[LiveBrianD]

After reading another article on cable cutting, I was wondering - who here has gotten rid of cable and started using internet video streaming instead, still has it, or never had it in the first place? Personally, my dad got rid of the cable a few years ago, and I don't miss it one bit. (but then again, he's the only one in the house who watches TV often - I very rarely do) On the other hand, I'm reading that few people have actually done that. What about you?

[mjd420nova]

LBD: Yes. I cut the cord from cable and switched to satelite TV and DSL for the internet. I have since moved to HD on the satelite and now spend more time watching the tube(redundant) instead of surfing. Comcast provided exceptional speeds but became far too expensive compared to the satelite and DSL providers. ATT has their own TV service but in setting up a few systems for clients, those phone lines just can't handle the throughput of both TV and internet at the same time. Upper levels offer better speeds but are far beyond my budget. After September, the satelite will get dumped and we'll use broadcast only. I've looked into getting TV from the internet but again, with three other machines on the router and trying to stream shows through to the TV just gets too bogged down. I'm not a big fan of watching TV on a small screen again.

[compnovo]

We have Comcast's so-called "triple play" in our house (phone, internet, cable TV) and the cable TV is the least expensive component. We only have limited basic cable, which gives us the major stations (and several useless ones) in HD; otherwise our TV is used solely for watching Netflix movies (streaming and disc) through the media center PC. We haven't cut the cord yet because there are a few shows on Fox that we like, and we live too far out in farm country to receive over-the-air broadcasts.

[coastie65]

I have Verizon FiOS and really like it. Got rid of ComCast in '04 and went to DirecTV for two years until FiOS was brought in. Got the Internet, TV, and Phone all bundled in one package. The Phone is FReedom Phone and I can call anywhere in the Continental U.S. as a local call. Tha's good because all of my relatives are on the West Coast.

[LincolnSpector]

Switching to satellite or FIOS isn't really cutting the cable, IMHO. Sure, technically, it is, but you're still paying a high monthly fee for a huge number of stations, most of which you don't want.

Last spring, we cancelled our Dish Network (satellite) account, and the complaining didn't last long. We subscribe to Netflix and Hulu Plus. I bought an antenna so we can get over-the-air broadcasting, and I set up a laptop with a broken screen as a DVR, so we can record those broadcasts.

We have Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions.

The only time i've missed "cable" was when this new season of Mad Men started. But we can buy the new episodes off Vudu for $2 each; that's a lot cheaper than Dish Network. And so what if we have to wait a day before we can watch The Daily Show on Hulu Plus.


We still have far more we want to watch than we have time for.

Lincoln

[LiveBrianD]

Yeah, now that's what I was talking about. I guess we really are in the minority then.

[mjd420nova]

The Stanley Cup has captured my attention and my spare time has lost five hours everyother day. This family has become sport nuts and need the third level sports package to get all the football games, baseball, hockey, basketball and toss in Nacsar(whole nother package there) $85. a month for HD. Fair, Comcast wanted $115. and the ATT package SUX, too many categories and needed five packages to get the three now. Now if they somehow pull a fiber optic to my outlet?? Might think about that. Another thread was looking into OTA and that's the best of all, only charges you once. And it's FREE.

This post has been edited by mjd420nova: 08 May 2012 - 05:28 PM

[LiveBrianD]

My family's not interested in sports, so it's probably easier for us to cut cable TV than most people.

[mjd420nova]

October, when I retire, the tomfoolery will cease. A thirty foot mast, assocoated hardware to support a nice $65. antenna. No rotor, a good enough antenna will pick up nearby signals and even a bounce can be had with up to 120 mile range. The more hardware you have in the air, the better but don't over due it. Good installions can last a long time, longer than most roofs.

[smax013]

I was seriously thinking about it yesterday.

I currently have Comcast. Late Sunday night all of a sudden my HDTV screen when completely green. After futzing with stuff for a while yesterday (I have an HDMI switch box to switch between several devices that connects into an HDMI splitter box that feed the HDTV and my 720p projector), I concluded that the HDMI port on my Comcast DVR was not working. I could still watch stuff from the DVR box on my TV by way of the SVideo port, which meant no HD. I was figuring that I would need a new box, so I was trying to clean stuff off the old box and a watch some of the recorded shows before I called Comcast. I was expecting them to want to charge me to come out to replace the DVR box even though I pay them rent each month for a WORKING box...and since they closed their office in town, I would have had to drive about an hour to take the box in myself for no cost (unless they now charge for that now as well).

