Cut the Cord and couldn't be happier (1 Viewer)

[Adam Gregorich]

Adam, glad you did this thread as I was kind of in the middle of experimenting with cord cutting.

The main thing I'm having trouble with is the quality of the live streams. I'm used to the quality of picture and sound cable delivers. I've been doing A/B comparisons and cable keeps winning every time. Not sure if I can give that up.

I've been researching outside antennas again as I'd like to run an OTA signals to all the TV's using the existing cable run in the house. Just have to figure out how to do that.

Your mileage will verify with streaming. Using your existing cabling is pretty easy. just follow it back to the splitter and if needed replace it with a distribution amp. Hook your antenna to the input (of the splitter or amp) and you are good to go.

 

[Osato]

Your mileage will verify with streaming. Using your existing cabling is pretty easy. just follow it back to the splitter and if needed replace it with a distribution amp. Hook your antenna to the input (of the splitter or amp) and you are good to go.

I had trouble with my splitter as the signal will / degrade. So I’m running a direct line to my tv by bypassing the splitter. You can test the signal on your tv to see if you need something to amplify signal. This was my debate on earlier posts.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I had trouble with my splitter as the signal will / degrade. So I’m running a direct line to my tv by bypassing the splitter. You can test the signal on your tv to see if you need something to amplify signal. This was my debate on earlier posts.

In my case a splitter was degrading my signal, but I have multiple TVs and an Amazon FireCast DVR, so I picked up a distribution AMP instead. I found them in 4 and 8 port versions.

 

[Gary Seven]

TV and internet are included in my HOA so I will not be cutting the cord anytime soon. However, if that were not the case, I would probably cut the cord as well.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

The firecast is on sale for $129!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J6A6H74

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just took the plunge and canceled cable. We’ll keep internet from them as that’s pretty much the only option here, and they’re raising our internet rate effective immediately as a result of not having it bundled with cable, but I’m past the point of caring.

We subscribed to no premium cable channels and had the lowest tier internet service (which met or exceeded our needs), and the bill was $180 a month - of that, $50 was for internet and $130 for cable. Internet rate goes up to $70, but that still saves $110 a month.

I have not even turned on the cable box since this summer and am watching no broadcast or basic cable programming at this time. Everything my wife enjoyed is already on one of the streaming services we already subscribed to. The only thing that we’re really losing is the ability to turn on the TV to get instant news or watch local baseball, two things I haven’t done in years. Losing those things has kept me from cutting the cord for years and the math just doesn’t add up anymore. It’s not worth an extra $1000 a year on the off chance that I might want to watch a ballgame once in a while. There are plenty of digital outlets for news and I already have a digital subscription for my paper of choice, so I won’t really be at a loss for information.

My wife had wanted to do it for years but deferred to my insanity on it. And since she’d always find stuff to watch, that seemed to validate my “better to keep it just in case” approach. But this year I noticed that she was watching everything on commercial free Hulu even if the DVR had recorded it. I just had zero justification for keeping it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I just took the plunge and canceled cable. We’ll keep internet from them as that’s pretty much the only option here, and they’re raising our internet rate effective immediately as a result of not having it bundled with cable, but I’m past the point of caring.

We subscribed to no premium cable channels and had the lowest tier internet service (which met or exceeded our needs), and the bill was $180 a month - of that, $50 was for internet and $130 for cable. Internet rate goes up to $70, but that still saves $110 a month.

I have not even turned on the cable box since this summer and am watching no broadcast or basic cable programming at this time. Everything my wife enjoyed is already on one of the streaming services we already subscribed to. The only thing that we’re really losing is the ability to turn on the TV to get instant news or watch local baseball, two things I haven’t done in years. Losing those things has kept me from cutting the cord for years and the math just doesn’t add up anymore. It’s not worth an extra $1000 a year on the off chance that I might want to watch a ballgame once in a while. There are plenty of digital outlets for news and I already have a digital subscription for my paper of choice, so I won’t really be at a loss for information.

