Even without buying a device (Roku, Fire Stick etc.) you can try out the various services before you make the decision. While some content won’t be available unless you do buy a device (e.g. the Roku channel), pretty much all the paid services have their content available via phone apps etc. And most have a “free week” or whatever. Even once they’ve gone to a paid status, all seem to be quite easy to cancel unless, of course, you’ve done the “pay for a year and get a discount” thing.
Also check to see if any services are bundled with some other product - e.g. we get Disney+, Hulu+ and ESPN because of our cell phone plan. A friend has T-Mobile which includes Netflix.
We did make the switch earlier this month. I sprung for Sling - mainly because my son watches one of those awful “wrestling” shows on TNT - but it does include a few other channels I like e.g. SyFy. And I added Discovery+ to the Sling subscription - I could certainly subscribe to that separately, but it’s convenient to have it in one place. A word on that though: I’ve looked at some of their streaming series, and often they will not have all episodes, e.g. Season 3 will have episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10, or whatever.
So far, I’m really not missing the TV at all. There was relatively little that I ever watched, that is not available through Sling.
Interestingly, Sling Orange has fewer channels, and only allows 1 user to watch at a time, versus Sling Blue’s more channels and 3 users. For the same price. We opted for Blue, which I’d recommend to everyone unless you are really hard-core into sports.
Maybe they incentivize, but every service doesn’t use the native player on AppleTV. YouTubeTV and Amazon Prime come to mind immediately (and Max goes through stages when it uses the native player and then when it doesn’t).
Cost-wise: our monthly Verizon bill is going from 162 to 102 a month. Sling + Discover Plus is 46, so a total of 148/month. 14 dollars a month in savings is fairly trivial but this comes with a massive increase in internet speed because that’s what prompted the switch. And supposedly we’ll get a discount on our wireless bill now, also, plus they promised us a 50 dollar prepaid Visa card (which has not yet appeared).
I might not have bothered with Sling but there are shows we do watch, where that’s the most cost-effective way of accessing them.
I think there are several options to get local and basic cable channels if you discontinue regular cable service; Sling, DirecTV Stream and YouTubeTV. Are there other options?
Have any of you any recommendations? I think YouTube TV gives the most channels but it also costs $73 per month (and many of the channels are ones I don’t really care about).
Update: It arrived on Monday, and switching my TiVo from using cable to using the antenna was easy-peasy. I’m pretty happy with the reception quality and channel options, but I decided to live with it all week before calling Verizon. So far so good, though, and I plan to make the call on Saturday.
When all is said and done, my entertainment setup will be:
A TiVo connected to an OTA antenna
An Apple TV with access to YouTube (the free one) and subscriptions to:
Apple TV+
Netflix
Hulu
Paramount+
Discovery+
Disney+
Max
So far, everything I want to watch is covered by either a major network or one of the above services (or both).
There are a few free streaming services which package up a bunch of streams into a cable-like guide. You get a guide with dozens of free streams that are like channels. PlutoTV is one of these bundling services. Roku has one in their Roku Channel (Live TV?). It’s not too bad considering it’s free. I see that PlutoTV is viewable on the web:
You can see all the channels that they offer. It’s just live streams with no Pause/REW/FF or recording.
So from another thread, I learned that Hulu with Live TV is another option. Anyone have any opinion which of these four options is best? Hulu seems to offer about the same number of channels as YouTube.
IIRC DirecTV Stream has the best picture quality. YouTubeTV has the best DVR and interface. Sling is cheapest. Hulu is closer to YTTV but not as nice of an interface.
But do a free trial for them all and see what you think.
Thank you. Based on that, I think I’d prefer YouTube TV, for the better interface and DVR. On the other hand, I already pay for Hulu, so the net cost might be less?
Last update from me: I called Verizon this morning, and the deed is done. All that’s left is for me to return the cable card sometime in the next 30 days, and there’s a location nearby that takes equipment returns.
I gotta say, my call with Verizon’s customer service went much more smoothly than I expected. Plus, I was concerned that the cost of my internet service might increase once it was no longer part of a bundle but it turns out I’m able to get (much) faster service for $25/mo less.
The changes are already effective; no new equipment or service appointment needed. All told, cutting the cord will save me ~$150/mo.
We bought a non-smart TV for the in-laws, and attached a Roku to it - via one of the HDMI ports. Their basic-cable service went into another. Any newer TV will have multiple HDMIs.
I’d actually advise against getting a smart TV - advice someone here gave me, years back. Sometimes they quit supporting a specific service - ours, for example, quit supporting Amazon Prime in order to provide better service (???). Something independent, like Roku, Fire Stick, etc. is not likely to have that problem.
Congrats on taking the leap! We did so at the beginning of this month, and really, really do not miss it. Our home phone cost went up 5 dollars a month (since the change meant our old price was no longer available). Our internet was about the same - for 10x the speed. And our monthly bill dropped 65 bucks or so.