Cutting the Cord

eldergamer

eldergamer

CAGiversary!
Thinking of dropping cable and just going to a streaming type box.

Amazon FireTV? Roku? Copy of an email sent to my wife laying out pros, cons, and concerns.

I hate to say it, but it seems like the Amazon FireTV box is the better system.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CX5P8FC/ref=sd_allcat_fire_tv#compare

It'd be $99 for the box. And then $75 a year for Prime. (Or we could just Prime on the PS3 and leave that on 24-7. )

The fireTV box has hulu and netflix and all that installed, but you have to subscripe to those services. (Even hulu plus at $8 a month is cheaper than $80 a month for cable)

Now, here's what we wont get (as near as I can tell) 
 

Most ABC,NBC, CBS, FOX shows. (Some of that is on Hulu.) 
Most of that is broadcast, and all the networks broadcast in HD  now. Just have to buy antenna. 
(That would be the only way you could watch the News at Noon, or Fox 12 news.  Unless you watched via browser) Live sports aren't usually streamed. So most Sunday morning Football games we'd have to watch on antenna. (I think)

None of them really have CNN or Headline News. So if you wanted the latest urgent update on the missing Malysian Jet (This just in: Still not found) or Headline News reporting on some trial, you are out of luck.

New episodes of things like Bubble Guppies or Team Umizoomi, Wallykazam, etc. (only place I see that has those is Amazon Prime.) Some old episodes are free. New episodes are $1.99 a pop. (but then again, do we need -every- episode?)

Hulu Prime has new episodes of older kids Nickeloden shows added after they air (Spongebob, Breadwinners, etc) but not the nick Jr ones.

HuluPrime has new episodes of Colbert Report the day after they air. Same with Simpsons.

 
I was really considering this also recently. The biggest thing from keeping me from doing this is the fact that I love to watch live sports. I couldn't see myself not being able to watch the local teams when they are playing or any of the big sporting events on ESPN cable. Also I couldn't get anywhere with the wife as she didn't want to give up all the channels we have on cable. I can see why you're considering it though because the savings are astronomical.
 
My fiancé is trying to talk us into cable but not worth the money at all. Your setup seems like it would work good if you have kids. Since it's just me and the fiancé we only have Netflix.
 
I've been cable free for 5 years and it's pretty sweet. Having everything on demand is much better.. and for things that aren't on Hulu or Amazon, there are, uh, other sites out there that you can watch sports or other TV shows on.

If you have kids, Amazon and Hulu should be more than enough for them. Netflix has the less popular Disney movies (Lilo and Stitch, Pocahontas, etc) but my kiddo prefers the Nick and Nick Jr stuff from Hulu and Amazon. With the HD antenna you also have PBS Kids (at least we do locally) which is stuff like Thomas and Friends, Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Sesame Street, etc on 24/7.
 
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Ironman8 said:
I was really considering this also recently. The biggest thing from keeping me from doing this is the fact that I love to watch live sports. I couldn't see myself not being able to watch the local teams when they are playing or any of the big sporting events on ESPN cable. Also I couldn't get anywhere with the wife as she didn't want to give up all the channels we have on cable. I can see why you're considering it though because the savings are astronomical.
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.

Yeah sports is the only reason we keep cable. Well that and they charge so much for Internet if you don't have cable too. And the only other options we have are much slower DSL plans.
 
I think for us the only reason to keep cable would be Sunday NFL football games and local news/CNN. (Wife has to watch that stuff daily)

I'm also a little worried about Amazon's per episode pricing. Season 1 of something like Bubble Guppies is free, but if kids want to watch some of the newer episodes (Oh, and they do) it'd be $2.99 each.

Now, we don't need to buy -every- episode, but I can see that adding up.

i'm calling comcast today to cancel.  I had dropped Century Link to save money with Comcast. They were no  help at all.

