TV without paying for cable

[TripleDigitRide]

I've seen many devices that will allow you to watch movies an television programs without paying a monthly cable bill, but do any of these devices allow you to watch TV shows and events while they are actually being broadcast, or can you watch the shows and events at a later time and date? In high definition, of course.<br /> Edited March 14, 2013 by TripleDigitRide

[Il Duce]

Later time unless you use illegal streaming sites that show live sporting events like UFC

[TripleDigitRide]

Yeah, I'm not looking to break any laws to watch a little TV. We don't watch much TV at all, but I'd like the ability to watch it if I want to. Guess we're keeping the cable.

[Guest nicemac]

I use an antenna along with an AppleTV. Over the air (antenna) is better picture than cable or satellite because it is not compressed-you get true HD. The AppleTV box allows me to watch Netflix, etc… to get streamed  content, but requires internet connection to do it. ($8 per month )

[Guest Pineapple Devil]

All of your local channels must be broadcast over the air in hd for free by law. Just plug in a set of rabbit ears or another antenna to your cable input and turn on your tv.

[Guest MilitiaMan]

I just want to be able to watch CNN, FoxNews, local news and maybe a little ESPN and not have to pay $100+ per month.

[wipfel]

You can take care of most of the ESPN offerings with watchespn.com.  Not sure about the cable news, though.

[gun sane]

There's absolutely nothing on TV worth watching if you have internet, IMHO.  The wife likes to look at programs as they are broadcast, but as for me, I can wait a few days.  Netflix and DVD rentals also save you the extra money you'll spend at the movie house.  And you don't have to sit in someone else's spilled drink.

[Smith]

We really like Netflix and Hulu (when it was free). Most everything we want to see we can get through netflix. The broadcast channels online sites usually have previously aired episodes you can watch.

[TripleDigitRide]

We really like Netflix and Hulu (when it was free). Most everything we want to see we can get through netflix. The broadcast channels online sites usually have previously aired episodes you can watch.

I hadn't yet looked into it enough to realize Hulu was no longer free. We're currently paying about $70/month for Comcast cable and internet services, and that's about to increase to around $90/month.

Our cable and internet plans are their middle of the road offerings, nothing too fancy. We could change plans to the cheapest they offer, but I am wondering their 3 meg internet service will be sufficient for streaming Netflix, Hulu, etc.

If we still have to pay monthly subscription fees for all of these other services, I'm not are the savings are going to be worth switching.

[LI0NSFAN]

Get a sling box and set it up at a family members house. It allows you to watch cable anywhere you want as long as you have internet access. I have a sling box at my uncles house so I can watch Lions games

[RobertNashville]

If you want to watch live TV the only option I know if (aside from cable or satilite) is going to be with an antenna and how good that will be will depend on where you are in relation to the stations you are trying to pick up.

Most everything eles you can get through a service like Netflix. Personally, I'm an Amazon "prime" member and there is a boatload of stuff that you can stream from Amazon that way. Recent releases, etc you still pay a fee for though. Generally I've found that if I"m looking for something and can't find it on Netflix I can find it on Amazon and vice versa.

I still have sat service but I'm thinking very hard about going the route you are considering as I watch very little that's actually on "TV".

[strickj]

There's absolutely nothing on TV worth watching if you have internet, IMHO.  The wife likes to look at programs as they are broadcast, but as for me, I can wait a few days.  Netflix and DVD rentals also save you the extra money you'll spend at the movie house.  And you don't have to sit in someone else's spilled drink.

 

This. I cut off my cable a couple of years ago. I can watch most anything online (720p/1080p) within a couple hours of airing usually.

 

 Now that Youtube is competing with Amazon and Netflix, you can watch a surprising amount of free¹ tv shows, movies and live streamed content.

 

 

¹Paid for by ad revenue I guess???

