DH & I have been discussing "cutting the cord" with our satellite dish. We spend so much a month on it & we are starting to think it's an unnecessary expense. I enjoy watching TV, and watch probably too much of it, so this could be good for us. What do you do to still get shows? We would keep Netflix and get Hulu Plus? What box do you have, do you have a digital antennae? What's the best way to still get TV without paying an arm and a leg for it?
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I haven't watched TV in over a year, we're going on a year and a half, I guess?
I cut it cold turkey, from watching A LOT of TV on a daily basis. We still have cable as part of our TV/internet bundle, but I have no desire to watch any shows. We don't have any of the TV alternatives and I don't miss them at all.
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, lol.
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DH and I are about to do this. Our contract is up on our cable once we move. We're gonna live on high speed internet only, with a digital antenna. We have a roku, a smart blu ray dvd player and a Wii, and with the 3 tvs we use, they'll be enough to entertain us.
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We cut the cord a while ago and we use apple TV to stream through our television. I haven't actually looked into what we would need for the "free" over the airways TV so I can't speak to that but we use Netflix and Hulu plus to watch shows. For the most part this works out fine for us. My in laws have also kindly let us use their password for HBO and Sunday Ticket for football. My husband also watches baseball but he roots for the team from our hometown not the local one so he can stream that over the mlb app. Oh and we like the pbs app.
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We have a Roku, Hulu+, and Amazon Prime. We don't feel deprived at all.
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@Weagle: Will you please explain the Roku box to me? how does it work? (I'm not smart when it comes to this stuff!) Is it like a DVR but with apps? Or is it not a DVR?
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@LuLu Mom: It's not a DVR. It's an app only device that hooks into your router. You can add whichever apps you like (there are a lot!) to personalize your viewing. We mainly use Hulu, Amazon, pandora, ESPN, pbs, pbs kids, and netflix (when other people want to sign in). The networks all have an app too, and a few cable channels (like TLC has one but usually only provides clips not full episodes).
DH is way more into this stuff than I am. He has mentioned before that he wishes we had gotten AppleTV instead just because every other device we own is Apple. But at the time, Roku offered more in terms of app availability.
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@Weagle: I wonder if a Tivo would be better? be able to access all those apps plus record?
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@LuLu Mom: If you don't have cable, what's the point of having the option to record?
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We just did this! Cut our cable and saved over $100 a month. We bought a digital antenna ($50 on amazon) to get local channels, and for now, we use my husband's Xbox to access Amazon Prime and Netflix.
We don't watch a lot of TV. There is an ESPN app my husband can use for sports, and a lot of sporting events are on network TV.
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We cut the cable cord a few weeks ago and I haven't even noticed. We have hulu+ and netflix via apple tv, no digital antenna. We never watched anything live anyways, so it doesn't really make a difference having to watch things on hulu. I do miss being able to skip through commercials a little, but it probably took a comparable amount of time to the hulu commercials anyways.
@LuLu Mom: If you're interested, I'd be willing to sell your our tivo. It's a couple years old, in perfect condition.
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@Weagle: Tivo gives you access to online tv just like a roku or apple tv. You can get hulu+, netflix, and amazon video. If she has a digital antenna she could also still record live tv.
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@Weagle: For digital antennae, most of our shows are actually on network television, it would be nice to record those when they star.t
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All of these devices assume you have unlimited internet. I have a 10 GB package also sateillite and most streaming tv shows take .75-1 gb not including normal browsing and computer updates.
We called our cable satellite company and threatened to cancel and she was able to "find" an unadvertised package for us for just $25 it has all the network shows plus some kids channels and we still have our dvr etc. -
@LuLu Mom: Gotcha. We still use an antennae for live viewing, too. But we actually rarely watch until at least the next day anyway, so there's no point in recording. It's always on Hulu or whatever by then.
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We have a digital antennae and do Netflix streaming through an Apple TV. We also get one disc a month from Netflix. The antennae and Apple TV were a one time cost of 125 and our monthly ongoing Netflix cost is $17. We haven't had cable in 3 years and have never once regretted it.
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Just cut the cord the other day. we got an HD antennae for some local channels and news and we are using the Roku along with netflix and amazon prime. Debating adding hulu next but not yet. Apple tv does the same thing as Roku so you would only need one or the other. We liked Roku better, there are more options. Two newer arrivals are the new amazon fire and the Aereo (the Aereo is currently awaiting a supreme court decision so holding off on that for now, but it is the only option with a recording function).
I love saving $100 a month and find myself not flipping through the channels mindlessly. I think it makes tv watching a more conscious choice. Love it so far.
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