Cut the cord today!

[RossMAN]

with life.

har har :thumbsdown:

 

[Vdubchaos]

Cutting the cord in this country often = paying EXTREME premium for basic internet service.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Cutting the cord in this country often = paying EXTREME premium for basic internet service.

It's $13 extra for me on Comcast without TV service. Not exactly what I'd call an extreme premium. It's a little less at lower tiers of service.

 

[ch33zw1z]

har har :thumbsdown:

I wasn't joking. :/

 

[Newell Steamer]

Cutting the cord in this country often = paying EXTREME premium for basic internet service.

For me, it's $60 for just internet v. $120 for internet, phone and cable TV - where I won't use phone and cable TV.

I'll take the $60.

They are trying to close the gap, by offering free laptops and 'special offers' (for JUST $20 more, you can get phone AND cable with your internet,.. for the 1st 3 months) - and it's just not worth it for me. I am not using any of the latter, so no 'special offer' will entice me to take them up.

Should I be paying $30 for 25mbps internet? Sure, I'll take that. But, I don't have much of a choice in NYC.

 

[mvbighead]

I'm soon to cut the cable a second time. But I will say, reliable Internet is EXTREMELY important to the cable cutting process. Moved to the sticks, and my Internet was spotty for a while. Just recently it's been solid, so that makes it easier.

That said, I took the time to configure MythTV to record our local shows, and, to be honest, 90%+ of what we watch are series on ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox. We'll miss things such as the walking dead, but as others have mentioned, we'll simply buy them on disk when they're released to catch up. (And we currently have all of the last season on our DVR and still haven't touched a single episode.)

As for sports, my team is not local, but the only way to get all of their game reliably is through Sunday Ticket which is a total rip off if it isn't under a promotional rate. I get my fix for that via NFL Replay which is $40 a year for all games with the ability to watch a stripped down version in under and hour, and thankfully there is a plugin for that in XBMC.

There are some things I will miss of DirecTV, but it simply isn't worth $100 a month. When considering that most of our favorite shows are local, we're basically paying $100 a month for 4 episodes of the walking dead and an occasional NFL game on ESPN. At $20/show... the choice for me became simple.

 

[frowertr]

I'm with the guy earlier who said he needs to watch live sports. Cutting the cord is damn near impossible if you want to watch them LIVE. In the fall I live and breath college football on Saturdays so I'm stuck with cable/satellite.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I can still see about 80% of the live sports I actually care to see with broadcast TV. So, the question becomes is watching that last 20% of sports live instead of a few hours offset really worth the $800 it costs me to do so?

I definitely think not. For that money I can easily watch those games live at my local clothing free entertainment establishment. But honestly I find that most often I don't really care to, instead I just watch highlight clips of those games, and spend my time watching the locally broadcast game instead.

 

[frowertr]

I can still see about 80% of the live sports I actually care to see with broadcast TV. So, the question becomes is watching that last 20% of sports live instead of a few hours offset really worth the $800 it costs me to do so?

I definitely think not. For that money I can easily watch those games live at my local clothing free entertainment establishment. But honestly I find that most often I don't really care to, instead I just watch highlight clips of those games, and spend my time watching the locally broadcast game instead.

If you can actually watch 80% of the sports you follow on broadcast then I'm jealous. There is no way the games I watch will be on broadcast TV that much. Most of my games are on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU and the SEC Network. Just no getting those without paying for them.

 

[SMOGZINN]

If you can actually watch 80% of the sports you follow on broadcast then I'm jealous. There is no way the games I watch will be on broadcast TV that much. Most of my games are on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU and the SEC Network. Just no getting those without paying for them.

Then you are the special use case that might justify that $800+ dollars.
For sure cable cutting is not for everyone. What I, and I am sure that many others in this thread, are trying to tell people is that for the most part you don't really miss those channels once they are gone. You, however, might be the exception to that.

 

[mvbighead]

Then you are the special use case that might justify that $800+ dollars.
For sure cable cutting is not for everyone. What I, and I am sure that many others in this thread, are trying to tell people is that for the most part you don't really miss those channels once they are gone. You, however, might be the exception to that.

