Cable Cutters-What's Worked for You?

[dreiwhit]

We're planning on cutting the cord on our Dish satellite service next month. At $104 a month, its gotten way too expensive for what we get.

What we're planning on doing for a replacement is a combination of OTA local channels (i'll put up an antenna and use the existing Coax cable that runs to each room), Hulu, Netflix and YouTube. Since my wife is a huge college football fan, we'll get Sling TV for the games and cancel it when college football season is over.

We'll access everything from a computer, or either our current Amazon Fire TV stick or with the Roku box we're planning on getting next month. We're going with a Roku because the Roku 1 still has RCA outputs for the old large screen TV in the bedroom that we can't afford to replace right now. Amazon usually has Fire TV sticks on sale on Black Friday, so we'll pick up another one or two then.

We do have Amazon Prime, but Amazon is going to start charging sales tax at double our State's self reporting rate. We're still debating on whether or not to renew our Prime subscription when it ends in January.

From what i've found, having a Sling subscription also allows you to stream TV shows from the websites of the show's provider.

The only thing I miss is a dvr, but I can work around that to save $100 a month.

My son has found "converter boxes" for the lack of a better word that have a DVR option. You just have to buy the box and a USB hard drive and you can record OTA programming.

There are also computer based software packages that will mimic the functionality of a DVR for non OTA programming. I can't remember what they are, but if you are interested, I can ask my son.

 

[dreiwhit]

Oh, and of course get an HD Antenna for your local channels and make sure you get one that's amplified (plugs in).

Also, if you find an antenna that doesn't have an amplifier, you can get a distribution amplifier that will boost the signal and send it over multiple coax cables. I've used Electroline amplifiers and they work great. You can usually get them off eBay pretty cheap.

 

[jsmla]

Well, we've called ATT and cancelled. With the indoor antenna thingy we're getting all of the major networks, Fox, CW and some random channels I never knew existed. I'd like to wait and see if this is enough. DH is a tad depressed about it so we may keep Netflix for him.

My son has found "converter boxes" for the lack of a better word that have a DVR option. You just have to buy the box and a USB hard drive and you can record OTA programming.

There are also computer based software packages that will mimic the functionality of a DVR for non OTA programming. I can't remember what they are, but if you are interested, I can ask my son.

I'd love to hear about the converter box. I'm thinking we can watch the ESPN games either with the friends who still have a house (it's seriously bad down here, y'all, and I've been through Katrina!) or go out to a sports bar. A pizza is better than a $110 cable bill!

 

[Liljo22]

I highly suggest getting SlingTv for ESPN. With the basic $20 package you get ESPN and ESPN 2 but you get access to the WatchESPN app which shows every game and has replays on demand. If you prepay 3 months of Sling they give you a Roku 2 which you can get the ESPN app on. It worked great this weekend for watch my game that was on ESPN3 only.

 

[Nayan]

I tried cutting the cord for a few months, but ended up going to DirecTV. We are huge lovers of sports and without cable/sat we couldn't watch our local teams (blackouts) on any of the stand-alone services. Plus quite a bit of programming we enjoy we can't find anywhere else.

 

[dreiwhit]

I'd love to hear about the converter box.

He found this one today - https://www.amazon.com/Voion-Conver...0&imprToken=Je7ZRGYXpxjzNWQYWx754g&slotNum=13 . I haven't looked it it yet, since I can't get Amazon to come up for some reason.

He did say you have to buy a USB hard drive to use the DVR feature, and it will convert or not convert digital to analog depending on the TV connected.

 

[jsmla]

He found this one today - https://www.amazon.com/Voion-Conver...0&imprToken=Je7ZRGYXpxjzNWQYWx754g&slotNum=13 . I haven't looked it it yet, since I can't get Amazon to come up for some reason.

He did say you have to buy a USB hard drive to use the DVR feature, and it will convert or not convert digital to analog depending on the TV connected.

Thanks, I'll pass the link on to DH.

 

[b44]

We use the leaf antennas and Hulu and sling tv

 

[Marshmelo]

My son has found "converter boxes" for the lack of a better word that have a DVR option. You just have to buy the box and a USB hard drive and you can record OTA programming.

