Thinking of cutting the "cable"...

[flanagan0718]

Hey Guys,
     In the interest of saving a little money my wife and I are thinking of ditching Comcast and going with all streaming options. We already have Amazon Prime and I have had Netflix in the past. We may or may not get HuLu+ but thats neither here nor there. I have a few questions for those that have done this.
- What hardware do you use to stream to your TV (Apple TV, RoKu, BoxEE, or others)?
- Did you actually save money?
- Did you find it better or would you rather have the options that Cable offers?
Thanks in advance.

[gtr2]

Been cable free for over a year.

Netflix, Hulu+, and amazon prime on roku and HDTV from an antenna.

If you are into sports you really can't cut cable...

[jubal81]

The only thing I miss is live sports. That's the real problem.


1. I have both an Apple TV and Roku. I'd recommend the Roku. It has more features and costs less.
2. My bill went down about $60 a month - about the cost of one Roku.
3. I've haven't considered going back at all - especially since I discovered VPN & torr3nts ... ahem.

[flanagan0718]

Good to know. I've seen the Roku all over the place. Heard good things too. I never cared for sports so I'm good in that department. But it seems like I'm screwed when it comes to HBO.


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[jubal81]

Good to know. I've seen the Roku all over the place. Heard good things too. I never cared for sports so I'm good in that department. But it seems like I'm screwed when it comes to HBO.


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HBO Go is awesome. The trick is knowing someone who will let you use their login. Thanks, mom.

[flanagan0718]

Yeah I do that with a friend of mine. I'll have to let him know when I cancel my cable.


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[jimilee]

Cable free for a couple of years now. Hulu plus and Netflix, and we occasionally download tv shows from, ohh let's just say a certain ship website. Don't miss it at all. I read more now too.

[davent]

We had cable for one year ending in April this year, i never watched except for some late night CFL games through the fall, my daughter (19) never watched and my wife came to the realization that the things she watched were available streamed so could watch at her convenience. Now... we don't even have a TV.
dave

[selfdestroyer]

I have not had "company owned" TV for about 5 years now. I dropped cable TV and invested my money into faster internet connection. The wife and I stream everything from Netflix, Hulu+ and Amazon Prime. I have a a PC hooked up to my living room TV running MediaBrowser Server and MediaBrowser Theater. I have all our ripped movies and TV shows on a NAS and is accessible from all TVs in the house VIA Roku's. Works for us and has been for a few years.

http://mediabrowser.tv/

Cody

[alanp]

The only time I think I've had TV in the same house is when I was living with the parents. 2001 onwards, NO telly... I honestly do not feel the need for it. I'd rather interact with the computer during the evening than blob out on the sofa and vegetate, and if there is a neat series I want to see (like Tank Overhaul or something), I also have vDSL internet. (I think. It's the fastest Telecom offers, other than fiber-optic.)

The only time I actually watch TV is when I'm at Mum and Dad's, and don't have anything to do other than watch the tropical fish and try and spot where the plecostomus is hiding. Even then, their TV runs through a media PC I built with 3 DVB-S pci cards in it. (Dad said, when I moved out, that if I took it with me, I had to build him a replacement )

If you do watch TV in the traditional manner (ie, not on a computer), I strongly recommend a media PC. They mean never being chained to the TV again ("I *NEED* to get home soon, Coro Street is on in half an hour...")

[flanagan0718]

Awesome, Thanks guys. I'm gonna look into the Roku and order one this week. That way I can test it out for a week before I "cut the Cable". Thanks again!

[crashguitar]

We cut the cable about 3 years ago. I use a Sony Blu-Ray player that we bought at Costco at that time. We use Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu+. As stated above, the only thing that is tough is sports. I love hockey and we have had to be creative to watch that. My wife's laptop has an hdmi port that we can plug into the TV and we stream NHL games from shady websites found on Google.
Other than the sports, we have loved streaming. My kids only know this, so they get confused at their grandparents house. They want to watch something again or choose the show to watch and don't understand that they have to watch it when it comes on. LOL.

Chad

[timbo_93631]

Yeah, we are cable free here too.  Surprised to see so many of you others are as well, awesome.  We just do Netflix and occasionally rent or buy something through Vudu.  Never going back.

[timbo_93631]

As mentioned above, lack of sports coverage is the only real downside, but the only thing I am passionate about is WRC and Dakar and when we cut the cable there was no longer any WRC coverage and all the Dakar coverage was in the middle of the night.  Now it is easy to see everything going on with WRC through the FIA/WRC website and Dakar coverage is pretty good on youtube so...

[thesameage]

We have apple tv and that really goes a long way for us in making it easy to get everything. Icefilms for the new stuff we can't purchase, but I don't miss it at all. Narrowing our options definitely makes us happier in the end.