying to get it to work with no luck, everything is connected with the right cords, but it isn't working. Any ideas?

 

[skeettafic]

We're actually in this process right now, too! We are going to pick up an indoor antenna tomorrow to see if it will be enough though I'm thinking because we are in the midst of trees, we may need an outdoor one.

Like someone mentioned, I really am looking forward to not having the TV on as background noise all the time and feel like we'll all be happier once we get used to it. We have our Comcast bill here to pay for next month and I told DH that I want to get this antenna issue figured out this week so we can do our free trial of netflix and hulu before the next billing cycle. We don't have any other high speed internet providers though so I have to keep comcast for that. Blah. Wish I could get rid of them completely but we are going to go from $180/month (and that's on a promotion of some sort) to $80-90.