Cable Cutters Enter

[btq96r]

So today Amazon has had the Mohu Leaf 30 on and off sale (dependent on stock) for $14.99. I ordered one just to give it a go.

 

http://amzn.to/1hEEvCu

 

I tried a few of the "leaf" style antenna's but they didn't get NBC, PBS (NPT) and a few other channels for me.  Sunday Night Football and PBS documentaries are two of my favorite things to watch, so I had to get an old school sheet metal antenna, mount it outdoors and run a coax cable.  Wasn't hard at all, didn't even need to go up on the roof, it's at a normal person's height.

 

 

 

has anybody been keeping track of how much data you're using to do all this streaming? Im using a roku but have it set for SD since our connection is usually 3mb or less. If I want a fast connection here I'm going to have to spring for Verizon and they make you pay for data in chunks.

 

One thing I did that seems to help is on my Roku, I set the display type to 720p instead of 1080.  I use my Roku every day for anywhere from an hour on a weekday to up to six hours when I'm off from work & school and want to binge watch some shows and movies.  With Comcast's 300GB data cap before having to pay for more, I'm good to go.  Not sure what your cap is.

[dawgdoc]

I have that same antenna in my attic.

I have ATT DSL with a 150 GB monthly limit. With our normal viewing, we don't go over. During the summer, my son watches a lot of YouTube videos that gets us close to the limit.

My in-laws house sat for a week, and apparently my father-in-law watched a lot of SlingTV on an Amazon Fire Stick, which defaults to best quality each time you use Sling. They used 3/4 of the monthly data in about 5 days. The Roku can be set to a lower quality and it stays set.

[Fourtyfive]

I hooked up one of those flat antennas to my main cable I just unhooked, I get all local channels now in full HD unless they are a SD Broadcast on all 8 tv's. Two of my furtherest tv's are missing Fox , I guess I need the amplified version but I am about to pull the trigger on a satellite company. Just can't decide which.

[xjsnake]

I'm ready to unhook. I have a feeling it will be hard at first and I'll adjust and figure it out

[Jeb48]

We had been thinking of cutting the cable, but the biggest part of the bill was the internet, since we had a sub basic TV package that was only about $15/month, that was in NY. We moved to TN and the house we fell in love with is out to far for cable, so it was cut for us. Luckily CenturyLink has 6mb DSL on the road and dropping from 20mb we were not sure but it has been plenty for streaming Netflix and Hulu and no cap. I had set Netflix to their lowest quality before we left NY to test knowing our internet would be  limited and the quality was fine so we have left it there. For TV I bought this Channel Master antenna put it on an 8 foot pole and screwed it to a tree stump in the back yard next to where the previous owner had Dish TV cabled in and used one of the lines they put in. Works great and we get more channels than we use to in NY. I did add a mast amp and a distribution amp to keep all the signal I could. I use a Apple Mini Mac with EyeTV to record as much as I want. I have only two tuners set up right now, I have 6 tuners total and will hook up a few more when the fall season starts. There is a piece of software that does a fair job marking commercials and I can adjust and remove commercials with about 2 minutes work per hour of show so I store shows to watch commercial free.

 

CenturyLink is $35/month for the first year then it will go up, we will decide what to do next then.

[redfsr]

Cut the cable (directv) in April and don't miss it one bit. I put up an HD antenna and subscribe to Amazon prime, Netflix and Slingtv. Only thing I miss is dvr and have been thinking about the CM to fix that. Like LawVol said, I spend way less time watching stupid stuff. If you're thinking about it do it. I figured I'm saving around $1200-$1500 a year. I can purchase the content I want and still come out way ahead.

[Jonnin]

we do not have any TV and our cellphones are prepaid (very, very cheap, a few bucks a month, 15 I think?).   My electric bill is higher than my electronics bill. 