As a result, I was getting a bit worked up. I figured if they were gonna charge me to get a replacement box for something that I pay a monthly rental fee for, then bye, bye Comcast for TV. I was not looking forward to that as I am a TVaholic and I don't get squat OTA by way of an internal antenna that I have (the only thing that I can get with it is some religiously channel...no thanks). But, I was pretty sure that I was not going to be willing to pay Comcast more money to get a working box when I already pay rent on it each month.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that. Late last night while watching something, my DVR rebooted right in the middle of watching that show and after it finished rebooting/resetting, I had my HDMI connection back. So, I am good to go for now.

The problem that I face is that I do watch sports...mainly college football, but also some hockey and pro football. While you can get some of that on OTA network stations (assuming you can get them, which I cannot at this point), there is a quite a bit that is on cable sports stations such as ESPN. Much of what I watch is still on the traditional major networks, so assuming that I could get OTA channels, I would largely be fine. But I do watch some things USA, AMC, FX, and TNT. So, I do not really want to "cut the cord", but at some point it might something that I just have to do.

[SnyperTodd]

Brian, I dropped cable and switched to Netflix and an antenna over a year ago. It was not necessarily my choice; last February my (now ex-)wife decided she would be happier with some guy she met on Facebook. I moved out in March, and I'm renting a house up the street from my parents, "borrowing" their internet connection through a WDS between a pair of Linksys WRT54GS routers. On their 3Mbps () DSL connection, we can both stream a netflix movie at the same time with no problems. I have been hearing about Hulu Plus, but haven't checked it out yet. I will look into that- is it available on Android?. I really don't watch much TV either, I've been doing a lot of over the road stuff to avoid coming home to an empty house. Most of the Netflix I watch is in the truck on my cellphone. That's also why I haven't been on here much lately, by the way, but hopefully that will change in the next few weeks- I'll be switching to a different company where I'll be home every day again, and then I may go back to cable. I haven't decided yet...

[LiveBrianD]

Fyi, it looks like hulu plus is on android. I used to have 1.5mbps DSL (more like 1.3mbps peak realistically), and could stream 480p video ok (just barely though; 360p video worked quite nicely). I hope that job switch ends up working out for you.

[coastie65]

SnyperTodd, on 08 May 2012 - 07:18 PM, said:

Brian, I dropped cable and switched to Netflix and an antenna over a year ago. It was not necessarily my choice; last February my (now ex-)wife decided she would be happier with some guy she met on Facebook. I moved out in March, and I'm renting a house up the street from my parents, "borrowing" their internet connection through a WDS between a pair of Linksys WRT54GS routers. On their 3Mbps () DSL connection, we can both stream a netflix movie at the same time with no problems. I have been hearing about Hulu Plus, but haven't checked it out yet. I will look into that- is it available on Android?. I really don't watch much TV either, I've been doing a lot of over the road stuff to avoid coming home to an empty house. Most of the Netflix I watch is in the truck on my cellphone. That's also why I haven't been on here much lately, by the way, but hopefully that will change in the next few weeks- I'll be switching to a different company where I'll be home every day again, and then I may go back to cable. I haven't decided yet...

I did that OTR stuff for about two years. Liked the freedom of being on the road intitially, but didn't care much for the 4 wheelers that thought one of those rigs could stop on a dime or didn't give you room to make a turn. I was aware of the other thing as you had PM'd about it as I had been in a similar situation and mentioned it at some point. Been going through my trials, but in a different circumstance this year ( keep getting blocked by someone on YouTube & FB ). When the time comes to how you want to do TV & Internet, just look over the options that are available. You really do want Hi Speed Internet with as few restrictions ( bandwidth and such ) as possible with that as well.

