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Cutting the cord - Dropping Cable/Satellite

73K views 223 replies 75 participants last post by  Waterdawg19 
#1 ·
I have seen a few threads about dropping cable/satellite but most were people asking for advice. I decided to move forward with that project and figured I would document it, answer a few questions and maybe learn a few things from the community. I will try to set this up so you can scan through for the important parts (look for summary notes) if you don't want to read everything.

First, I have satellite. The cost is roughly $100/month or $1200/yr. I have a house in Spring and a Lake House and was able to use one account with extra receivers for both houses. This cut the cost almost in half over using cable at both places.

The biggest issue I have is the cost. My wife and I watch roughly 10 channels so the cost comes out to roughly $10/channel per month plus you are forced to watch commercials on top of that. From a programming standpoint, there isn't a lot on TV that is worth the money and we are forced to subsidize programs that most of us on this forum probably object to (Find FSTV and watch it a while to see what I mean).

I have hi-speed internet (15 mbs) since I work from home and own my modem (savings of $8/month, modem cost under $70). I bought a new router that is better suited for streaming ($120) and sent my old one to my lake house. I have one Web enabled flat screen TV, one old tube type and one non-web enabled flat screen in Spring.

To start the project, I started streaming content to my web enabled TV. Most of it was off of you tube but I didn't have any slow downs. I was happy enough with this to move to step two - removing satellite from one TV. I purchased the RCA digital antenna ($32) and was able to pull in 38 channels from Houston. After deleting the channels with poor signals and the Spanish channels, I was left with roughly 20 channels. I do get the major networks.

I also bought an Apple TV. For those of you that don't know, Apple TV is a 3" x 3" box that allows you to access content from the internet on a non-web enabled TV. You have three choices here if you want to do more research, Apple TV ($90), Roku ($90) and Google Chromecast ($35). Of three, Apple Tv and Roku are close in performance, with Roku usually getting the nod. I went with Apple because I have an iPad and iPhone and you can mirror you screen and use it for a remote.

Summary 1: My web enabled TV worked well watching movies off the internet so I bought an Apple TV and digital antenna for a non-web enabled TV to start an extended test.
 
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#2 ·
Day one test

The network channels and other local channels looked good through the digital antenna. I don't watch these except for college football games, so all I am missing is ESPN to have all of the college football games. I don't know if I will add ESPN to my Apple TV yet. Apple TV has icons for the networks, but I haven't tried them yet.

Apple TV - I like this interface! It makes me realize how bad the interface is on the web enabled TV. Trying to control everything (and searching) with a hand held remote is very slow and using the iPad for control is like using a computer; It is much faster and easier to use. The biggest drawback is finding programming. With satellite, you have a menu that tells you what is playing at what time. There isn't a set time for any web programs so now you have to search content. It requires a little more thought but I will get use to it. I have to get out the the satellite mind set where someone is telling me what I can watch based on their schedule.

I haven't signed up for any paid services yet. The three big ones are Netflix ($9/mo), Hulu Plus ($9/mo) and Amazon prime ($80/yr). To use Amazon Prime with Apple TV, I will have to mirror it from the iPad/iPhone. Netflix gives you many movies and some TV programs, Hulu Plus gives you many TV programs and some movies and Amazon has a little of both but is still building their library. My wife watches Amazon prime from her iPhone and with that subscription you also get free 2nd day air shipping on stuff purchased from Amazon. That alone is worth $80/yr considering how much I buy off of Amazon. Actually, I probably spend $80 in two months shipping from Amazon so it is definitely worth it.

I watched three programs last night for a total of 2.5 hrs. On a couple of them, I got a network error (I have a feeling my Comcast internet will be the weak link in this system), but after a couple of tries, they worked. Through the course of 2.5 hours, I had 4 stoppages. A couple were only a few seconds and the other 2 were up to a minute. It was annoying but I am also not paying $100/month for the service so for now I can live with it.

Summary 2: The digital TV antenna works better than I thought with 38 total channels received and the Apple TV interface is very nice. If the test continues to go well, I may buy one for the web enable TV. There were a few download stoppages but they were tolerable considering the cost savings.
 
#4 ·
Keep going. I just signed a one yr. with uverse for about $125/mo (U300 programming & 18 meg). I hate it. We also travel some in a 5th wheel with just the rv antenna. I'm sure there are other options I don't know about.

My new wireless enabled tv came with an M-GO button. Before I upgraded I was at 12 meg and the content kept freezing up so I will have to retry now with the faster speed. They did have decent content at good prices on a per watch basis.

SG2
 
#5 ·
Internet Speeds

One thing I forgot to mention above is the minimum internet speed for streaming is suppose to be 5 Mbps download speed (according to published info, Netflix says 1.5 Mbps, etc). I was at 3 Mbps stated and the speed test showed I was typically at 3 - 4 Mbps. I upgraded to 15 Mbps stated and the test shows 25+ Mbps and I hit a high of 50 Mbps one day.
 
