For those of you that CUT THE CABLE, I have questions

[dfchelbay]

We are again considering cutting cable tv. We are paying $110 a month for BASIC CABLE...NO EXTRAS! We are told it costs this much because we do not have internet or phones with Comcast...just tv. We have no use for the phone & our internet is already paid for by work.

I looked online & have found some network websites play full episodes of shows & Hulu+ has some others...even though some are a year or two behind. My apprehension to cutting cable tv is because I love HGTV & news, especially if there's breaking news/events. Neither of which are on Hulu. HGTV has 1 or 2 shows they play full episodes of & that's about it. I don't watch local news at all, just cable news. Where do you get national news if you don't have cable? Where can I get my HGTV fix? Any tips or tricks you all know of, let me know. I have noticed that breaking news hits on Twitter long before it ever sees the network. So there' that I guess.

Also, I plugged the cable directly into my tv in my office & it tells me I have to contact Comcast to get a cable box. Now every tv has to have a cable box? I just wanted it in another room. It's a newish digital tv...NOT analog, yet still requires a cable box? I just get the looped Comcast commercial when I plug that tv into the jack in the wall. I used to get cable in every room that had a jack/outlet...now ever jack needs a cable box?

What websites do you all use? Is there another HGTVish website to watch that type of programming? Any other info you have would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[worm761]

We have Cox here. The only reason we re-signed up for cable TV is because DH wanted HBO for Game of Thrones. Literally the only show we watch on HBO. Cable is gone again as soon as HBO Now goes live. We watch TV on Hulu and Netflix. Or stream from the internet.

I don't really read the news so not much help there.

I did look on Netflix and they have some HGTV shows available. Not sure on season but they are Property Brothers, House Hunters collection, Love It or List It collection, House Hunters International collection, Cousins on Call, The Brian Baitano Project, Holmes Inspection collection, Flea Market Flip, and Buying and Selling with the Property Brothers.

As for the cable box thing, that might be a Comcast thing. The tv in my bedroom has limited cable without a box.

 

[RitaE]

We're kind of the other way in regards to Comcast. They are the only high speed option here for internet but we want Direct TV for our television. A couple of years ago they put out a package offer to upgrade to one of the "Double Play" packages for $59 a month, which was $20 cheaper than I was paying for Internet alone at the time. We added basic cable and never even hooked up the cable box. You might want to play around with their current pricing offers to see if anything equivalent is available.

The other really slimy thing about Comcast is they are really indirect about their prices. Their website won't give a price quote until you put in your address so it can see whether or not you already have service there. If you call in and threaten to disconnect, you usually can get a Service Rep who will start making offers, but you still don't know if it is anywhere near what other customers are paying.

 

[myhoney]

We cut the cord over a year ago, and I love it! We pay $40/month for internet, and then $8 for Netflix and $8 for Hulu. We did buy a cheap antennae (like. ~$15 cheap) that we probably should have spent more on, but it picks up our local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS) for free. Sometimes it will short out and freeze for a few seconds, and always at the worst time. (like when we had a roomful of people watching the Kentucky Derby and they were on the last turn...oops!) We do not have a cable box.

As for shows you don't want to miss...we had a few, and we kept cable for a good 18 months longer until the expense of it was just silly. But the way we watch tv has completely changed. Before, we would watch because it was on. Kids went to bed, TV went on, and we watched until our bedtime. Now, we choose to watch shows. Sometimes they are old series that we never watched, or are original programming. But there are several shows that we always would watch when we had cable, and now even though we could watch them (a season behind, sometimes)...we don't. We watch somewhat less tv, but even if we watch the same amount, we are actively choosing a show based on how much we enjoy it, versus watching a poor show because there's a 1/2 hour slot until the next show we like comes on. You may find that you need your HGTV, but you might also be surprised.

 

[EdgeOfGlory]

I watch HGTV shows on Netflix, there is a plethora of them on there and always, commercial free.

Yes, you need a cable box (digital converter) for every TV through Comcast now. They cost $2.99 to rent each month.

For news, get yourself some high quality HD rabbit ears. I know it sounds like you are going back in time until you see how crystal clear the 1080p picture is from it. I just hope you are close enough to the TV network towers for this to work. It does for me about 10 miles outside of Boston.

