CUTTING THE CORD - MASTER THREAD - transitioning away from cable TV & various options
 

Just noticed we have had quite a few "cutting the cord" threads. I have them all indexed on this first post to make it easier to read what has been previously posted on the subject.

For those interested, I suggest bookmarking this thread to use as a reference going forward.

It would nice if it could be put into some kind of master thread folder here, but I'm not sure how that would be done - or if it should be done.

For now...it's a start to perhaps at least save a whole bunch of extra searches.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/847633-cutting-cable-2015-watching-f1-food-network.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/882478-how-not-get-ripped-off-basic-cable.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/888142-streaming-hd-video-off-internet-yes-no.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/903237-preparing-cut-cable-tv-cord.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/832645-cutting-cord.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/912340-thinking-cord-cutting-t-u-verse-think-again.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/916352-started-transformation-no-cable-tv.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/932542-internet-tv.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/946112-cutting-cord-best-live-tv-options.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/956225-cutting-tiime-warner-cord.html

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/965505-cutting-cable-tv.html

Sub'd
Thanks Bazza

You're welcome, JB! SmileWavy

Got my Fire TV in the mail the other day and am hooking it up later today.

This is YUGE! ;)

I'm a little behind schedule for "cutting the cord" but now ready to proceed.

I'll be using an Amazon firebox and playstation vue.

Ooma for my landline.

Trying to figure out how the cables are all going to run.

Not going wireless so here's the plan so far:

Start with cable modem...

1. Ethernet cable to PC
2. LAN from Modem to Firebox
3. HDMI from Firebox to TV
4. Phone line from Modem to Ooma
5. External digital antenna hooked up directly to TV
6. DVD player hooked up to TV (through component or HDMI)

Have not figured out yet how to connect second TV. It will be located in immediate area of PC. The other TV will be as well but facing the other direction.

Would I use an HDMI switcher, maybe similar to this one?

HDMI Switcher 2 Ports Bi-direction Manual Switch 2 x 1 / 1 x 2 HDMI Hub-HDCP Passthrough-Supports Ultra HD 4K 3D 1080P By DotStone

Or a more simple splitter type device such as this one?

HDMI Splitter 1 in 2 out, Enlody 1 X 2 Splitter Box for Full HD 4K 1080P, Support 3D, 4k x 2k and Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 Resolution for Laptop, Monitor, PC, TV, Projector

Thanks for any input - I plan on trying to get this all done by next week.....

Been wireless for as long as I've had Cable internet in my home. It's been 20 years. My wireless is as fast as my cable connection.

On my main TV most all my content except for local channels is accessed with my AppleTV boxes.
Like AppleTV because can Airplay my iPhone and computer on the TV's and don't need an extra splitter. My TV does have 4 HDMI inputs I don't use. Can use Computers and iCloud to store and manage music and movies that will play anywhere. Thinking of getting a networked Antenna box so I can run a TV tuner on the AppleTV as well for live TV without having to switch sources on the TV's or run separate Antenna feeds to the different TVs.

I cut the cord 3 months ago when the Direct TV box went dead. Of course, I have procrastinated and continued to pay the $122 pe month while I've been watching YouTube and Netflix. I still had Direct TV in the bedroom so I was able to watch the national news at night. Recently, I discovered that all the news stations also stream on YouTube and I compared.....YouTube was behind by about 2 minutes.

All that said, I just bought a TV Antenna that I'm am mounting this weekend and I am calling Direct TV today. Looking forward to hearing all the great deals they will probably offer me since I have been a paying customer since 2005 (of course it was $40 per month when I started).

I just called Direct TV and cancelled! :)

I currenty pay $122 per month. Here's what they offered....First, they tole me that they would upgrade my equipment and they would waive the DVR fee for 2 years (I currently don't have DVR). Second, they would give me a new rate of $66 per month. I asked how long that would remain at that rate and she told me 12 months.

I respectfully declined.

New Deal offered. She said the same equipment upgrades as above and could put me on the "Select Plan" for $23.98. When I asked how long that would remain at that rate, she told me 12 months.

I respectfully declined.

The fact is, I basically only watch news (Fox, MSMBC, and sometimes CNN). My other addiction has been the Kardashians (shame on me). But since my box has not been working for 3 months, I weaned myself off and I've been fine. I look forward to using my new antenna, YouTube, and Netflix. My mortgage will be paid off in August 2018 and then I'll be rich!