Edited March 14, 2013 by strickj

[LagerHead]

There's absolutely nothing on TV worth watching if you have internet, IMHO.  The wife likes to look at programs as they are broadcast, but as for me, I can wait a few days.  Netflix and DVD rentals also save you the extra money you'll spend at the movie house.  And you don't have to sit in someone else's spilled drink.

 

Well yea, I guess you could do that if you want to take all the fun out of it. ;)

[tennessee01tacoma]

I have over the air for free and its great. Where I'm located in Morgan co, I can pick up Chattanooga and Knoxville stations.

[TripleDigitRide]

There's absolutely nothing on TV worth watching if you have internet, IMHO.  The wife likes to look at programs as they are broadcast, but as for me, I can wait a few days.  Netflix and DVD rentals also save you the extra money you'll spend at the movie house.  And you don't have to sit in someone else's spilled drink.
 
This. I cut off my cable a couple of years ago. I can watch most anything online (720p/1080p) within a couple hours of airing usually.
 
 Now that Youtube is competing with Amazon and Netflix, you can watch a surprising amount of free1 tv shows, movies and live streamed content.
 
 
1Paid for by ad revenue I guess???

What service(s) are you using to watch shows shortly after airing? I don't mind waiting to watch shows after their original airing, but I'm not sure of all the options, or their pros and cons.

[itchytriggerfinger]

If you're getting decent internet access AND basic TV for $90/month that's hard to beat.  Look at it this way, if you go to over the air HD you'll want to have an internet connection to get Netflix, Hulu, ABC.com, CNN.com, etc.  So you can't get rid of the internet connection.  Then add $8/month for Netflix and $8/month for Hulu.  Figure $45/month for internet access, plus the new services, and you're hovering at $60/month again.  So you have to decide if you want to sacrifice all of your cable shows for $30/month. 

 

Personally, I don't miss it.  We cut out the home phone and cable two years ago.  Now I just pay for the Clear, Netflix, and save $40/month.

[2.ooohhh]

If you're getting decent internet access AND basic TV for $90/month that's hard to beat.  Look at it this way, if you go to over the air HD you'll want to have an internet connection to get Netflix, Hulu, ABC.com, CNN.com, etc.  So you can't get rid of the internet connection.  Then add $8/month for Netflix and $8/month for Hulu.  Figure $45/month for internet access, plus the new services, and you're hovering at $60/month again.  So you have to decide if you want to sacrifice all of your cable shows for $30/month. 

 

Personally, I don't miss it.  We cut out the home phone and cable two years ago.  Now I just pay for the Clear, Netflix, and save $40/month.

 

 

I did the math this way originally, and after "cutting the cord" several years ago to save cash I have found that I also save time in the end and only see what I want to watch.

 

I'm on the $39 per month Comcast internet and we utilize OTA HD, hulu+, Netflix, and Amazon prime. As much as I work and as little time as I have to watch TV I have found that since I left DirectTV I get more actual episodes in of my favorite shows and spend no time wasted watching fillers, reruns, and commercials.

 

For a year(in 2007) or so I was very hardcore into DVRing everything OTA on the major networks. My DVR was programmed to record the all the new shows, cut the commercials out, and reformat them to .mp4, and place them on my media server. It worked great but was very expensive initally so I was reluctant to get away from it. (about $1.5k: Mac Mini server, 2 Silicon Dust dual tuner boxes, Synology RS812 with drives and , 2x scratch drives, an appleTV, Roku, or PS3 at each TV)

 

Over the next couple of years Netflix and Hulu really began to slowly and steadily flesh out their streaming libraries and the need to record shows slowly slipped as many were added to either netflix or hulu, but I did have a need to get several shows that were not available on the services so I used a crutch to serve other internet content from the media server to our TVs since many independent channels(HGTV,CBS, CW,WB) all had their own content all over the web in vastly differing quality, quantity, and variety. This worked, but not very well. The slightest change in the source page at the networksbroke mediaserver plug-ins until updates were released often at a very slow pace. And networks were oftenc changing the content available drastically with little or no notice as they seemingly changed policies and approaches to internet distribution on a whim.

