Just like it says, have any of you cut the cord altogether? What is your experience with it and what did you do in place of cable/satellite. We are thinking about doing it just to save money primarily. Don't watch enough TV to justify the cost, esp. when we have Netflix, can stream with Hulu or Hulu Plus. What do you think?

2/26/2011 1:05:53 PM

I don't have cable or satellite and I watch more TV than 3 average people combined.

Every TV show gets uploaded to the internet minutes after it's finished airing (sometimes before due to leaks or being shown in other countries) in 720p HD with 5.1 surround sound and the commercials already cut out. There are boxes you can buy for under $100 that allow you to watch them on your TV. I have an antenna so I can watch network stuff live, but I rarely bother (Lost was the last show that I regularly did this with). ESPN3 and other no-so-legit streaming sites take care of my sports needs.

2/26/2011 1:13:59 PM

I haven't had cable for a couple years. Netflix, ESPN360 and a homemade antenna work for me. I don't miss cable a bit, haven't looked back.

2/26/2011 1:18:31 PM

I would be all over this if mlb.tv were cheaper or my cable bill were more expensive.

2/26/2011 1:29:20 PM

Yea I torrent some of my shows when they go off of Hulu. Currently not subscribed to Hulu Plus, and not convinced its worth it, honestly.

What speed internet would you recommend for doing this? I am guessing about a 10MB at a minimum to make sure the HD streams come down properly.

2/26/2011 2:00:27 PM

I've been without cable/satellite/etc for over a year now. If i have my intarwebs, i'm good.

2/26/2011 2:02:41 PM

I have. I see no need to ever pay for cable. The only drawback is trying to keep up with a show that comes on a premium channel on a certain day - I have to wait an extra day to Hulu, Netflix, or Torrent it, while assholes talk about it and I have to plug my ears and avoid all talk.

2/26/2011 2:10:34 PM

We have two Rokus (living room, bedroom) and a Seagate FreeAgent+ (living room). With the Roku we have Netflix and Hulu+, which is $16/mo combined. It works beautifully, but there are some flaws... can't pause live TV and we have the internet of the homeless (Clearwire 4g).

2/26/2011 2:13:25 PM

i would just cancel it so you don't have to keep paying for something you can't use

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

2/26/2011 2:13:29 PM

I've had no cable since October, and have used just antenna and internet to get by, and never looked back. We watch most everything on Netflix that we want, and bit torrent the rare TV shows that aren't on there (Jersey Shore....and that's about it).

The antenna is only for sports. It sucked being stuck with the Panthers games this season, but neither my girlfriend or I are die-hard enough fans to get a sports package. For NCSU games that didn't come on local channels, I hooked up the computer to the TV for a feed of the game via Raycom or w/e. Don't watch basketball so we haven't had to deal with that, but would have done the same with ESPN360 (login: footballboards@comcast.net/.com/.something password: warchant)

As far as Netflix players, we use my 360 in the living room and the gf's Wii in the bedroom - rarely watch TV in there anyway. The 360 is essential for everything honestly, as it houses both the Netflix and most of the capability for streaming a show from my hard drive. Most Blu-Ray/DVD players these days can play a show that is on a thumb drive, and some can be hooked up to the internet and play Netflix.

I had made a thread in Sports Talk asking what was a better alternative to TWC for sports and all that, but we ended up deciding that cable/satellite didn't have anything worth paying for. The antenna ended up costing about $90 total, between the antenna and the converter, and that had definitely paid for itself already. In the end you're paying out the nose to be able to watch your one new show a week as it airs, as opposed to several minutes/hours later when it gets uploaded to the internet.

2/26/2011 4:01:33 PM

We just recently moved to Fuquay and decided since rent was increasing we would cut out our TV. We still have our cable internet which actually still provides the signal needed to get basic cable on the tv. One of our tv's picks up nearly every channel (basic cable, plus espn, mtv, etc etc) along with the HD versions of most of the basic channels. The other TV picks up the same but some don't have sound.

We also have an apple tv 2 in one room which we stream netflix off constantly. It also provides hulu as well as stuff I can download.

In the other room we have the Wii with netflix which we use for streaming as well.

I definitely dont regret the decision.

2/26/2011 6:09:49 PM

we're cutting the cord...

i can't even begin to describe how much I'm going to miss HBO programming *sigh*

pretty sure the plan is we're setting up a computer as our dvr & using an antennae. will also be able to watch hulu and instant netflix or whatever w/ that. we'll upgrade our netflix discs to more than one at a time (so i can watch last season's HBO programming, hehe)

2/26/2011 7:24:56 PM

We cut the cable for about 18 months back a few years ago. We didn't try to replace it with netflix or Hulu (mainly because the streaming wasn't very big yet at that point) or anything and just didn't watch anything. We became much more productive. It's amazing how much time you waste watching stuff that just really doesn't matter. So we had more time to hang out, work out, "honey-do" lists, etc.

