Posted on 09/27/2018 2:55:37 PM PDT by US Navy Vet
We were the same but finally got high speed.
Roku
Sure people say cut the cord, use an antenna for the local digital TV, ROKU, HULU ad nauseum. Gotta have broadband somehow from some carrier to stream. You might find yourself sticking with the same carrier but only to provide the broadband without the TV. Ask me how I know.
I cancelled my TV account 2 years ago but didn't write a vanity to let everyone know.
Buy a ROKU stick for $40 and plug it into your HTML port (or if you have a smart TV, it is built-in) on the back of the TV and sign up for Netflix and/or other internet streaming services for your content, depending on what kind of programming you like. Netflix is $11 a month, Hulu is $10 month, etc.
We dumped cable TV and stream Netflix, Hulu, and Sling. We tried Amazon and found out that it is a ripoff — you have to pay a monthly fee and then each show costs extra $$.
Then there is Youtube red which is fee based and you can pay for a separate subscription to HBO, Cinemax, etc.
We use an Apple TV box which works really well and supports all of the services. You can use a PC too or a smart phone.
Our Comcast cable TV bill was around $150 for crap. We found that most of our favorite shows were free on OTA and there were around 5 channels that we watched regularly... that we could get by streaming.
We still use Comcast as our ISP and telephone provider.
My brother lives in Chesapeake, Va and switched from Cox
to Verizon Fios.
When I tried to cut the cord I was given a price for just intenet. It was the same as the "triple play" option with internet, cable, and phone. For two years, anyway. So baiscally overprice internet if that's all you buy. So I still have cable because it's basically free.
But I subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime. Lots of choices on both. Netflix has better original content for now.
“Any Replacement suggestions?”
Why replace?
I dumped cable in 1994.
No paying for garbage. No seeing garbage.
Get an antenna if you have to have TV :-).
When I cut the cord, I had Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. I’m down to Amazon. I don’t watch much TV anymore :-).
Pick a few of the online streaming services ... if you find yourself not watching much, cancel them ... it’s always easy to subscribe again if you find you miss the service.
I’m trying to find a way to drop Amazon, but I buy too much from them despite hating Bezos (I convince myself that profits from my orders are paying our rather cool delivery people :-) ).
As an example...
Cable TV was costing us $150 per month for mostly crap. High speed internet, $85 per month.
Streaming services — Netflix, Hulu ~ $12/mo, Sling $25/mo.
Approx %50 per month vs $150 for a saving of $100 per month or $1200 per year.
Here’s a site that might be helpful if you’re looking into over the air TV as an aternattive - https://antennaweb.org/
[I’m trying to find a way to drop Amazon, but I buy too much from them despite hating Bezos (I convince myself that profits from my orders are paying our rather cool delivery people :-) ).]
Always insist on the fastest free shipping possible to make Amazon lose more money on retail shipments. This is especially critical on 3rd party sellers where Amazon might have a prospect of making money that is obviated by free rush shipping. In the long run, this forces Amazon to make one of two bad choices - lose money or charge more. If it loses more, all to the good. If it charges more, then this will level the playing field with its bricks and mortar competition that don’t own left-wing propaganda outlets like the Washington Post.
Excellent advice!
- Sail Internet* ($50/mo, >100Mbps)
- Roku (Stick, plugs 100% into TV, HDMI incl. USB power on TV)
- Youtube TV ($40/mo, all local channels & my cable TV favs, no lagginess, unlimited cloud DVR**)
(*https://www.sailinternet.com/ or maybe equivalent in your area? **Gets rid of cable box and DVR box)
You really can’t consume entertainment in this country without supporting leftists. But if you don’t your brain will fry. I prefer an unfried brain over pointless grandstanding.
Funny this. I gave back my box about 1.5 mos ago. I didn’t watch TV all that much anyway. But it’s weird not having it. I’ve got one of those digital converters and an antenna. Just haven’t had enough energy to set it up. But that’s what I’d recommend. Just get your TV over the air like in the old days. And check out DVDs from the library. Give those bad Hollywood and media people exactly zero of your money!
Roku is nice. The Nvidia Shield Pro is dynamite. All Google apps are available for the shield. And it is fast.
I have COX, live in a town of 15k, and am outside the OTA range of most channels.
COX Internet provides 1 Tb download usage, 50 Mbps (actually I get between 70 and 120 Mbps most of the time, except when they are screwing around with it and it drops to 1 to 3 Mbps) for about $70. None of the competition can even come comes to that — although 50 Mbps is overkill for my usage, even streaming a couple of sports events and a movie.
CenturyLink recently offered ‘just Internet’ for $45 with a guarantee of no rate increase EVER. The problem is, for my area, the speed is only 10 Mbps. I could not find whether they have a maximum data usage.
Mobile and satellite internet are massively expensive for no more than they offer in terms of speed and usage, so neither is a viable option to use for TV/Streaming.
I have been thinking about dropping the TV part of my cable and using one of the streaming TV services. The only drawback to that is that I use TiVo to record and it does not record streaming services.
Most of the streaming TV comes in packages (like cable tiers), so you still get a bunch of crap channels. By the time you add on sports, etc., you are getting in the range of cable TV cost.
If one service would offer ala carte streaming TV, ...
My question was what’s your alternative?. I think you’re going to find there aren’t many. What I’ve read is that once 5G becomes widely available you will have a legitimate choice. People will simply use wireless. But until then you can go with Direct TV for TV. But what about Internet? Maybe your phone co offers DSL. Not sure that will be any cheaper than cable. And might not be as good.
We cancelled cable a few months ago, but in order to reduce our internet bill we HAD to keep one box with basic (local) channels go figure. All other home TVs have antennae’s my husband bought on Amazon that give us just as good a picture as the box. Don’t miss cable at all. We do miss Hannity and Tucker, though! Saving about $80 per month.
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