 

Come mid 2012, Apple anounces it's adding Hulu+ to the appleTV. After years of use of the original ATV then the upgrade to the ATV2, my wife lhas come to love the appleTV, it's the only box she feels is both easy enough to learn and reliable enough to place in our guest room where her parent's often stay. We moved to a new house and I went all in with the appleTV model. Our PS3s and Roku are still around but they are now assigned to extra inputs in the home theater, and the living room. where it is likely that she or I will be at the helm even if we have guests over. Every other TV in the house got an appleTV. Most are stuck to the back of the TVs out of sight and you wouldn't know they were even there if it weren't for the slick interface. All of the media on the server is available, all of it plays reliably and smoothly over a seperate 5ghz network with a cat6 backbone. Any new content we choose to buy from any of the ATVs can stay in the cloud and be backed up to physical media automatically by the server at our leisure. With the vast array of content on Hulu+ and Netflix, we find ourselves buying very little, mostly premium content from HBO, Showtime, or AMC. 

 

 

Up front I mentioned I save time. . . Shows purchased via apple, amazon, or watched on netflix are all commercial free, which means I get around 18 more minutes of TV squeezed into every hour of "watching TV" with no frustration of fast forwarding, delays due to live events throwing the DVR timing off, accidently deleting a small bit of the show with a script designed to remove commercials, or incorrectly flagged "new" OTA shows by the local networks.

 

 

The cost of hardware entry to this is now $100 or less. Which makes trial of the setup much more affordable. Do yourself a favor, buy an appleTV or a roku and try a month or two of the key services. You may love it, or it may not be for you, but it is a decision you'll want to make for yourself. My wife and I would never go back.

[itchytriggerfinger]

You also have to figure out what it is you watch.  If you're a sports guy, it's tough to beat cable unless you want to go to the bar.  If you have certain network shows like Duck Dynasty or "special" programming that are an absolute must, it's hard to get those.  DD may be available online, I was just looking for an example. 

 

Also, Netflix is generally one season behind on TV, so that's where you pick up Hulu+ for current season.  Or you can get them online from many websites.

 

Again, I don't have cable and don't miss it, but I'm not a big TV person.  I'm more apt to sit here and read posts on TGO!

[Sam1]

Our cable and internet plans are their middle of the road offerings, nothing too fancy. We could change plans to the cheapest they offer, but I am wondering their 3 meg internet service will be sufficient for streaming Netflix, Hulu, etc.

 

 

3mb connectivity is probably not gonna cut it if you plan on streaming HD. The actual transfer speed of a connection is roughly 1/8 of the connection speed. So a 3mb connection should net *roughly* 325kb/s and most HD runs around 1mb-4mb/sec depending on the compression used.
 

[itchytriggerfinger]

Yeah, I average 4-6mb on my Clear wireless and when it drops to 4mb you will see Netflix switch out of HD mode.

[2.ooohhh]

You also have to figure out what it is you watch.  If you're a sports guy, it's tough to beat cable unless you want to go to the bar.  If you have certain network shows like Duck Dynasty or "special" programming that are an absolute must, it's hard to get those.  DD may be available online, I was just looking for an example. 

 

Also, Netflix is generally one season behind on TV, so that's where you pick up Hulu+ for current season.  Or you can get them online from many websites.

 

Again, I don't have cable and don't miss it, but I'm not a big TV person.  I'm more apt to sit here and read posts on TGO!

 

 

Google and Apple both have the current season of Duck Dynasty for sale whole or by the episode and the episode that aired yesterday is already up as is typical of online content. It's very rare on the whole to not be able to find content if you like it enough to pay for it.

