Cutting cable TV

BWR1953

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I just realized something.

If I completely dropped my internet with Spectrum, I'd lose the email address that I've been using for 13 years. :eek:
 

alldodge

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Hence the reason to never use the email address of a vendor

Started with Yahoo and now with gmail because of all the adds on yahoo
 

RMClark

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Well, this might be heresy...but cut the cable, and replace it with...wait for it....wait for it...nothing.

When we lived in town, our monthly telecommunications bill was nearing $400. That was for landline phone, basic cable (no premium channels), high speed internet, and cell phones. When we moved out to our home in a rural area, we cut the cable. There's no cable or DSL service here. There's also no effective landline phone, but there is 4G coverage.

I checked out the satellite providers. They won't answer real questions about real costs, and their sales tactics were off-putting, so I didn't take any of them up on any of their half-a**ed offers.

We get high-speed internet through a regional provider via microwave RF channels. Our monthly telecommunications bill is now just about $200 per month and I'm finding ways to reduce that.

We do have OTA, and plenty of channels, so we don't have "nothing" for TV. But TV is no longer the focus of our evening activities. I have a $50 stand-alone DVR box that requires no service subscription; I record some woodworking and home-improvement shows on PBS and watch those while I'm on my exercise machine.

I do look at YouTube to find vids that help me learn about things I want to know.

The end result of all these changes: We got our life back. I was amazed at how much we sat in front of the TV when we had cable; we just watched mindless cr*p. Now I have time for things that truly interest me like gardening, woodworking, and fishing. Even better: I also have time to spend rehabbing the 40-year old Lund S-14 I recently bought. That old boat is what led me to this site, to learn about something I've never done before: own, maintain, and use a small fishing boat.
 

BWR1953

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We've been grappling with a similar issue. We really like our DVRs (we have been Tivo users since not long after they came out), and I think the viewing experience of recorded DVR show vs. that of a streaming program is just not comparable. For example, watching a sporting event recorded on DVR is much nicer than on a streaming service; control over skipping commercials, rewinding briefly to catch something you missed, etc., is so much better on a DVR.

It's gonna be hard to cut the cable, if we ever can manage. In the meantime, we might try to trim our package, perhaps eliminating the landline phone. Maybe we'll give up Tivo and use a Comcast DVR. But I don't yet see a solution for dropping cable entirely.

Well, I started a 3 day free trial of Sling TV this morning. By digging deeply, I found that Sling offers ONE local channel in my area... Fox. But that's all we need because we can now still be able to watch new episodes of The Simpsons! :lol: Plus local weather, which is important around here during hurricane season! Like right now! :eek:

So, no OTA antenna required to meet our needs. And Sling offers a cloud DVR (as alldodge mentioned) which includes 10 hours, up to 50 hours of recording. My free trial includes 50, so I don't know if that will drop to 10 once the trial is over.

And I had to buy "Extra" channels in order to get everything we watch. But they have a "Total TV" package for $20/mo. which includes the works, including the cloud DVR. Okay, no problem. Total for everything is just $50/mo. :encouragement:

Picture quality on my TCL Roku TV with Sling is fine. Some shows are 4k and Spectrum cable can't match that ability.

However, there honestly are some drawbacks. Now, I'm new to Sling and may not yet be aware of how to really run the thing but so far, I can't watch TV and check the guide at the same time. Nor have I figured out how to arrange the guide into an order that I like, including the My Favorites list. Might just be me needing more experience. :noidea:

But so far, so good.

And if I keep Sling, I'll save about $150/mo. and that ain't hay! :D :p
 

alldodge

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Sounds good, look forward to how it does after a month or so
 

dolluper

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If you have decent Internet do a Google search IPTV. You will be surprised what you can get cheap...100's of channels...sports movies all you can think of...most good ones have tv guide also ....some services have their own tv box others you can use your own ...check it out...l have also found some free ones usually the ones troops overseas use.. There is a big sea out there dive in.
 

alldodge

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If you have decent Internet do a Google search IPTV. You will be surprised what you can get cheap...100's of channels...sports movies all you can think of...most good ones have tv guide also ....some services have their own tv box others you can use your own ...check it out...l have also found some free ones usually the ones troops overseas use.. There is a big sea out there dive in.

It looks promising but also folks are saying use a VPN because not sure where its coming from
They also recommend using bitcoin to purchase
 

dolluper

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It looks promising but also folks are saying use a VPN because not sure where its coming from
They also recommend using bitcoin to purchase
No stay away from bit coin ones l forgot to say some you can use your own cheap android box with and their software... Do the research ....l did l found a bunch of free ones l use once in awhile with a cheap android tv box...Absolutely 100's of services out there...check the ones in your local area so you can use dvr's and get local channels also...
 

bigdee

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Since the cable companies also offer internet they simply offset their cable tv losses to the internet user. Its a no win situation unless you cut the cord completely.
 

BWR1953

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It's interesting timing that this thread popped back up today. I cut the TV service almost a month ago and as of now, I'm probably going to go back to Spectrum TV. SlingTV absolutely sucks!
 

BWR1953

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Since the cable companies also offer internet they simply offset their cable tv losses to the internet user. Its a no win situation unless you cut the cord completely.
You're absolutely right. Spectrum advertises their internet service for $49.99 but when I cut my TV service, my price turned out to actually be $74.99 because I'm an existing customer.

That being said, I did save $125/mo by dropping my Spectrum TV service and going with internet only plus SlingTV.

