My husband and I had been considering getting rid of cable for awhile and we finally took the plunge. I had appreciated other BBIers posts on this subject in the past so I thought I would share about our experience. First, there is no doubt that geographical location and what cable/internet options are available to you make a HUGE difference. I live in the Washington, DC, area and Verizon and Cox are the only two options we have for both cable and internet in our neighborhood. We were paying Verizon $146/month for HD/DVR (the DVR/cable box alone was $15/mo) and Internet service (we ditched the landline phone line a couple of years ago). This is especially true because there were so many channels that we never watched anyway. We ordered a 1byone 85 Mile Digital Amplified HDTV Roof Antenna for $50 from Amazon. Luckily for us, our townhouse is situated where the back of the house (where we were allowed to install the antenna per our HOA guidelines) was exactly where we needed to install and direct the antenna (due north) in order to receive the most over-the-air channels (doing some research on the best antenna placement was also key). The antenna picks up over 80 channels (that is not a typo), including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS and all of their sub-channels. We even get many Baltimore stations. The picture for most of them is fantastic - great HD quality. Our TV (an LG HDTV) also has a live TV guide similar to what we had with the cable box. We still get internet service from Verizon (50 mps - we don't need more - it's just the two of us and my 8 yo stepson part of the time) for $50/month and we did subscribe to an additional channel service. After much research between Sling TV, Hulu’s channel service, YouTube TV, and DirecTVNow, we decided to go with DirecTVNow which offered the most additional channels we wanted (TNT, TBS, AMC, HLN, ESPN, etc.) at a cost point we were comfortable with but they do offer several levels of channels. The antenna was also key here, though, because many channel services do NOT offer CBS since CBS has their own streaming service. Even with paying for DirecTVNow, we are still saving over $60 per month. The ONLY thing I will miss from cable TV is not being able to watch Nationals games and it really gripes me that they aren’t available in the local market over-the-air, nor can you subscribe to MLB TV to see them because you can’t watch in-market games from that platform. Many of you would likely have the same issue with Yankees/Mets as well as NBA/NHL teams. Sports programming was the one sticking issue with me in our decision to cut cable (at least we do get ESPN - I rarely watched the NFL network) but I figured I will get used to it and I can at least listen to Nationals games on the radio. I was limited to what Giants games I would get before anyway (though I am hoping that the Baltimore stations might give me an extra game or two). Since we’ve had a good experience, I thought I would share it. Even though we live near DC, I had been skeptical about how many over-the-air stations we'd get and was very pleasantly surprised. Happy cord cutting!
I'm willing to give up cable TV (and switch to antennae) and downgrade from high speed internet to medium speed, but unwilling to give up my land line phone number (for business purposes). Can I accomplish that for about $100/month instead of the $200+ I'm currently paying?
I'd love to pay less and my Dad is trying to convince me to get a Amazon Fire Stick. Is anyone using that? I'd love to know how it's going for you. I watch a shitload of television.
What?
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In comment 13806360 spike said:
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MLB tv service and get all the baseball games you want to watch.
I'm not positive, but I believe she is correct. I think you get everything but your in-market games.
You are correct. Must be out of market and cannot be on FOX, ESPN or local stations...
I mentioned this above, but that's not true if you have a VPN. You can log in through another state or country and it will work. It's completely legal and I do it all the time for blacked out NY Rangers games.
We have every single possible channel and we probably watch around 5 or 6 of them. I love TV. Have a full DVR of stuff I'll never get to. Probably watch two hours a day during the winter when we're too lazy to go out in the cold. I pay for the convenience to watch what I want when I want it. Cutting back a bit might save me $50 a month but that hardly seems worth it. We'd both rather cuddle up and watch something on the big screen than go to the movies any day so it probably works out about even.
Same here. Plus, I watch everything via my DVR. I never watch a show live. I even will DVR sporting events and watch on delay and skip all the timeouts/commercials etc.
I was looking at the Mohu indoor antennas and some of these look pretty cool, but I cannot tell if they (or the one mentioned in the opening post) can address all of the TV's in the house or just 1 at a time.
No. I got an aerial antenna on Amazon (100) and then had a pro come and install it on the roof. They'll calibrate it to make sure it's oriented in the right direction. They can inturn run cable from it, or connect it to your existing cable connection, so you can hook your tv up through the wall. I did an aerial and ran cable from it so that I could pick up the Giants games in my basement, where a local antenna might have reception issues.
I bought my own antenna, but the pro offered to bring it with him (before he know I was bringing my own), basically at cost. Installation was between 200 and 300, and the antenna was 100, as mentioned. That was 18 months ago. It's a big investment up front, but only as much as a few months of cable.
And the HD quality is better than cable. Now's the Time to do it so you can get in time for the Olympics. We did it just before the Rio games.
Also, people forget that your ISP will always be happy to help you upgrade and take your money, if you need more bandwidth.
Over-the-air antenna websites are completely useless. The results returned look impressive, but they rarely translate to real-world usage. Ironically, even though we live 30 miles from the NY border, we get mostly NY stations and very few CT stations.
You needed a "pro" to do that?
Mount it on your roof and connect it into your existing coax. Pretty easy stuff.
And if you bought a $100 antenna off Amazon, it's omni-directional. There's nothing to calibrate.
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No. I got an aerial antenna on Amazon (100) and then had a pro come and install it on the roof.
You needed a "pro" to do that?
Mount it on your roof and connect it into your existing coax. Pretty easy stuff.
And if you bought a $100 antenna off Amazon, it's omni-directional. There's nothing to calibrate.
No, I could have done it myself.
But I figured I'd let a pro get up on my roof and start bolting hardware to my roof shingles, to make sure that it is done right the first time and that I am alive when it is all over.
i want to remove stuff but i love fios too much. Plus i have only tivo boxes in my house. I paid off the services for the tivo boxes and just paying for the cable cards. I dont watch all the stations but my wife sometimes does. Its weird.
im more on the side of let me see what each HBo is showing and i will watch it. i use PLEX for anything i want to watch and new movies. I dont use kodi.
Now trying HULU live tv and it's pretty good.