#7 ·
I am also curious to see how this proceeds. I WISH I was only paying $100/mo. Unfortunately it's considerably higher.
I've often wondered why there isn't a business solely dedicated towards something like this. One that can set you up to get you off cable. I know there's companies that can but it's not their sole business. To me if it's their sole business then their dedication is there and not setting up indoor concerts.
Thanks again for the info GT11.
I'll definitely be following this thread.
 
#8 ·
Day 2 Test

Today i am trying the different features of Apple TV.

1) iTunes Radio - good sound, no freezing due to loading, nice selection of channels and you can build your own play list. If you hear something you like and want to download it, you can buy it on the spot.
2)The networks have shows available but are on a pay per view or pay per season basis. It looks like Hulu Plus or Netflix will be the way to go. I will subscribe to one of these next week if testing continues to go well
3) PBS is free with many programs to view, picture quality is good
4)Smithsonian channel has a lot of free programs
5) There are several apps (like Crackle) that gives you access to older TV shows and movies but you have to sit through commercials in some cases. It still beats paying for satellite and watching commercials.
6) The weather channel, yahoo, youtube, WSJ and others have free content

It looks there is more than enough free content to keep you in front of the TV way longer than you should be. You can also buy current programs for $2-$3 or the entire seasons for $10 - $20.
 
#13 · (Edited)
My wife watches Amazon Prime on her phone so she isn't technically challenged. I did a little work to make it easier to find the different devices, however. My TV allows me to assign custom labels to the different inputs so when you hit the input button, the list pops up with the following choices:

Apple TV
Blue Ray
TV Antenna
etc.

I may try Aereo at my lake house because I don't we will get local channels with an antenna out there. Amazon Prime is a really good option especially if you buy stuff from Amazon. The 2 day shipping pays for the subscription. I will have to look into Plex...it sounds like it is a lot like Crackle.
 
#11 ·
Great thread!

I cut out my cable bill last month and bought the apple tv and roku 3. We own all apple devices at home and I still prefer the roku over the apple tv. I've found the top 3 streams we use are in order Aereo, Plex, and Netflix.

Aereo ($8/$12month) is a streaming service for local tv channels (nbc cbs abc fox pbs) along with a DVR in the cloud. My antenna reception was poor so I went with Aereo and we love it. We also noticed with big cable that everything we watch other than local news in the morning was from the DVR, very little was live so why not keep that going? This is my favorite service by far and is not supported on apple tv.

Plex (free so far) This is a very easy way to stream any content on my home computer to roku device. Includes anything I download and my itunes music library. To stream videos from my laptop to apple tv I had to convert to the correct format then import to itunes. Plex is much easier and not available on apple tv (there is one work around that involves hijacking the trailers channel but it was a major pain).

Netflix ($8/m) well you know what that is but we also like the original programming they offer. Also has lots of stuff for the kiddo. Available on both devices.

I also use HBO go on roku and apple tv but I have to borrow a cable login and password from a friend to get this. BTW HBO CEO recently said he was OK with people doing this because he believes they will eventually subscribe to HBO.

I guess my biggest gripe with the apple tv is the control they have over the content. You only get what they want you to have. I get any content I want on the roku along with some cool features like headphones that plug into the remote so my wife's snoring doesn't disturb my tv shows! An app that lets me use my phone as a remote control and I can use my phone to control the roku youtube channel.

The only major thing i'm missing is ESPN (i guess i could borrow another login to view it on apple tv) but i've cut my bill from $140 to $20 a month! I don't have a problem watching a few games at the bars for that much of a savings.
 
#14 ·
Re. ESPN, Disney, ect on Apple TV.
To access most of the stuff on those apps (including live stations), you will be prompted to sign in with your Comcast, Verizon, or other accounts to verify that you already pay for their service.

I dropped cable/sat. 2 years ago and went the same route that you are.
I have twin 7 year olds and they didn't blink twice without the cable. They can catch last season of whatever Disney show they want to watch via Netflix.
We also use the Xbox 360 to view Amazon Prime.
 
#18 ·
No kids, so I haven't tried it. Some of the apps require a cable account and some work with my internet account. ESPN 3 works with my comcast internet account but the network apps didn't. You had to have an actual cable subscription.

As far as updates go, still playing with the system so nothing new to report. Plan to do more fishing than TV watching this weekend so no updates until next week!
 
#30 ·
I have Uverse 300 AT&T. I've had 12mbps until my contract expired in Dec. @ about $105/mo. I could not watch streaming movies from M-Go without pauses.

The renewal "deal" required me to go to 18mbps @ about $140/mo. I just tried to watch a streaming movie and got pauses for download again. I was in regular definition mode. Did a speed test and it was 12.5mbps. Called AT&T cust. svc. and it immediately jumped to over 20mbps. We'll be dropping AT&T as soon as we can.

IMO you need more than 12mbps to watch streaming quality video content.

SG2
 
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