I just got tired of paying more and more for less and less. They raised my monthly rate to $135/month and late last year they made a change where I had to use a cable box, which I hate.
But the real killer – I turned on MSNBC and there they were – talking about Monica Lewinski and the possibility of Donald Trump running for president and I just wanted to rip my eyes out. TV is making me stupid. The news media are drug pushers, nothing but bad news, and in an age where things have never been better. I’m tired about knowing who got shot, who was hit by a train, the culture wars, it’s like they are sucking my brains out through a tiny straw.
So I think everything I need to watch is online and I have a Chromecast device on my TV so I can watch it on the big screen. I can initiate shows from my computer, cell phone, or tablet. So I’m going to see how it goes. Change my lifestyle. Get away from the idea that things come on at a specific time. Get rid of the obsolete idea of “channels”. And I’m saving $80 a month. I’m still using the Charter internet which is just $51/month for 60mb.
Thoughts?
Congrats for taking a big step towards cognitive freedom. I cut my cable service long ago and only regret not doing it sooner.
Barry Diller and company tried to restructure it for consumer benefit and our last great American monarchy, the supreme court, nailed the coffin shut. Pay through the nose. We could of had 1000 options. Now with M&A action we’ll have two or three options and one of those is shutting it off. That leaves a dualopoly.
Without the cable box, you don’t get HD channels, right?
I don’t get channels at all anymore. It’s just internet.
Another reminder how good NBC news is:
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11511129/Naked-man-at-Buckingham-Palace-fooled-American-television-network.html
Har!!
My good wife and I ended our subscription to satellite tv well over a year ago when the monthly cost went to $125 per month. Watching with Roku boxes and subscriptions to our choice of 5 of the big streaming providers saves us $75 a month and we love to binge. Spent a month watching Lost from start to finish and continue to do so with other series. When we want to, we can watch over the air broadcasts for current news ect. We are completely satisfied and have purchased DVD when we want. The cable and satellite providers never offered ala carte, which is pretty much what we have now. The major networks will get their acts together, someday, and we will have a little more to choose from. Oh, and I have a media server with 800 + items from out video collection that the Roku likes just fine.
“That gave Aereo the opening they needed. Aereo, like Cablevision, runs data centers that receive and record TV programs, in Aereo’s case based on customer programming entered via the Internet. Unlike Cablevision, however, which captured content it was already receiving from its channel partners, Aereo TV simply gets its content from the airwaves.”
https://hbr.org/2013/03/aereo-tv-barely-legal-by-desig
The data center model increases efficiency and load balance. Result is better service that costs less. I suppose we could not allow data centers to operate like this. We can also not have big distillers and everybody can just build basement or backyard stills. Out of water in California? You can use your empty tub to make gin and run bathroom gin mills!
“Here’s why this service challenges broadcasters and cable TV providers. Cable TV is threatened because people could drop their service and rely solely on Aereo, DVDs and Netflix for their entertainment. Not everyone would be willing to lose ESPN, USA, Lifetime and the other popular channels, but some might — especially with rising cable TV rates.
Broadcasters already offer their signals for free, so there may not be an obvious threat from Aereo. But because broadcasters charge cable TV systems to carry their signals with a per-subscriber fee, any drop in cable viewership eventually impacts the stations.”
http://media.about.com/b/2012/02/17/new-service-to-compete-with-traditional-broadcast-and-cable-tv.htm
Some might has turned into some are…With the Twitter storm over Noah/Comedy Central and the tacky jokes expect more people to abandon cable. I can be insulted for free, so why pay $125.00 a month to be insulted?
This looks like a killer no brainer deal. I have rabbit ears. For .41 cents a month you get a plus plan. You can even watch on the phone. New TV watch might put TV on your wrist.
Purchase RabbitTVPlus for as low as $0.41/month. Make the switch today and say goodbye to your monthly cable bills.
Works on Desktop, Tablet & Smart Phones
http://rabbittvplus.com/
We killed our cable service over 6 years ago. Between Netflix Instant, Hulu, Amazon and Netflix DVDs/Blu-Rays, we have more media to chew through than we have time.
The best thing about it is not having a clue when people ask you if you’ve seen such-and-such commercial. Disconnecting from live news channels is another huge benefit.
Get a roku.
It’s the best device for internet tv.
