I got rid of my cable a few months ago and don’t really miss it, although now I won’t be able to watch as many Florida Gators football or basketball games. It will be hard not being able to see the second season of Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life when it comes on next month. I’ll have to wait a day or so after each episode before they put it online so I can see it.
Because no more DUI for me, it’s WAY more expensive than cable.
As it turns out, ESPN can’t live without him either. 
We have no cable. We get our teevee through the airwaves. In NYC there’s a reasonable selection of offerings. Pity I don’t speak Korean or Mandarin- my useful channels would almost double !
We get our Internet over a dry phone line DSL from Verizon. 8.5 Megs down, 1 Meg up in the speed check I just ran. For a bit more $, we could up our speed. No need. We’re VERY close to the physical phone station. At 5 Megs, I stream television with no hiccups, hour after hour. An HDMI line or my new wireless HDMI setup and I’m watching Internet-based programming on a huge set.
I cut cable a couple of years back and really only ever miss HGTV stuff–but since they played a lot of repeat crap, I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would.
I originally got a set of rabbit ears, but when I rearranged my bedroom a year or so ago, that got unhooked and never hooked back up. I do subscribe to Netflix streaming and have Amazon Prime, and there’s always Hulu. That being said, I don’t watch nearly as much as I used to and I find I’m much more selective with what I do watch. No more crap.
We cut cable a year ago or so - the old TV was like 15 years old, and I never could get it to work with the digital converter box, so when we bought this condo in 2010, we got cable. I’d never had it before, except once in grad school when my rent came with free basic cable.
Then we realized how freaking expensive it was for something we don’t use much - we aren’t big TV watchers. So we finally upgraded to a digital TV, got a BluR-Ray player when the DVD player died, and Tom Scud got me an Amazon Prime membership for my birthday last year, which gives us plenty to watch for our needs. It didn’t take long to pay for the new TV (and the $25 digital antenna) with the savings - we kept cable Internet, and ported the home phone number to a minimal Vonage plan for $10/month, but cut everything else. And then the Roku box was my Hanukah/Christmas present last year.
The one thing I’m bummed about so far is that apparently Al Jazeera English killed their Roku channel when they became available on cable in the U.S., which is kind of a bummer because around here they are only available on RCN, which isn’t available at our address, and so we’d have to get satellite, I think, which I am no way doing for one channel.
Comcast had a deal recently, I already have internet but for $15/more a month I get decent cable plus a DVR. However I’m not impressed by it. I’ve used netflix, dvds at the library and the internet for the last year and a half.
Cable isn’t that great. If you know your way around the internet you can find most shows always. You can’t get the most recent show, but you can get the series.
I never had cable. Was offered a sweet phone/internet/cable package deal a few years ago. Took it. Was fun. After a year the price skyrocketed. I cancelled and haven’t looked back. I’m not up to date on all the latest tv shows but I don’t consider that my worst fault and I like not having that big bill more than any show anyway.
Update:
Over all, I’m very happy.
A couple of minor issues:
Aereo; I’m a little disappointed with the picture quality. Under the best conditions, I’m supposed to get 720p, but most of the time I’m just getting 480p and a lot of “Blockyness” at that. What’s weird is, my recorded shows have the biggest problem with this. When I stream in real time, it’s usually much better.
It turns out I’m not really needing Chrome as I got Netflix and Hulu built in to my TV. Chrome works great for services that are designed for them, but if you want to stream a random video from your browser, it kind of sucks. I’m getting a lot of buffering issues along with the audio not matching the video. I’ve had much better luck with using a HDMI cable.
Good news with Hulu: I used to be a Hulu plus subscriber. I had to quit their service because of constant buffering issues. I contacted Hulu and asked them to give me another trail period to see if those issues have since resolved themselves. Turns out they have. So it seems likely Hulu has invested in better servers to remedy whatever issues I was having before. Now I can watch Hulu through the built in app on my TV rather than stream it through my computer.
blockyness with Aero is likely a poor bandwidth problem. Double check your settings for playback. You can hard set them for high, med, and low bandwidth or ‘auto choose’.
Thank you for the update. This thread has been very informative. I have it bookmarked. If I can get my SO to go along with it, I’m pulling the plug myself.
I switched to auto on Aereo, but I don’t think it’s a bandwidth issue as I can stream Netflix, Amazon and Hulu with no issues. Unless I’m misunderstanding how bandwidth works.
All I know is, I had a show recorded on Aereo, the blockyness was annoying me so I figured I’d try Hulu to see if the show was on there. Turns out it was, and with HD to boot!
Is this when you’re watching live TV on Aereo? I watch live TV very infrequently through aereo. I have found that if I setting a live show to record, then wait 5 or 10 minutes; and watch the recording; the quality is a LOT better. The benefit is I’m watching it close enough to live tv that it doesn’t bother me, but I can still FF through the commercials.
I have long been frustrated with my cable package. No pay channels such as HBO and the like, and yet I supposedly had 180+ channels, maybe 2 dozen of which I would check with any regularity at all. Still, with the ability to record 2 shows at once, I usually had something I wanted to watch available for when I wanted to watch it. At the cost of nearly $90 a month (for 2 TVs with receivers, only one of which was a TiVo-like device).
A long-anticipated land sale last month let us do a bunch of household upgrades all at once, most of which were purchased during the Black Friday weekend frenzy. We had planned Thanksgiving dinner, but never actually got around to making it, since we decided to pursue deals instead. First time we ever could, so.