 

[EdgeOfGlory]

Here are the antennas to pick up local channels in high definition. The better the quality and higher the price, the better the range overall if you aren't near a major metropolitan area. You can always try it out and return one to Best Buy if it doesn't work for you.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/tv-video-accessories/tv-antennas/abcat0107004.c?id=abcat0107004

 

[cjnix29]

we got hgtv through sling. It's $20 a month, but was the only way to get some of the shows my husband likes.

 

[WIcruizer]

We would have cut the cable long ago if it wasn't for sports. DH wouldn't be able to watch our local MLB and NBA teams, not to mention <gasp> going without ESPN.

 

[tvguy]

We are again considering cutting cable tv. We are paying $110 a month for BASIC CABLE...NO EXTRAS! We are told it costs this much because we do not have internet or phones with Comcast...just tv. We have no use for the phone & our internet is already paid for by work.

I looked online & have found some network websites play full episodes of shows & Hulu+ has some others...even though some are a year or two behind. My apprehension to cutting cable tv is because I love HGTV & news, especially if there's breaking news/events. Neither of which are on Hulu. HGTV has 1 or 2 shows they play full episodes of & that's about it. I don't watch local news at all, just cable news. Where do you get national news if you don't have cable? Where can I get my HGTV fix? Any tips or tricks you all know of, let me know. I have noticed that breaking news hits on Twitter long before it ever sees the network. So there' that I guess.

Also, I plugged the cable directly into my tv in my office & it tells me I have to contact Comcast to get a cable box. Now every tv has to have a cable box? I just wanted it in another room. It's a newish digital tv...NOT analog, yet still requires a cable box? I just get the looped Comcast commercial when I plug that tv into the jack in the wall. I used to get cable in every room that had a jack/outlet...now ever jack needs a cable box?

What websites do you all use? Is there another HGTVish website to watch that type of programming? Any other info you have would be appreciated. Thanks

Gamble $15 on a rabbit ear antenna. National news is easy, every morning 7 to 9 am on ABC, CBS NBC and somewhere between 5 and 7 pm every night on those same channels.
I'm in the same boat, all the channels we watch are cable/dish exclusives. We do have Netflix.....my daughter uses it, we don't. It is a bit of work to get the TV hooked up to the computer to watch it.

 

[AquaDame]

Live stream news from their websites maybe? Which stations are you glued to? We gave up cable years ago, no regrets. As you said its easier to get things sooner online anyway - Ive also watched entire seasons of shows online before they're "released" in the US from overseas (Downtown Abbey and I think Dr Who does the same thing) and sometimes even get to watch based on east coast times vs pacific. HGTV wouldn't be a problem for long - skip a few weeks of it and the "old" episodes become "new" (to you!).

 

[magik]

We are again considering cutting cable tv. We are paying $110 a month for BASIC CABLE...NO EXTRAS! We are told it costs this much because we do not have internet or phones with Comcast...just tv. We have no use for the phone & our internet is already paid for by work.

I looked online & have found some network websites play full episodes of shows & Hulu+ has some others...even though some are a year or two behind. My apprehension to cutting cable tv is because I love HGTV & news, especially if there's breaking news/events. Neither of which are on Hulu. HGTV has 1 or 2 shows they play full episodes of & that's about it. I don't watch local news at all, just cable news. Where do you get national news if you don't have cable? Where can I get my HGTV fix? Any tips or tricks you all know of, let me know. I have noticed that breaking news hits on Twitter long before it ever sees the network. So there' that I guess.

Also, I plugged the cable directly into my tv in my office & it tells me I have to contact Comcast to get a cable box. Now every tv has to have a cable box? I just wanted it in another room. It's a newish digital tv...NOT analog, yet still requires a cable box? I just get the looped Comcast commercial when I plug that tv into the jack in the wall. I used to get cable in every room that had a jack/outlet...now ever jack needs a cable box?

What websites do you all use? Is there another HGTVish website to watch that type of programming? Any other info you have would be appreciated. Thanks

I have an antenna for my local channels and can watch the news on there, it's not all just local. And if there's major breaking national news, the local channels will cover it. But honestly I tend to get my news online. As for HGTV, I believe it's part of basic Sling TV for $20/month. I can also watch my main network shows through my antenna, or Hulu plus (except for new episodes of CBS shows..those are not on Hulu). I did have to pay $100 for a nicer antenna to put in my attic because the cheaper indoor ones got only 1 PBS station. With the bigger antenna in my attic, I get over 50 channels. Most I don't care about (duplicate networks from the next closest city, international channels, shopping channels, etc), but I get all the major networks and several PBS stations. It's crazy the difference in reception I got between a small indoor antenna at my TV and a medium size attic one.