[SnyperTodd]

LiveBrianD, on 08 May 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

Fyi, it looks like hulu plus is on android. I used to have 1.5mbps DSL (more like 1.3mbps peak realistically), and could stream 480p video ok (just barely though; 360p video worked quite nicely). I hope that job switch ends up working out for you.

Hmmm, thanks for finding that, LBD. I looked for it from my phone last night, but it didn't show up because it's not specifically compatible with it. I have a Motorola Photon, I might see if it can find the .apk for Hulu+ and see what happens with it. I'm gonna give Hulu+ a shot, it looks like they've got a lot of content and the price is right.

[LiveBrianD]

It looks like this works with the Photon.

[SnyperTodd]

LiveBrianD, on 09 May 2012 - 03:09 PM, said:

It looks like this works with the Photon.

That's funny, I just found that and downloaded it and came back here to post that in case anyone else was interested in it, and you beat me too it!

[LiveBrianD]

SnyperTodd, on 09 May 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 09 May 2012 - 03:09 PM, said:

It looks like this works with the Photon.

That's funny, I just found that and downloaded it and came back here to post that in case anyone else was interested in it, and you beat me too it!

[SnyperTodd]

coastie65, on 09 May 2012 - 08:34 AM, said:

I did that OTR stuff for about two years. Liked the freedom of being on the road intitially, but didn't care much for the 4 wheelers that thought one of those rigs could stop on a dime or didn't give you room to make a turn. I was aware of the other thing as you had PM'd about it as I had been in a similar situation and mentioned it at some point. Been going through my trials, but in a different circumstance this year ( keep getting blocked by someone on YouTube & FB ). When the time comes to how you want to do TV & Internet, just look over the options that are available. You really do want Hi Speed Internet with as few restrictions ( bandwidth and such ) as possible with that as well.

I started out OTR in 2003 as soon as I turned 21 and always missed it when I went local. It is a pain sharing the road with 4 wheelers, but there isn't much you can do about them- it's more of a pain to run one over! I had a guy in a Ford Explorer pulling a 26' camping trailer run a stop sign and turn into my lane about 30 yards ahead of me while I was doing 55 on a busy state highway outside Janesville, WI. That was in June of 2007, my first and only accident, and I still suffer neck and shoulder pain every day from that. He had no insurance and tried to run and ended up losing his license. I've been OTR since October of last year- it was easier than coming home to an empty house every night, but in a couple weeks I'm going to start doing night line haul for a regional company here. I appreciate the support you've given me Coastie, until now only a couple of people on here knew about my divorce and all have been invaluable to me. I'm starting to come to terms with it now, which is why I'm going local again and gonna try to settle back down. (Back on topic ) I'll probably go back to Comcast, I don't think we have any other cable option and I know we don't have a fiber option here yet, and I miss my 30Mbps connection!

[LiveBrianD]

There's no fiber here either. Just 768kbps DSL from AT&T (yes, you read that right) or up to 105mbps cable internet from Comcast. Around here, most people hate Comcast (customer service) and would prefer service from AT&T, but hate how their service is so slow (we're a bit far from the hub, and it seems that they'd rather loose a ton of customers than upgrade the infrastructure).

[SnyperTodd]

LiveBrianD, on 09 May 2012 - 05:48 PM, said:

There's no fiber here either. Just 768kbps DSL from AT&T (yes, you read that right) or up to 105mbps cable internet from Comcast. Around here, most people hate Comcast (customer service) and would prefer service from AT&T, but hate how their service is so slow (we're a bit far from the hub, and it seems that they'd rather loose a ton of customers than upgrade the infrastructure).

105Mbps!! I'd kill for a connection like that! Comcast's customer service is pretty bad. We had Insight before Comcast bought them out, and never had any complaints or problems with them. The few times I dealt with customer service, it was quite good. As soon as Comcast came along, we started having lots of problems (slowdowns, connection problems, TV problems, etc) and their customer service was abhorrent. Unfortunately, Comcast is my only option for real high-speed internet, and I refuse to pay good money for this laughable DSL connection.

BTW- Hulu Plus is working just fine on my Photon with that modded .apk. I'm glad you started this topic, Brian. I'm running a CM9-based ICS rom (Gummy) on my Photon, and Netflix isn't working properly on it, but Hulu Plus works just fine. Thanks!