Other options besides cable tv?

My wife and I are moving to a new house in a month and we have discussed getting rid of DirecTV due to the huge bill it has become each month. We just don’t watch a lot of TV. What other options are out there? We are looking to probably just get internet and then stream some shows?

I did a lot of research last night and there is a thing called a Roku that looks pretty good and streams several different options. Does anybody have any experience with something like this?

There is a steaming thing called Sling TV, it looks like for $20 a month you get a about 20 channels that are decent ones, including ESPN (big thing for me, love my sports). Also could add Hulu or Netflix for $7.99/month to get a lot of shows and movies? Then add the old rabbit ear antennas to get the local channels, hopefully. Only channel I will really miss is Fox Sports North for the local sports and outdoors stuff.

What do other people do? This is all new territory for me as I’ve had DirecTV for a long time, but we just don’t watch TV enough to spend well over $100/month for it.

you can downgrade your DirecTv you know….. I get a shi7ton of channels for $80 a month…. including FSN. I am guesing you could get the basic and FSN for about $60 a month….?

It depends on where you are going to be living. If an antenna is an option then you could get a fair number of channels just off the air. I see you currently list Eagan as your home so all the metro local channels 4, 5, 9, 11 etc. and there sister stations are free off an antenna.

We have a Roku and there are a lot of channels available but we have found only a few that we really watch. My wife uses NetFlix quite a bit to watch mostly the NetFlix produced series shows such as Orange is the New Black and others.

We also have a Chromecast which gets used to cast IDO and other fishing shows from the laptop to the “big screen”. Some networks allow live streaming of things like news and some shows which can also be “cast ” to the big screen.

Live sports are probably the hardest thing to get. I have not figured out a way to watch Gopher hockey using a streaming service. Not sure who is carrying the Vikes this year but if it is a major network it can be had off the antenna. The Twins and Wild are more challenging since they are on Fox Sports.

Maybe didn’t help you very much but, that is what we have experienced. The “experts” are predicting that this whole streaming arena will be changing rapidly over the next couple years. Lets hope so. I agree that the cable/satellite bills are ridiculously high. Especially considering you get how many channels that are never watched.

Cable/Direct/Dish/??? are the biggest rip off ever, worse than cell phones. The price for cell service is finally starting to come down after years of monopoly by the big companies. Now AT&T owns Direct so you can see where it’s going.

I’m looking at retiring in the next 1-2 years and will be going strictly over the air with a good antennae mounted on the roof with a rotor. If I have to see a sporting event that is not on regular TV, I will go to a friend or family’s house or the bar if I have to.

I have looked at how much I have paid over the last 10 years to charter, and it would of bought a very nice boat.

Muskietim hit it on the head, if you like to watch ANY local sports teams live (other than the Vikings who’s games are televised over-the-air) then you’ll need to stick with Cable or Direct TV. I’ve been contemplating cutting the cord for years, but I like to watch the Twins, Wild and Wolves games. If you want more than just over-the-air television do the math, you’re not going to be saving that much. You’ll still need an internet connection to use anything else and that typically runs between $60-$80 a month, then there’s the subscriptions to Hulu, Netflix, Prime, Sling TV that will be added on top. So you probably save maybe $20 a month, for me that $20 is worth it to watch live local sports and get a few other channels I actually watch (Discovery, ESPN, History, etc)

I cut the satellite/cable curse a year or more ago and had a digital antenna installed on the roof. Chrome cast and Netflix does the rest! Wouldn’t trade it for anything. Sure I miss a few satellite channels but there is more than enough to watch.

If you have the net connection and an Amazon account, I can order one movie at a time for $2.99 and save subscription fees.
It works for me as I watch one movie every 2-3 months.

FYI

Have you seen NEW boat prices ??? and the biggest rip off is TV ??

We got rid of cable in 2001. Not having the sports channels is the toughest. We’ve never paid more than $29 per month for WiFi and have Netflix. We have a smart TV and watch IDO on youtube.

We also got rid of ourlandline many years ago. We’re at under $40 per month and still alive!

There are more antenna stations than you realize. Still free.

We got rid of Directv about three months ago. The thing holding me back was getting unlimited internet service as we live in the country. This spring, Centurylink finally got out to us with unlimited internet service. We have a Roku3 and a Roku stick (I do not recommend, spend the extra for the 3) along with a Netflix account, Sling and an OTA antenna. We almost exclusively watch Netflix and occasionally Sling. I’m sure come football season Sling will be used more. My monthly cost is $32 (I have the upgraded Netflix for 4 screens). I do not count the internet as I would have to have it anyway for my business. If you want to record programs there is a product called a Tablo DVR https://www.tablotv.com/ . I do not have this yet, but a friend does and has no complaints.

