Cutting the cord on cable. How did you do it?

[michaeljohnr]

I want to cut the cord on Verizon fios cable. Their monthly bill is simply a waste of money for the amount of content I use.

I need to keep internet but want to utilize the streaming services that are available.

If anyone here has ditched the cable company, what's your set up and current monthly expense?

I'm not interested in those (no offense) that have no cable all together. I respect that decision, but it's not my goal.

Thanks!

[patchmcg]

We have TWC. No TV but we do have phone and internet.

I use Roku for MLB and Netflix......and our DVD/Blueray shelf is full.

[Glennwillow]

I'd like to do this, myself, but haven't yet. I get cable and Internet services from Comcast where I live, but we hardly ever use the cable services. Sometimes I watch a sports event on cable and sometimes we watch something from PBS (Ken Burns or Masterpiece Theater), but in general, our cable box sits idle. Like Patch, we stream from Netflix and Amazon and we have a good collection of DVDs to watch.

But there are times when there is some news or weather event where I really want to find out what's going on, as much as anyone can ever know by getting information from a 3rd party, that is.

So we keep paying for cable TV, which over the course of a year adds up to a fair amount of money. Once I retire, we may decide to pull the plug, but that decision has not been made yet.

- Glenn

[Dirk Hofman]

I would love to do it. Here's a pretty good article: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-cut-the-co...all-1522124125

If football and HBO were a la carte, I'd have done it years ago.

[patchmcg]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

I would love to do it. Here's a pretty good article: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-cut-the-co...all-1522124125

If football and HBO were a la carte, I'd have done it years ago.

I have no desire for HBO, but I do miss football. I wish the NFL would come up with an internet service like MLB has.

[RedJoker]

I haven't had cable for years and only use internet and Netflix / Amazon. If there is a game that I really want to watch, I make it a social event and go to a friends or a sports bar. I'm not one to sit all weekend watching sports so that works well for me.

Having said that, I'm getting satellite on Friday. The fiancé is moving in and requested it. Turns out, if I drop the home phone, the internet speed doubles and my total bill drops. Go figure...

[Warren Gilmour]

I did this a few years back. Had my local cable provider for tv/internet/home phone. I cancelled all but internet access and went with Dish Network for my limited TV needs.
Ended up being a lot cheaper per month.

[philjs]

About 3 years ago we became a tad disillusioned in our local "full service" provider because new subscribers often paid substantially less for service than what long-term subscribers were paying, even after the "intro deal" was done. When the switch from analog to digital happened it got worse: the provider used "bait and switch" tactics to increase their bottom line by requiring the use of an additional set-top box (at a monthly fee, of course) to decode the signal, despite that our relatively new LCD flat-screen TV was quite capable of receiving digital signals.

So, we cut the TV and phone service (land line was becoming nothing more than a free-for-all for marketeers) and our bills are now a bit less than half of what we were paying. We picked up a cheap, amplified antenna to let us pick up local broadcasts for free AND bought an older Mac Mini, with CD/DVD player, from our local want-ads site. Our TV is now a large-screen HDMI monitor for the computer. The only down-side of the Mac Mini is having to have a separate Blu-Ray disc player (when will Apple get down off their high horse and offer this? It's bad enough that they "exteriorized" the disc player but not to make it compatible with Blu-Ray is downright insulting), but at least Blu-Ray players are dirt cheap AND most TVs have multiple HDMI inputs.

We watch much of the content from many of the cable-only channels (within a week of airing/posting, before the content is "locked" and available only to those with cable subscriptions...ie. double indemnity), in addition to Netflix, etc. Now even some of the premium channels (eg. HBO) are offering subscription services, a la Netflix, so it's even easier to ditch the cable and pay ONLY for what you want. I must say, however, that it is REALLY nice to be able to use a web browser (with a keyboard for searching) rather than something like Apple TV or a "smart" TV's internet offerings, for watching TV. The internet boxes/TVs have their limits: only with a decent browser is it possible to stream "livestream" events and have both large-screen HD video AND fantastic audio for the music events!

Phil

[dhalbert]

We never had cable, but we have FiOS for Internet service. We have a compact Windows 7 computer hooked to the TV. Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Center, which is a nice DVR application with a free TV schedule. (Windows 8 has this too, but I think you need Windows 8 Pro and need to pay a relatively small one-time fee.) For a tuner, we use an HD HomeRun from SiliconDust. We record almost exclusively PBS. For movies we use the public library, including interlibrary loan.

[callouses]

I ditched time warner years ago. I now have Verizon for cell phones, and at&t for uverse internet only. $35.00/mo.

[D. Shelton]

Simple : we moved to a place where Comcast doesn't go.
1 central digital reciever (DirecTV) and 5 ancillary recievers.
With a good package , cost is up the wazoo .

[flaggerphil]

I use Directv for tv (I've used satellite reception since around 1980, when we had a huge C-band dish) and Uverse for land line and the interwebs.

Works well for us.

[Tony from Tulsa]

Great thread! I too would enjoy telling my cable company to (insert verbage here). Problem is, we love AMC channel, and I cannot find a way to get AMC other than cable. Does anyone have any advice specific to that channel?

[Oldguy64]

Originally Posted by patchmcg

We have TWC. No TV but we do have phone and internet.

I use Roku for MLB and Netflix......and our DVD/Blueray shelf is full.

Same basic set up, but we've gone all cell phone.

[bikersights]

I kept the Internet and got rid of there TV service .i bought a roku unit.which allows me to get YouTube Netflix and Hulu .also use the weather underground channel and many others.my costs are my internet + 7.99 a month for Hulu and 8.99 for Netflix .about $17.00 for TV and my internet I have an antenna for my local channels they are HD and come in better than cable.i get about 32-38 channels on my antenna regular network shows and programming from 70s-80s-90s movies and sitcoms.if I want a new release movie I just rent it on the vudu channel like going to the video store on Tuesdays in the old days at a cost 3.99 to 5.99 depending on the movie and quality.i like the idea of not having to be at the cable company's mercy.if I don't want Hulu or Netflix for the month I just shut it off and turn them back on when wanted.tv should be free like the days before cable.
Good luck with witch ever way you decide to go.


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