Maybe CenturyLink  will let me go back to their promo rates. $75.

 
eldergamer said:
I think for us the only reason to keep cable would be Sunday NFL football games and local news/CNN. (Wife has to watch that stuff daily)

I'm also a little worried about Amazon's per episode pricing. Season 1 of something like Bubble Guppies is free, but if kids want to watch some of the newer episodes (Oh, and they do) it'd be $2.99 each.
Now, we don't need to buy -every- episode, but I can see that adding up.

i'm calling comcast today to cancel. I had dropped Century Link to save money with Comcast. They were no help at all.
Maybe CenturyLink will let me go back to their promo rates. $75.
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Kids shows are a big thing too with cable. I have Prime also and it could never compete with cable there. My kids would run out of shows to watch quick. Cable broadband is the best internet available. Makes gaming on the PS3 problem free.
 
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My husband and I tried having no cable and only doing Netflix and Hulu Plus for like a year. We ended up going back to cable. We missed our discovery channel, new episodes of certain shows, sports. He also missed the local news (yech)

For us, we ended up paying only like $20 more on our internet bill for cable so it was justifiable for us.
 
But if I am using a streaming box (FireTV, Roku, etc) I can still get the local news and local broadcast channels over the air with antenna, right?

 
eldergamer said:
But if I am using a streaming box (FireTV, Roku, etc) I can still get the local news and local broadcast channels over the air with antenna, right?
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It varies on the area (if you live out in the boonies, less likely to get a lot of channels) .. but .. Yes. I recommend the Mohu Leaf. They pop up on AWD for fairly cheap every so often. I own two of them, and I paid approximately $20-25 each.

 
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I haven't had cable in years.  We had it in middle school/early high school but my dad just up and cancelled it one day and that was that.  My wife and I never bothered we it, we have amazon and netflix and get along with just that.  We don't have any over the air channels, I don't ever feel like I miss out on anything not having cable.  I can always go to a friend/my dads/my inlaws house if I can't stream a game, and just make a day of it on Sundays when I go watch football.  I'll never bother with cable.  Sometimes I consider getting a mohu leaf but never get around to it.

 
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Not sure why no one has brought this up yet, but going all streaming you HAVE to watch your Data. Most ISP have a data cap and depending on how they implement it either means paying more (comcast charges more over 300gb in some markets) or they can cancel your service (local company called TDS has 250gb cap and can go that route if they want).

Streaming only eats up data quickly if you watch a lot of content.

 
kilik64 said:
Not sure why no one has brought this up yet, but going all streaming you HAVE to watch your Data. Most ISP have a data cap and depending on how they implement it either means paying more (comcast charges more over 300gb in some markets) or they can cancel your service (local company called TDS has 250gb cap and can go that route if they want).

Streaming only eats up data quickly if you watch a lot of content.
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Added in with PC updates, tablet/smartphone updates, digital game downloads and other data uses, streaming can use it up quicker than expected.

Most "good" routers will have the ability to do bandwidth monitoring, so you can check to see how much data you've used up so far in the month, either with their built-in firmware or alternate firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato.

 
The kids seem to stream Amazon Prime video all the time now and we havent gotten any warnings either with Century Link or Comcast.

We will watch it in the future when we switch over.

Called Comcast today to cancel. Felt good. They lowered my rate, but they've already screwed up my order, our internet connection is pretty spotty and I'm just not happy with the service.

 
We have the 300GB cap with Comcast. My fiancé streams a ton and the most we've used in a month so far is 247GB. And that was a month she was mostly working at hime in front if the tv streaming stuff all day. We're usually around 150-200GB used tops. If we go over it's just $10 for another $50 which isn't terrible.

Granted, we have cable so maybe she'd stream more if we didn't (I really only watch sports live and Bluray movies). And of course data usage would be higher for households with more than two people.

Comcast has a website you can check your usage on and sign up for emails or texts when you hit certain percentages if your cap.
 
