This morning, my wife noticed Comcast increased our monthly triple play charge $70. Seems like every year we discuss cutting the cable, but we always get some rate reduction and inertia takes over.
For whatever reason (I suspect influenced by recent challenges changing over some computer things), we decided enough is enough, and went down to internet only. The computer experiences educated us as to the possibilities of getting TV through our computers…
Was a really good feeling to unplug the various landlines around the house. This afternoon, we’ll go shopping for a new router and likely connector cables,
Wish us luck! (Good thing I recently went to the library and have a stack of dead tree books - my preferred entertainment medium - on my nightstand! :D)
I’m a little confused – why do you need a new router and cables?
Also be aware that you can get a Roku which will let you watch internet video services on your TV rather than on your computer. They are currently having a sale on their 4K Premier model for $20.
Also there are others such as , Firestick, apple TV, google has one too that I forget it’s name. And there are a smattering of ‘no name’ brands that have android OS, so for the power user who wants to be able to load things without restrictions. In general over the years Roku has been noted with the cleanest interface - however it is the least customizable, so if you ever want to load anything outside Roku’s ecosystem you are SOL, Firestick, fire TV not bad, but more cluttered but also pairs nicely if you have a alexa in the home and you can add things that are beyond the fire tv ‘app store’.
We rent the Comcast router. We can upgrade and continue to rent, or buy a new one. Using not-entirely-reliable internet for working at home has often had us wonder if a new router might help things.
With “triple play”, we had 3-4 landline phones throughout the house. It was those phones, as well as the plugged in bases that we jettisoned. Never wanted/needed the landlines, but the triple play was less expensive than cable/tv alone.
We’ve been using a cable-connected laptop to use Apple TV (3 mos free w/ recent Apple purchase.) When doing so, we experience occasional brief outages. And my computer needs a different adapter. Heck, we might end up buying a new TV - tho I hate replacing something that still works. All the crap we currently watch on our TV will still be crap on a bigger screen! :D. Or does the math work such that a bigger screen will actually make it crappier?!
I cut the cord years ago. I don’t miss it at all. Netflix and Amazon Prime are fine for me. I found that I was rarely watching anything that the satellite offered and it was a waste.
We have that “triple play” package from Comcast, too, precisely because it was cheaper than the cable+internet package. We’ve never actually used the provided phone number, and never hooked up a phone to it.
Cut the cable and it’s understood! We cut cable a few years ago and never regretted it. We get Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu and that covers nearly all viewing needs. Sports could be an issue if someone at your house watches that a lot, but not an issue for us (adding sports apps starts to add up $$ and cuts into your savings). You can also add various other apps that are free, like PBS, etc. We added a digital antenna, which I recommend, to access local TV channels for news and what-not (just hook-up to your house’s existing coax network).
It was an interesting feeling when we sold our last cordless phones/answering machine at a garage sale, having had a house phone all my life. I then removed the old “click” telephone outlets and replaced them with a plain-looking plate. No going back!
When we got the phone, it was a number that was reissued from a local hardware store that had gone out of business. For more than a year, our message said, “This is NOT XYZ Hardware. If you wish to speak to Mr/Mrs Dinsdale…”
Once we make the commitment to go through our computers, it seems like whether we keep any/all of Netflix/Amazon Prime/Apple, with streaming services from our library, we will not be lacking is stuff to watch. Should save >$100 a month! They truly were benefitting from inertia.
I also cut the cable years ago. I have a Roku in the living room and bedroom, and Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon, and Disney+ give me too much to watch and it’s on demand. YouTube, PlutoTV, The Roku Channel, and Peacock are some of the better free services. YouTube has a surprising amount of good content if you dig for it, a lot of good how-to videos but even full movies and documentaries.
I need someone to come to my house and tutor me on cutting cable. Between Comcast and all of the other channels we pay for, I suspect we’re in the neighborhood of $300/month.
You’ll all be disgusted, but my wife went to the Apple store to buy a cable, and returned a/ an AppleTV device. $160 and $5/month.
Probably coulda done any number of things different/cheaper, but seeing as how she does most of our household’s “tech support”, and prefers Apple, I’ll gladly defer to her. A fraction of what Comcast charged.
Chefguy, I think you just have to do it, and you’ll quickly figure out something that works just as well for you. All depends on what is most important to you, what you can’t live without, etc.
It’s hard for me to understand, but some people have real difficulty shifting from the mindset of “let’s turn on the TV and see what’s on” to “let me find something I want to watch”. If you can get over that hurdle, cutting the cord is nothing but positive.
I believe there are some guides out there that can help sort/compare which online services (Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Roku, etc…) contain what programming, so you can see where to find your favorite shows - it’s very likely most of what your household is watching is covered by these services. And I agree it is a change going to flip-on the tube in search of something specific, as opposed to just randomly browsing what’s on now. That’s where the digital antenna comes in handy - when you are not looking for anything specific, just the local evening news while you are cooking dinner, for example.
Just last month dropped TV from our Cox services (Cox is like Comcast’s kind of slow kid brother). Moved to Directv Stream for primary channels - we do need the live sports, and get more choices than we did with Cox. Directv Stream is probably the most expensive of the streaming services, but it is the first one which has all the channels we want and is still well under 50% of what we were paying Cox for TV.
When we lived back east I was always able to get good deals from Comcast because of the availibility of Verizon FIOS. Any time by Comcast bill got too high I would call Comcast and say basically two words: “retention” and “FIOS” and I would get whatever the current promotional rate was. Unfortunately where we live now the telco is CenturyLink, which is Verizon’s stupid drunk cousin - the only thing we can get from them is a landline phone (not even DSL). So calling Cox’s retention department and asking for a deal just got some snickering and, if they felt generous, $10 off per month.
Comcast internet, which is pretty reliable. Almost everything we watch is on Netflix, Hulu, PBS, HBO or Amazon (via Roku). The only cable channels we watch are for local/national news, or for local Bball games (Root TV). Local soccer team games are usually on Paramount Plus. We don’t do channel surfing at all.
Sounds like you’ve already got it sorted, then. Get a high-quality digital antenna for local channels and you’re good to cut.
The baseball games might be tricky, but if you already live in a market that Root serves, you can probably get some kind of streaming subscription. I don’t know for sure, though; baseball broadcast licensing is weird.