I like it better than the chromecast and fire tv stick.
Absolutely. The Roku is fantastic. It’s far better than the Chromecast POS.
My wife and I cut out satellite last year and switched to streaming services supplemented by over the air TV. Put an antenna in my attic and bought a Tablo box to use as a streaming DVR. With Roku boxes on all the TV’s in the house, I can watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, or regular network TV and have never been happier.
We use a PS4 for all of our watching needs. Youtube, Amazon prime, and Netflix – we get most things just with that.
I do use the pc to surf news (news.google.com and various reddits) – but I like being able to look stuff up after reading/hearing about a new idea.
Unfortunately, it isn’t that much of a savings, as I’m currently paying (most likely too much) $100 a month for internet (50 mbs down/up) + phone (need a land line for work). If google gigabit shows up in this area, I’ll try to sign up as soon as it’s available. (not likely any time soon, not in a huge city)
The History Channel isn’t history.
The Weather Channel isn’t weather.
The “news” isn’t news, but someone reading party talking points.
ESPN is the only channel that delivers what they claim to be offering.
Thank God Playmakers failed. Then again, they seem to be moving into activism. How many more stories are they going to do on Michael Sam?
You left out the worst of all of them: MTV.
We just dumped Dish and the land line and ADT. We got Time Warner with 50Mbit, phone and several hundred channels, two DVRs and a remote TV and SimpliSafe for alarm.
We save $80 a month now and at the end of a year we may just dump the phone/TV and keep Internet and go the route you guys do.
Thanks for the tips I may get a Roku to play with.
Roku for Netflix/Hulu/etc. and an antenna for over the HD have had me free from cable tv for almost 3 years now, it’s great 🙂
I tried to dump Comcast a few years ago and got a Roku type box to stream internet. I got a Patriot box and it works great but only on the component cables…google indicates the hdmi connection not working is pretty common from this box.
So….yes, news is toxic for many people…..but I’m hooked. I’m forcing myself to zip through the brain damaging items==like any politician talking about anything, and their mouth pieces, any item on the weather or plane crashes or murder investigations, BECAUSE==they are all the same: “We don’t know anything yet but air travel is the safest form of transport there is…… yada, yada…
I did switch from Comcast to Dish and my bill with HBO is 90 a month with $20 for dsl internet connection. Skype for phone calls is almost for free the little bit I use it and the sound quality is just fine==800 numbers are free. With Dish, I’m getting Link TV that has some good shows, same with Talk to AlJeera. Good straight reporting on many issues….. and fun to watch the political twists–same with RT or Russian TV.
There are pros and cons to all we do. I like the habit pattern of my news shows being current. I probably would have and would now make the switch “if” I was not living in a dip that makes OTA limited to one poorly received channel. My Smart TV has apps that look like they stream the internet without need for any additional box but without high speed internet, they don’t work.
……….reading…………books. I only do it in default. My own brain rot must be fairly advanced.
If I could get the Golf Channel (been playing golf since 1958, don’t give my sh!t) without subscribing to Dish or Comcrap, I’d unplug in a heartbeat …
I get straight VDSL2 internet 10/1 not to fast but more then
enough I can watch bbc iplayer and zatoo tv. I have all the online tv I want for free.. or small monthly fee. hell even netflicks is great for a weekend in, with bad weather.
Get internet only, dump your cable, whatever provider. sub to HBO, netflicks, and voila.. job done…
GOOD ON YOU J.
There are loads of excellent documentaries to check out for free on
http://www.thoughtmaybe.com
Try ‘Bitterlake’ or ‘CitizenFour” for starters.
I unloaded Time-Warner just about ten years ago and I still remember the feeling of relief and (for once) no lingering doubt about a decision. There days I have DSL and the Redbox. If one knows what one is doing, one may download YouTube videos and keep them and watch at one’s leisure. The one TV show I care about, The Walking Dead, I buy on Blu-ray.
I’d dump it in a second but my wife’s the one who watches tv. My only concern is when the cable company jacks up my internet price, it’ll wind up costing me the same amount of money.
Keep spending that $80, by putting it in savings.
I dropped cable, and now I can’t stand TV. Even muted TV at the gym irritates me. I’m tempted to use my note 3 to turn all 20 screens off.