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I plan on cutting it when I get my own place.  The price is bad enough however now they want to force me into getting a box for every TV.  I can't even watch local through the cable line now without a box.  For sports it can add up if you keep up with more than one, probably wouldn't be worth it.  For me it's mostly just hockey so I plan on getting NHL Center Ice and paying yearly for a VPN.  If that doesn't work then I might just get cable for the hockey season and cut it after the playoffs.

 
Admittedly, I torrent my shows. I have over a hundred backed up, and I download piecemeal of stuff I watch on the spot when I want to. In addition, I own about a couple dozen TV shows of various seasons I got for dirt cheap prices.

I would say Amazon Prime, if you can enlist it as a service on a box or a PS3, is the most beneficial for the price. I know their rates went up ($120/yr), but you still get your shipping benefits, along with free streaming shows and free books. Netflix (I dunno if it is still $8/mo or $96/yr or if it went up) is a good alternate to have since they will have some stuff that Amazon doesn't, and you only pay a small bit of cash each month instead of doing it all at once...

 
sendme said:
I plan on cutting it when I get my own place. The price is bad enough however now they want to force me into getting a box for every TV. I can't even watch local through the cable line now without a box. For sports it can add up if you keep up with more than one, probably wouldn't be worth it. For me it's mostly just hockey so I plan on getting NHL Center Ice and paying yearly for a VPN. If that doesn't work then I might just get cable for the hockey season and cut it after the playoffs.
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Yeah, sports makes it hard to cut the cord. As you note, it's doable if you're only into NHL or MLB that have decent streaming subscription options--though local blackouts make that problematic if you live in your team's market.

But if you're into the NFL or college sports there's not much that can be done. If you only care about your team's games you can probably find a friend or two to get together and watch games at their place or a sports bar (though in my experience I spend a ton more going to a bar for my team's games over the season than just having cable). But if you want to watch all the big games, it's just too much hassle to just not have cable/satellite.

Otherwise, I'd drop it in a heart beat as there's plenty to stream and I have Netflix disc service for what's not on the streaming apps.
 
dmaul1114 said:
Yeah, sports makes it hard to cut the cord. As you note, it's doable if you're only into NHL or MLB that have decent streaming subscription options--though local blackouts make that problematic if you live in your team's market.

But if you're into the NFL or college sports there's not much that can be done. If you only care about your team's games you can probably find a friend or two to get together and watch games at their place or a sports bar (though in my experience I spend a ton more going to a bar for my team's games over the season than just having cable). But if you want to watch all the big games, it's just too much hassle to just not have cable/satellite.

Otherwise, I'd drop it in a heart beat as there's plenty to stream and I have Netflix disc service for what's not on the streaming apps.
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Got a friend who has cable that doesnt ever plan to drop it and would let you have their login info?

Boom, watchespn for free. Basically covers you for sports if you get an antenna and get abc, nbc, cbs, and fox for free.

Also covers you for nbcsn for hockey and futbol.

And if they have hbo, good to go. (pun intended)

Gave my login info to a neighbor who cut the cord, no issues.

 
Unfortunately Warch ESPN isn't enough. A lot of sports I watch are on the cable Fox sports channels, TNT etc.

I'm not dying to cut the cord or anything anyway. My fiancé watches a lot more crap than I do, so we get our money's worth together.
 
Another option for streaming sports is an online site like wiziwig.com (there are others). They stream European feeds of American and worldwide sports from around the world. That's how I watch my football since I don't live anywhere near the home market and my team is rarely on national television where I currently live.

 
The only sports I need to watch is the NFL. Even then I'm just fine with whatever game CBS or FOX is showing on Sunday morning. It's not like I can sit down and watch the whole game anyway. (Kids!)

 
dmaul1114 said:
Unfortunately Warch ESPN isn't enough. A lot of sports I watch are on the cable Fox sports channels, TNT etc.

I'm not dying to cut the cord or anything anyway. My fiancé watches a lot more crap than I do, so we get our money's worth together.
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If the person you got login info from has comcast, tnt is on streaming as well.