Actually the funny thing here is, at least from what I have heard, some people 'suspend' their cable/satellite accounts and then turn them up during football season. When I am ready, my aim is to request an indefinite suspension of my service and if the need arises, I'll call in and resume it when needed.

 

[frowertr]

Actually the funny thing here is, at least from what I have heard, some people 'suspend' their cable/satellite accounts and then turn them up during football season. When I am ready, my aim is to request an indefinite suspension of my service and if the need arises, I'll call in and resume it when needed.

Now this would be interesting. However, would you have to turn the cable boxes back in during the suspension to avoid the rental charges? I would think so. If so, how do you handle getting them back? Comcast likes to charge $100 for a "setup fee" every time they roll a truck to deliver boxes to a house.

 

[velillen]

If you can actually watch 80% of the sports you follow on broadcast then I'm jealous. There is no way the games I watch will be on broadcast TV that much. Most of my games are on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU and the SEC Network. Just no getting those without paying for them.

Have you looked at the new Sling TV option? Internet TV basically for 20 bucks a month. Works with amazon fire tv and some others. Has ESPN, ESPN, and says it has the SEC network.

So that plus internet seems like a pretty good deal for those who mostly just need the ESPN channels. and 20 bucks a month isnt bad at all.

 

[NuclearNed]

Cutting the cord in this country often = paying EXTREME premium for basic internet service.

not so. I'm going to drop my land line & Dish, and my internet is going to increase less than $10. Even after picking up Sling TV my overall savings per month is approaching $100.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I have very little time to watch any TV. Any time I do get I watch daily show (most is streamed online). Or I get it through other means.

I don't even have Netflix / Roku / <insert streaming service> ... I recently got Amazon Prime, but that was because they reduced the price to $72, and it was for the shipping. I could careless about the streaming.

If I need to watch sports.... oh noez, I'll hit up the bar. Also, most sports (especially football) comes on the local channels which my antenna picks up anyhow. My cable internet bill is ~$40. That enough monthly fees, thank you.

 

[mvbighead]

Now this would be interesting. However, would you have to turn the cable boxes back in during the suspension to avoid the rental charges? I would think so. If so, how do you handle getting them back? Comcast likes to charge $100 for a "setup fee" every time they roll a truck to deliver boxes to a house.

Well, at least as far as DirecTV goes, I don't know that they can go out and sell your old gear. For what I know, you're paying the fees to use those devices.

Granted, if they tell me that what I am after is not possible, I'll tell them they can pick up their gear. That's part of my problem, I am paying something like 20-25 a month for a DVR and a box that can access the DVR, but each of them are painfully slow at times. If I am paying monthly fees, I'd like to think they would upgrade that hardware every once in a while.

A buddy of mine has contacts in that area, and knows some folks that do something along this line which makes me believe it is possible to suspend the service but we'll see when that time comes.

 

[NuclearNed]

My free Amazon Fire Stick from Sling TV arrived last night, and so far I'm pretty pleased with it. Comparing it to my Chromecast, I think they both have their strengths. The Fire Stick seems easy enough to use that my tech-retarded inlaws might be able to use it, making Sling TV an option for them*. Sling TV now works great on my main TV, so later today (or tomorrow at the latest) I'll be calling Dish Network to cancel my Dish service... the wife & I are prepping for the nonstop barrage of phone calls that are sure to follow.



*after initial setup. It was kind of a pain to setup all my online accounts for Netflix, Sling, etc on the Fire Stick because I hate hate hate on-screen keyboards. In hindsight I should have loaded the Fire app on the wife's tablet and done setup from there.

 

[Majes]

My free Amazon Fire Stick from Sling TV arrived last night, and so far I'm pretty pleased with it. Comparing it to my Chromecast, I think they both have their strengths. The Fire Stick seems easy enough to use that my tech-retarded inlaws might be able to use it, making Sling TV an option for them*. Sling TV now works great on my main TV, so later today (or tomorrow at the latest) I'll be calling Dish Network to cancel my Dish service... the wife & I are prepping for the nonstop barrage of phone calls that are sure to follow.



*after initial setup. It was kind of a pain to setup all my online accounts for Netflix, Sling, etc on the Fire Stick because I hate hate hate on-screen keyboards. In hindsight I should have loaded the Fire app on the wife's tablet and done setup from there.

