preparing to cut the cable TV cord

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by OffCamber00

What are the options for watching racing like WEC and F1 w/o cable? That is the only thing holding me back at this point. I'm already a netflix and prime subscriber.

Funny you should ask, that was going to be my counterpoint...
WEC you can catch on a tablet/computer if you pay a subscription - at least you could last year - and also Le mans. But it's *not* the same as watching it on TV... And you cannot record it and play it later.

F1 you have to be sneakier and make the computer spoof its location - other country, to get the feed of something like BBC... Or a torrent later...It's really not practical to watch live and it takes the fun out of it too.

Cord cutting sounds good, but so does turning on TV and have something my kids actually wanna watch. And popping my DVR and seeing a list of good shows waiting for me. I have a pretty full lineup with the hated comcast ( I miss FIOS!!) and once you factor internet out of the equation it's like $100 a month. I think you can reduce that a bit using your own modem, your own DVR, feeding one TV only -one receiver (antennae/netflix for #2), etc... Not the end of the world to see the latest Walking dead, F1 live, Sports car series, Vikings, blacklist, black sails, games of thrones, whatever...

you might wanna look up http://www.motortrendondemand.com/, it's a subscription site and I think they have DTM, possibly Rally, nurburgring 24, lots of sports car stuff - sadly no F1 but there might be options there for cord cutters.

[aigel]

For $100 a month I can do 2-3, maybe even 4 track days, instead of sitting on my couch and looking at other people racing.

G

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by aigel

For $100 a month I can do 2-3, maybe even 4 track days, instead of sitting on my couch and looking at other people racing.
G

That's not mutually exclusive... And they won't accept my 72 911T at the "24 heures du Mans". $#%$#% ;-)!

[fintstone]

I live way out in the country...so no cable. have to use a dish for internet, so streaming is out. I use Direct TV and supplement it with an antenna in the attic to pull in HD from the nearest metro area. It works well at 65 mi. There is a very inexpensive add on box that goes with direct TV that automatically integrates the HD antenna with the Direct TV channels, menu, etc. seamlessly...so you can record them, see descriptions of the shows, etc. Can't tell them from the Direct TV channels. Good package.

[rfuerst911sc]

Did some more surfing last night and found this " special " from Sling TV. Looks like a good deal for the Roku 2 or 3 . I wonder if I order sling tv and my wife orders one also ( separate email accounts ) can we get two free Roku 2 boxes ? That makes the purchase much more reasonable. According to CNET they rated the Roku 2 the best buy for these types of devices for what that's worth.


https://www.sling.com/devices/roku

[GWN7]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Those are all well established, "1 click" solutions that work out of the box to do what you want. Kodi, amazon boxes, HTPC, all that stuff can be left for the script kids, too much work to custom blend something that does 10% more than one of the above options...no offence meant to the script kiddies here

No "script kiddie" here. I was quite able to follow the YouTube
tutorial to upgrade the Kodi. Click here, click there, type this, then click here, here and here. Done.

If you can find your way to the Pelican forums you can do it.

[Baz]

Just checked my cable bill and I'm paying $138/mo. for Internet, TV, and landline.

I can live with that for having all those TV channels available (this includes a sports package but not the HBO stuff) plus my landline (business) and access to the web.

Like I said - I call them up periodically and check for any specials that will lower my bill. Otherwise you get the creep.....and you don't want the creep....

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Baz

Just checked my cable bill and I'm paying $138/mo. for Internet, TV, and landline.

I can live with that for having all those TV channels available (this includes a sports package but not the HBO stuff) plus my landline (business) and access to the web.

Like I said - I call them up periodically and check for any specials that will lower my bill. Otherwise you get the creep.....and you don't want the creep....

Would you say the same if your internet/TV/landline was $240 like mine is? That is now WAYYYYY too much for multimedia...AND I pay for Hulu AND Netflix so another $15 a month...

kinda makes me sick when I look at the numbers, which is why I'm about a month from cutting the cord (and NOT going to Kodi )

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by GWN7

No "script kiddie" here. I was quite able to follow the YouTube
tutorial to upgrade the Kodi. Click here, click there, type this, then click here, here and here. Done.

If you can find your way to the Pelican forums you can do it.

does that put an image on your TV that you can control with a remote control? I'm actually asking, because I thought it didn't, and that would be a deal killer for me. If it won't go through my surround sound and let my Harmony universal remote run it, I don't want it in the house as an option.

[KFC911]

Know what's even better than cutting the TV cable cord?

Cutting the TV power cord

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by KC911

Know what's even better than cutting the TV cable cord?

Cutting the TV power cord

How do you get your local news then?

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

How do you get your local news then?

I wasn't serious...I do OTA and get enough mindless dribble for free though

[GWN7]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

does that put an image on your TV that you can control with a remote control? I'm actually asking, because I thought it didn't, and that would be a deal killer for me. If it won't go through my surround sound and let my Harmony universal remote run it, I don't want it in the house as an option.

