We finally pulled the plug!

[labelo]

My husband and I are 23 and we don't have cable either, mostly to save money. We got an antenna so we could pick up local channels, so we get all the basics. If there's something I REALLY want to see on cable I can go to our campus gym, which is super swanky and has TVs in the elliptical machines and treadmills. It's a great incentive to exercise And frankly, since we're both grad students and work, it keeps us from wasting a ton of time on mindless tv we're not even that interested in.

The only thing we really miss is the occasional football game--we're huge fans, and we don't always get coverage of our favorite teams. This past season DH got some sort of special-offer NFL pass thing that allowed him to watch every game from his computer or iPad, so we just hooked that up to the TV.

As for antenna advice, we're in town and pick up channels easily with a cheap $30 antenna we picked up from Target. We didn't have to mount anything in our house or anything, so it was super convenient. Apparently it can be mounted if needed, but our house is small and there's not much interference or anything. Occasionally we have a hard time picking up the FOX station since it's on the other side of town, but we generally can just mess with the antenna for a minute and it's fine.

 

[Zentra]

I have been thinking about this, and yesterday we went and bought an RCA antenna to hook it up to see how well the stations come in. Basically the only thing we watch is CBS,NBC, CW,ABC and some PBS. We are currently paying over $100 a month on DTV and yes it is nice to watch other shows but we just don't spend enough time watching TV. Everything we put on our DVR is network TV so, since we have a Disney trip coming up in November we want to save money, this seemed like a good idea.

The RCA antenna worked almost perfect except we couldn't get the NBC channel in without running cable all over the house. Now we haven't looked into getting a rooftop antenna as I don't want to drill more holes than we already have with the DTV dish. However I've read reviews and the Mohu Leaf does get good reviews so we ordered it with the amplifier on Amazon and look forward to it being delivered on Thursday! If this works for NBC, then we will probably by a TiVo so we can DVR our shows we like to watch since Tuesdays are a bad night and 3 shows on at the same time! (Agents of Shield, Originals and NCIS)

If this all works out the "start-up costs" for us to "cut the cord" will be around $200-250, due to purchasing the TiVo and antennas and then $15 a month for TiVo Service.

I can't wait until I can call DTV and disconnect that service!

 

[ToodlesRN]

I have been pondering about cutting our cable and have 10 more months in our contract.

For those of you that have cut your cable I hear Roku, Tivo and apple TV what do these do for you as channels go, is there a monthly plan you have to pay for?

Our channels we mostly watch are local channels, TLC, A&E, history, Bravo and Disney and Im tired of paying over $100 for 5 channels we watch.

Any advice on websites to visit to get more info, would be great!! Also can you link your laptop to your tv to watch on a bigger screen, that would be our issue that we would rather the shows on our big tv not a laptop screen or an iPad!

 

[aprilchem]

We got rid of cable in 2009. One huge benefit (for us) is that our kids have never had cable TV (and we don't watch regular TV), thus they aren't exposed to any commercials, ever. They rarely, if ever, ask for anything - in fact, usually we ask them what they want for their birthday and they say "nothing"! Both DH and I feel like it's because they're not constantly bombarded with advertising - they do see a few ads in the magazines they read, but that's about it.

 

[Nayan]

I have been pondering about cutting our cable and have 10 more months in our contract.

For those of you that have cut your cable I hear Roku, Tivo and apple TV what do these do for you as channels go, is there a monthly plan you have to pay for?

Our channels we mostly watch are local channels, TLC, A&E, history, Bravo and Disney and Im tired of paying over $100 for 5 channels we watch.

Any advice on websites to visit to get more info, would be great!! Also can you link your laptop to your tv to watch on a bigger screen, that would be our issue that we would rather the shows on our big tv not a laptop screen or an iPad!

