Cutting the cord - anyone else have experience
 

I'm getting sick of paying $100 a month for my cable service, when 95% of what I watch is on the broadcast networks or public television.

I'm been considering dropping the cable and getting something like a PopBox to do Hulu and Netflix, and to stream downloaded content from my PC. The only thing is that I think I would still like to have a DVR, as I never really watch live TV. Does anyone have recommendations for an OTA DVR?

The only thing I will miss is F1 (which I can hopefully stream or download somewhere), Mad Men, and maybe some of the Discovery/History type stuff (which is supposed to be coming to Netflix).

Any thoughts or suggestions from people who have BTDT?

I cut the cord over 4 years ago.

Tivo makes the most popular DVR for use with an antenna. It will stream from your PC, Netflix, Pandora, etc. Service is about $8 a month and the box will not work without service.

I got the apple tv and havent sent a check to comcast since.

For a second there, I thought you were asking about cutting the umbilical cord...

Whew!

I am almost there. I say "almost" because I can't receive any OTA broadcasts. We need to keep cable for live TV.

I have an AppleTV2 that is jailbroken. On that, I have installed XBMC for iOS

With a few available add-ons for XBMC, I get all of the TV that I would have normally recorded to DVR. But, with no cost.

There is one add-on called Free Cable that gives you access to the content from these networks by scraping the content from their websites. The video quality is very good as well. Networks include:
A&E
ABC
ABC Family
Adult Swim
Bravo
Cartoon Network
CBS(& startrek.com)
The CW
Food Network
FX
History Channel
Lifetime
MTV
NBC
Oxygen
Spike
SyFy
TV Land
USA
VH1

We did it about 6 months ago. Hulu and SideReel keep my wife and daughter happy. I could care less for TV.

Build your own DVR... About Mythbuntu | Mythbuntu

Yep. No more subscription TV in my house. Apple TV/on-demand only.

You won't miss it. Cable/Satellite is a rip-off. I measured 40% of total time spent viewing as commercials (not including "product placement" in the main program). Even with Tivo/DVR it's annoying to fast-forward through, and 99.9% of the programming out there sucks anyway.

Seriously - this is a no-brainer. Why pay good money to programs that do nothing for you and/or you'll never watch.

You can find F1 videos online. The only thing you can't get that I've found is live sports broadcasting, and if I really wanted that, I could get a subscription to NFL or MLB's own online streaming network (over the computer). But IMHO it's not worth it.

Get more done, learn more, read more books. Win-win-win.

No sat/cable here...but then we have a life. ;)

We canceled satellite about 10 years ago. We're close to a metro area so get a surprising number of OTA stations (about 30). Reception is improved as I mounted an outdoor antenna INSIDE the attic (not viewable from outside the house).

For a DVR I use a Windows 7 PC (as a home theater PC with DVD, TV tuner, internet access, etc.) and wireless remote (serves as both mouse and remote for both PC and TV), which also gives access to internet provided programming.

There are a few televised events that we miss, but for what we save in monthly fees we can afford to take the family out a couple times a month to the local sports pub for dinner to watch games, etc.

We went from U-Verse at around $120/month with taxes to a much faster internet service through a local company at about $45/month after taxes + Hulu. The antenna (free with house courtesy of the 1970s) picks up everything over the air, and the computer acts as a DVR. Internet service comes with ESPN3, so I'm pretty much good to go.

FWIW the antenna is mounted up in the rafters in the attic. No worries about lightning strikes that way.

How do you can cable and keep internet svc?

I grew up with just an antenna, and we live way the hell out from the towers so reception was spotty and we only got a few channels. When I moved into my first apartment I had cable TV, but after my room mate moved out I cancelled it. I watch the shows I like online and very rarely miss having cable.

Do it. Not watching TV will make you smarter. Today, when I see network anything (including "news") it just seems really weird. The information equivalent of styrofoam. You want information? Read it. Want entertainment? Pull the family together and start a movie.

We quit using subscription TV when we moved to WI in 2007. Haven't really missed it since we get OTA channels for news and weather. Hulu for most of what we like such as Eureka and Red Bull air races. We thought about Netflix or Amazon Prime for some of the old classic shows but haven't pulled the trigger on that.