But now were back to being lazy slobs in front of the tv

2/27/2011 2:49:49 AM

Usenet, SABnzb, and Sickbeard/CouchPotato = Automated DVR.

Netflix, Hulu = ondemand.

Sign up for basic cableTV, wait a month, switch it to internet only and chances are they won't do a truck roll just to filter out your channels. = Live HD sports + channel surfing

2/27/2011 3:42:32 AM

^If I did that, how does TWC internet price/speed compare to CenturyLink 10Mb DSL connection, which will run me about $49.99/month.

Also with the computer as a DVR, any recommendations on a tuner card to buy? BTW, being that we are moving to Mebane, and currently live in eastern NC I guess a regular set of rabbit ears or whatever will not do the trick and I'll need to drop for a nicer directional antenna that is roof mounted, which I'm sure the apartment complex will not be down with once we move.

2/27/2011 7:56:47 AM

Pretty sure if you're in WRAL's viewing area (is Mebane? I think so) you can get a free antennae that's roof mounted. That's how we got ours when we got Dish.

And I'd have to ask Justin about the tuner card.

2/27/2011 8:12:06 AM

Hauppauge tunner cards are pretty hard to beat, IMO. I've got 2 of the 1800's (1 analog and 1 digital tuner each) in my PC.

2/27/2011 8:33:47 AM

I have virtually not had cable in about 5 years. Its REALLY easy to get used to, especially once you see the power of a home antenna; even rabbit ears will deliver crystal clear HD channels. All the streaming options that you have named are more than enough for a average TV watcher In addition to this if you have a gaming console you will spend a lot of TV time gaming anyway, and if you have an Xbox you get a few 'free' media outlets such as ESPN, and last.fm. Unless cable is like $20 a month for me its not worth it.

2/27/2011 8:46:03 AM

WRAL stopped that deal in 2009. Pwnt, stay home.

Yea looking at Newegg Hauppauge had mostly positive reviews on its equipment.

2/27/2011 8:47:41 AM

sounds like finding the right antenna is trial and error... any brands to stay away from?

2/27/2011 9:41:20 AM

i don't remember a brand, but i bought one from radio shack that sucked ass taint. looked like a white box about the size of a wii. maybe it was due to my location and tree cover, but i took it back and found a tutorial online to make my own. i only spent about $10 and an hour or so making it and it works great. i have no problems picking up Fox, ABC, NBC, PBS, etc.

it might look a little ghetto, but you could probably hang it on the wall and call it modern art and no one would be the wiser.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker-workshop-dtv-antenna-steadyca.html

chit chat thread with some info:
message_topic.aspx?topic=585507&page=1#13633830

2/27/2011 11:46:51 AM

Quote :

"WRAL stopped that deal in 2009. Pwnt, stay home."

awesome for us then

2/27/2011 12:19:12 PM

With a hacked ATV I can stream Hulu, netflix, and other networks. I can torrent the rest.

2/27/2011 1:03:30 PM

I have an antenna and the picture is really good. Most of my shows are on networks anyway. My only non-network show is Project Runway and I watch it online, just hook my computer to the TV.

2/27/2011 1:25:14 PM

How much does the DVR use recording HD from the antenna? I currently have 1.5Tb of HDD and of that have about 250GB free. Guessing I need to at least go with another terrabyte drive to give myself plenty of room for DVR action.

2/27/2011 8:14:26 PM

Quote :

"I have virtually not had cable in about 5 years. Its REALLY easy to get used to, especially once you see the power of a home antenna; even rabbit ears will deliver crystal clear HD channels. All the streaming options that you have named are more than enough for a average TV watcher In addition to this if you have a gaming console you will spend a lot of TV time gaming anyway, and if you have an Xbox you get a few 'free' media outlets such as ESPN, and last.fm. Unless cable is like $20 a month for me its not worth it."

You only get ESPN if your ISP supports it. Time Warner finally added ESPN3, but you have to have their tv service to get it. It sucks because even if it worked on the Xbox, it would be pointless to watch it because you would still be paying for cable tv.

2/27/2011 10:24:53 PM

Quote :

"I haven't had cable for a couple years. Netflix, ESPN360 and a homemade antenna work for me. I don't miss cable a bit, haven't looked back."

It's been about a year for me. Built an HD antenna out of coat hangers and it gets every channel in the Triangle without fail. Netflix + ATV2 (soon to be running XBMC) fills the gap. I used to have Uverse U200 with HBO and was paying $80+ / month for that. Definitely like having that money back in my pocket every month.

2/27/2011 10:43:42 PM

^If I don't have an Xbox, is there any other device that will stream from my PC? I want to download some programs to that and then watch it in our bedroom. Does Roku do that, or Boxee or even Google TV?