Baz, do you want new comments here, or link back to one of the threads you listed above?

Here would be best, I think. I only listed the links above for a handy all-in-one reference.

Thanks!!! SmileWavy

Within the last 3 weeks, we have cut the cord on cable tv. Even though we are IT people, we elected to go with a commercial infrastructure versus piecing together everything we want. In short, we went with Roku, DirecTV Now, and OTA for local channels. We kept our cable 100MB Internet connection.

FWIW, we went with Roku since we already had it for our NFL Sunday Ticket. From there we evaluated DirecTV Now and Sling TV. The deciding points for us were Velocity on DTV Now and cheaper HBO (Game of Thrones, Westworld) and Starz (Outlander). Sling TV has a feature we want and that is a DVR feature but no Velocity. But after a week using both, we went with DTV Now.

For local channels we bought a Mohu Curved 50. Really nice and does a great job.

As a quick sidebar, Mohu has one of the slickest products I have seen, the Airwave Indoor Antenna. This antenna connects wirelessly to your Roku so you can place the antenna anywhere in the house that gets the best signal for you. The limitation is that it is unamplified and is effective with towers 35 miles or less from your location. We tried it and it seems 35 miles is a good limit as we are 40-45 miles away and no joy. My suggestion is to check with a site like OTADTV.COM or NOCABLE.ORG and see how far away you are.

DTV Now is OK, not great. It will with some regularity drop my signal, the Guide will freeze up or it will refuse to allow me to log on. It can be a PITA but a simple leaving the DTV Now channel and returning usually clears it up. Saving over $150 per month is well worth it.

I pay some minimum for Direct TV like $30/month, I keep it because I pay $6/month for a box connection in my RV using my receiver and dish thingy.

Do you have/want surround sound? Get the most basic 5.1 receiver form Onkyo or something, it'll have 4 HDMI inputs and 1 output, so everything can plug into it, and one little cable to the TV.

Was using the multiple source capability of my TV for the different content boxes. Really wanted an external TV amp that provided surround. Lots of Receivers no amps/preamp without the radio tuner stuff. Just wanted something to run my TV into that did the surround processing and drove the speakers. Ended up getting the same brand of receiver as the TV. They talk to each other using the volume controls from the receiver and on/off to. The receiver only ever plays my TV source.

When I got the AppleTV generation 4, it talks to the TV and Receiver as well. Makes it nice to do everything with just the one AppleTV remote. Because of that got rid of all my other source boxes and moved the content to the AppleTV.

Found a box, Homerun, that provides my over the air TV antenna signal to my local computer network so don't have to subscribe to any services or switch to the TV tuner for local channels. Was basically only using the local channels for severe weather alerts anyway. And homerun lets me watch them on my AppleTV, computer, iphone or ipad.

Channels app will get you Homerun on the Apple TV along with a guide.

https://getchannels.com

So I have no landline/telephone anymore, but get my internet over a cable modem. In my area it's that or over the old telephone line. Has DSL been improved in the last 5-10 years?

Not enough to seriously stream 4K or even HD for that matter.

If you can get better speeds from DSL than you can from your cable provider then your cable provider sucks.

Anybody using this?

https://www.att.com/directv/directv-now.html

Finally made the call to my provider. Tech coming out Friday to swap modem and check my connection.

Going from Bundle (TV, Cable, Internet) to just Internet (High Speed Data).

Price will go from $189 to $64 per month with increase in speed from 20 to 100 megs.

Will post again after I get everything set up.....

i'm about 1.5 years without cable. i thought i would miss it..but i dont.

i do however get surprised by movies. not having cable, meant i never saw (or rarely saw) movie previews. movies seem to come and go without me ever knowing about it. for example, i had zero clue Justice League came out..or was even a movie.

Baz, are you going with a streaming service such as Sling?

Yup, ported the phone to google voice, dropped to the basic TV package for $10.00 plus a cable card for another $3.00 in an HDHomerun, bumped my bandwidth to 400mbps.

Lost nothing, cut bill from $140 to $70

Had thought I'd need SlingTV but after a month cancelled that as well. The basic TV package from my provider has more content for 1/3rd the cost.