However, SlingTV is a very poor substitute for "real" cable. It gets lost, interrupts and retraces itself, has picture dropouts, plays commercials right in the middle of someone talking and then goes backwards several minutes. Then it inserts even more commercials.

Of course, using the TV remote in order to operate the guide is poor compared to cable TV. There is no "return to previous channel" or ability to type in a number to jump to a given channel. In fact, there are no numbers on the channels at all. And the channels are listed in some SlingTV decided order, which cannot be changed. Using "favorites" doesn't relieve or help with that at all.

Nope, I'm not happy with SlingTV and will be leaving.
(BTW - I'd mentioned SlingTV to a buddy in Pennsylvania and he'd tried it for the 3 day free trial. He too, isn't happy and will be dropping SlingTV.)
 

aspeck

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Good to hear the reports about Sling. I am about to cut my cable TV but keep the cable internet. Then I will go with Hulu Live to get my sports and local channels. That will drop my bill from $240 per month to $140 per month I believe. My phone is VoIP so my "landline" will not be affected.

Maybe I will just try a free trial first to make sure I will be happy with Hulu Live before switching altogether.
 
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WIMUSKY

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We're going to Hulu Live. Cable is way too expensive. I believe they give you a week free. It has all the channels we watch. We're upgrading the DVR memory and adding Starz, the wife likes it. Still wayyyyyyy cheaper than Cable. We have a local cable co. not a big name national co. The big learning curve was navigating Hulu with the remote. Banged my head more than once. Also got a Roku stick for our bedroom tv. Will be nice when we go traveling in the bus.........
 

aspeck

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We are coming to the end or our free week of Hulu. We will not be going over to Hulu. If we do we will have to pay more for our internet, purchase a new modem, and then we will only have it on one TV unless we upgrade the TVs in the basement and the bedroom. There were some things we really liked about Hulu live, but we were not happy with the way you had to move around in the app to get to where you wanted to go. Hulu also would "glitch" on us from time to time which was annoying, but not a deal breaker. In the end we were not saving anything with Hulu and my wife was losing Hallmark Channel (I was happy about that).
 

GA_Boater

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Ways to watch local TV

One of the problems in the digital TV age is cable and satellite does not carry all local channels. They do not carry any sub-channels, only the primary channel. Below is part of the channel guide for Atlanta;

localtv.png

On satellite I could only watch CBS on channel 46 and CW69 on channel 69. I mean who wants to watch Dr. Oz and Jerry Springer? What if I want to watch Laramie on 46.3 or The Rifleman on 69.4?

Using an Over the air Antenna

I got into this because of a screw up by the DirectTV tech that services the system for my apartment complex. The receiver lost it's lunch during a thunder storm and when he setup the new receiver he somehow added MeTV in place of another channel I never watched and I stumbled over it. Well, MeTV is great if you like old shows like Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, Perry Mason or old westerns. Then he re-programed and put the original channel back in.

So I got an amplified digital antenna and plugged it into the antenna port on my TV and did the channel setup and found 50 some digital channels. I was beside myself with glee. Then I started going up and down with the channels.

The picture was great, far better than the satellite picture on the channels that worked. I had to fiddle with the antenna just like playing with old rabbit ears, it is very direction sensitive. Even when I got good reception, it would drop out for seconds at a time or the picture would tear a lot. Not real happy.

Over the Internet

I was talking with a neighbor and he suggested trying https://www.locast.org/ and I'm glad I did. I run it through a laptop and cast to a Chromecast. Go to the channel guide, click on a station, click on Watch and a small preview pops up and then click on the Cast symbol. In a few seconds the my show is in front of my eyes. Outstanding picture quality and no drop outs or tearing.

Locast has two drawbacks;
  1. It isn't available nationwide and when you first go to the site it will ask to detect your location. As long as you're in a coverage area, it will choose the local channels for the area. You can get around that by using a VPN to fake a location. Here is decent write up on Locast and using a VPN - https://vpnpost.com/vpn-for-locast/
  2. Locast is free with a catch. They ask for voluntary $5/month donation with a 50 cent processing fee. If you don't ante up, they do what they call a subscription break, I call it a nag. You have to restart the service after every nag and just like live over the air TV, you miss what was on during the break. The nags are temporarily suspended due to COVID, so now is a good time to try it and 5 bucks isn't much to get all the local channels in your area.
 

WIMUSKY

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We are coming to the end or our free week of Hulu. We will not be going over to Hulu. If we do we will have to pay more for our internet, purchase a new modem, and then we will only have it on one TV unless we upgrade the TVs in the basement and the bedroom. There were some things we really liked about Hulu live, but we were not happy with the way you had to move around in the app to get to where you wanted to go. Hulu also would "glitch" on us from time to time which was annoying, but not a deal breaker. In the end we were not saving anything with Hulu and my wife was losing Hallmark Channel (I was happy about that).
If your other tvs are Smart, or have an hdmi port, but don't have Hulu you can use a Roku stick. That's what we do in the bedroom. It's way cheaper for us because Denise's work pays for our internet.
During the first week I was very frustrated navigating. Now it isn't bad. We have all our shows set to record new episodes like we did for cable. It was a big learning curve, but now we like it...
 

aspeck

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No HDMI ports ... those TV's are old school ...
 

WIMUSKY

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No HDMI ports ... those TV's are old school ...
I have one of those, 35" and weighs a ton. At the time it was considered a rather large screen. Old CRT.....

Hulu needs to give a 2 week free trial. Takes 2 weeks to figure out what the heck is going on...
 

alldodge

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Bought a 8K Samsung smart TV last year and it has 3 HDMI ports
 
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