Roku and Apple TV have what I would call apps, not channels and there are no actual channels, just things like Netflix, Amazon, etc. You can't channel surf . Depending on who your internet provider is, you may be able to watch a couple shows on their respective sites. My provider doesn't allow this (you have to have the cable channel to watch it on the web) so YMMV. Disney has their stuff locked up tight but they did make an exclusive deal with Netflix so more of their stuff will be showing up soon there. Tivo is a DVR that you can use to record OTA and stream with. It has a charge of $15/month or a lifetime subscription for $499.

 

[ToodlesRN]

Roku and Apple TV have what I would call apps, not channels and there are no actual channels, just things like Netflix, Amazon, etc. You can't channel surf . Depending on who your internet provider is, you may be able to watch a couple shows on their respective sites. My provider doesn't allow this (you have to have the cable channel to watch it on the web) so YMMV. Disney has their stuff locked up tight but they did make an exclusive deal with Netflix so more of their stuff will be showing up soon there. Tivo is a DVR that you can use to record OTA and stream with. It has a charge of $15/month or a lifetime subscription for $499.

Thank You that explains it well! I have a lot of researching to do before I address it to the family

 

[DawnM]

We have an apple TV, Roku, and two Tivos.

The first Tivo I bought on ebay for $250 including shipping. It came with a lifetime service that was transferable. The second I bought for DH last year for his birthday, $200 from a friend locally who was selling, also with lifetime.

I have saved over $100/mo every month.

However, the devices were about $700 combined.......so I "broke even" in 7 months if you want to look at it that way.

I found that I really didn't miss the extra channels, what I really missed was the ability to record and pause live TV......the Tivo was my solution to that and I love it.

Dawn

Roku and Apple TV have what I would call apps, not channels and there are no actual channels, just things like Netflix, Amazon, etc. You can't channel surf . Depending on who your internet provider is, you may be able to watch a couple shows on their respective sites. My provider doesn't allow this (you have to have the cable channel to watch it on the web) so YMMV. Disney has their stuff locked up tight but they did make an exclusive deal with Netflix so more of their stuff will be showing up soon there. Tivo is a DVR that you can use to record OTA and stream with. It has a charge of $15/month or a lifetime subscription for $499.

 

[DawnM]

What do you have?

Speed of Internet
Any limits on calling?
DVRs?

If you get the basic package here.......slow internet, somewhat limited calling and features for your phone, and no DVRs at all, you can get it to around $100.......but add in anything and wham, the price shoots up really high.

Dawn

WOW!!! Your cable bills are outrageous. When I bundled my landline,high speed and cable my bill is less than a $100/mos. I called my cable company and told them I had a $100/mos to spend and what could you offer me? I also have Netflix. We are not big TV watchers,but do enjoy some of the channels.

 

[pat fan]

For those of you that have cut your cable I hear Roku, Tivo and apple TV what do these do for you as channels go, is there a monthly plan you have to pay for?

We just suspended our DTV until football season!

We have Roku and I guess the APP description is fairly good. We have "channels" that have movies and shows that are free, and there are channels that you can pay for as well. We choose not to pay for them, with the exception of one. There are news channels that you can watch clips of their broadcasts for free, but we also found that we can stream the news through our computer onto the tv through an HDMI cable, but only when it's live. We stream Netflix through our Roku, and may pick up HULUPlus. So far, what I've missed is just turning on the tv and having instant noise. Now I have to "choose" something to turn on. I did find that Cafe Noir (old detective/mystery type movies) will just run from one to the next so that works for me

 

[RooRach0906]

Yes....your internet connection is from 1994 as well! hehe Time to upgrade to Cable/Fiber internet...especially since now things get streamed in HD.

DSL just doesn't cut it.

This isnt entirely true. We live in a neighborhood where our internet choices are basically, DSL or satellite internet.

We called and had them up our speed on DSL. We pay a little more for it but it streams just fine and we have streamed 2 shows at once and still fine we will have issues with rainy weather occasionally but that is it.

We dropped satellite in Jan and our very happy with our decision and we were paying about $65 a month for it.