I also followed suit and dropped Cable years ago.
I got an Xbox for free many moons ago and set it up with Netflix and Hulu.
Roku is better because it doesn’t have a recurring fee like Xbox with Xbox Live.
In my case it doesn’t matter much because the kids use Live enough to keep it so streaming the channels is free.
Otherwise, go with Roku.
My wife and I are considering it, too. We dumped our land line, but kept cable and internet.
My problem is I’m addicted to Tivo.
If I go with one of these services, can I still record Walking Dead when it airs, or do I have to wait for the season to show up on Netflix?
My TV is free over the air channels. Why pay more?
Yeah, too bad some of us can’t get any OTA channels.
I have been with DISH almost since the beginning and negotiate very hard with them. From time to time I look at what it would cost if I were to drop them and go OTT instead… I most recently did this last month and to get what were currently actually watch, would have cost me 5 bucks more than the $79 a month I am paying Dish… And even then, I’d still not have a channel or two that we regularly watch on Disk as they are not available OTT… So, it makes sense for us to stay were we are, not even factoring in the convenience of it over OTT… YMMV.
Oh, and that includes Hopper and Joey DVRs for our two sets, and HBO and Showtime… Once you’ve had a DVR, you can’t go back! 🙂
We dumped ours about a year ago when we realized that we were paying for something that we largely never used. The only time the TV was on was for background noise so we just turned it off, upped the speed on our FiOS and pay less than half of what we used to pay per month. I haven’t missed it a bit.
Cable off? New uses for coax. The scrapped cable system can be an autonomous drone navigation radar network. Order with Amazon DASH and the drone can use the CASH network to deliver.
[Luke]’s radar operates around 5.8-6 GHz, and is supposed to be an introduction to microwave electronics. It’s an extremely modular system built around a few VCOs, mixers, and amplifiers from Hittite, all connected with coax.
http://hackaday.com/2014/09/24/thp-semifinalist-a-continuous-wave-radar/
A basic radar system makes radar accessible at low cost for experiments with rangefinding & navigation of autonomous aircraft or spacecraft.
http://hackaday.io/project/1682-simple-low-cost-fmcw-radar
For “regular” TV there’s always the FREE Over The Air (OTA) channels to watch. You can even “DVR” them too. And now that we’ve all switched to “digital” television (that big conversion mess that finally took hold in 2009 and where the govt. was even giving away vouchers towards the purchase of television channel converters), it’s now all in relative “high def” that those cable TV providers want you to pay extra for. HELLO?! You can get FREE television or (if you have too much money) you can choose to pay your local cable thief for the EXACT SAME THING!
So yes, you SHOULD feel stupid if you still subscribe to basic cable TV — or any cable TV that can be watched via the Internet, which is like ALL OF THEM! That is, unless your Internet service provider economically forces you to “take” their bullshit “bundling” package(s).
Seriously. Once your TV bill exceeded $50 did you REALLY think there was ever going to be an increase in VALUE?! (Same reasoning applies for government too!!! But I don’t think you’re prepared to open that can of worms.)
Cable? Never had it. Paying for television is for rich people and people living in the boonies where there is no reception.
That said, broadcast television DID become much better with the switch to digital. Now, I seem to get a whole lot more decent content than I see on basic cable at the gym.
Mostly though I don’t watch much current content these days except local news (it’s a guilty pleasure) and Jeopardy.
I’d say that not having access to “Game of Thrones”, “Breaking Bad” are pluses. Mad Men looks slightly interesting, but then again, I remember that era, so no need to watch it. “Bewitched” with Agnes Moorehead as Endora is a whole lot more fun look at the world of advertising business in those days.
Cheers!
AMEN!!!
Finally someone who is not caught up on this all American “me too”, vanilla lemming treadmill mindset!
Finally, a true self made American who says “I’ll be different”; “I am not going to march to jump off the proverbial cliff, instead I’ll turn away and do my own thing”!!! I’ll use my own brain and think for myself instead of what corporate commercials tell me what I should think and do!!!
AMEN to being constructive and doing your own thing; that’s what I call being original and a true American!!!
I can only imagine, how silly and upset people become when your behavior highlights how dependent they are on corporate commercials and others to tell them how to feel and think!!!
Da fuck?
Da fuck yeah!
Look at sling.tv