Amazon Fire box and Play Station Vue.....

If you want more info...go to page 1 of this thread to find links to all cord cutting threads we've had on here the last few years.

There's a ton of info there.

Or you could just Google 'Amazon Fire box and Play Station Vue'.

You Tube is also a great source for info......

Has anyone tried Youtube TV?

We cut the cable 3 years ago, we bought Amazon Fire TV boxes (because we are prime members) and purchased the apps we wanted. Our Direct TV bill at the time was $160 a month.

$14 a month for HBO
$9 a month for Showtime
$9 a month for Hulu
$109 a year for Prime (with free 2 day shipping on all order which I beat to death)

I then downloaded Kodi and discovered the amazing thing called Sky TV F1 coverage. It is amazing!!

I will say, initially it took some adjustment as to how we watch TV. We quickly adjusted and love the way we can watch what we want when we want.

Here is where it gets interesting:

We decided to get rid of AT&T for our internet and use Comcast since Comcast can give us 3X the speed than AT&T can where we live.

As an introductory offer we get basic cable with the Internet for 1 year. I was like cool! I will Tivo the last few F1 races on NBC and watch them.

We found we are NEVER using the cable TV feed at all, we prefer the streaming.

As far as the F1 races go, us Americans are getting shafted. The Sky coverage is on a whole different level. No commercials, commentators what do no scream out wrong cars or drivers over and over and over again, and while the Lewis bias is there, the coverage is complete, the after race coverage is on another level. Plus I do not have to be explained what DRS or KERS is over and over and over again. I will never go back to American coverage.

Bottom line, now that we are adjusted to the streaming process we do not want the fed to you cable. We will get what we want when we want it.

Oh and when there are natural disasters, i.e. Hurricane Irma, I used the internet weather sites for information and what to expect, a lot less hysterics brought to you by Publix and Home Depot.

If I really wanted local coverage, I launch you tube and stream their live feed from there.

I do not miss Cable and now that I have it, never use it. I will cancel it the moment the free part is up with no reservation.

Edit - One last point I have 3 fire box set ups in my house and one fire stick on my garage TV, I take the stick with me on vacations, if I do not like the TV lineup, I plug the stick in and get all my apps (HBO, SHOWTIME, CODI etc) like I am at home. I just have to connect to the wifi and I am good to go.

There is one downside to codi streaming. Now when I try to watch Over Air TV or Cable Shows I fall asleep durning the long commercial breaks and don't like having to actively watch shows by recording then FF when the commercial breaks start aka Tivo.

Found my electricity bill is lower as well because I don't have the TV on in the background anymore due to all the commercials. Only turn it on when I want to watch something.

Skysports F1, yes. Still kinda curious what ESPN is going to do. Be nice if they went after Skysports and offered similar streaming coverage.

Still don't understand why sponsors don't put logos in the corner like station identification and stop running the same commercials over and over and over and over ad nauseam (pun intended) ill people are completely sick of them.

I would love to "cut the cord" but am cornered. My neighbors have cable TV/Internet but since I am 400' away from the end run the cable company won't even talk to me. Scheduled 3 service requests which seem to just disappear into the atmosphere. I'm talking Cox cable. My current providers are ATT DSL and Direct TV. Paying something like $200 month for both. They suck. My internet download speed is ~ 4MB/sec. I recently got an Amazon Fire stick but it is constantly pausing to catch up. Would love to just go with high speed internet for everything but the cable company is impossible, won't even visit for a talk. 400 freaking feet. So not OT I know, just wanted to vent. My apologies.

Does CA have a state board of utilities? Couldn't get gas service to a house until I threatened to call the state board.......

Back story.

10 years ago some dimwit at Comcast processed our payment $100 wrong, a $130 payment was put in as a $30 payment.

What resulted was amazing, our service was turned off, a person came knocking on our door strong arming us for the $100.

When we figured out WTF just happened we lit into them for treating us, 6 year loyal customers like thiefs. We cancelled our service and went to Direct TV.

Comcast sent a guy to our property to make sure we were not stealing the service, I pointed to the dish and told him we were done with them and VERY happy with Direct TV.

He was not satisfied, he made me cut my cox to my house at the ground then went to the pole and cut as high up as he could reach and again at the ground.