There are also computer based software packages that will mimic the functionality of a DVR for non OTA programming. I can't remember what they are, but if you are interested, I can ask my son.

Thanks for that info! I'm going to talk to DH about it.

 

[magik]

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!

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. If you get all the channels you want with an OTA Antenna, I think a Tivo can be a really good option for you in terms of DVRing local programming. I love it for that. I love the interface, and most of what I watch can be gotten OTA, but I never watch things live, so it's really perfect for me. If you don't really need anything from the cable channels you currently get, or you can find a streaming solution, Tivo might be your best bet. It can be pricy up front, but I don't have any monthly fees at all. Based on what I was paying for cable, I calculated that my Tivo paid for itself in a few months, so however long I have it now is all savings.

It's nice that it also has the built-in Netflix and Hulu, but I had a Roku from when I had cable for those and I still sometimes use that if the Netflix or Hulu apps are acting flaky on the Tivo.

 

[mum22girlz]

Another vote for Playstation Vue. We have both a Roku stick and Fire TV. I much prefer the Vue app on the Fire TV.

 

[smiths02]

We have a Roku, but it's just something we bought one time that we use as an interface between our internet connection and our TV...it's not a service itself, just a device that lets us stream easily onto the TV.
We have a good antenna for network TV (works pretty good except PBS lowered their signal and it doesn't work as well for that now; however, you can stream shows from pbs.org for free if they recently aired).
We have an internet connection. We pay for Netflix monthly. We are Amazon Prime members (which gives us streaming, Prime Pantry, shipping, and a book a month).
That's it.
We aren't into sports, though.

 

[CaterFamily]

We replaced cable tv with two things:

Local library
Barnes and Nobles

 

[Princess Minnie321]

We cancelled cable over a year ago and I do not miss it. We are not big sports watchers. We have a roku 2 for both tvs. We have an amplified anntenna in our family room for local channels, but we do not use it much.

I mainly watch Netflix, Hulu plus, cbs all access, and sometimes Amazon prime. Netflix has great series. I watch current abc shows on Hulu. They air the day after they are broadcast. CBS all access gives you all cbs shows the day after broadcast. They also offer live tv. It does not work for sports, but you can watch the news or a prime time show live.

Between Netflix and Hulu, there are plenty of shows for my kids to watch. We also have the dvd Netflix service and we have been loading up on Disney movies.

 

[rer1972]

Another vote for PlayStation Vue. We just switched off satellite for PlayStation Vue. Very happy with it, but especially being able to still record show we like.

Tried slingtv and wasn't happy with loading issues, lack of channels, and "recording" did not work as well as we wanted.

 

[agavegirl1]

Different perspective. At our house in the suburbs, we have cable. At our weekend and holiday home, we have an antenna. That's it. We get fourteen channels in the middle of nowhere and we are happy with that for when we are there. We have a DVD player for my extensive collection of older TV shows and many movies but we get local weather, old sit-coms and old movies. I, myself, enjoy TV. DH, not so much. He likes movies.

He wouldn't mind an antenna in our condo in suburbia. Oddly, I have started to enjoy the older programming. It is much "cleaner". It is pretty funny. It is low tech. But I have to say, a basic package for network TV would be nice since I only get NBC there. It kind of depends on where you are. Middle of nowhere or metropolitan area on what you can get with a one time purchase of an antenna.

We have no internet at the lake house either. We use our phone's data plan to check facebook etc.

 

[Leelo]

We cut cable about 4 years ago. We will never go back! This is what we did:

1) We use an HD antenna to pick up sports on the major broadcasting networks (the antenna was $25 at Best Buy).
2) We have Hulu Plus and Netflix that we stream on Xbox One.
3) We use a family member's login for ESPN sports and other apps that require cable service.
4) We go to a friend's house if we need to see something we can't get.
5) We can rent thousands of DVDs, TV shows, and Games for free from our local library.
6) We have a gym membership that is $99 a year and it has 22 TVs. We can walk the treadmill and watch.

If cutting cable is just too difficult, call your cable provider and ask for their best discount. Or if you find out a friend gets theirs from the same company for a certain price, tell your provider your friend has that deal and ask for it.