My wife had wanted to do it for years but deferred to my insanity on it. And since she’d always find stuff to watch, that seemed to validate my “better to keep it just in case” approach. But this year I noticed that she was watching everything on commercial free Hulu even if the DVR had recorded it. I just had zero justification for keeping it.

Quite a story, Josh. But makes all the sense in the world. Good for you. Not sure which baseball games you might want to watch, but mlb.com can provide options for out-of-market games. But if its Yankees or Mets for you, you're SOL. I use my Apple 4kTV to watch out of market games via the MLB app.

 

[JohnRice]

@Josh Steinberg , maybe you can use an antenna for local news. I've probably said this before, but when I dumped cable, I re-routed the physical cable to distribute antennas through the house. Add an amplifier so the signal is strong enough, and you're done. It took maybe an hour to go around to all the splitters and correct their directions (when necessary)
.

 

[RobertR]

I did this nine years ago, and have never regretted it. My roof antenna pulls in LOTS of LA stations.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I thought I’d miss local channels but the cancelation of most of what I liked, the availability of DVD and streaming for reruns of old shows I like, and a Hulu subscription for new network shows has pretty much taken care of that for me. There’s nothing really left for me there, and anything there is left that might interest me isn’t worth the thousand bucks a year I’ll save.

 

[titch]

I thought I’d miss local channels but the cancelation of most of what I liked, the availability of DVD and streaming for reruns of old shows I like, and a Hulu subscription for new network shows has pretty much taken care of that for me. There’s nothing really left for me there, and anything there is left that might interest me isn’t worth the thousand bucks a year I’ll save.

Haven't used cable for 10 years but this week I decided to remove the ugly old connection box. I've sealed the holes and all it needs now is a lick of paint and all traces of cable are gone!

 

[RICK BOND]

I cut the Cord (Cable) almost 3 years ago. Bought 2 indoor HDTV antennas,the black thin ones you stick on windows from Amazon. And I have 2 Amazon 4K Fire Sticks. I Save Allot of $$$$$ ! : )

 

[Osato]

Cable free!!!

 

[Bartman]

I just took the plunge and canceled cable. We’ll keep internet from them as that’s pretty much the only option here, and they’re raising our internet rate effective immediately as a result of not having it bundled with cable, but I’m past the point of caring.

We subscribed to no premium cable channels and had the lowest tier internet service (which met or exceeded our needs), and the bill was $180 a month - of that, $50 was for internet and $130 for cable. Internet rate goes up to $70, but that still saves $110 a month.

I have not even turned on the cable box since this summer and am watching no broadcast or basic cable programming at this time. Everything my wife enjoyed is already on one of the streaming services we already subscribed to. The only thing that we’re really losing is the ability to turn on the TV to get instant news or watch local baseball, two things I haven’t done in years. Losing those things has kept me from cutting the cord for years and the math just doesn’t add up anymore. It’s not worth an extra $1000 a year on the off chance that I might want to watch a ballgame once in a while. There are plenty of digital outlets for news and I already have a digital subscription for my paper of choice, so I won’t really be at a loss for information.

My wife had wanted to do it for years but deferred to my insanity on it. And since she’d always find stuff to watch, that seemed to validate my “better to keep it just in case” approach. But this year I noticed that she was watching everything on commercial free Hulu even if the DVR had recorded it. I just had zero justification for keeping it.

I've never had CATV: analog cable picture quality was poor compared with U.K. UHF OTA TV, then they added adverts, then they ramped up the cost. I've always relied on network OTA, VCRs to timeshift and video stores for rentals. Now it's network OTA, OTA DVRs to timeshift, Netflix and Amazon Prime. And the CATV companies are still increasing their costs despite losing customers. If they do that to internet access too, I'm hoping cellphone hotspot technology will provide an alternative. The CATV business model is broken, their costs pay for too many mid level execs earning exhorbitant salaries, who contribute nothing to the content, Netflix and Amazon have proved that.