[tenchi_kioto]

Is anyone having problems with comcast 300gig download limit. Then having to pay extra? I've always been a heavy downloader and with now streaming only I'm killing this max limit pretty fast. I've now tethered my phone so I don't go to much higher over there limits.

Sent from my LG-ls990 using Tapatalk

[btq96r]

Is anyone having problems with comcast 300gig download limit. Then having to pay extra? I've always been a heavy downloader and with now streaming only I'm killing this max limit pretty fast. I've now tethered my phone so I don't go to much higher over there limits.

Sent from my LG-ls990 using Tapatalk

 

I'm usually somewhere just under 200GB per month, but I'm the only one in my house.  If you have kids who turn into zombies on YouTube or any other site on top of what you stream, it can get eaten up quick.

 

Try setting the video quality of whatever device you're streaming from at 720p instead of 1020p.  Not that much difference unless you want to watch a great movie or something else important enough.

[bersaguy]

Well, I guess I am the only guy that still has cable. I choose to have it because it has all the channels I enjoy watching such as Discovery, History channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, TLC, NBCSN, all ESPN's and a few others and i am on my own and I do watch them a lot. I have had my share of fights with Comcast over the years before finally about a year ago I found the exact package I wanted that has everything I want including all local channels. My main issue with them was the ever changing bill changes each month. $10.00 to $15.00 every month I had a very long talk with Customer Service one day and got this issue resolved. My bill has been with in a few nickels or dimes of $62.00 a month for the package I wanted and has not went up or down in over a year. I don't mid paying $744.00 dollars a year to get what i enjoy. Now if I didn't have to put up with 6 minutes of programming and 5 minutes of damn commercials I would be happy. I do understand that commercials pay for their programming but it seems here recently they are over doing it.............jmho

[tenchi_kioto]

Most of the streaming is 720. Setup is a nexus player running kodi with a showbox add on, it works great. I'll just have to watch my extra downloads every month which will be hard.

Sent from my LG-ls990 using Tapatalk

[Shepherd Master]

No TV for us about 4 months now........don't miss it a bit.

[TNWNGR]

I'm on Charter Cabel for my internet and went with a Roku 3 player, Netflix and Amazon Prime since AP had a one day special at $77.99. In hindsight theres duplication of programing between Netflix & AP but other tradeoffs still made it a decent deal. I'm currently using a "stick in the window" TV antenna that's brining in the Nashville TV stations fairly well. Overall its an across the board pretty simple set up and btq96r is 100& correct about the Roku being an easy to use system.

[2.ooohhh]

Is anyone having problems with comcast 300gig download limit. Then having to pay extra? I've always been a heavy downloader and with now streaming only I'm killing this max limit pretty fast. I've now tethered my phone so I don't go to much higher over there limits.

Sent from my LG-ls990 using Tapatalk

 

I was hitting it in about 2 weeks before I switched to comcast business, now I don't even bother to look b/c I have no cap. Was around 3tb of throughput a month last I looked. 

[MrJones79]

I'd love to ditch cable. Having recently moved to the area, I now remember why I hate Comcast. Way too expensive and horrible customer service. Also, while I was also getting ripped off by Verizon Fios, at least the service was good and the Fios internet is outstanding. I've found the issue with ditching cable is that once you unbundle they pretty bend you over for standalone services like internet. Are there any reasonable providers that offer good internet speeds without paying $75/month or up?

[SupaRice]

Well it's been a couple of months now.....

 

I've got the Channel Master setup for OAT DVR, and I gotta say I like it. I think it works really well, and I like being able to record 2 shows at once.

We added a Roku to the mix, which is a great little box.

 - On it we have Amazon Prime and Hulu.

I got the Roku 2, because it uses an IR remote and so I could use a Logitech Harmony for a single remote.

 

All in I really like the setup, with 2 small kids we have access to all the programming they could ever watch. Plus I've downloaded and ripped a bunch of movies to my home file server which the Roku can also play. I think we're probably going to drop Hulu soon, since we really don't use it that much.

