Cutting the Cord: Eliminating cable or satellite...

[bowhunter1023]

I'm sick and tired of the games I've played with Dish and DirecTV since moving in to our house 6 years ago. Our bill is ridiculous. With me losing my job and looking for ways to cut costs, this one has been at the forefront since Day 1. I have some hangups that have stopped me from doing this in the past. One is the DVR. You can't beat being able to record shows. Second is live sports. That's about all I watch and I'll miss some stuff if I get rid of the satellite. The third thing is specific networks that we watch a lot. Mainly Food Network for me.

I've been shopping antennas, Roku, X-Box One, Amazon Fire TV (have the stick and it crapped out after a year). Curious who here has left cable/satellite behind, how you went about it and do you have any regrets?

 

[Riverdude]

Great post Jesse..........been kicking this around as well so I am very interested in hearing what others have to say. We have Dish and actually only watch a fraction of the channels offered. I feel like I am paying for something we do not utilize or get the most buck for our money due to not watching the majority of the channels offered.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Outside of channels available over open air (i.e. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) we only watch a handful ourselves. Nearly everything we watch is now available on Hulu, Netflix or online. One issue with a lot of online content is you need a cable/satellite login to watch the content, which defeats the idea of having it online IMO. The stuff I'd be giving up is what I enjoy most outside of sports.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Looks like Sling TV might be a nice option... https://www.sling.com/package

 

[Milo]

Looks like Sling TV might be a nice option... https://www.sling.com/package

I might try the free trial. We have crappy internet though.

 

[Ohiosam]

Never have had cable or satellite. I can get 13 channels by antenna. Our internet is through Verizon with a jet pack, I'm fortunate to have unlimited data on that (more on that later) We have an Amazon fire stick and 2 Apple TV boxes. Subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon prime.

Now for several months we had trouble with Netflix buffering. Lots of calls to verizon and Netflix wasn't helping. I was sure verizon with dicking with us because of our unlimited data, it's an old plan and we are grandfathered in. Got to where we couldn't even sign in to Netflix.

#2 son got home, he's a software developer with a big company, and he thought Verizon was intentionally screwing with the Netflix. So he set up a VPN, a virtual private network. I don't understand it but he explained it that Verizon can no longer tell what we are doing so they can't screw with us. Anyhow everything is working good again.

 

[Riverdude]

We watch local channels, wife likes Halmark channel and I watch Discovery, History, CNBCHD, MNBCHD, ESPN. Once in a while I may hit a program and a channel I normally don't go TOO but that is about it.

Can't wait to see what others suggest or have.

 

[Archertl]

I wish there was a way to get just the sports channels. That is the only time we watch cable. Otherwise we watch YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon prime.

 

[Boarhead]

Right there with ya Jesse, wife and i are kicking around dumping direct tv,tired of everything always going up in price,seriously we could do without it,i know i woud get alot more things done i want to and besides we dont watch it much anyway,come hunting and trappng season i could care less about tv anyway.
Have netflix so would be fine with that anyway.

 

[Boarhead]

Sam what type Antenna do you use?

 

[Milo]

What are y'alls cable bills? I'm 110 a month with no movie channels, HD and DVR and I pay 3 bucks for outdoor channel. No extra boxes or anything

 

[bowhunter1023]

After changing packages and giving up Big10, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Pursuit and Fox Sports Cincy, I'm paying $108 a month. We have 2 boxes, one is a DVR. No movie channels. It's absurd it costs that much.

 

[Boarhead]

115 here no extra's,shit load of channels i never watch.
Rip off.
Use to have time warner,started out at 70 bucks and ended up at 185 thats when we switched to direct tv. Started at 58 now at 115.damn

 

[Milo]

After changing packages and giving up Big10, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Pursuit and Fox Sports Cincy, I'm paying $108 a month. We have 2 boxes, one is a DVR. No movie channels. It's absurd it costs that much.

direct?

 

[bowhunter1023]

direct?

Yes. And twice I have whittled it down.

 

[jagermeister]

What are y'alls cable bills? I'm 110 a month with no movie channels, HD and DVR and I pay 3 bucks for outdoor channel. No extra boxes or anything

Thats right on par with with what I'm paying... Same package... With Dish Network. No cable internet available out here in the sticks so the hulu/Netflix type shit is a no-go. Data is expensive.

 

[giles]

Hugh's net sucks to try and deal with. I used to hate direct tv, they ain't so bad after dealing with these dumbasses. I also can't go to a data type TV because of this. We thought about going through AT&T for our data... We're about to cut off direct and just forget the TV.

 

[Milo]

I think I have like 200 channels? Don't watch that many of them honestly

 

[hickslawns]

Internet and cable thru a local provider. $130/mo isn't impressing me. Keeps creeping higher. No clue how many channels. 150? 200? It's a bunch. No movie channels. With the kids watching a slew of TV channels I don't see us dropping any time soon.

 

[cotty16]

I'm in the same boat. I only watch the Pirates all summer. During football season, I watch the local channels for the Steelers and OSU. Other than that, I hardly watch my Direct. My kids seem to stream off Netflix more than anything. If any of these would get Root Sports and the ability to watch local NFL and NCAA, I'd jump on them.