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My Verizon bill for their cable TV, internet, and land line bundle just went up to $147 a month. It's too much. I'm getting 15/15 mbps internet service, and I plan to keep that, plus the telephone.
I'm an old-school "desktop PC with separate monitor man", not a "smart phone" guy. I'm in the continental U.S.
If I drop cable TV (including the outlandish $16.99 a month I pay for their DVR), I'll need to replace it with something.
- I'm sure I should buy a powered digital antenna.
- Should I get Netflix? Apparently their premium service is less than my DVR rental alone. What about other streaming services I've heard less about, instead?
- Should I get a streaming device like Roku? Do you need one, and if so why?
- Can those TV streaming appliances record broadcast shows while you're at work? Or, with a service like Netflix, do you even need to time-shift broadcasts anymore?
Lots of questions for the uninitiated guy like myself.
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"Pull out the plug, Spock!!!"
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I got rid of my television four years ago.
I cancelled the Xfinity service, and sold my large flat screen TV on Craigslist.
I started a Netflix account, and I watch all of my video entertainment on my computer monitor.
I don't miss commercial television at all.
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Posted: |
Sep 26, 2016 - 11:09 AM
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By: |
ScottyM
(Member)
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I'm considering getting this antenna. In my area, I would get about 50-60 channels.
http://www.tvantennasale.com/Lava-HD-2605-Ultra-Outdoor-TV-Antenna-p/lavahd2605ultra.htm
- Should I get a streaming device like Roku? Do you need one, and if so why?
I would and did. I have the Roku 3, which I love. It's the best way to get a large variety of paid and free streaming channels to your TV. Smart TVs have a much more limited selection. Unless you get a Roku TV. Netflix, Amazon Prime (which I pay for anyway), Warner Archives, Shout TV, etc. plus you can choose to sign up for some premium cable channels you might miss, like Showtime or what have you. You pick and choose your content and won't be stuck with 1000+ channels you never watch. I don't enjoy sports, so that's 75% of my cable channel selection right there.
I would just need to find a DVR sorta thing that won't cost me a ridiculous monthly fee.
- Should I get Netflix? Apparently their premium service is less than my DVR rental alone. What about other streaming services I've heard less about, instead?
Get more than Netflix, but they do have the largest library. At the moment.
- Can those TV streaming appliances record broadcast shows while you're at work? Or, with a service like Netflix, do you even need to time-shift broadcasts anymore?
Netflix and other streaming services are a year behind. You won't see last week's Hawaii Five O until the season is well over and the next season is ready to begin. That's why you should have an antenna and some kind of recorder. Hulu and other streaming services have more recent broadcasts and they have ads like regular TV. I'm not as up on those.
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Thanks, guys. Good info.
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Posted: |
Sep 27, 2016 - 10:37 AM
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By: |
Buttons
(Member)
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My wife and I cut cable over five years ago and haven't missed it. Right now we have Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Video (it's also nice accessing all of our digital movie collection through Vudu). Each offer something good, but if I had to pick only one or two services I'd go with Netflix and Hulu (about $20 a month combined).
If you miss some of the cable channels you could try Sling TV or PlayStation Vue. Vue is more expensive but offers a lot more including cloud-based DVR and local sports channels. We tried both for extended periods of time, but found out we weren't using them much because we were oversaturated with entertainment through OTA TV, Netflix, Hulu, and Blu-rays. Also, Sling TV never really worked properly. Vue almost always worked.
We also have an antenna connected to all of our TVs for OTA channels (which still have my favorite shows anyway). We like watching TV through our XBOX One that has a built-in tv schedule and, with Kinect, voice controls. You can also pause, rewind, and fast forward up to 30 minutes of television with the additional TV tuner.
You can technically use the Xbox One TV tuner or other tuners and use your computer as a DVR for OTA channels. The Xbox One tuner worked well when I used it on my laptop.
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I am a Time Warner/Charter customer -- I cancelled the TV portion of my bundle over a year ago -- just kept internet and phone service. My bluray player has built in apps that keep me endlessly entertained on my flat screen TV. I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime. Those services, along with YouTube, Crackle, and other apps from the Opera TV Store that offer free movies/programming, provide me with thousands of choices each hour -- I never miss traditional TV in the slightest. For example I catch up with news every morning by using the AP News app -- it organizes their up-to-date news feed into categories (World, US, Entertainment, Technology, Sports). After I read through the various stories every morning, I've read the equivalent of a daily newspaper. I catch up with Weather for myself and family in other parts of the world/country using various weather apps. I can access weather satellite feeds on the US Gov website to track storms and hurricanes. YouTube, at least for the moment, is a treasure trove of movies, TV shows, and great, great stuff. I watched the Presidential Debate via live streaming on the YouTube PBS news channel. Google will no doubt keep messing around with YouTube until they ruin it.
So for me, this choice to cut the cord saved a great deal of money and hasn't really made any difference in my level of entertainment and/or world awareness.
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