Sling TV works great for you? Mine drops about 3-4 times an hour. It either freezes, or just closes the app with no explanation. I'm using the fire stick. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

 

[NuclearNed]

Sling TV works great for you? Mine drops about 3-4 times an hour. It either freezes, or just closes the app with no explanation. I'm using the fire stick. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

No idea without more info. I haven't had a problem yet

 

[NuclearNed]

and in other news, Sling TV is picking up IFC in its $20 package:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/sling-tv-ifc-amc/

<edit> AMC & IFC supposedly went live today... I'm waiting on the wife to confirm that they are now available on the menu.
<edit2> Mrs Ned confirmed both channels are now in the menu. $20 for 16 channels, woot

 

[Homerboy]

I'd love to cut the cord... but sports. I need sports.

That means:
ESPN (in all it's flavors)
Fox Sports (in all it's flavors including regional FSN)
CBS Sports Network
NBC Sports Network

 

[notposting]

How do cord cutters supplement non-premium cable channels like USA Networks, Food Network, TNT, etc.?

RossssssMan, we started a slow and steady cord cutting process years ago, probably starting in 2007.

First was setting up an HTPC. This went through several variations over the years. We also dumped cable completely (antenna only) then went back to the Limited Basic cable tier (local networks only, mostly) because it was actually cheaper than just internet. Had it all rigged up with commercial removing, dual networked tuners, Netflix/Amazon plugins, single remote for TV/Media Center (never saw Windows), everything on the server available and cataloged (used MyMovies).

[total aside: one really sweet aspect that I hadn't planned was that everything was basically networked -- at a certain point the cheapo eBay motherboard I had crapped out, company was coming, what to do?! Slapped the laptop in on top of the HTPC case, plugged the remote IR receiver into it, and never missed a single beat -- tuners were networked, the WHS stored everything, cloud services of course, was pretty impressive.]

Also set up a server over those years. Somewhere around 20TB of DVD's and CD's ripped to it, all our photos, etc. Right now my main problem is a migration plan -- it's WHS v1, and my DVD rips are straight TS folder rips (Plex has no love for images...boo).

Last couple years have been *interesting*. We moved a bunch and are finally settled. I could probably set up an antenna rig again, (have an HDHomerun) but really don't give a damn about TV anymore. We subscribed to Aereo when it was live in the Detroit area, but after the SC decision in the summer my opinion towards TV has um, plummeted.

More importantly, between kids and fixxer upper, dinking around with electronics is about 856,487th on my list of things to do right now.

We have a Roku in our living room and a Fire TV Stick in our bedroom. Amazon Prime, Netflix, PBS...that's pretty much it right there. We have (young) kids so we try to limit screen time, though in winter that seems like a lost cause.

We picked up an Amazon Echo also, it works pretty well. What's funny is seeing kids and how adapted to modern life and thinking they are -- touchscreens, talking to the house, magic boxes full of entertainment, sure.

But more than that is the idea of wanting to watch what they want, when they want, without commercials. Took our 4 year old with me to the dentist a few months ago. They have TV's in the rooms. He was like, "yeah, whatever, how about Mighty Machines?" The whole concept of flipping channels and waiting for the next show to come on is foreign to him. I ended up just giving him my phone and letting him watch on there. :hmm:

 

[Raincity]

Sling TV works great for you? Mine drops about 3-4 times an hour. It either freezes, or just closes the app with no explanation. I'm using the fire stick. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I have been running it trouble free on two Roku 3 in the house for the last two months. Not a single issue or drop out.

 

[NuclearNed]

It's official - I dropped both Dish Network and my landline phone service today. The wife & I did the numbers, and I'm saving about $90 a month.

 

[n7]

Problem for me is sports.

I don't watch TV for anything else, but NHL Gamecenter isn't really super cheap, and i'd lose being able to watch tennis and CFL, hockey tournaments, etc.

So what i've been doing for the last while is get TV during fall-spring (base + sports package) and then as soon as the Stanley Cup final is over, i cancel cable till when NHL resumes in fall.

Provider hates it so much they've sometimes offered to just give me free promo months, but as i will never even likely turn on the cable box all summer, it's never worth keeping TV then usually.