Dropping Cable? The Ins-And-Outs.
 

I'm hoping for a pretty broad discussion of what is involved in dropping your cable subscription and replacing it with to some combination of over-the-air (OTA) and internet viewing.

What types of programming or specific shows of note can you NOT get after dropping cable? F1? Julia Child and other Cooking Channel-type stuff? NBA games? National Geographic nature shows? Military Channel-type documentaries? Talk shows? Etc?

How's the viewing experience with watching TV online or OTA? Assume you're using a 42" or larger TV. How do Hulu and other online TV content's picture quality look at that size? Now assume your TV is HDTV. How's the OTA and online HD content?

What transmission headaches are you signing up for? Is OTA reception reliable or pixelated / dropping out? Do you need a fancy antenna mounted on a tall mast, or simply cheap rabbit ears? Do you need a wired Internet connection to your TV room, or will WLAN "G" do? "N"?

Talk about the additional boxes you need to connect TV to Internet. There are so many now. Apple TV, Sony/Google TV, TiVO Premiere, internet-capable TVs, and more. How do you choose? Or do you prefer to roll your own and hook a PC/Mac to the TV?

What about using a DVR like TiVO? Can they record OTA channels?

What sort of user interface are you getting into? One thing I do like about my current cable-through-TiVo is the simplicity. I only deal with one remote, one channel guide, one source.

Are you losing or gaining serendipity or specificity? You know how, in the old days, you'd lay on the couch at 2 AM flipping UHF channels and run across some cool program or movie you'd never heard of and wouldn't have known to search out? Cable with a DVR is like that x100, you can just browse through the next weeks' many thousands of programs and record whatever odd or interesting stuff catches your eye then watch at your convenience. On the other hand, if you have your heart set on exactly one specific program - the episode of The Avengers where Emma Peel was nude on the tigerskin rug - you're likely out of luck. How is the serendipity versus specificity tradeoff after you ditch cable?

And more. Basically, what do you need to know about dumping Comcast or TWC or whoever your local cable company is? Bottom-line, would you do it again?

Check out what is available OTA in your area, then check what is on Hulu and netflix

For recording, etc. set up a mythtv box. Buddy has one, has 2 dual channel hauppage cards in it, he can watch/record up to 4 different channels at once.

First, you need to determine what you can receive over-the-air. Go to Antenna Web , plug in your address to find out.

We dropped COMCAST and replaced is with DISH 2 years ago.

The good news, it has everthing that COMCAST has and more, and then it has a lot more HD programming. It also costs less.

The bad news: When there is a serious rain storm (summer here), the signal can degrade. I think we need to have the DISH repointed, as out standard signal strength is only 79%.

On the internet side, I put in a DSL line. It was OK, but when we added extra people, it was too slow. I put Cable internet back on and bought my own cable modem.

John - I dropped cable (Dish actually) 3+ years ago and survived on OTA and Netflix w/o too much issue. I didn't have internet hooked up to the TV, so I did miss History, Discovery & Top Gear. On the plus side, I watched a lot less TV. We still had Crapcast for internet. We recently moved and no longer receive any of the OTA stations. Tried a few "fancy" antennas, with only marginal improvement.

The easy and cheap solution was to get Crapcast's limited basic cable. Since we already had them for internet (only game in town), it only added around $4 to the bill. Now I get the standard OTA stations in HD w/ zero issues, plus a bunch of other stations, including Discovery. Most are crap, but worth the $4 extra on the bill.

I'm interested in what you end up with, as I'm looking to web enable my TV as well to take advantage of online content.

Checked AntennaWeb, thanks Paul.

Looks like via OTA assuming a good antenna on a mast I can most likely get the networks (CBS ABC NBC) plus FOX PBS. Also ION MNT HSN CW UNI TBN FMN IND, none of whom I've ever heard of.

And I can get movies and many TV shows via $8/mo Netflix physical DVD or streaming, which we do now on the Wii.

So, that means I'd need to find a source for the programs I watch on Food, Cooking, Nickelodeon, Disney, Discovery, Science, ESPN, Speed, or do without. Some of these will be available online - but they don't look great in a window on a 20" screen, not sure how they will look on a 42"+ TV?

Josh, is it correct that you lost access to most sports when you dropped cable? No F1, LeMans, WBK, MotoGP, World Cup Skiing, NBA, Olympics, etc?

I use OTA.

