I just paid my Cox bill, and I’m really irked.
I’m paying nearly $100/month for TV, and we only watch a few channels. I could probably forgo it completely, but my wife likes HGTV and a few other programs.
We never, ever watch any of the sports channels, Spanish-language channels, shopping channels, etc.
What do I need to replace it? A Roku box? Sling? Can we record shows and transfer to an iPad (NOT wirelessly connected - dowloaded to it, so they can be watched off-line).
We already have Netflix, and I have Amazon Prime, although I haven’t tried it for video yet.
We almost did the same thing (we’ve got RCN). We’ve got the very basic, vanilla package plus Netflix and Amazon Prime.
We ultimately decided against dropping it because there are several shows my husband likes both on network and cable and not all of them are available by other means unless we got Dish or Direct TV, IIRC. My husband will go directly to either the network’s website on his desktop or an app on his tablet to watch something I’m not interested in.
We have Chromecast. I’ve been able to watch stuff from YouTube on our TV. Haven’t tried it with a network website, though, but I can imagine it could be done…,? We haven’t tried Roku or anything like that because we have enough cables snaking all over the place already.
I would recommend a Roku. It’s simple to use and it’s purpose is streaming. Some TV’s or such have streaming support, but it tends to be clunky. If you have a lot of Apple products, Apple TV can be nice since it integrates well with your other Apple products. Roku’s can stream from Android.
One channel you might want to add is PlutoTV. It’s kind of like having cable, but for streaming channels. It aggregates a lot of the free streams and gives you a cable-like guide of what is on.
Hulu is good for deep archives of many network and cable channels. They might have HGTV or something that’s similar that shows a lot of home improvement shows.
I think the only way you’re going to get HGTV is with Sling or Playstation VUE. That puts you at $20 a month out the gate. Then I’d recommend Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and HBO Now, depending on what you like to watch. I have all four, with a Roku, which makes it easy to access all of them plus YouTube and streaming music channels like Pandora.
As far as watching offline, the only way I know to do that is to purchase and download the show/movie, from iTunes or Amazon.
Have you talked to Cox yet about how much it would cost to cancel? I tried to cancel my TV a while back, and discovered that paying the cancellation fee + the Internet service would actually cost me more than continuing to pay for cable. So you might want to verify before you spend too much time considering your alternatives.
We dumped DirecTV years ago, and went with a Roku. We’ve got Netlix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and HBONow subscriptions. Adding in our antenna for over-the-air broadcast we can watch about 98% of the shows we want.
Past seasons of popular HGTV for Food Network or other cable shows are usually available through purchase on Amazon or sometimes included on other streaming services like Hulu. You’ll be able to watch past seasons of Property Brothers, but not the current season, I think. We like to watch Chopped, but we’re always a season behind. Other shows, like Better Caul Saul, are available for purchase right after they are broadcast.
The main thing I miss is live sporting events that are on ESPN or the Big 10 Network. But as more people cut the cord, pressure builds on these networks to make their streaming content available to non-cable customers much like HBO did - so it’s just a matter of time.
As far as I know, I don’t have any cancellation fee. But if I do - screw them. They can send me to collections.
I would continue Internet service with them (and might even bump it to 300Mbps, if the price was right), since there isn’t any other competitive service available.
It looks like the way I might proceed is:
Get a new TV (the one in the kitchen is not an HDTV), That would allow watching Shark Tank and Big Bang Over-the-Air.
Get a Roku or AppleTV.
Subscribe to Sling Blue.
You may not want to cut the cord entirely. Most cable companies have a “local channels only” tier, and since you are using the company’s internet, you may still qualify for a bundle rate of some sort.
I don’t think you can get local stations without an antenna once you drop cable TV entirely, and in some cases, that may not be an option. For example, I live about 50 miles from both San Francisco and Sacramento, and the only network station I can get on an antenna (in part because I live in a townhouse and can’t use an outdoor one, much less put it on the roof) is one that is broadcast from a nearby repeater because it is based in San Jose.
We are going to go out this weekend and look at more modern TVs, and probably buy one. Then, I will see what channels are available OTA. We are in a particularly bad spot - pretty much all of the transmitters in the Phoenix metro area are on top ofSouth Mountain, which is the highest spot in the local area. The second highest peak is Camelback Mountain, which happens to be directly between our house and the TV towers.
You should check antennaweb.org. There may be fill-in translators, or retransmitters, that rebroadcast a signal to your area. I live in a part of Tucson shielded from the transmitters on Mt. Bigelow and get much of my OTA TV from translators.
If you can get OTA signals, it’s nice to have a DVR to record network shows that my not be conveniently available through streaming. There are a wide variety out there from $35 basic ones to $300 Tivo (Tivo has an OTA-only Roamio which comes with lifetime guide data). It’s nice to be able to have full FF-REW-Skip control of a DVR.
This leads me to a gripe about streaming shows–FF/REW is very inconsistent. It’s implemented by the specific app rather than the streaming device. Depending on which app you’re watching, it can be very frustrating to try to skip around a show. It’s often a hassle to try to rewind just a few seconds when you miss something.
Roku has an HGTV channel but like most cable channel apps you need a cable subscription to view (most?) content. Roku does have a lot of other home and garden type channels. Here is their channel list. A Roku is pretty cheap and would allow you to stream the subscription services you already have (Prime and Netflix) on an HDTV. You could get one and see how it goes for a few months to see if your viewing habits start steering more and more away from cable.
A few years ago, many people complained about the forced bundling of cable subscriptions, so that if I wanted to watch BBC America, USA and HGTV, I had to pay for ESPN, Fox News and Nickelodeon. So now we’re in this supposed paradise where you can pick and choose what you want to subscribe to from many streaming options. In some ways, I miss the old system. At worst, if there was something I wanted to watch, I just needed to upgrade my cable lineup. At best, I just needed to change the channel to catch that new show on, say, FX.
I cut the cord back in January. I was paying over $230 a month for my cable/internet/phone service, and that was with an older DVR. Had I upgraded to their current DVR, it was going to cost me even more. I was already watching as much on Netflix and Amazon as I was on cable, so I figured it was time. I switched to a different provider and signed up only for internet. No cable and no more landline phone. $40 bucks a month.
I have three TVs. I’ve got Rokus on two of them, and the third has built-in internet apps for Netflix, Amazon, etc. Plus my Xbox is on that TV. Love the Rokus. One is the Premiere+, and the other is the Stick.
PLEX is a great app you can use on Roku and other devices. It lets you stream video and audio from your PC to your TV.
Hulu and Sling both look very tempting to me, but I’ve resisted both because I’m trying to keep my monthly costs down. I do subscribe to HBO NOW, but I watch a lot of the HBO original series, so it’s worth it to me.
When I first cut the cord, I bought one of the cheapo $30 DVRs. I didn’t want to buy anything expensive until I was sure I could live without cable. The cheap device worked… but man was it a pain to use. The interface, menus, and remote control were poorly designed and clunky as hell. I stuck with that DVR for seven months but hated it. So this summer I went ahead and sprung for the TiVO Roamio OTA DVR. $400 but it is worth it. Very nice program guide and easy to navigate menu system. Very similar to using the DVR I had with my cable subscription, but it only records over-the-air channels. It also includes internet apps for Netflix, Amazon, PLEX, etc. I’m considering buying a TiVO mini for one of my other TVs. That lets you set up a ‘multi-room’ DVR system with the Roamio.