We had a package that was grandfathered to us and they were gonna raise our rate another $10 a month. Not worth it when we only watched 3 channels really.

We already had Netflix, a wii, wii u, and a smart bluray before we cut the satellite. So our upfront cost was a $100 indoor/outdoor antenna with amplifier and another $50 smart bluray. We have two tvs connected to the antenna and then the other has the wii for netflix as it is in the playroom and DD(3) is happy with movies or shows on netflix.

I really thought my DH would have a hard time with it even tho he always complained about the money spent on satellite. It took him about a month and now he is good with it.

I did miss two shows that were on TLC and I ended up buying season passes on them but combined it was still less than 1 month of satellite.

Like others we end up watching a lot less tv and do more things as a family such as play games and things. I am a lot more productive around the house and find I have more time to do things I have been trying to do for years.

 

[JanaDee]

What do you have?

Speed of Internet
Any limits on calling?
DVRs?

If you get the basic package here.......slow internet, somewhat limited calling and features for your phone, and no DVRs at all, you can get it to around $100.......but add in anything and wham, the price shoots up really high.

Dawn

We have high speed cable internet ( not dsl), no limits on calling with caller I d, call waiting, voicemail, free long distance, etc. No HBO or Showtime and no DVR. We pay $120 ( incl all taxes and fees) a month for internet, phone and about 150 digital channels. No complaints here.

 

[hsmamato2]

What does the amplifier do for an antenna? I ask b/c I thought I had read that it doesn't boost the actual signal, it boosts the signal from the antenna *through the cable wire* to the tv, in other words, b/c you lose signal per foot of cable from antenna-tv, it can boost that back again. is it supposed to actually help pull in a better signal? Mine is fine most of the time, but occasionally due to weather,and our odd positioned home, it gets pixeled out.....(i.e. leaf wasn't enough 'pull' for us, we had to go bigger in the attic,so we have a long cable from antenna-tv)
Agree on pp's,we also bought a dvr w/lifetime service on ebay,it's older, but I LOVE IT. paid about 300.00 all in,plus 70 for an antenna and haven't looked back- I like netflix, b/c I like movies and older shows also.
As for dsl, in my neighborhood we don't get a lot of choice, when I signed up it was for phone company DSL,which is pretty bad.... I will be looking to change as soon as the 12 months is up....

 

[DawnM]

What is the speed of your internet?

All the tiers are called "high speed" even if they are lower speed.

I just looked up our $100 tier and it only includes 3mbps of speed. We have to have the higher speed for Dh's work.

Dawn

We have high speed cable internet ( not dsl), no limits on calling with caller I d, call waiting, voicemail, free long distance, etc. No HBO or Showtime and no DVR. We pay $120 ( incl all taxes and fees) a month for internet, phone and about 150 digital channels. No complaints here.

 

[DawnM]

I have read this too. We have an amplifier because are going through the cable wiring in the house with our rooftop antenna.

However, we have a small antenna that I have used on the top floor of our house facing out (the only place it kind of works) and it has an amplifier. I get no stations without the amplifier being turned on. I have been told this is not possible, but it is for us. I have no idea why.

Dawn

What does the amplifier do for an antenna? I ask b/c I thought I had read that it doesn't boost the actual signal, it boosts the signal from the antenna *through the cable wire* to the tv, in other words, b/c you lose signal per foot of cable from antenna-tv, it can boost that back again. is it supposed to actually help pull in a better signal? Mine is fine most of the time, but occasionally due to weather,and our odd positioned home, it gets pixeled out.....(i.e. leaf wasn't enough 'pull' for us, we had to go bigger in the attic,so we have a long cable from antenna-tv)
Agree on pp's,we also bought a dvr w/lifetime service on ebay,it's older, but I LOVE IT. paid about 300.00 all in,plus 70 for an antenna and haven't looked back- I like netflix, b/c I like movies and older shows also.
As for dsl, in my neighborhood we don't get a lot of choice, when I signed up it was for phone company DSL,which is pretty bad.... I will be looking to change as soon as the 12 months is up....