Fast forward to about 3 months ago.

We wanted faster speed, AT&T cannot give it, Comcast can. We tried to switch back, they send a tech out, he sees the destruction from the temper tantrum years ago and says he cannot hook us up.

Repeat this scene 2X.

My wife took to Instagram and Twitter and a mass email to let Comcast know our story.

Damage control went into action.

A 50 something year old lady came to our house and sat down whit us, apologized for our treatment and ramrodded a new line ran to our house and an install all within 4 days.

I would suggest you do the same. Make a mass email if you need info let me know I will ask my wife, I was impressed by the action she made happen.

Once paid $1000 for a hamburger because the chick at the register processed my card wrong. Luckily I got it refunded back to the card immediately and some hand written coupons from the manager for free burgers.

Also funny how they will take credit cards for payment, but won't accept copies of your statement for proof of payment.

Forgot to mention.....when on the phone to Internet provider to discuss downsizing, was ported over to CSR specialist who gave me an alternative package which essentially would have given me what I currently had - at a price of $129.....as compared to the $189 I had been paying.

Same bundled package - essentially same TV channels.

Now that I look at what I would pay with Play Station Vue (for the Core channel lineup) - $49 - plus the $69 I would be paying for the high speed data from my Internet provider.....it adds up to $118.....only a savings of $11/month. Then when you throw in what the Ooma charge is...probably about even.

Almost seems I'm better off just keeping the package she offered.

Thoughts?

These cable companies are terrible with respect to customer service.

As Clark Howard calls it..."customer NO-service"!

I just called to see if the offer still stood that was discussed yesterday and not only do they not have a record of it, the lady in their retention department said she couldn't get anything that came close to what I was quoted.

I asked that she get in touch with the person I spoke to yesterday.

She says: "I'll send her an email but I don't even know if she's working today or if she will have time to respond."

In other words....I have other things to do than help you....have a good day... :rolleyes:

I am going to have internet with or without TV.

I think we are paying $130 a month for the fastest Internet Comcast could give us.

We would have that with or without TV. When I had Direct TV that was another $160 on top of my internet cost which was about $80 a month for speed much slower than I have no. So my total cost was $240 a month.

The TV is now bundled in, if I wanted HBO Showtime and other premium channels I am pretty sure the TV cost will be more than $130.

So now I just pay for what I want as listed above. In my opinion I am saving $100 a month give or take.

After today and yesterday's shenanigans.....I've decided just to go with the $69.99 per month for 100 mbps, hook up a digital antennae for OTA channels, and my Ooma Internet phone for a landline.

Down the road I may do something with a streaming device. I enjoy college football and movies more than anything and college football season will be over very soon so not sure I will miss much.

The tech never even showed up today - no phone call or anything. Yet the cable company was sure to send 2 prerecorded reminders to me - one last night right at 6pm and the other today just before noon.

No wonder people hate cable companies.....

Unfortunately when net neutrality goes away the alternatives are likely to quickly die off. They’ll be crushed by Comcast, time-Warner, Verizon, etc.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Have a 100mbps down/20mbps up business cable internet connection. It is expensive, $200, save $70/mo because I've had the service so long. It is the only way I can get fixed IP addresses with reverse lookups for mail servers. And enough upload speed for reliable VPN to work from home.

Would be nice to get more upload speed for that kind of money!

Love running everything thru my AppleTV(s). But content is still way too expensive. Something has gotta give.

What kind of mail server are you running? We haven't had to deal with reverse lookups in years.

Just making sure my servers are set up properly so I don't have to worry about any issues.
Dedicated IPs also make sure servers are not blocked because in DHCP ranges of IPs.
Also SRV records, DKIM etc.

Spammers, Malware hacker/spoofers suck.

Richard, thanks.

You can't reliably run an outbound mail server on a consumer broadband providers dynamic address.

The IP blocks are known as dynamic and 99% of receiving servers will reject any mail originating from them.

Works for Richard because he pays for a business class address which will be in a known good block.

The way around it is to use known good SMTP servers.

If you want to run your server out of the house dynamic DNS will be fine inbound, usually.

For outbound configure SMTP to use either your broadband provider or gmail,

And if you don't have reverse PTR configured, you'll get bounced, a lot, even from a valid dedicated IP block