Oh and fox sports 1. none of the regional fox sports channels though.

 
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ColFantastic said:
Another option for streaming sports is an online site like wiziwig.com (there are others). They stream European feeds of American and worldwide sports from around the world. That's how I watch my football since I don't live anywhere near the home market and my team is rarely on national television where I currently live.
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Thanks I'll have to check them out. Looks like Charter cuts you down after 250GB of usage. I'm about about 190 over the past few days. I have been watching a lot of netflix and getting some shows that I missed out on. I guess I'll see how this all works.

 
sendme said:
Thanks I'll have to check them out. Looks like Charter cuts you down after 250GB of usage. I'm about about 190 over the past few days. I have been watching a lot of netflix and getting some shows that I missed out on. I guess I'll see how this all works.
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They don't "cut you down", they send you a reminder about "please be nice to your fellow customers" email. :roll:

If you exceed that by a wide margin, they may have something to say about it, though they've sent me anything and I know I'm using more than a bit of Internet usage on a monthly basis.

When you said you checked your usage, was this at Charter or was this somewhere else, like your router? The Charter site isn't bringing up anything for me to check my usage, so I can't see where that might be.

 
I've just been using ProjectFreeTV and Primewire for all my viewing needs. The fact that I can stream (most) videos to my Wii U really makes it awesome.

 
What is the advantage of a roku or a similar type box if you already have a console\tv that will play netflix/amazon/hulu ?

 
There's no way I could go to just Netflix and Amazon Prime.  I've got both now and barely touch them.  When I watch tv I want the latest shows, I want to be able to watch sports in full HD and not on some bootleg pirate site from another country.  Plus I don't even watch any shows on NBC/ABC/CBS other than sports, most shows that are good IMO are on actual cable channels like AMC, Comedy Central, Spike, Discovery etc.. Also by the time you pay for internet only + netflix + hulu + any overages.. you're gonna be close to what it costs for a cable/internet bundle. 

 
axlrose4183 said:
There's no way I could go to just Netflix and Amazon Prime. I've got both now and barely touch them. When I watch tv I want the latest shows, I want to be able to watch sports in full HD and not on some bootleg pirate site from another country. Plus I don't even watch any shows on NBC/ABC/CBS other than sports, most shows that are good IMO are on actual cable channels like AMC, Comedy Central, Spike, Discovery etc.. Also by the time you pay for internet only + netflix + hulu + any overages.. you're gonna be close to what it costs for a cable/internet bundle.
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Yeah, if you're really into live sports, cutting the cable isn't for you. As far as cost, I think I was only paying 30 bucks a month for internet on a promo price, so even with netflix and amazon, I was still way under the cable/internet bundle.

 
Superstar said:
What is the advantage of a roku or a similar type box if you already have a console\tv that will play netflix/amazon/hulu ?
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There really isn't one. I could do all of this through my ps3. But I don't want to leave it on 8-12 hours a day, and the AmazonPrime app seems to require allot of restarting with the :ps3: version.

 
Superstar said:
What is the advantage of a roku or a similar type box if you already have a console\tv that will play netflix/amazon/hulu ?
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If you only use the "main" ones like Amazon/Hulu/Netflix/Vudu/Crackle/etc, then you normally don't need more than that. There's some more off-the-wall items that show up on Roku that aren't on any other devices besides Roku. For the main stuff, a console or a smart TV usually fills the bill.

 
Cable free for over 3yrs until Comcast decided to give me the $60 tv package to me for $10 on top of regular price internet. It's basic w/o HD, BUT has HBO for some reason. HBO GO on ipad and xbox so now I get HD HBO when I want it. Not bad.
For sports, I just go with nbc live extra and stream. Rangers/Kings game looks nice and pretty w/o the jitter and compression that you get with certain sports streaming sites.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I think Im getting rid of cable. I have Amazon Prime, Netflix, and I paid for a year of HBO Go. I was thinking Sling TV or Hulu plus? 

