Mommypants and I are pondering dropping U-Verse and going with some kind of combination of Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Streaming.
My TV viewing revolves around regular network TV and AMC. Her’s is around regular networks, A&E :rolleyes:, Animal Planet, and NatGeo Wild. Throw in some Discovery and History for both of us. Also, HBO for Game of Thrones and Mommypants is waiting on edge for Outlander to premier on Starz.
Will the streaming services fill in the gaps or will we be a season behind?
We did it years ago. You’ll miss the clock on the cable box. And Cops. You’ll miss Cops.
You’ll be a season behind, though. You can’t really stream HBO, and unless you pay by the episode (which we do for Mad Men and did for Breaking Bad) you can’t get this season of AMC shows.
I cut cable, and use an HD antenna plus AppleTV (which also lets me stream from my laptop).
Season behind (as others have mentioned), unless the show you like can be subscribed to via Hulu Plus or iTunes, or watched on the network’s own web channel.
Sports - a lot of big games are not on the network and are only on ESPN or PAC12, etc. This bugs me every now and then.
The ability to easily sloth your way through a weekend by channel surfing until you find something tolerable. This is both a bug and a feature.
I’ll just mention that if you aren’t morally against it, 99% of TV shows can be found streaming online just by typing (TV Show Name) S(season number, 2 digit)E(episode number, 2 digit)
Example: Dexter S03E03 will bring up links to stream Dexter’s third episode of season 3.
In early 2012, I won large Samsung Smart TV from a radio station. In November of that year, it got broken. I bought a replacement from Paul’s TV on Thanksgiving weekend, and finished paying it off in December. At that point I added Netflix at $7.99/month. To my already $80.00 minus change that I’m paying for DirecTV (two TVs; cheapest DVR package available; basic technical protection plan). It’s getting really ridiculous, the money I’m spending to watch VERY little TV, either in real time or time-shifted. I’ve been giving serious thought to cutting them loose.
I do want to keep watching first-run episodes of The Big Bang Theory (or have them on tap if I can’t get to the TV at the right time). My other priorities are The Venture Bros. (if they ever start airing another SEASON, grrr, :mad:), Fox’s Animation Domination on Sunday evenings, and The Daily Show.
Does Hulu let me meet my needs with this stuff? And how much does it cost?
Have you tried using an antenna? I get NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS in crisp digital on my television, as well as in-between digital-only channels. This is with a $20 set of rabbit ears.
Do you enjoy having hundreds of dollars evaporate from your bank account every year, most of it going to channels and programming you never even watch? If so, you’ll miss that.
We cut the cord several years ago. Between an antenna and the Roku we don’t feel like we miss anything other than knowing what ad is the most annoying.
By my calculation I saved $130 month.
I already used Amazon Prime Streaming. I have since added HuluPlus and Aereo.com for streaming of local broadcast channels. I also have an antenna that works pretty good too.
I don’t regret it or miss it one bit.
To answer your question, A lot of stuff comes out on Hulu the next day or the next week. Some things you have to buy. I buy new episodes of Justified as they come out. I bought the last season of breaking bad. I figure I’m still way ahead of the curve, cost wise.
I’ll second the antenna. I live in Tucson and can receive ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and the CW with a pair of set-top rabbit ears. I can also pick up MeTV, COZI TV, and Antenna TV, all of which broadcast classic TV shows.
Yeah that’s pretty much the only thing I miss about cable. If they didn’t have the Browns and college football on broadcast TV…how would I sport at all??
I’m a huge baseball fan and watching the games on TV is a distant memory to me now. But lucky for me our radio team is amazing and I prefer to listen to them. Luckilly MLB does a fairly good job of putting video of must-see plays online pretty quickly. Within minutes, really.
All the other stuff on the premium channel you can get, you’ll just have to wait a year before it makes its way to Amazon.
Heh, the other night I was feeling a little tipsy. I got to thinking about Starz’ Spartacus. So I went ahead and bought all four seasons on a drunken whim. The next morning I started feeling a little bit guilty about dropping a hundred dollars just like that. But then I started to think about the $170 a month I used to spend on cable and quickly got over my guilt.
Bonus points that I actually have something to show for my drunken antics. (As in, I own the series now and can watch it whenever I want.)
This is not precisely on topic, but I didn’t want to start a new thread (and it’s kinda-sorta related): if I cancel my DirecTV account, do they physically remove the dish from the roof? (I hope.)
Not entirely sure but when I bought my house, there was a dish on the roof. Forget what company. It was unhooked and the previous owners were using cable I believe.
If you Google “use direct tv dish as antenna” there are a lot of examples of people using their DTV dish (modified) to get a stronger over-the-air signal.
My house is a rental, and there’s a lot of wiring left over from previous tenants’ cable subscriptions. My landlord said it’s been wired for just about everything at one time or another. But when I moved in, DirecTV installed their dish.
Using the defunct dish as an antenna… hmmm… I’ll google around.