I have a couple ROKUs, with Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime(which is mostly for the free 2nd day shipping because I order so much there over the course of the year) and sling tv.

On my ROKU, I have some apps that I think get overlooked. For example, the history channel app lets you stream their shows the next day. The kids have Disney and Disney jr.

We honestly watch Hulu way more than netflix and are considering getting rid of netflix. Just be cautious with sling tv, it’s trying to stream live HD tv. If you don’t have fast internet, it will be buggy.

The good news about it is, if you sign up and prepay for 3 months of slingtv, they’ll give you a roku stick or an amazon fire stick for free. As far as rokus go, if you buy a roku, go with the 2. With the 2, you can use the built in functionality of netflix to have different users set up. The ROKU one we have doesn’t do that, and it annoys my wife to have to dig through the hundreds of kids shows that pop up each time.

For those who cut the Cable/Satellite TV, what are you still paying for Internet per month (don’t count the discounted 1st 6 month rate, the actual normal monthly rate)

Then add on the content providers, Netflix’s cheapest HD option is $9 a month, Hulu is $8, Sling is $20, just curious how much $$ you’re actually saving in the end?

I’m in no way defending the cable/satellite companies (They are the devil) They saw the writing on the wall years ago and started buying all of the content providers so you’re filling their pockets books either way…

I’m holding out hope the power of Apple will allow them to get the content at a good price and offer more options when they eventually release a true Apple TV…

big_g wrote:

Have you seen NEW boat prices ??? and the biggest rip off is TV ??

G,

$200 a month Cable/internet for 10 years buys a pretty nice boat.

muskie-tim wrote:

It depends on where you are going to be living. If an antenna is an option then you could get a fair number of channels just off the air. I see you currently list Eagan as your home so all the metro local channels 4, 5, 9, 11 etc. and there sister stations are free off an antenna.

We are done with the city life! Moving out to the country about 40 miles South of the metro.

our blue-ray player came with a browser and a whole list of channels it can pick up. Can go to History channel and get signed up to hook it up with the Sony players. I usually go right to netflix or local stations (antenna). Depending on who your internet provider is, you can subscribe to the NHL or MLB for on demand games live. Our provider is not on the list, so I’m SOL. Waiting to see if the NFL Ticket is going to a pay per view or subscription, which may come to fruit in a year or two. We put the money we save toward another vacation, keeps momma happy!

A little update here. After a few days with a Roku 3, subscriptions to Sling TV and Hulu, plus getting digital broadcasts with the antenna, I’m asking myself why didn’t I make this switch sooner? Aside from the live stuff, there is so much stuff to watch this way! We downgraded because we don’t watch much TV, but with this new set-up we’ve actually been watching more TV… I hope that changes back to normal soon! With Sling TV you get a Watch ESPN subscription, so I had access to tons of college football games over the weekend (minus Big 10 network). Only thing I will miss is Fox Sports North, but I am grateful that IDO broadcasts their shows over YouTube as well.

As a note to everyone considering cutting the cable, make sure you know your TRUE internet bandwidth/speed in advance. No, your actual speed will almost certainly be nowhere near the advertised speed that you’re paying for. Most people will be lucky if it’s half that on average.

I needed to upgrade our home internet to an industrial duty connection for Mrs. Grouse’s work. She does video conferencing and moves large amounts of data.

We have Amazon Prime and it had always worked so-so. I had assumed that’s just the way it was. Wrong!

Turns out that our internet connection was strangled and we were getting less than 30% of the advertised download speed. After some serious b!tch!ng at the ISP, they did find a bad switch issue that got us back to 60% of the advertised max speed, but from there we had to upgrade.

To get REAL 10 mbps up/down speed reliably, we had to go all the way up to a 20 mbps connection and pay extra for guaranteed performance.

To me, the current ripoff of not getting the speed you’re paying for with internet connections is as big a ripoff as cable. Almost no one out there is actually getting anywhere near the advertised speed.

Grouse

Yep. I’m getting 21 which isnt bad until you consider I am supposed to be getting 50 with the new Comcast blaster-faster-we-are-doing-you-a-favor package.

I’m getting around 30 mbps download with their 50 mbps service.

I cut the cable bill a year or so back, got tired of paying a 100+ a month and still not much to watch.

Have Netflix & Hulu Plus, added Showtime to Hulu a few months back and will probably cut that once Homeland is through this season.

Piggy back off a friends HBO account and also his History channel through their apps.

Pay about 25.00 a month and another 40.00 for 60 gig service, which is more often than not about 25-30

Had DSL for a while and while Netflix always streamed great, other services really bogged down in the evenings when other people in the neighborhood were taking up bandwith.

Everytime my Sattelite bill starts to go up, I call and tell them to get it back down around $60 or I will pull the plug. Funny how they find someway to make it work.