 

Most months we spend $0 on extra programs b/c we can barely get through the netflix que and a few hulu+ exclusives. When a show comes available that we do want for purchase we can decide if it's worth the price on a show by show basis which I find to be quite rewarding and comes out cheaper by far than cable did in the end for us. We watch live baseball in the MLB app which has goofy blackout restrictions but those effect cable viewers as well. We still see manage to see more STL games live than my Father in law and he has season tickets. :woohoo:

 

 

Any programming that isn't readily available legally online from the content owner is readily available through other less than kosher means, I get the full commercial free airings of Top Gear UK from a website after paying good money for them for one season and unknowingly being sold the edited version by BBC America. :rant:

 

If I can purchase content legally in a reasonable time frame I do, if for no other reason than I do my best to be a law abiding citizen.

 

Last year NBC tried to tell me I couldn't watch the olympics online b/c I didn't have a cable package and I personally coughed up and rented a server located in the UK to provide the BBC commercial free streams to whoever wants it and is willing to ask nice faster than the NBC execs could issue an apology. 

 

HBO says I can't watch Game of Thrones b/c i'm not a subscriber even though I had recently coughed up $70! for a season pass on itunes?(they decided to push back the online release date by several months after many had already paid) Watch how fast I can get it from the service that shall not be named and see if I purchase any further content from you. :stunned: (I had already paid for a license to own/view it) 

 

 

Content owners still have a lot to learn in this space, one thing is that if a viewer base wants to watch something bad enough they will find a way, whether it means illegally downloading it, or paying to have new content be produced out of pocket. Pretty simple, name your price and allow me to decide to purchase it on whatever device I want and if it's close to reasonable pricing I'll happily pay up for the convenience of watching what I want, how I want, when I want. :popcorn:

 

 

 

As for connection speed I've found it varies greatly and that 3-4 mb on clear, or my verizon mifi does not equal 3mb via comcast b/c of how spotty the connection's throughput generally is. A cable modem or DSL is much more stable than any cell based WAP's I've found. Also a slight drop in quality is not really noticible on my smaller tv's but becomes a glaring deficiency on my 110" projection setup in the theater so how you plan to watch can make quite the difference in what is acceptable.

Edited March 15, 2013 by 2.ooohhh

[itchytriggerfinger]

Last I checked, wasn't it like $40+ to buy a season from from Apple?

[TripleDigitRide]

After doing a bit more research, it doesn't appear the savings are going to be worth the hassle. I'm going to look a little more, but changing for $20 or $30 a month probably isn't worth it.

[2.ooohhh]

Last I checked, wasn't it like $40+ to buy a season from from Apple?

 

Content providers set the prices so it varies. I picked up a half dozen seasons of Stargate last fall for "$10 per season", and "The Americans" (my most recent purchase) was $14.99 for the current season.(before the discount) One trick on itunes to lower your spending is to buy itunes giftcards in mass when they go on salea couple times a year. I scored $300 in giftcards cards from best buy via a black friday online promotion for $200. That and waiting for the shows themselves to go on sale in itunes can lower the cost dramatically. I buy TV shows in apple's standard def widescreen format as they are usually watched on the TVs since they are produced in 16x9 where as movies I buy in HD since they are usually watched in the theater on the projector.(again the projector is the only viewing location where I can tell the versions apart by image clarity)

 

The more content providers that have come on the scene over the last few years the more the prices drop in the iTunes store as they all vie for the viewer's limited TV dollars. Amazon is cheaper by a few dollars on most seasons when they aren't on sale, but if you shop carefully it's not terribly hard to pay less than that even in iTunes.

 

The content discovery and cataloging as your collection grows work much better in the apple universe currently, but I remind anyone just sticking their toes in the pool that amazon is making strides to catch up with every revision of their interface. If you were to look at my catalogs of content in either you would think I had spent a fortune on content, but I've never spent more than I used to with my satellite provider in a single month, and can pick and choose what quality I buy, when I pay, and what I spend as I go.