I've used Hulu Plus before and it was meh but it's cheaper. I like the options of Sling TV.

I already have a Roku and a Amazon Fire Stick so that should cover the streaming

 
All I have is Amazon and Netflix and my family is fine. I'm at the point of cord cutting that I have no idea what new shows are on television and most people in my life know I have no interest or knowledge in new shows.
 
You might want to just get an outdoors antenna.  I picked up one of them Mohu Leaf antennas and can't get anything from it.  From what I have read it's to be one of the better ones.  If you do go indoors and buy one I would think an amplified would be the best.  I had one that wasn't and it got nothing.  The Leaf is amplified, has to be plugged in, and got a little more but still wasn't good.  I'm not sure if home made ones will work or not anymore.  I have read that some stations, NBC and Fox mostly, are trying to block the over the air signal.  

 
sendme said:
You might want to just get an outdoors antenna. I picked up one of them Mohu Leaf antennas and can't get anything from it. From what I have read it's to be one of the better ones. If you do go indoors and buy one I would think an amplified would be the best. I had one that wasn't and it got nothing. The Leaf is amplified, has to be plugged in, and got a little more but still wasn't good. I'm not sure if home made ones will work or not anymore. I have read that some stations, NBC and Fox mostly, are trying to block the over the air signal.
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OTA antennas are totally dependent on distance and potential blocks, an amplified antenna will just amplify the problems. Amplified antennas are used to provide a signal to a lot of devices and make sure the signal strength is strong enough to provide a picture to all of those devices. Sure a roof-top antenna is best. But if you live close to the stations, an indoor antenna works just as well.

I moved from a home with a roof-top antenna to one without any antennas. I bought an Amazon flat antenna (like the Mohu Leaf) and pick up every station that the roof-top did. Actually I pick up a few extra channels. Where I live, a couple of stations are completely in a different direction than the majority of stations. And the Amazon picked those up perfectly, where the roof-top antenna had some problems. Of course I only live about 10 miles away from the majority of stations, but I have no problems with the further stations either.

And where did you hear that some stations are trying to block ota signals? This is the first I've ever heard of that.

 
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I have one of those flat tv antennas. Works fine, picks up everything OTA and even the sub channels 12-1, 12-2, etc.

We live about 20-25 miles from "the city".

 
kube00 said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I think Im getting rid of cable. I have Amazon Prime, Netflix, and I paid for a year of HBO Go. I was thinking Sling TV or Hulu plus?

I've used Hulu Plus before and it was meh but it's cheaper. I like the options of Sling TV.

I already have a Roku and a Amazon Fire Stick so that should cover the streaming
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If you use Bing as your search engine you can easily get enough bing points to get Hulu Plus for free every month.
 
I have a Winegard Amplified Indoor Antenna that gets signals up to 50 miles away.  I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building and have it up against a window.  It grabs most of the OTA channels that are based 40-45 miles away.  

 
mogamer said:
OTA antennas are totally dependent on distance and potential blocks, an amplified antenna will just amplify the problems. Amplified antennas are used to provide a signal to a lot of devices and make sure the signal strength is strong enough to provide a picture to all of those devices. Sure a roof-top antenna is best. But if you live close to the stations, an indoor antenna works just as well.

I moved from a home with a roof-top antenna to one without any antennas. I bought an Amazon flat antenna (like the Mohu Leaf) and pick up every station that the roof-top did. Actually I pick up a few extra channels. Where I live, a couple of stations are completely in a different direction than the majority of stations. And the Amazon picked those up perfectly, where the roof-top antenna had some problems. Of course I only live about 10 miles away from the majority of stations, but I have no problems with the further stations either.

And where did you hear that some stations are trying to block ota signals? This is the first I've ever heard of that.
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I had read it about a year ago. I can't seem to find it now so it might have had to do with that service that company in New York was trying to start. I just remember looking up as to why I wasn't able to get over the air stations and had found that they were trying to block them.

 
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