 

[JanaDee]

What is the speed of your internet?

All the tiers are called "high speed" even if they are lower speed.

Dawn

I have no idea, so I ran a test on our broadband. Download speed is 16.00 Mbps (whatever that is).

I have no idea what the number means, but none of us have any complaints on the speed of our internet connection.

I also called yesterday and dropped 2 things off our cable bill that we never use, so that saved us another $12 a month.

 

[DawnM]

Is this the rate always or an intro rate?

What cable provider is this? We only get TWC

Sorry for all the questions, but I am trying to see if you get something we don't.

How many channels of cable TV?

Our $100 package (looked it up this am) for the regular rate (not the first 12 or 24 months) is:

3mbps speed
70 channels, no dvr
Phone does have unlimited calling nationwide, caller id, voicemail

Right now we pay $65 for just internet, but we can't go to 3mbps. I just hate calling them because they just want to up sell me on things we don't need.

Do you stream much?

THANK YOU!

I have no idea, so I ran a test on our broadband. Download speed is 16.00 Mbps (whatever that is).

I have no idea what the number means, but none of us have any complaints on the speed of our internet connection.

I also called yesterday and dropped 2 things off our cable bill that we never use, so that saved us another $12 a month.

 

[JanaDee]

Is this the rate always or an intro rate?

What cable provider is this? We only get TWC

Sorry for all the questions, but I am trying to see if you get something we don't.

How many channels of cable TV?

Our $100 package (looked it up this am) for the regular rate (not the first 12 or 24 months) is:

3mbps speed
70 channels, no dvr
Phone does have unlimited calling nationwide, caller id, voicemail

Right now we pay $65 for just internet, but we can't go to 3mbps. I just hate calling them because they just want to up sell me on things we don't need.

Do you stream much?

THANK YOU!

We only get TWC, too and have had them for the last 13 years. I have no idea how many channels we get, WAY more than we ever watch. We only watch digital channels, which are four digit channels, plus we have all the triple digit channels.

No DVR.

Do we stream movies on the computer? No, if we watch a movie it is on TV or DVD.

I have always had great luck with TWC on the phone. When I called yesterday to drop Encore Pass and Variety Pass Plus, the CS rep was pleasant and very helpful.

 

[ssawka]

We have high speed cable internet ( not dsl), no limits on calling with caller I d, call waiting, voicemail, free long distance, etc. No HBO or Showtime and no DVR. We pay $120 ( incl all taxes and fees) a month for internet, phone and about 150 digital channels. No complaints here.

With FIOS, we have no phone, but I get 50/25 Mbps Internet and 150 channels for $105 per month. I have an HTPC, so no need to rent a set-top box or DVR. Just a cablecard for $5/month.

 

[DawnM]

We have no option for FIOS.

For internet we get TWC or TWC.

TV we can get Directv or TWC or an antenna.

Dawn

With FIOS, we have no phone, but I get 50/25 Mbps Internet and 150 channels for $105 per month. I have an HTPC, so no need to rent a set-top box or DVR. Just a cablecard for $5/month.

 

[DawnM]

Looks like you have been offered something we have not.

I see an intro rate for $115, but it says it is only for the first 12 months. All the local moms on my mom's message board say it goes up VERY high after that and even though you can call to get some reduction, it will never be that low again.

Dawn

We only get TWC, too and have had them for the last 13 years. I have no idea how many channels we get, WAY more than we ever watch. We only watch digital channels, which are four digit channels, plus we have all the triple digit channels.

No DVR.

Do we stream movies on the computer? No, if we watch a movie it is on TV or DVD.

I have always had great luck with TWC on the phone. When I called yesterday to drop Encore Pass and Variety Pass Plus, the CS rep was pleasant and very helpful.