I’m getting ready to move into my own place after sharing a house for 3 years. Before I moved into my current situation, I lived alone for 10 years. I’ve never been a big TV watcher. When I lived on my own, I never had cable or satellite service, just local channels with antenna. When I moved into my current house 3 years ago, I got rid of my TV; one of my housemates had a TV in the living room and we had cable. He moved out last year, and since then we have had internet only, and no common area TV.
Once I move into my own place, I’m thinking I’m going to want some kind of TV service. As I’m sure you can tell from the above, I’m not a big TV watcher. I don’t care about (and have never seen a single episode of) Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, or whatever the latest craze is. I also don’t watch sports. I did, however, like being able to plop down on the couch and flip through the channels when we had a TV and cable in my current house. If I had nothing better to do, I would casually catch an episode of “How it’s made” on the science channel or Storage Wars when I had nothing better to do.
The one thing I definitely want is high-speed internet. Beyond that, I’m wondering if I should go for basic cable, DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, or just watch TV over the internet? I think it’s ridiculous to spend $100 or more on a television service, as apparently lots of people do these days. Cable seems like a ripoff (we have Time Warner in my area.) AT&T is expensive too, especially since unless you get their premium package they make you pay $10 extra per month for HD. Verizon Fios is not available where I’m moving to. DirecTV’s packages look pretty good, but as far as I know there’s no way to save money by bundling them with internet. If I go with internet-only, what does that get me in terms of TV? With these devices like Roku or Chromecast, do you get any decent programming for free, or do you have to pay additionally for something like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, etc? If I do decide to go that route, what’s generally the cheapest option for internet service only, at speeds sufficient to stream HD video? It seems like all these companies deliberately overprice their internet-only service, hoping to get you to bundle it with a TV package.
Cutting the cord isn’t for everyone, and there are a lot of really valid reasons to continue to buy into cable or whatever else.
… but for what you’re describing, you’re pretty much a perfect candidate for the alternatives to traditional cable TV.
In the Boston area, high speed internet-only service is going to run you at least $50, probably closer to $60 after all the taxes and fees. Your mileage will massively vary depending on the competition or lack thereof in your area. Unless there’s something specific you’re after that they don’t have, I’d probably just start with Netflix and see how things go. Local channels with antenna is still an option to add more current variety, though I don’t think I could ever watch a network show without a DVR any more. Make sure you don’t already have something that can play Netflix before you go out and buy a Chromecast or a Roku - smart TVs, DVD/blu-ray players, game systems, and all sorts of other things have Netflix apps now - but if you don’t, they’re both good options.
In the end you’re still talking $70 or $80 a month when you’re “cutting the cord” a lot of the time, vs. $110 or $120 for a cable package that includes a sufficiently broad amount of TV, so think about the difference as in the $50 range rather than $100. Since you don’t care about sports or seeing the newest stuff, though, might as well save the money!
Other than Dish or DirecTV your options are going to vary completely depending where you live. Cable systems are the usual choice for internet–except where AT&T or Verizon, etc have fiber or you can’t get cable internet–in which cause you would choose DSL or cell phone service. Since you don’t want sports I think you could get by with over the air TV and Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.
Well, I’m not “cutting the cord” because I never had a cord to begin with. But yeah, I suppose I knew cable/dish/fiber TV wouldn’t be worth it for me, but was hoping I could get cheaper high-speed internet. I guess there’s no way around that.
Do Roku/Chromecast/Apple TV/whatever get you anything at all if you don’t pay for Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu Plus? Their websites list all these “channels” you can access, some of which appear to be free, but aren’t specific about what programming is available on them.
Also, what kind of internet speeds to you need to stream HD content?
I can only tell you about Roku, but, yes, there are a lot of free options. For one thing, you get all of YouTube, Blip.tv, Twitch, and other video sites. You also can get Plex, which will give you access to A&E, CBS, NickJr, and the CW. Oh, and Fox News, but I’m sure that means a lot to you. You can watch most Comedy Central shows either using Plex or using Roku directly. And there are Roku channels that have lower quality movies with commercials.
Plex also lets you play any videos from your computer, so if you find videos for download, you can watch those, too. I wound up downloading shows from the other networks that have an online presence but can’t play on a Roku. With that, my sister never needed cable with the Roku I gave her for her birthday last year. She’s moved out now, and hasn’t even bothered with cable or even an antenna. And she watches TV much more often than you do.
I’ve found that even 3 Mbps is good enough for HD, but 1080p may take 6 Mbps (except on YouTube, for some reason, where 3 was sufficient.) I don’t know where people get these much higher required numbers. Yeah, sure, I need your 25Mbps package to watch HD video, Cox Cable.
But yeah, I suppose I knew cable/dish/fiber TV wouldn’t be worth it for me, but was hoping I could get cheaper high-speed internet. I guess there’s no way around that.