I've Just Cut The Cord

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ALAN SICHERMAN, Mar 17, 2020.

  1. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Not sure how paying $65 a month for a television service is "cutting the cord", it is just coming down another cord, and like regular cable you still can't select which channels you actually want.

    Cutting the cord in my case means an OTA antenna (14 local channels), Pluto app (free), Roku TV (free), Netflix and DAZN (Canadian streaming service for certain sports I like such as English Premier League). Total inc high speed internet $75 Canadian = < $60 US.
     
    Trader Joe likes this.
  2. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    Not much variety there, except for Netflix.
     
  3. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    How much TV do you want to watch? There is more than enough there to keep me occupied for several hours a day. And the OTA channels (all main Canadian networks, US ones too if you have a rooftop antenna) have plenty of variety - news, sports, movies, sitcoms, reality shows (it I cared about them) etc.

    People who pay for TV services and are then bombarded with commercials are actually paying twice.
     
  4. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    That's a fair point. I would not consider that we've "cut the cord" if we are paying nearly the same amount to an internet-streaming TV-channel package, as we would if we just paid Comcast for comparable channel lineup.

    Right now we just have a few "a la carte" services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, CBS All Access. That only costs us about $30/month, and we can pause or cancel most of those services whenever we want. For example, we might choose to pause/cancel CBS All Access in a few months, and sign up for HBO Max for a few months.

    And I'm sorta looking a bit at an OTA DVR device like Amazon Fire TV Recast:
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074J1GPB8/

    Over The Air TV is so much more useful for us when we can time-shift our shows.
     
  5. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    I like watching quality programming, PBS, HBO, SHOWTIME, TCM...the list goes on.
     
  6. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I don't care about sports so that's not a feature for me. Does the YT VCR let you skip every commercial break?
     
  7. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I'm trying to offer the general notion that YTTV DVR is smart, and offered a sports-related example because that IS what I care about. :)

    Yes, there are no forced commercial viewings, which Sling had. Sling also would not allow recording from a couple of channels, which were "live only" (which was quite inconvenient).

    YTTV > Sling by a wide margin, in my experience
     
  8. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I have a TiVo to record OTA shows.
     
  9. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Isn't Tivo kind of expensive, compared to Fire TV Recast?

    I just googled and found this article with info about Tivo cost, which includes annual fees, that appears to be at least $400 to start (plus annual fees every year after that):
    How Much Does a TiVo Box and Service Plan Cost? .

    Compare that with Fire TV Recast which is on sale today for $200, has no annual fees.

    I just discussed our options with my partner, and we placed an order for the following:
    • Fire TV Recast $200
    • Fire TV Cube $100
    • HD antenna $28

    Should all arrive by next Tuesday!

    Craig.
     
  10. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    A good option I think.

    I have had quite a few TiVos and most of them I picked up at discount with lifetime service included. My current TiVo Bolt (500GB) cost me $249 inc lifetime service (in 2017).

    They used to be far superior to competitors in terms of guide data, no. of tuners and season passes etc. Not sure that is still the case. They also have many apps on them now which you can get anyway on a Firestick, Roku or Apple TV etc.
     
    CraigVC likes this.
  11. Cliff

    Cliff Magic Carpet Man

    Location:
    Northern CA
    I cut the cable cord a few years back. Streamed DTV Now for a bit and then PS Vue until they went under in January. I then found myself going back to digital cable for the remainder of the NFL Season (SB). After the SB I cut it completely for several months. I just watched Netflix, Prime and several free apps on my streamers. But no real live TV...

    Xfinity was gouging me on their internet with unlimited bandwidth ($125+/month) since I cancelled their cable service. At least until June, when a local company finished their fiber build and now I have 1 gig (up-load and down) fiber for $50/month including taxes. I subbed to YouTube TV for the NFL season but then I'll cancel it after the Super Bowl. Wish I could get antenna reception but I'm just out of reach from the SF Towers. Streaming is so much better than being stuck with one provider of cable/sat. It's a lot more fun too.
     
    brownie61 likes this.
  12. TheDailyBuzzherd

    TheDailyBuzzherd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Pretty soon I'm gonna upgrade my setup to capture some FM and perhaps
    a couple of VHF stations. It'll be tricky, as I already have a UHF omnidirec-
    tional up there and the new Yagi is only going to be a few feet away. That'll
    make a total of three antennas up there.
     
  13. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Well, I don't know what else will get you many channels for $20/month. Maybe the basic Spectrum, but their website was confusing as hell and of course kept trying to get me to bundle, and even their rep couldn't explain the difference between the tiers.

    Philo got AXS, Food, Cooking, Travel, History-that was the stuff my wife wanted to watch and screw the rest for DirecttomywalletTV's $135/month. Plus the shows will start from the start even if you don't tune in on time, and will hang around if you don't finish, albeit for some random amount of time.
    AND it turns out some channel has all the Perry Mason episodes that I was slowly working through on DIRECTV! Yay! :pineapple:
     
  14. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA

    MeTV?
     
