Dropped Cable TV Today

[davismills]

What do you think of Tablo?

It looks interesting for OTA TV viewing and recording.

I like it and it's very easy to use and install. It basically pulls OTA stations via an antenna I installed in my attic and redistributes the data/video over my local area network. I use the four tuner model.

I use a Roku 3 on each of my three TVs to provide network capability to each TV. You create a private Roku channel on your Roku called Tablo. I also connected a 2 TB powered hard drive to my Tablo to store recordings.

If you open a few ports on your router you can even watch your recordings off site...much like a Slingbox capability. The Tablo will stream to Roku, Android, Chromecast...pretty much anything with a network connection.

 

[steelyman]

I finally took my Comcast cable/DVR box to The Ancient Burial Grounds For Overcharging For A Billion Channels You Don't Watch this morning. That's a sacred place.

I dumped them for Internet in 2011.

Between Ooma and Roku (+ Prime & Hulu) over AT&T and Comcast, it's a more financially-efficient future for me.

The last DVR-recorded thing I watched over this morning's coffee was "The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz: Making Of A Movie Classic", hosted by Angela Lansbury, a documentary I highly recommend and would like to see again. I recorded it off TCM, probably the one channel I'll miss.

 

[Mulligan]

I didnt drop this week but I did negotiate them down. Got $10 off from ATT, $10 off from Direct Tv, and an additional $5 off for combining the 2 bills. Not as good as deal as a new subscriber, but they threw me a big enough bone to make me feel like I am not the highest paying idiot that they laugh at.


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[W2R]

Between dropping cable TV and dropping my landline, I'm saving around $1750/year without missing a thing that I happen to care about. That has me grinning like the Cheshire Cat just from the thought of it.

 

[audreyh1]

It's been almost a year and a half since we dropped the cable. We haven't missed it at all. We watch mostly Netflix and a little Hulu and some Amazon Prime video. We never did get OTA working well but found we didn't care enough about it especially as we prefer watching things on our own schedule.

 

[DEC-1982]

We dropped cable about 3 years ago, Internet only since then. No regrets about that. However, given that Internet service is a duopoly in my area (Comcast/AT&T), the Comcast Internet charges keep increasing (current bottom line monthly cost $77.65). And we have to watch Internet usage so as to not cross the monthly 300 GB limit.

Sometimes I wonder whether there is any real competition.

 

[Mo Money]

It's been a bit over a year since dropping Comcast cable, and like audreyh1, we use Prime and Netflix.

We had the full Netflix package of 3 DVDs at a time along with streaming, but dropped down to one DVD at a time and streaming. This saved us ~$10/month at Netflix, and we used that $10 to pay the cost of subscribing to Prime. What a deal!

Our Comcast internet remains. Its cost creeps up (of course) and we are paying $78.95/mo. including taxes. But it is fast internet.

I'm sure there's a thread on that topic. (Cheaper internet.) Why can't we have real competition, or a community based ISP?

 

[Dawg52]

I dropped cable last year. I can pick up 10 local channels with an antenna and subscribe to Netflix. But I admit to missing a few channels like espn, TBS, AMC, Travel etc so I gave Sling TV a try. For $20 not a bad way to go to pick up an additional 20 channels or so. The picture quality is right at HD and my internet speed is just 3mpgs. The lowest speed Comcast offers. So I'm spending $28/mo as opposed to $75 for cable. Of course one could argue its really more with internet, but I would have that anyway.

 

[gerntz]

I'm spoiled with pausing a game on my DVR. That is so convenient to chase play a game. Let the game record for about an hour, then advance past the commercials and half-time to catch up to the live game near the end.

I think this is the gist of it. Cruising thru this thread, folks here that are cutting cable aren't listing how they legally get their sports junkie stations in the high quality and ability to speed thru them that I want. If I wasn't interested in sports - about half of my viewing - I too think the options folks here are raving about would be the right thing to do.

 

[W2R]

I think this is the gist of it. Cruising thru this thread, folks here that are cutting cable aren't listing how they legally get their sports junkie stations in the high quality and ability to speed thru them that I want. If I wasn't interested in sports - about half of my viewing - I too think the options folks here are raving about would be the right thing to do.

I'm not interested in watching sports, so that is not an issue for me. I get dozens of local channels OTA for free, including the major networks, and that provides enough for me.

 

[steelyman]

I dropped cable last year. I can pick up 10 local channels with an antenna and subscribe to Netflix. But I admit to missing a few channels like espn, TBS, AMC, Travel etc so I gave Sling TV a try. For $20 not a bad way to go to pick up an additional 20 channels or so. The picture quality is right at HD and my internet speed is just 3mpgs. The lowest speed Comcast offers. So I'm spending $28/mo as opposed to $75 for cable. Of course one could argue its really more with internet, but I would have that anyway.