I dumped the internet and got satilite... dish network with DVR is around $50-$60 a month.

No TV signal in my hood so cable or satilite or internet if you want to watch TV.

Someday I may dump the satilite and switch to internet when they have HD with surrond sound quality video.

Anyone use Roku? It looks like it does the same thing as AppleTV, but provides 1080P and with a software update, can stream shows like a jailbroken AppleTV.

We just dropped our Dishnetwork to the lowest (ie not even listed on their web site) package. With tax it's $22/month. We were shocked that it included virtually every channel we watched when we were paying $60/month.

We also pay $8 for Netflix streaming + $10/month for DVDs from Blockbuster

Our Roku has lots of free content, too.

That's way more content than we have time for at a cost of $40/month.

Great timing because we are thinking about doing the same thing. Shut off Comcast cable and internet and going with DSL and using Netflix, Hulu, etc.

But what's my snag is live TV/Sporting events. For example MSU vs UM this weekend we'd like to watch. My son loves to watch hockey especially Red Wings.

So my question related to this process is where do you guys watch live sporting events or TV for that matter on line?

If U-Verse is available in your area - choose it over DSL. Like night and day if you choose the 12/1.5 plan.

I pay $45 (no taxes or fees) for U-Verse internet - no phone or TV service.

It is rock solid and very fast.

We don't have u-verse in my area otherwise it would be a no brainer. I've been waiting for it for a long time.

I dumped my U-verse TV over a year ago and couldn't be happier! Between Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon for VOD I miss nothing I want to watch. Granted these days there isn't much I really want to watch but The Office stillkeeps my attention and I am starting to really like Parks and Recreation. My bill dropped from $120 per month down to 29.95 per month.

I am using a home theater PC that is running Windows Media Center as well as Boxee and Hulu's desktop app. I really like this setup.

Good luck on your switch!
Michael

ESPN3 mostly. Or ABC/CBS/... if it's broadcast. If it's being shown on something I really can't get I'll go somewhere, usually with other people I know. Beats hanging out alone with the game on.

Have appleTV and have been thinking of moving to Roku to use amazon streaming with prime membership. AppleTV is very limited. Unless you jailbreak, you have to rent everything from apple.

FYI, the Wii is a lousy streaming device. We tested all of our streaming capable devices and the Wii had the worst picture. Others were, xbox360=fair, samsung blueray= good, appleTV=best. The user interface varies between each also. If you do alot of streaming, and want a HD picture, it would be worth picking up an apple TV.

Jailbreaking opens up a lot of options but I find ATV's selection to be quite good actually.

You can purchase most of the TV programs so you actually own the content. Most movies you can only rent, which bites a little, but then again how often do you watch the same movie (and if you do, why not just go buy the DVD for 10 bucks)?

Also, it is important to note that the AppleTV2 is only 720p.

If you choose to jailbreak it, you can stream from Amazon with an AppleTV2.

True, if such things matter to you.

I rented Star Trek in HD last night and it looks spectacular. Honestly I didn't notice the difference between that and the supposedly 1080 HD that I used to get before cutting the cord. Yes, there's probably a difference but it isn't significant enough for me to really care.

I also have an HD output to my PC (and to my laptop) that I can plug into and pipe 1080 MP4s and other stuff I have. Works really nice. ;)

Been a while since I looked at JB capabilities on the ATV2. Google turns up a bunch of info. Before I start digging, which JB did you use? What software are you using to stream Amazon?

Thx.

How much video memory would be required to store all the important tv moments I've missed in the last 40 years? And does anyone have a copy to share?
Jim

To follow up:

I got this to work, but the results are underwhelming.

I JB the aTV and installed XMBC. This allows me to use Playon to stream amazon movies to the aTV from my PC. The problem is in picture quality. HD streams look bad, just like using a Wii for netflix. The user interface for navigating the movie selection is also weak.

A funny sidenote, I can access the Playon streams from my directv box and the picture is better than the aTV. The user interface is worse though.

Still not ready for primetime.....

We get ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and FOX on our old antenna. Cable is not available in our rural area. Works out fine for us. If I had cable, I would waste even more of my shop project time by watching dicovery and History channels instead of building/restoring stuff.

If I had your shop, I wouldn't need a TV!:D