 

I'm really digging the whole setup. At $180/mo when I ended Uverse everything has already paid for itself, and it has helped TV watching habits in my house.

 

I got us the basic Comcast setup of 25mbps for $20/mo + the cost of Prime and Hulu. And, probably less the Hulu next month.

 

Only thing I really miss is the network news. I used to like to flip through those. I think there's 1 show my wife doesn't get, but she'll live.... she had too many to watch previously anyway.

Edited November 6, 2015 by SupaRice

[tnguy]

If it was mine to choose I'd cut it all but internet.

 

But there is "She who must be obeyed" to deal with.  

 

I am getting near close to making a fight about it though.   I don't need a landline.  I can't tell you the last time anyone called and asked for Mike.357.  I can get all my TV watching needs from netflix, (which my son anchored himself to years ago.  HAHAHAHA I won't let him out of it.)  Mostly i watch  You Tube anyway.  

 

For the landline, consider Ooma. Just pay and upfront purchase cost the regulatory fee every month or a bit more if you want to keep the number. It's a good and cheap way to ween the women-folk off the mental need for a landline.

 

I really need to cancel ours. It's been unused for a long time now.

[runco]

 

 

Only thing I really miss is the network news. I used to like to flip through those. I think there's 1 show my wife doesn't get, but she'll live.... she had too many to watch previously anyway.

Can you not use a normal antenna inside or outside for the network news?

[bud]

. Edited January 6, 2016 by bud

[SupaRice]

Can you not use a normal antenna inside or outside for the network news?

Yeah for the standard over the air stuff.... but I liked to have Fox Business News, etc running in my office during the day while working.

[btq96r]

Only thing I really miss is the network news. I used to like to flip through those. I think there's 1 show my wife doesn't get, but she'll live.... she had too many to watch previously anyway.

 

Play around on the channel store on Roku.  A lot of news services and media outlets have apps on Roku where they have segments loaded for streaming.  SkyNews is completely free on Roku if you don't mind a British centric one for example.  I'm sure there are others too.

[analog_kidd]

My setup is a PC in the living room running Kodi, and a Rasberry Pi in the bedroom, running a version of Kodi on the OpenElec distribution of Linux. I use them both to stream content from online. The PC in the living room I use to rip my DVD's to the hard drive, and use Kodi to watch them. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time getting the movies on the PC to play on the R-Pi in the bedroom.

 

I just installed the Plex Media Server on the LR computer. It is an amazing program that lets you stream local content stored on the hard drive to just about anything. There is an app that you can download for Windows, MAC, Android, IOS, or you can even connect to it from just a browser. I installed the Kodi plug in, and now I can watch all those movies on the BR device, streaming from the LR.

 

I installed the app on my android phone and tablets, and I can even stream to them from anywhere in the world as long as the device has an Internet connection. It did take a little bit of fiddling with my router to allow the devices to connect from outside my home, but it was pretty easy, and there are plenty of instructions on the web. It's pretty cool to be able to take out your phone and watch video stored on your home PC. 

Edited November 7, 2015 by analog_kidd

[rmiddle]

I can't justify cutting the cord.  Cable TV rates aren't that bad when you compare the cost vs just paying for straight internet.  Now is it right that the internet gets 30% to 40% cheap because I also get my land line phone and Cable TV from that same provider.  Than again they call those discounts a volume discount.

 

Thanks

Robert

[Dustbuster]

I went w out for so long. Then gave in 180 per mo for middle channels w out HBO and showtime sucks big time. Comcast is a necessary dirty rotten evil sometimes. Before I had a hotspot through sprint and streamed net flx roku etc and had no issues. Time to go back to hdtv for free

[Sam1]

Homework has finally reached the point that TV is irrelevant except in the mornings before work for the news.  Once the Directv contract is up in June, that will be going away and switching to some HDTV antennas just to pick up a few local stations for the morning news.