This made me think about Sling again. Boom! There it is: TCM! Plus a few others I watched on Comcast (IFC, Sundance, ...)

Thanks!

 

[gerntz]

I'm not interested in watching sports, so that is not an issue for me. I get dozens of local channels OTA for free, including the major networks, and that provides enough for me.

I think that's what I said.

 

[ziggy29]

I'm not interested in watching sports, so that is not an issue for me. I get dozens of local channels OTA for free, including the major networks, and that provides enough for me.

I'm a sports fan, but not enough of a sports fan to spend over $100 a month just to watch sports. That said a lot of the cable networks are getting more and more into original programming and new series that seem interesting, and that seems to be their response to cable-cutting. There isn't much of a profit model in just syndicating old shows any more, since a Roku box with Hulu, Netflix and/or Amazon Prime can usually meet that need for cable cutters and dish ditchers.

I am intrigued by Sling but the lack of pause/rewind or lack of recently archived content on many of the channels is currently stopping me. If those were resolved, I'd probably be in for it. I am too spoiled by a DVR and the ability to pause, rewind and FF most content on Roku.

 

[steelyman]

I am among the sports fan crowd. I don't feel I've missed an inning of baseball this season because of realtime score updates through the MLB AtBat app.

If it was a game I really, really wanted to see "live"... I've been known to frequent sports bars.

 

[easysurfer]

Getting an OTA DVR/antenna set up that I was satisfied with plus Amazon Prime streaming, I'm pretty much set. I've even managed to not get Prime 2-day deliveries all the time to build up enough credits for movies, so they feel like free.

 

[Mulligan]

I am among the sports fan crowd. I don't feel I've missed an inning of baseball this season because of realtime score updates through the MLB AtBat app.

If it was a game I really, really wanted to see "live"... I've been known to frequent sports bars.

Steely did you ever consider buying the MLB package and watch the games online? Or is your favorite team a local one? NBA, MLB and NHL offer online, but NFL will not. So that is really what tethers me to satellite still. I would just go internet and buy sports packages if I could get NFL and knew for sure that I wouldn't go over my monthly internet limit and get smacked with overage use fees.


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[audreyh1]

We don't care to watch sports.

 

[steelyman]

Steely did you ever consider buying the MLB package and watch the games online? Or is your favorite team a local one? NBA, MLB and NHL offer online, but NFL will not. So that is really what tethers me to satellite still. I would just go internet and buy sports packages if I could get NFL and knew for sure that I wouldn't go over my monthly internet limit and get smacked with overage use fees.


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I knew about the MLB packages a while ago and thought about it but decided I didn't pay attention that much, just enough. Playoffs, World Series and Super Bowl are different, of course.

I don't even really need instant updates, actually. One year I was driving from IL to the Outer Banks for a mid-Sept vacation. It was a "hot year", baseball-wise. The Cubs and Cards were locked in a battle for first place in the division (maybe '89?). That's like BOS-NYY. There was a big weekend series at Wrigley and I chose a pretty but awful route with almost no radio reception.

The beach house we had barely had TV (that is, it didn't). But I got quickly used to walking to the pier in the morning, getting some coffee and the newspaper for the good old-fashioned way of getting the latest scores. Other people at the pier chatted baseball. I really enjoyed it!

 

[NoiseBoy]

What streaming device would work best for watching live sports streams that are on USGA.org and Masters.org? Currently, I hook the HDMI port of my laptop up to my Plasma TV to do this since it's only an occasional need, but if I buy a "cable cutting" streaming solution I'd like to have it handle this use case too. PBS.org would be another website I'd like to be able to access.

I'm still waiting to test an OTA antenna on the roof. I'm in the "need my live sports" fix group. Currently cable + internet bill is at $97/month for basic channels in HD, one DVR, and 30ish Mbps internet access. In our area the local phone company (Frontier) may have finally woken to the fact that their future lies with DSL and since they can't compete on speed, they are starting to offer what I think is a fair price on their 10Mbps DSL service.

 

[Mulligan]

I knew about the MLB packages a while ago and thought about it but decided I didn't pay attention that much, just enough. Playoffs, World Series and Super Bowl are different, of course.

I don't even really need instant updates, actually. One year I was driving from IL to the Outer Banks for a mid-Sept vacation. It was a "hot year", baseball-wise. The Cubs and Cards were locked in a battle for first place in the division (maybe '89?). That's like BOS-NYY. There was a big weekend series at Wrigley and I chose a pretty but awful route with almost no radio reception.