Get the DB8 from antennas direct.
Antennas Direct | DB8 HDTV Antenna - Outdoor Use

Awesome antenna. Mount outside if possible but it will work in the attic.

OTA is the best pic quality available. When your antenna is properly set up, you will have better overall service than cable or satellite. Drop outs are extremely rare with my setup.

I run Tivo HD boxes with a 3rd party free software called Stream Baby Stream to view my internet material. It essentially connects my Tivo's to my computer and will view most types of files.

I have not tried Hulu but do use Netflix and Amazon on the Tivo for streaming movies and some TV shows.

I just started the Netflix $7.99 thing and I really love it. Quality on my laptop is fine but I'm afraid of how it will look on a 42". I'm going to buy a cable and try it though, next time I dare to go shopping out in that frickin mess.

OTA is best quality when broadcasted. depending on how far you live away from the tower, reception is going to degrade based on that distance. but until you reach down to 30% signal strength, picture quality is going to the be same. below 30%, you'll start to see choppiness and whatnot. you will NOT receive "snow" like you're used to with old analog OTA. picture is either going to be perfect or choppy.

cable, dish, directtv all transmit at lower bandwidth compared to OTA. will you notice a difference? depends on the person. i notice alot compression artifacts on my cable when a movie is playing. does it bother me? sometimes.

Cool looking antenna. Since the wife and I are moving to Charleston soon I'm interested too, since the overwhelming majority of what we had with U-Verse back in San Antonio was stuff that I wasn't interested in and never tuned to. The wife watches a lot of network stuff and a few shows on E. Since I follow the Big 12 and will be living in SEC territory I think football would be unavailable anyway unless it's a huge game with national coverage.

Our concerns are similar - want to see E, History, Discovery and Big 12 football if possible. Want it in HD so it looks good on our 47" LCD. Interested in learning about DVR options since I've never researched that. If an old (2003) computer would work for that I have one of those not doing anything.

Does the limited / basic add on with Comcast internet come in HD? If so that may do it for us.

I do the math and the channel check twice a year, so far it's not worth dropping it for me.

I *need* F1, I *need* WRC. The former, live ! If not the sites I browse are full of spoilers. Nto gonna happen OTA or on hulu. What works well for us is FIOS. Basic HD fios with DVR is reasonably priced, considering the instant "on demand" free stuff for my kid ! Want mickey, 10 seconds later it's there and he's quiet ;-) I love HD theater for the shows like chasing classic cars, etc... At the end of the day it's worth the $70 a month or so... It's the phone I'd rather drop !

What I could drop was all the movie channels - Netflix rules that area.

How can someone get Formula One without cable?

2 ways I know:
a) bit torrent - annoying, slow, not super reliable, delayed
b) register an IP address in the UK, some sites charge $25 a year, use that as your address to watch the BBC's live feed. Takes some computer skills.

Not worth the hassle for me - I'd save more if I could cut 20% of my electric bill ;-)

blow up your TV
throw away your paper
move to the country
build you a home
plant a little garden
eat a lot of peaches
try and find Jesus
on your own.

Correct, sports selections are severly limited w/o cable. You can get a few of the football games on some of the ESPN web sites as a live feed, but it's not always the game you want to see. I think F1 and WRC are impossible w/o cable/sat. Techincally torrents solve all of that, but I haven't been crafty enough to set that up, nor am I wanting to have to rely on someone else pirating the material so I can watch it.

be sure the transmitters are not split in 2 completely different directions - they are where I live

otherwise, the stns. you do get OTA may well be higher in resolution than on cable - at least, that was true when I dropped cable

for me, comcast is required for internet access (or Qwest, which sux bad & is slow)

I know several people that had DISH and dropped it - they leave the antenna on your roof when you do & one guy now has to get his leaking roof fixed...

BTW - there is now a $500 fine for posting any John Denver lyrics on Pelican

The OTA signal is (was) definitely better, but I'm in a valley where even the local radio stations get static. Giving CrapCast more money was the easiest way to keep the wife happy.

I actually loved Dish. I never had a single complaint with their service or billing. Even in hail, I had a signal, but then again I was also right across from the PDX airport w/ minimal obstructions. I dropped it to cut back on expenses.

At first glance, I thought this was going to be another one of Lube's poo-oriented threads.

John, I torrent an awful lot of my shows these days. Quality is whatever you want it to be. HD broadcasts are there for the viewing.

and that is why I own their stock...