  15. mr. steak

    mr. steak Forum Resident

    Location:
    chandler az
    Non subscription channels off the top of my head:
    Over the air local
    Samsung Smart TV Channels
    Pluto
    RokuTV
    IMDB
    Crackle
    Youtube

    Other than the cost of of an antenna/Roku/FireStick I wouldn't have to pay a dime for tons and tons of TV shows and movies. I consider much of it unwatchable crap but then so is most of cable.
     
  16. CraigVC

    CraigVC Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    We cut the cord several months ago, and this month I signed up for one month of Sling TV for $30, to watch the college football bowl/playoff/championship games.

    What surprised and disappointed me is that Sling TV inserts their own blocks of additional commercials into the live and DVR'ed programming. We were watching the game last night, and with Alabama in the "red zone" and about to run another play, Sling TV suddenly started a block of their own commercials... By the time they resumed showing the program, Alabama had already kicked a field goal and were about to kickoff to Ohio State.

    That to me is an unacceptable tradeoff. So I will be canceling Sling TV.

    For local channels, we have a window-mounted flat-panel HDTV antenna, but in Pacific Northwest wind and rain, about 9 miles from the transmitter towers, it barely pulls in any channels reliably. Now we're considering installing an (ugly) outdoor antenna on our rooftop.

    Cutting the cord has saved money (about $100 a month compared to our previous Comcast bills), but it has been difficult and often frustrating, with a lot of compromises and workarounds to manage.
     
  17. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I’ve thinned the cord but cannot cut it because we rely too heavily on DVR use (and I don’t trust cloud storage, even if it is hefty - I understand Sling’s is only 10 hours). I use FiOS - I feel like spitting when I say that - and it’s five channel plan, which is quite sufficient now that I’m off sports. But I note I did watch the game last night using the ESPN app and airplay. I didn’t think that was possible without being subscribed to ESPN via a TV subscription program.
     
  18. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    That's why I won't "cut the cord". I've been quite happy with Comcast. Nothing is cheap, but with their bundle of cable TV, DVR, internet, landline and a huge savings on their mobile service, my monthly runs just under $200. That's with HBO, Showtime, TCM, etc. I also run a Roku box for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Peacock, Disney + and HBO MAX. (I share these apps with family members.) These apps are also available to set up on the X1 DVR, but my Roku offers Dolby Digital Plus and non-compressed video. I really couldn't be happier.
     
  19. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    Broadcast is free. God only knows how much money I'm saving by not having cable or Internet at home! :) (I access the World Wide Web via my wireless telephone.)

    I cut the cord some years ago -- and I was amazed at how much better the picture quality was! (I didn't know cable downgraded picture to standard def. What a ripoff.) Only problem is weather/location dependent -- sometimes I have to move the antenna about to get the picture to come in (and it's inevitably when there's something on I really want to watch.)
     
  20. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    It's somewhat ironic. I'm now down to five channels outside of the original five (we have two in addition to the basic three where I am). My DVR is loaded at 75% with stuff to watch, mostly from about three of the five channels I get. When I had the full complement, there seemed to be nothing to watch.
     
    ALAN SICHERMAN likes this.
  21. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Good question-Perry Mason is just appearing at the top of my home page, I resume, if I've seen it I fast-forward until another episode starts. I can't see those episodes otherwise. It's a little weird and serendipitious, like when I got my brother a DOSS WiFi speaker and it started streaming Van Halen bootlegs (no I am not making that up!)
     
  22. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I'm just going to say it, but SPECTRUM sucks and they suck LARGE. I thought that they would clean up the mess that Time Warner left me with, but they are even worse than them by a hundred!!!
     
  23. Big Jimbo

    Big Jimbo Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY
    I cut the cord with Verizon yesterday, keeping the internet. Not sure what to do with hockey starting but I understand there is this thing called radio which is free of monthly payments although your mind has to supply the picture. Tempted to get it back but the longer I go without it; the less I will miss it. Plus I have a couple streaming things on my Roku.
     
  24. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    I never could follow hockey on TV anyway. All I’d see is a lot of stick work then one team with their hands in the air next to a disappointed goalie. It seems to be a game you can only really watch via slow motion instant replay. Do they still use that yellow streak for the puck? That was more annoying than helpful. They’re using it in golf now where it does seem to help.
     
  25. SJP

    SJP Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anaheim
    We went back to Spectrum after the Time Warner mess (and yes, Time Warner left us very cold) and couldn't be happier. Have been back on board for about 3 years. One service call needed which was accomplished same day. On top of everything, Spectrum News is outstanding, at least in the Los Angeles metro area. Professional community-focused stories and profiles keep us watching. It appears this is part of a value-added strategy to keep cable customers. It is certainly helping us stay on board.
     

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