Ditching cable/satellite

[MikeNH]

I figured given how popular this is getting a topic might be worth starting-

 

My employer made a major change in how I get paid for travel expenses for this year and it basically translated to a rather large pay cut each month so I begun looking for ways to cut expenses. Dish was at the top of my list- $80/month and I rarely watched much on it aside from the news and occasional Discovery network things. In it's place I bought a Roku player and a regular old antenna (amplified Mohu Leaf) to pick up over the air broadcasts.

 

The Roku is sort of an all-in-one device you can access Netflix, Hulu and all the other streaming services with. I may not keep Hulu as there isn't a lot that attracts me on there as they seem to be centered around new shows and really the only newer show I've found I like is The Office, which is about to end anyhow. Netflix is awesome, I have a queue of shows that will keep me busy for ages. There are also live streams from the BBC news and CNN international (though they seem to mostly still talk about US news). A few new ones I was unaware of are Vudu, which is a pay per view service for shows and movies and most impressively Amazon's service. I'm a Prime member and because of that there are a ton of movies and shows I can watch for free (new stuff too).

 

The antenna was surprising. It basically looks like a piece of letter-size paper heavily laminated with a cable coming out of it. With that I can pull in 8 stations out of Lansing which is 30ish miles to the north, maybe a bit more. The quality is outstanding. HD on satellite and cable is compressed to save bandwidth but OTA broadcasts are uncompressed and look like a blu-ray movie.

 

Anyone else doing the streaming thing to replace cable?

[Mckenzie]

Got some friends that do what you do and they save alot of money...just got to make sure you got a pretty decent internet connection

[zibzer]

Attic mounted antenna works well depending where you live. Go to tvfool.com and check your location.

[MikeNH]

I live in an apartment. I bet the people above me would get pissed if I mounted an antenna in their living room.

[waumo1]

I think cable and satellite tv will be mostly dead within a few years. The delivery mechanism will be the net as with everything else. The only problem is rural and semi rural areas like where I live and really high speed internet is problem.

[zibzer]

Haha yea that's true. I used to live on the 12th story of an apartment building. I mounted an outdoor 3 foot long directional antenna on the balcony and ran some rg59 (use rg6 nowadays) out the brick wall. Being so high in the air I was able to hit stations from a 2 hour drive away! I got 16 stations as opposed to the 6 I could get from a tv top antenna. Check out tvfool.com though. It will give you an idea of what you could get

[Carder09]

I use Air and Netflix also, I don't feel the need to spend more for things a rarely watch.

[Chris]

I am home a lot so I couldn't cancel my cable

[music]

I mainly keep cable for the kids. I can't stand commercials, so I tend to rent movies, or watch them on-demand. One thing I've noticed about most of the streaming, is that I can definitely see the degraded quality in the video. Not horrible, but noticeable compared to HD cable. Over the air HD is true HD, whereas streaming stuff is compressed. As for cost, it's really not that much compared to other things in our household budget, and not much more than some guys on here pay for one tank of premium fuel. I pay about the same for cable+internet+HD+DVR as I do for two basic flip phones through Verizon. Even so, why pay for something you don't really use? If it were only me, I'd have switched to an antennae long ago.

[MikeNH]

I do agree that some of the streaming services have lower quality video but I watched the newest Mission Impossible movie using Amazon the other night (good movie btw) and I was stunned by how good the picture was. About 3/4 of the way through the movie my internet decided it had enough of the high bandwidth and it had to buffer a couple times but honestly if you didn't tell me I'd of thought it was blu-ray. I can't comment on kids programming- I know it's there cause I see the menu for it but I don't have kids and have never looked through what is offered.

[lhjanzen]

Jailbroken Apple TV

[jlr860]

Jailbroken Apple TV

 

 

I've been ripping my movies to my computer as it currently is my TV (Just graduated college currently back at home). With the little tv I can't already watch online for free by going to the shows webpage I figure netflix would make me more than happy along with Amazon Prime which isn't much but honestly I got it for the free shipping. (1 year free for students no video, 2nd year $40 with video)

 

As far as video quality I think I would still try to get movies from red-box occasionally if quality was bad or I felt it was a movie that HD enhanced. Wouldn't feel it would be too wrong to rip those either if they were also on netflix as another possible option.

[8.1HD/ALLISON]

I've never had cable, refuse to pay the rediculous prices. I put up a 40 foot tv tower and antenna. 1 yard concrete base. All together maybe cost me $500. Been going 5 + years now no problem, and I get 30+ different channels.

[&CDFiXER%]

I use a Roku and have given several as gifts, everyone loves it. My brother uses that and thats it. I am getting ready to switch from Sat tv to the local cable provider since I found out the same channels I am getting on the sat I can get on cable with a cable card (not using their box) for half the amount ($80 down to $40). Since one or two local channels are not available on sat, I have streamed the mover my network for the last few years to a SilconDust network tuner. I will be using one of their boxes to house the the cable card as well, it has 4 tuners in it. It will stream to Windows media PC stuff, several game boxes, and Linux stuff. So for $40 a month I will have the same channels I had on sat, HD DVR via multimedia PC's, and any missing locals on the other streaming box.

 

The reason why the cable card route is so cheap is that the cable CO isnt nailing you for the DVR or for the 'bi-directional' data services (pay-per-view, on demand, etc). You wont get the data services but the HD supposedly works well!

[Toolman82]

I just went through this as well. For the 1hr a day I get to watch TV, and $80/month, I don't need it. I did keep internet to stream anything I want.

 

I was able to get a deal with Comcast for 30mb internet with basic basic cable TV for only $40/month. That was waaayyyy cheaper than anyone else had even 15+mb internet alone. Its good for 1yr, then I'll look else where.