Cut the cord

[pcslookout]

Has anyone here cut off their cable tv ? It seems to be difficult to do because finding all the shows easily without cable tv seems to be a pain in the butt. You have to go to many different services. Is there anyway to make this easier ? That is what we don't want to have to go to 10 + other services just to search on what we want.

If there is no way that is ok. Right now we pay around $90 a month for cable tv.

 

[bbhaag]

No you have to make sacrifices on what you're willing to watch. There is no one end all be all service that offers everything. Hell even with a sub too 10 different services you wouldn't get it all and the bill would be the same or more than a cable sub.

Find out how to cut the fat out on what you watch so you can lower the bill. Either that or pirate.
FWIW I don't have cable. Just OTA w/ a Channel Master dvr, Netflix, Amazon, and Sling for the football season.

 

[Paratus]

We picked up a $400 TiVo Roamio and $30 HD antenna. It does over the air DVR, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO and a couple of others.

There's no monthly fee. It's not bad and covers our needs pretty well. (I also have a 3rd gen Apple TV for iTunes streaming.)

There's still nothing out there that really covers everything except possibly a media center PC with an OTA DVR card.

 

[thedarkwolf]

playstation vue takes care of most of my needs. Basically it is cable tv only $30 a month.

 

[pcslookout]

Thanks guys!

 

[renz20003]

 

[Kneedragger]

playstation vue takes care of most of my needs. Basically it is cable tv only $30 a month.

Is it live only or on demand?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I cut the cord a few years ago since I don't watch sports and I really hate commercials.

I have Netflix (streaming + disc), Amazon Prime, and once in a while buy episodes of something like Doctor Who when I don't want to wait a year to see it.

I save at least $75/month compared for cable, and no commercials ever.

 

[TwiceOver]

We just stopped watching most of our regular shows. A year or two in and the seasons you need to catch up on start appearing on Netflix or Amazon.

 

[Yakk]

Cut the cord over 4 years ago now. Stream and Netflix a lot at first. But after maybe the first year I just pretty much stopped watching TV aim together. The odd moxie here and there, but that's about it.

 

[Rumpltzer]

We picked up a $400 TiVo Roamio and $30 HD antenna. It does over the air DVR, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO and a couple of others.

I did this. I got a Tivo Roamio OTA with lifetime service and a $30 HD antenna. I live in Los Angeles area, and I've got buttloads of stuff over the air (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB, lots of PBS, and a lot of other channels (home shopping, old TV shows, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, other languages) that I never watch).

I have Amazon Prime, but I don't really watch much from that. I figured I'd get Netflix or Hulu if I missed stuff, but I don't. I did get SlingTV with the kids channels for a couple of months when I had kids visiting for the summer. It cost like $25/month with the kids channels, and it was just a month-to-month thing. I cancelled it when they left.

I also set up a QNAP NAS and I've got Plex running on it.

I'm pretty happy with my setup. Cable kept going up, and I bailed when it got to $150/month (Internet included, and no premium movie channels). I'm at $50/month (no contract) for Internet, and the 50/50 FiOS is way more than I need, but it's the lowest that they now offer.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Is it live only or on demand?

It is live for everything but local channels, local is on demand only for me. Some areas have local channels and in those areas you have to pay an extra $10 a month whether you want them or not. I personally don't care that I don't have them since I don't much sports and if I did I'd just get an antenna setup. The nice thing Vue has over say Sling is with Vue you have a cloud based DVR setup.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

playstation vue takes care of most of my needs. Basically it is cable tv only $30 a month.

I've been thinking about trying this. I get most of what I need from live TV with my antenna, but I'd like to watch Conan and AMC.

 

[ch33zw1z]

My setup:

Comcast Internet + basic cable, because it's a few bucks cheaper with both.

Netflix
Amazon prime
Hbo now

All combined, still less than 100/month

Netflix has some really good original series

Like others have said, just gotta choose what you really want to watch. I dont watch sports much, dont care about latest shows really.

My wife will watch the basic cable for shows on nbc and stuff, I get bored due to the amount of commercials....1/3 of airtime is commercials? Ugh.....I got too much to do for that nonsense.

I watch most of the stuff on a roku 3, but also use my phone, and an xbox360

The really tough part is that there is really no other viable option for Internet in my area.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Time Warner has a death grip on internet/cable in my area. I struck gold when I got a student discount about 7 years ago, and it still works. I pay $40 a month for internet.

 

[Kneedragger]

It is live for everything but local channels, local is on demand only for me. Some areas have local channels and in those areas you have to pay an extra $10 a month whether you want them or not. I personally don't care that I don't have them since I don't much sports and if I did I'd just get an antenna setup. The nice thing Vue has over say Sling is with Vue you have a cloud based DVR setup.

Just started the free trial. Thanks!

 

[Ichinisan]

I love the 4th gen Apple TV with Siri/touch remote.

No 4K though. No Amazon Prime Video, but that's Amazon's fault.

 

[Brainonska511]

There's still nothing out there that really covers everything except possibly a media center PC with an OTA DVR card.

With the demise of WMC, there don't seem to be too many good options for recording OTA tv in Windows 10. I have a tuner card, but I almost never use it now: partly because reception is weird in my apartment (I get interference whenever a large vehicle drives by), and partly because the open-source options to record TV with Kodi are pretty buggy. Though, I still use my HTPC as a Blu-ray player, Kodi for my ripped DVDs, and the Netflix app for when I want to watch Netflix on my TV, but it all seems somewhat cobbled together and its not as smooth as it could have been when WMC was around.

I also set up a QNAP NAS and I've got Plex running on it.

That sounds interesting. If my HTPC were ever to die, I could see moving to a simpler setup with an OTA Tivo. What kind of media do you stream via Plex and how does the NAS handle any transcoding?