Among the upgrades were 2 LED flat-panel TV sets, but not the smart kind, along with 2 Roku 3s. Already had an Amazon Prime account, and switched our Netflix DVD delivery over to streaming service. Invested in 2 Hulu Plus accts, one for each set, but that may be overkill–we’ll see how that goes.
Not too long before all these upgrades, I bumped up my AT&T DSL package (up to 6MB) to the UVerse set-up, which promised up to 12MB for 5 dollars/month more. After 2 weeks, several phone calls, and 3 tech visits, it was determined that we were 2,000 feet too far out from the CO or whatever, which meant no 12MB for us until AT&T decides to upgrade in our area. The jury is still out on whether UVerse is better than what we had–our speed still seems to bog down at peak times (normal), and we lose connection for a few minutes multiples times at least every other day (which seems to be worse than what we had–dunno). At the moment, it seems like too much hassle to switch back for possibly no gain at all. Worst part is not having our old emails (@bellsouth.net) switching over, despite helpful tech support adjusting our settings (and yet they don’t show up as email sub-accounts).
Now, how’s the wireless streaming working out? I was afraid the 6MB speed would struggle to stream even 1 set, especially with 2 computers, a laptop, a Kindle Fire, and an iPad going all day. Set it up on 1 set, and just the TV screen size and the HD was a vast improvement over our 10-year-old CRT set. Streaming wirelessly through the Roku works just fine–no freezes, no slide-shows, no blank screens, no slowdowns. It may have been testing apples with oranges, but I had the 2 PCs, the laptop, the Kindle, and the iPad all playing extra-long YouTube videos, and still no problems with the TV streaming. Then I hooked up the 2nd TV and performed the same test, with everything running all at once (even added in 2 smartphones playing videos, connected to our wireless service). Still no problems–none of them glitched. Worries about our internet speed not being up to snuff seem to be groundless.
It hasn’t been flawless over time. Our internet connection still misbehaves on us for a few minutes every 2 or 3 days, but other than that, streaming TV is flawless and beautiful. We’re adjusting to the availability of shows on our chosen services, and have agreed not to actually cut the cable cord for one more month, just to make sure this streaming is going to work for us over the long haul. In the meantime, we’re watching cable almost not at all. I do believe I’ll be able to call DirecTV in another few weeks and decline to continue using their service. THEN I’ll be satisfied.
We’re still in the “wait and see” camp, but it looks like we’re going to be another Cutting The Cord success story. The viewing experience is much more satisfying, and the monthly savings will be substantial. And really, if we (and apparently millions of others like us) are turning away from cable, exactly whose fault is that? I feel zero sympathy for companies who can’t adjust their business models to advancing technology.
At the risk of tempting Fate, I raise my glass to the future of home entertainment!
Congrats tripthicket.
Just so ya know, you only need one Hulu account, they will allow you to connect to more than one TV.
I thought that might be the case, Shakes, but then I read on their website how it was meant for a single viewer. Since Hulu Plus might be running simultaneously on 2 sets just about every day at some point, thus the 2 accounts. What I will do is log the 2nd set out of its acct, log it into the first acct, and see if Hulu Plus balks in any way. If not, another 8 bucks a month saved!
Forgot to mention one advantage of our AT&T internet being switched to UVerse: with the old 6MB connection, we’re limited to 150GB/month downloading. With UVerse, that’s bumped up to 250GB/month (despite any speed upgrade or lack thereof)–important if all of your TV viewing is done through streaming.
My son and I do it all the time. I’ll be watching something in the livingroom while he’s watching something else in the bedroom.
Circumcision will do that for you.
Mazel tov.
Yea, we cut the cable about a year and a half ago here. We have Netflix streaming, and a computer plugged into the HDMI port of our TV, so we can use that to access YouTube, Hulu, and all of the big 4 TV network websites. Also, we have a basic HD antenna to get the local stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS are the only ones we bother watching.)
The kids generally use Netflix streaming on their 3DS and/or the WiiU. Up to two devices can stream at once.
There’s a handful of network shows I like to keep up with, like Parenthood (NBC) and Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) and I generally just play those shows back from their network website. Fewer commericals. Unless I just happen to tune in at the right time to see it broadcasting.
Sports fans should be aware of Sunday Night Football on NBC Sports.com - you can access the game on their website, streaming live, with limited commercials… AND… you can be the cameraman, switching between 5 main HD cameras and their cable-cam, using PIP or not, as you prefer! And as long as you’re accessing the site with an American IP, it’s free, easy, and looks great. No strings attached. None of that “enter your provider information” nonsense.
$7.99 a month, not feeling deprived here! Previously, we had a premium cable package that cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100/month. Good riddance! They’ll never get me back.
You didn’t cut your cable, you cut one of your cables. There’s still another cable coming in. It goes to your broadband connection, unless you’re also doing all your watching by leeching a wifi connection off your neighbors, a local business, etc.
Anyway, doubt I could ever get rid of cable, not if I want to watch my weekly 'rasslin shows. And definitely not with the bandwidth I get over DSL. And to get faster speeds, there you are, right back suckling at the cable provider (Comcast in my case) teat again. No thanks, less of a hassle just to keep the TV service.
But if what you did makes you happy, hey, good on you.