It upgrades the android box. Your Tv is still controlled by your remote. To watch the android box you select input on the remote and click HDMI (1,2 or3) Then you can use the android remote (I prefer a mouse) to select which supplier you want to watch and then further select which programing you want to watch.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Baz

Just checked my cable bill and I'm paying $138/mo. for Internet, TV, and landline.

I can live with that for having all those TV channels available (this includes a sports package but not the HBO stuff) plus my landline (business) and access to the web.

Like I said - I call them up periodically and check for any specials that will lower my bill. Otherwise you get the creep.....and you don't want the creep....

We don't have a land line anymore. All we pay for is Internet and Netflix.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

you might wanna look up Motor Trend OnDemand - Watch Auto Shows & Motorsports Online, it's a subscription site and I think they have DTM, possibly Rally, nurburgring 24, lots of sports car stuff - sadly no F1 but there might be options there for cord cutters.

For F1, hunt around for F1 parties in your city. my local kart track puts it up at their bar and grill for a great deal of the races if the owner or a bartender can make the sometimes odd hours F1 races are in the USA work.

The downside, its NBC. If you've ever been lucky enough to watch Sky F1 coverage while in Europe, NBC is pretty boring in comparison.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Would you say the same if your internet/TV/landline was $240 like mine is? That is now WAYYYYY too much for multimedia...AND I pay for Hulu AND Netflix so another $15 a month...

kinda makes me sick when I look at the numbers, which is why I'm about a month from cutting the cord (and NOT going to Kodi )

Hey Mike.....you may try calling customer service and asking them if there are any 'products' available to lower your monthly charges. By 'product' I mean discounts or promotions. Sometimes the home office gives the CSR people coupons or promotional programs they can use to keep customers happy when they call in to either cancel service or complain. You'd be surprised how much they can trim off your monthly charges.

Not sure who your provider is but this is how it works with mine. Good luck and let us know if this helps. You may be able to get back down below $200.00.

[cairns]

kinda makes me sick when I look at the numbers, which is why I'm about a month from cutting the cord

I did it about a year ago; got an amazon fire stick and HD antenna (that covers all the local news and more). We watch far better TV and pay nothing for it unless we want to. I can even watch F1 in Spanish.

You'll be very happy you did.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Baz

Hey Mike.....you may try calling customer service and asking them if there are any 'products' available to lower your monthly charges. By 'product' I mean discounts or promotions. Sometimes the home office gives the CSR people coupons or promotional programs they can use to keep customers happy when they call in to either cancel service or complain. You'd be surprised how much they can trim off your monthly charges.

Not sure who your provider is but this is how it works with mine. Good luck and let us know if this helps. You may be able to get back down below $200.00.

I actually do get "perks", but in every case, it's a "get the faster internet for free for 6 months". I take that, in 6 months my bill goes up, and I get the NEXT level free. so, the bill keeps going up, but I keep getting better "service". To the point now that I have too much bandwidth and I'm paying too much. That, and someone in the house insisted that we get HBO for Game of Thrones (and basically nothing else...). That's going away as well.

I'm going the Tivo route. Recordable OTA, with the main 3 internet streamer sources built in. I will pay the $15 a month Tivo bill in return for dropping something like $140 in cable costs. Toss the existing Roku in the garage on a small second TV maybe.

For quite a while, we were on rabbit ears and I was torrenting shows regularly, and playing them via my Western Digital TV Live, which was a kick butt little box that acted just like a Roku, but for downloaded media. Torrents seem to have disappeared though

[OffCamber00]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

Funny you should ask, that was going to be my counterpoint...
WEC you can catch on a tablet/computer if you pay a subscription - at least you could last year - and also Le mans. But it's *not* the same as watching it on TV... And you cannot record it and play it later.

Thanks for the info.

I used the tablet app in 2014 before Fox started carrying all of the races. Definitely not ideal. This year I'm going to have to stream the audio from RLM since Fox is bringing its own broadcasters.

[Deschodt]

It comes down to how much of a pain in the butt are you willing to deal with to save $100 or so. And/or how much TV you really watch... No wrong answer.

For example: A colleague at work torrents everything. It's piracy (if you care, maybe one day this will be enforced) and he has to pay/use a private VPN connection to torrent that stuff and not get nabbed by his internet provider (did you know they check? Well they do, think about what else you download - they know!!! Seems like a lot of work to me for $100 or so, and not everything is available in a timely fashion. But then again I change my own oil, and that guy looks at me funny when I mention that, he pays $30 at the local quicklube... whatever your pain threshold is !!!

I think the point regarding "creep" is the best one of the thread, it's not so bad as long as you stay on top of it and keep them honest. Nowadays you could use OTA and HBO go, for instance... Motorsport is really the only PITA... In the grand scheme of things, TV represents 1/15th of my daycare costs, 1/6th of my property taxes, etc... When the kid hits kindergarten, I could lease a ferrari ;-) (I won't)