A couple of years ago Comcast started phasing out their Clear QAM channels, forcing customers to use their settop boxes. That's why you can't just plug the coaxial cable right into your TV. It's not thr TV's fault, it's Comcast's.

 

[aaarcher86]

We do the hulu/Netflix/HBO combo.

If there is a particlar show we just have to have immediately but DH will buy the season through Apple TV. The $15 every few months is still tons better than the $125 a month or whatever we were paying.

 

[Andrea]

We have Cox here. The only reason we re-signed up for cable TV is because DH wanted HBO for Game of Thrones. Literally the only show we watch on HBO. Cable is gone again as soon as HBO Now goes live. We watch TV on Hulu and Netflix. Or stream from the internet.


Did you see that you can buy just HBO to go now?

 

[worm761]

Yes, we did. But we are in a contract. It ends this spring. Can't wait.

 

[Eureka]

Sports is why we still have a pretty big cable package. We have several streaming services, but when I tried to cut back on cable a few years ago, all the sports my guys watch were cut. We have a whole lot more channels that, since we have them, I do like some of them, but wouldn't miss if they were gone. And the thing about watching shows through the stations' apps or websites is that now you have to log in through your cable company for many of them. We have a double play package with Internet, and I do call every year to see if there's a better promotion for us. I don't see us giving it up anytime soon.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

We would have cut the cable long ago if it wasn't for sports. DH wouldn't be able to watch our local MLB and NBA teams, not to mention <gasp> going without ESPN.

This is us. Our next PCS is right after football and then we are moving during the summer and my husband isn't really into baseball, so I told him we are living without cable for that 6 months. We already have an antennae from when I cut cable on a previous deployment and I plan to pickup netflix.

The bummer about having a sports lover is that cable companies KNOW there are men who want cable just for the sports, so you can't even get 80% of the sports channels unless you get the top tier below premium package. Being military, we need to get ALL the channels so that we can have all the Big 12 conference games, even though we are in SEC territory.

 

[hblevins32]

I use Sling with HBO add on, 35 dollars/month. It has HGTV, Food Network, CNN, ESPN, ESPN2 and many many more.

 

[Beezle2]

We use ROKU to stream Amazon Prime and PLEX, I sometimes add Hulu or Netflix for a month to watch whatever they have. My Son in law shares his Plex library with us and he is more tech savvy then I am. We also have a $39 antenna that picks up about 7 local channels. I also streamed Sling for the 7 day free trial but didn't keep it.

 

[chewysmom]

We tried Sling but hated it. The quality looked terrible-but that was probably due to our SUPER SLOW internet. They have ESPN, Food Network, CNN, Disney and some more that I don't remember. We only had it long enough for the free trial.

We currently have Netflix and Hulu. I despise Hulu though. It buffers/loads constantly (again, could be our internet-but Netflix never buffers for us. *shrugs*) And for some strange reason, they start their shows halfway through the season. We wanted to watch a particular show so I qued it up, only to find Hulu only had from episodes 17-20 something. That happens *a lot*. I'm only keeping it to see if they have all the Once UPon a time episodes starting Sunday-if not, Hulu dies at our house.

If it's a current show that Netflix doesn't have yet, we usually buy the season pass from Amazon. That's how we get our Walking Dead, Arrow, etc fix. We've also bought old seasons of MasterChef as well. If the show plays on regular tv on Sunday, the episode is available to view Monday by 5 am. (for us anyway!) For a total of anywhere from $12-35 we have the entire season as it comes available. Not too shabby, imo. I did notice Doctor Who is more expensive than the Walking Dead, which was rather surprising. We love both!

All of this streams over our Roku player. We love that little thing! We were so apprehensive to cut the Directv cord, but it's truly one of the best things we ever did.

National news we get over the air. We have an old 1970's antenna that was attached to the house when we bought it. It works great! I can pick up our local Fox, CBS, NBC, etc station and get the CBS evening news w/ Scott Pelley, etc at night.

My advice is to sign up for the free trial for some of these things before you cut the cord and just see how it goes. That's what we did. That way, if we decided we didn't like Netflix, Hulu, etc then we wouldn't have to sign back up w/ Directv for two more years. I hate contracts!

 

[hsmamato2]

buy an antenna for news,etc. There are national news shows on nightly on NBC,ABC,CBS..... then just subscribe to Hulu or netflix for lots of other shows to watch easily