Cable Cutters-What's Worked for You?

[jsmla]

We took a fairly major though (hopefully) temporary hit to our income due to the Louisiana flooding. We have savings but I am determined not to touch them. Right now we're spending waaaay too much for our phone/internet/TV services (AT&T). The cell phone contract we'll need to keep until our daughter goes off our plan next August but I would love to find a way to cut back on the other services.

We're definitely TV watchers so I would love to hear what all of you have replaced your cable with. DH is a HUGE football fan and we tend to do a lot of recording.

As far as internet is concerned we're less demanding. No gaming but DH does stream baseball and football games when they're not on TV. We do watch the occasional movie but not often. I enjoy binging on Netflix on occasion.

I've read about Roku, TiVo, Hulu and goodness knows what else and am still very confused.

Help!

 

[TCB in FLA]

I'm interested in what others have to say on this since we are seriously thinking about cutting cable. It's the sports that keeps us subscribed. I'd be happy with just our current subscription to Amazon prime that we can access through a Roku box. But how best to get ESPN and various games?

 

[DopeyDame]

We cut the cord a few years ago. I looooove our Roku. It's what allows us to easily watch netflix, Disney, PBS Kids, etc. It's a great interface.

Unfortunately, sports is the one thing that doesn't have a great solution. If it's on an over the air channel (NBC, CBS, ABC, etc) than that's easy - just use an antenna. However, if the game is on ESPN there's not a good option. We end up going to someone's house or using my parents login information if it's an important game.

 

[gumbypee]

From what I understand - Roku just gives you access to apps on your TV. (but I definitely could be wrong). I think you can watch tv on Hulu (but not live) or buy seasons on Itunes (for example when I didnt have cable i bought season of Rizzoli and Isles on itunes and I could download it on my itunes computer or phone and watch it the next day - not good for live watching)

BUT you can't use the ESPN app (WATCH ESPN) unless you have a subscription to ESPN. Therefore you must either bite the bullet and keep cable, use a family member's account login, or go to a sports bar or friend's house (going to sports bar and buying food every weekend it makes more sense to keep ESPN).

Now, I have cable right now for football season then I will probably downgrade to a basic plan (just NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX) because antenna does not give me all four of those channels where i am located (i have tried several antennas) so I have to have "cable".

One option you will have to do math for and not sure of your family plan for phone, but to have unlimited data and NOT get internet for home and just use your phones - depends on how much surfing you do at home.

Another option, google has a plan but you must buy their phone and it's kind of like Walmart's STraight Talk. Or you could do Walmart Straight Talk and keep whatever phone you have. Problem (for me) is that I have no idea how to transfer what i have to a new SIM card that you must purchase to use Straight Talk and I have heard their customer service is lacking. However, it is much cheaper and I THINK data unused rolls over.

Hope that dump of info helps somewhat

 

[jsmla]

Thanks, everyone! We actually have either unlimited or a huge amount of data of some sort that was grandfathered in. Our DD is still on our plan because she uses a lot of data streaming. We definitely plan to cut waaaay back on that once she finishes her residency and gets her own plan.

Has anyone used one of these? We have really good OTA channel reception for ABC, CBS, etc.

https://www.tivo.com/shop/ota-detail


Thanks again!

 

[gottalovepluto]

We've liked Hulu's offerings for day after airing tv but they recently cut back. We watched our ABC and CW shows on Hulu but CW shows are leaving. CBS has a standalone service they are promoting this year for streaming, not sure what's included. Don't know exactly what y'all watch but those are a couple options if you enjoy network tv on your own schedule.

 

[jsmla]

We can get ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, Fox, PBS and a few other channels OTA. We also have a Roku with Netflix and Amazon Prime that we only use in the exercise room. We have cable everywhere else. Am I right in my understanding that ESPN is a cable/satellite only thing?

We would like to be able to record, thus the interest in the Tivo Roamio OTA.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

We cut cable, but didn't want to replace it with any type of bill at all, so we now use our 1 television for movies and videogames. The television is in the playroom/movie room and we don't miss it one bit.

We did attempt:
Netflix - This is okay but gets stale once you've seen most of what's on there.
Roku - Biggest waste of money, the kids liked it some for the Disney stuff but once again it gets old after awhile.
Hulu - I liked this for recent tv shows but that was about it.

We kept our internet as we are homeschoolers and it was pretty much a necessity, we DID try to get rid of it for 1 year and sock away that money and it was great and we really got to know our library so much more but I like the convenience of being able to do what I need to do at that moment, not wait for a certain time.

Cellphones are the one thing that are a necessary evil as it was cheaper to go to phones instead of a landline. We also held off on smart phones until last year. We are with Sprint (not really so much as a great deal but more about who had an International plan and what service would work in our bomb shelter of a home).

 

[ImDMous]

We've been cable-free about a year. We use NetFlix and Hulu and have an HD antenna on one TV for local news. We don't really watch any sports though.

 

[ristatron]

You can look into getting a different type of 'cable' subscription.
We currently use Playstation Vue and have access to everything we would want for the low price of $29.99.
Another option is SlingTV. We have tried both of them, but prefer the Vue.

 

[Sagginit]

Previously my husband didn't have cable in his last apt. He had netflix via google chromecast (it won't let you stream amazon prime though). We bought an antenna at walmart for $30. It was somewhat nice to get some local channels and let us watch major network things (like the superbowl) without cable. The downside was reception was spotty and half the channels were crap. I figured if this didn't give us great reception being right in NYC where many of the towers were located, it is not a reliable solution for anyone. For certain channels and events you do need cable. A lot of my coworkers in NYC don't have cable so they couldn't see the Olympics and when the World Cup was going on they couldn't view that either. Personally I looked into giving up cable but we have exhausted a lot of things on netflix and amazon so we just keep it as Verizon increases your internet cost when you change your package to an a la carte option, so not the savings we expected.

