Posted on 11/22/2016 6:00:43 AM PST by RKBA Democrat
Cord cutting requires you to ditch the TV altogether. This is just a primer on how to get all the stuff you get on cable TV box through the internet box.
Yes, the cable ‘a la carte’ ban you will find in law somewhere.
Congress creates these monopolies, cable TV ain’t no free market place. Hell the ‘Healthcare Marketplace’ is another laughingstock. Bet a ‘Cable Marketplace’ exists in the law somewhere to ban freedom.
My Roku died so I hooked my laptop to TV and use wireless mouse for a remote. Works great.
NHL Center Ice is available online and on Roku.
But my wife has to watch the Hallmark Channel and more importantly, the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. Hallmark doesn't stream, and the Mystery Channel is never part of the stripped down "basic" packages. It is galling to pay for a bunch of channels we never watch, or don't need to watch.
I don't watch TV. I am only interested in streaming movies. I tried Amazon Prime and found that their movies offerings were oldie moldies. If I wanted to watch a newly released movie, I'd have to pay $3 or $4 to rent it. Heck with that! I currently pay $10 to Netflix, and sadly, their movies aren't much better. I am not interested in paying to watch old TV episodes. Is there a better service with newer movies included for streaming movies? I use my cable internet modem with wifi and an Amazon Fire Stick to interface with the flatscreen TV which I only use to watch my movies. I don't even know how to watch TV here in NYC, as I haven't watched TV for nearly 40 years.
Communications Act of 1996. Growing up in the 1970's and 1980's, my parents had a large backyard dish and we could watch just about anything for free, including the major sports leagues. Basically the same signals used by TV stations back in the day to get their news and sports.
Once cable channels started encrypting their uplink signals, that required you to get a decryption device and you had to pay for it. Back in those days you could pick what you wanted to watch. That was until the mid 1990's when the fools in DC passed the Communications Act of 1996.
And that's how cable/satellite companies retain customers. There are ways around it, if you can find someone who is still paying for cable/satellite TV willing to share their login details with you. I use a service called Watch TV Everywhere, using my cable provider. The main account allows up to 6 others to be able to access content under the main account. The main account is the person paying the cable bill.
re: Legal streaming
Many networks are starting to offer streaming — for a monthly fee. Some of them are still technologically behind, so their streams frequently rebuffer, etc.
By the time you pay individually for CBS and HBO and STARZ and Showtime and NFL and NHL and MBA and Hulu and Netflix and and and ...
Your combined bill adds up and you have to wrangle various devices to get a particular program. They are getting better, but for a similar price, you get cable/satellite TV for the convenience.
I bought a digital HD antenna at Fry’s for ~$90. Four bolts and a quick tap into the existing cable and I had HD over the air broadcasts. I even discovered a new channel that the missus and I love to watch (ME TV).
You’re lucky. Our service is out constantly and forget credit on the bill. The wait time for repairs is three weeks out. The last big outage, we went in and hollered at them to give us the new equipment and we’d hook it up ourselves. Got the holier than thou attitude but an hour later they gave us a new monitor and cable box.
We’re too far out for any sort of antenna. We’re on an old plan with the internet and cable so that dropping down to basic would cost more. Even so, it’s too expensive. It’s all wonky because we get different channels on different tvs and there’s no menu for half of it. Pain in the backside.
Have Netflex but I’ve sat down to scroll through their menu for hours on end finding nothing to watch. Viewing recent shows from channels’ internet sites is easier.
Never ever bundle everything. When it goes out, you lose everything. We have to have cable and internet bundled but keep the phone separate. We finally gave up the landline because it got too expensive and are pleased with the less than $30/mo. Verizon thing that plugs into the wall. We’re also down to one cell phone on a $20 something/mo. plan.
Hmmmm. I’m not into sports, so I don’t know all the details to get around cable for specific sports networks.
Check out this article, though. It has some discussion of Fox1 and might have a solution
https://www.groundedreason.com/watch-sports-without-cable/
What most of the proponent fail to see is that people in rural areas (outside of large cities), don’t have good high speed internet service available. Nor do cable companies service rural areas. Dish and DirecTV are what these citizens depend upon.
Although Dish and DirectTV say they offer internet service, in most cases this is still through a land line.
A relative had better internet connectivity on a mountain top in Haiti, with no running water and dependence on solar panels and a generator, than we have at our home just outside a large city. They used HughesNet. that can be costly.
You’re right. Al la carte would be better. First thing we’d cut are the two dozen music channels and the half dozen Spanish channels.
This website makes searching Netflix and Amazon Prime much easier:
I wish Youtube had an easy way to search their movies and TV programs. It is maddening to try to find anything on Youtube, without having to filter through a bunch of junk and short clips.
I have noticed one downside from cutting loose from Comcrap...
Periodically, people show up at my door trying to convince me to sign up again, and they are annoying and persistent. It isn’t enough to simply tell them you aren’t interested.
**** Comcrap.
YouTube gives you a filter function to allow you to eliminate anything under 20 minutes. That lets most complete shows through and ignores the clips.
Thanks for the link. Runs about 3 minutes behind cable.
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