Posted on 12/21/2013 10:24:26 AM PST by OKSooner
This is a followup thread to another one that was posted yesterday on the same subject, particularly this one:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3103587/posts
To get straight to the point, I'd like someone to give me a straight answer about what a viable option would be for us to accomplish the following:
Continued internet access for our home.
Continued access to desirable TV programming - local channels, desirable cable programming such as sports events, both local and national, and [take my pick] of other stuff, also Fox News and CSPAN if it still exists.
Cost decreased significantly from what we're paying [ourlocalcableprovider]. (I don't want to mention which one because I'd have to say something about how arrogant they are but It ought to already be obvious from the lame commercials with the little man with the northeastern accent who always ends up saying "Cox Bund" - oops...)
Anyway, single, straight answers invited and appreciated.
What to do?
Lose them. Continued high-speed internet access, which to give credit they haven't done a bad job of...
Save money.
Keep watching the stuff I want to watch on TV, without a terribly complicated solution to that. No commercials would be nice...
Keep the land line or lose it? I don't much care either way. Lose it is fine with me if it saves money.
Marry Christmas!
Hope you find the alternative you’re looking for. With the internet speed that’s available to us, streaming isn’t an option. Even Youtube videos sometimes get hung up. So we’ll keep Directv.
I got rid of cable TV last year- have not missed it
I am 100% internet- and there are so many training videos on youtube I can see spennding the rest of my life learning new things!
“desirable TV programming”
does not compute
Burn Notice used to be available on-line. South Park still is AFAIK.
More or less the same here.. I’ve got “over the air” local broadcast (had to buy an antenna for that when the digital switch went down) for local news and weather.
Netflix gets a hell of a lot more use than the TV.
Do I care if some of the stuff is a couple years old?
Hell no, it’s new to me.
Paraphrased: Ill never give up my tv because I do not care what immorality I watch or what immorality I fund. ALL that is important is my entertainment.
- Optimum Triple-Pay (cable, internet, VOICE phone plus their “Silver Package” and $5.00/month internet upgrade to Warp Speed
- Add Amazon PRIME with Amazon Instant Video
- Order pizza, open yer well-chilled Corona and nuke the popcorn
my sister watches her soaps on an Iphone these days, they always have the last 5-7 episodes available
You make a lot of stew from a single oyster.
The bottom line is we all MUST have internet. We’ve been programed to believe we can’t do without it. But the cable companies bundle them. I have basic cable and internet for $63 a month. If I get rid of basic cable I save less than $20 a month.
I did get rid of the landline and saved about $30. I have Majic Jack. It’s $20 a year. Now, if the power goes out or the internet goes down, that phone doesn’t work.
We switched to Consumer Cellular for out cell phones. We get 500 shared minutes and more texts than we’ll ever use for $40.63 a month. As of now there are no contracts so we can increase our minutes a month at a time. For instance, if we’re going on a trip and think we may need more minutes, we simply change our plan to 1,000 minutes for another $10. Then when we get back home we switch it back.
I hear people all the time saying they can get internet for $30 a month. Not where I live. Comcast has a monopoly and they own all the policicians so they’ll always have a monopoly.
I wonder if ROKU and ChromeCast can be used together??
$20 a year for MagicJack and you can also keep your existing phone number as well.
Here’s what we’ve been using for four years:
Earthlink cable internet - it is pretty much their re-selling of TimeWarner Cable. Limited to 16mbps, the cable modem is free, and typically you can find reduced monthly deals for the first six months. Monthly price is less than Time Warner’s stand alone cable internet service.
Home phone: MagicJack Plus - hooks right into the router, cost $20 per year, has worked solid for three years.
Equipment: Hooked up to the tvs are desktop PCs, wireless keyboards and wireless mice. I’ve been using computer DVRs for a number of years, so the primary unit still has a BeyondTV remote, but mostly use Windows 7 and Windows Media Center.
Streaming by Netflix and Amazon Prime; tried Hulu a couple times, but just got sick and tired of the commercials.
OTA TV - we’re in Los Angeles, there’s a load of free channels here. There’s also a number of unencrypted channels on the cable feed that supplies the Internet, so we use both. To supply those feeds to the computers, we use an HD Homerun box. One input is OTA TV, the other input is the QAM cable channels.
Total monthly price: about $63, mostly because we consider the Prime to be a yearly fee for shipping, not a streaming provider. With Amazon’s addition of Prime First books (a free book each month) plus their lending library, I don’t even know if we can even call it shipping anymore and need to call it part of the book budget. None of us are sporting fanatics, so mileage will vary for people who are.
Things we (used to) miss: Food Network was a favorite in the household before we cut the cable. Quite a few shows are available for streaming off of their website, but we stopped when the whole Paula shebang happened. History Channel also has many of their shows ready to go on their website as well, so while we used to miss that, less so now.
ping
However when the tech came to install, he was on time and set it up quickly [even though he had to run new wire]. He spent time making sure everything worked and I understood and gave me his business cell number so if I had problems later I could call him direct; so I'm happy...
Yep. It only takes a year or two of media (even partial) abstinence to fall far enough behind the bleeding edge to go through the "oldies" with full enjoyment.
You STILL need a landline-either copper wires from the phone co or coax from cable tv. Everything in the house can be wireless with the right box. That is if u want fast internet.
What would be the benefit of each? Are they basically the same? Just wondering.
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