If you do give it up you can also rent movies at your local library. Near my office there is a used bookstore that often clearances out used movies for just $1 so since you are determined to do this short term only you can take this as a chance to catch up on movies and a few tv shows.

 

[magik]

Has anyone used one of these? We have really good OTA channel reception for ABC, CBS, etc.

https://www.tivo.com/shop/ota-detail


Thanks again!

I have one, and I love it. I get really good OTA reception with an attic antenna most of the time, and most of what I watch is on the major networks, so the OTA Tivo was the perfect DVR solution for me. I also have hulu and netflix (had them before cutting the cord) and can watch both of those streaming services through the Tivo as the apps are built in to it. That being said, I have my Tivo using a wired internet connection. I found that the netflix and hulu apps didn't work as well over wifi.

I got mine when Tivo was having a special deal where the OTA roamio and the lifetime service were only $300, so I don't have any monthly fees. I think even if you have to pay a monthly fee, it's worth it and still much cheaper than cable.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We use a Roku, and have had subscriptions to both Sling and Playstation Vue. We much prefer the Vue. Sling has a lot of buffering issues for us. Vue also has a lot more channels that we like.

Both providers give you access to most of the sports channels, although sling makes you pay extra for it.

 

[Ciandella915]

Ahh, but you CAN get ESPN! We use Sling (which carries both ESPN and ESPN 2), and so far haven't had any issues with it. We use a Roku 2 in both the living room and bedroom (two devices), and subscribe to Sling, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. Sling has actually added a couple of new levels recently for slightly more that give you Fox and NBC as well (in some local markets), so you should be able to get a decent number of NFL games this season. Another nice thing about Sling is that it lets you back-watch most things within the last 72 hours. You can't skip around in the show, but it ain't bad for cheap-o DVR. If you get Sling, go to the bottom of the home page and sign up via the promo for a free Roku 2. You pre-pay for three months, and they ship you a free Roku (which costs about $65 online, so it's basically free Sling for three months). We had ours within a couple of days. You can cancel Sling after the three months at any time. It's month to month.

Of course, the other three all have different pros and cons. Amazon Prime is a given, if you use Amazon for anything at all, because of the free shipping, cloud storage, etc. Netflix and Hulu are both good in different ways. They both have some great original shows (As does Amazon). Netflix lets you set up kid profiles as well. I don't know if the others let you do that.

We cut the cord about three months ago. I was just tired of paying for cable we didn't use. We haven't missed it a bit.

 

[Mermaid Princess]

I use PlayStation Vue. I watch live sports through there and it also allows you to use your login on the Watch ESPN app on roku to watch pretty much anything airing on all ESPN networks. I've used Sling too but I much prefer Vue.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Having roku is easy, many channels to it. Some you pay , some not. We have to have the land as I don't work and that is my means for phone, and having a business we need it for that as well. Our whole bill is like 140 something a month. I don't like paying that much either. But I love netflix. Even at 10 a month I get a lot of movies and other things from it.

 

[Marshmelo]

I'm also a Sling TV user. We cut cable a couple months ago and haven't regretted it. We did the 3 months prepay and got the free Roku 2. Keep in mind that you can't do that and the free trial promotion. It's one or the other. There are a couple different lineups to choose from. One has ESPN and espn2 the other has a couple Fox sports channels. I am a major Walking Dead fan so it was a priority to be able to watch AMC (as well as other channels) live and Sling was the only option I found for that. The only thing I miss is a dvr, but I can work around that to save $100 a month.

 

[Marshmelo]

Oh, and of course get an HD Antenna for your local channels and make sure you get one that's amplified (plugs in). You can get a good one at Best Buy fairly cheap. We haven't missed our Uverse cable at all!

 

[Huff]

We put up an antenna for OTA free TV. Works great with quite a few channels in our area.
Rather than buy Roku, we bought a blue ray player with built in wifi to watch Netflix. Many TV's now have wifi built in as well.

 

[jsmla]

Thanks for the replies everyone. You've made things clearer!

I have one, and I love it. I get really good OTA reception with an attic antenna most of the time, and most of what I watch is on the major networks, so the OTA Tivo was the perfect DVR solution for me. I also have hulu and netflix (had them before cutting the cord) and can watch both of those streaming services through the Tivo as the apps are built in to it. That being said, I have my Tivo using a wired internet connection. I found that the netflix and hulu apps didn't work as well over wifi.

I got mine when Tivo was having a special deal where the OTA roamio and the lifetime service were only $300, so I don't have any monthly fees. I think even if you have to pay a monthly fee, it's worth it and still much cheaper than cable.

Do you mind another question? We have excellent broadcast reception, I believe all of the major networks as well as Fox and CW are within a 7-8 mile radius of our house. Due to his work schedule, DH likes to record stuff like sports and the local news (several times daily) and it seems like the TiVo would be the best solution. We don't really watch many of the 500 cable channels we currently have. It's mostly ESPN and DH is looking into getting the LSU games online. As far as Netflix/Amazon goes we do watch older movies and I sometimes will watch old PBS type series like Downton Abbey, none of the newer programming. I was looking at the TiVo since we record so much local programming-is this a good choice?

I keep looking at all of this and feel like an idiot. I never have dealt with the TV/internet/phone decisions. DH is working horrendous hours trying to get our flooded business back on its feet or he would probably deal with the TV situation. It's more his thing.


Thanks again!