The beach house we had barely had TV (that is, it didn't). But I got quickly used to walking to the pier in the morning, getting some coffee and the newspaper for the good old-fashioned way of getting the latest scores. Other people at the pier chatted baseball. I really enjoyed it!

I am with you on baseball. I follow it daily through the local newspaper and articles about the previous nights game. I just do not like to watch the daily 162 grind. Hockey and Football however I enjoy watching the regular season games.


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[bclover]

I'm next in line. I have a triple pay package so I have to see if the contract is up. Then it's hats hasta la vista baby

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[mpeirce]

What streaming device would work best for watching live sports streams that are on USGA.org and Masters.org? ... PBS.org would be another website I'd like to be able to access.

Both usga.org and masters.com can be viewed on the iPad or iPhone and sent to the Apple TV using AirPlay if you want to view on a large screen.

PBS has a channel on the Apple TV.

Google's Chromecast works in a similar way (from Android phones and tablets) - you send the video to a Chromecast device which plugs into a HDMI port.

One thing to watch out for: I was watching a series on the PBS channel on our AppleTV and after watching a couple of episodes, took some time off from it. I came back to it after a few weeks and they had "rotated it off" - I couldn't finish watching the series. I'm used to TiVo which keeps things around until you want them deleted, so this caught be off guard.

 

[Mulligan]

Both usga.org and masters.com can be viewed on the iPad or iPhone and sent to the Apple TV using AirPlay if you want to view on a large screen.



pbs.org has an channel on the Apple TV.



Google's Chromecast works in a similar way (from Android phones and tablets) - you send the video to a Chromecast device which plugs into a HDMI port.



One thing to watch out for: I was watching a series on the PBS channel on our AppleTV and after watching a couple of episodes, took some time off from it. I came back to it after a few weeks and they had "rotated it off" - I couldn't finish watching the series. I'm used to TiVo which keeps things around until you want them deleted, so this caught be off guard.

It appears it is getting closer to cutting the cord even if you are a sports watcher. But it still isn't quite there yet for a more comprehensive watcher such as myself. If everything can eventually get there, then I will probably be whacked with some overuse policy. They want to grab you by the short hairs no matter which way you want to save a buck. NBA is going to a package method to allow you to watch one team instead of whole league. So logic would indicate the cost would be about 1/15 of the price (watching 2 teams instead of 30). Well that would be wrong. They are hinting the price will be about 75% of the entire package. Wow, big savings!


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[GTFan]

I'm a sports fan, but not enough of a sports fan to spend over $100 a month just to watch sports. That said a lot of the cable networks are getting more and more into original programming and new series that seem interesting, and that seems to be their response to cable-cutting. There isn't much of a profit model in just syndicating old shows any more, since a Roku box with Hulu, Netflix and/or Amazon Prime can usually meet that need for cable cutters and dish ditchers.

I am intrigued by Sling but the lack of pause/rewind or lack of recently archived content on many of the channels is currently stopping me. If those were resolved, I'd probably be in for it. I am too spoiled by a DVR and the ability to pause, rewind and FF most content on Roku.

I'm a big sports fan so I get the double play bundle from Comcast for $100 a month. 75Mb HSI + all cable channels + HBO. Given that HSI alone costs more than $60 a month, I consider the cable cost well worth it. And I get to use a Tivo which is far superior to Comcast's DVR and also allows us to stream a bunch of stuff too if we want (can access Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Hulu etc.). Plus Comcast On Demand. Plus watching DVR'd shows is so much better than having to sit through commercials and put up with the other streaming limitations you mentioned.

Every time my promo expires I just call them up, select the cancel/downgrade service option, then get some retention rep that can offer me the new customer deal. Hasn't failed me yet in the over 10 years that I've had them.

 

[Fishingmn]

I took steps on Friday to cut the cord. We really like our DVR and a number of mainstream programs but the $100/mo cable bill is really high. Here's the new set-up -

- Tablo OTA DVR
- 2 tb Hard Drive
- OTA Antenna (have a $20 one from Best Buy that works great)
- Roku's (2 Roku 2 units and 1 Roku Streaming Stick)

We will get all the OTA channels, Netflix and Sling TV. Our cost/mo should go down to $25/mo (save $900/year). We still get to record all of our favorite shows, wife gets HGTV, I get ESPN and all of the Vikings games. My biggest regret is missing out on hockey. First year cost of $450 for hardware has a 6 month payback.