2/28/2011 4:13:54 AM

^^^ If you notice, I said ESPN and not ESPN3. While ESPN is not as good as ESPN3, its still something to watch and you can kill some time with it. I know I kill time with it.

2/28/2011 7:33:30 AM

^^ Yeah there are tons of boxes out there that do it. Pretty sure the WDTV products do that, Boxee, etc. I can do it with my Apple TV2 with the catch that you have to import to iTunes first, then have iTunes open and running on your PC. Not a big deal for me, my PC is on almost all the time anyway. I think Roku supports some forms of this to through either Orb or another similar app.

2/28/2011 7:42:41 AM

I just canceled cable a couple weeks ago. Hulu and Netflix through the PS3 provide more than enough. Plus we still have the normal local channels over QAM so that's nice.

My main problem right now is that I miss watching hockey.

[Edited on February 28, 2011 at 4:29 PM. Reason : -]

2/28/2011 4:29:06 PM

I did hear that GoogleTV was blocked by the likes of Hulu and other streaming websites the minute it came out, so if you try to get a smart TV shop carefully

[Edited on February 28, 2011 at 4:37 PM. Reason : http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000777.html]

2/28/2011 4:34:36 PM

Quote :

"f I don't have an Xbox, is there any other device that will stream from my PC? I want to download some programs to that and then watch it in our bedroom. Does Roku do that, or Boxee or even Google TV?"

Did you not even bother to read the first reply to the thread? There are literally dozens of devices that do this including many that are under $100.

2/28/2011 4:48:21 PM

Any particular recommendations? I've got ten things that can stream Netflix on my TV, so I'm really looking for something that can play standard media formats (the XBox 360 isn't up to the task on that) streamed from my computer.

2/28/2011 5:19:15 PM

The only reason i have cable is for NESN. other than that i dont really watch it. (except maybe science/discovery channel)

2/28/2011 5:23:51 PM

Hmm, I might be better off spending a hundred bucks on a video card with HDMI and a wireless adapter for the old desktop I've just been using as a file server. Decisions, decisions.

2/28/2011 6:26:08 PM

Yeah, it's really hard for me to say definitively that one box in particular is the best solution for all situations. A hacked AppleTV + XBMC is really cool, but not quite ready for prime time, just yet. WDTV or a seagate freeagent is probably gonna be the cheapest, although I've never really been impressed with the UI or feature set. I haven't tried a Roku, but I've heard decent enough things, and it's cheap. Personally my Popcorn Hour gets the most use, but it's aging and the Interface and lack of newer features is starting to show. Google TV is way overpriced and underfeatured at the moment. I haven't tried a Boxee Box yet, but if the weird sideways cube doesn't bother you and $200 isn't too much to pay, it would probably be worth a look. Lately, I've really been following the XBMC community and it's hard to find anything that's even close on the features front. The ability to add plug-ins and configure every single detail to your liking is amazing. The way you can get it to interact with other programs to do things like use newsgroups to automatically download and import TV shows and movies into your library is pretty awesome. If your spare computer has the horsepower, it might be worth it to throw XBMC on it and use what you already have. There are tons of options out there, it all comes down to how much money you want to spend, and how much time and effort you want to spend getting everything set up the way you want it.

2/28/2011 9:45:53 PM

2/28/2011 9:48:56 PM

no, I'm not poor

3/1/2011 2:09:21 AM

no, i'm not poor

3/1/2011 2:15:24 AM

I switched to DirecTV and will never EVER go back to cable. The customer service isn't much of an improvement but everything else is. The DVR, the programming, the features, everything. I also a run HTPC (home theater PC) for just about everything else. I only really have Directv for sports because watching them online is too much effort for shitty quality streaming. I have the lowest package with Directv and it is more than enough.

3/1/2011 3:51:52 PM

3/1/2011 7:02:06 PM

if the nfl season is canceled, i'll be doing this since I have tv almost exclusively for the nfl during the season

3/1/2011 9:29:03 PM

live sports is the only reason I still have satellite.

3/2/2011 9:27:47 AM

I haven't had cable for over a year now. Even when I had it I didn't really use it (That was just a blip 6 months after a few years of not having it).

I thought I'd miss it more, but Netflix streaming has more than sufficed for my needs. Hooking my computer up to the TV for the occasional ESPN3 or Hulu need mostly covers the rest.

I'm considering getting HuluPlus so I can just use my PS3 for most of Hulu like I do for my Netflix. I wish Sony would get it's act together and realized the PS3's potential as a full media center (a decent web browser with flash capabilities would help a lot with that), but that probably won't happen any time soon.

[Edited on March 2, 2011 at 9:46 AM. Reason : /]

3/2/2011 9:43:23 AM

If I wasnt such an avid sports watcher I would likely drop cable as well. I dont think I can get by on just espn3 and shitty internet feeds.

3/2/2011 10:12:06 AM

Sports is my big hang up as well. I watch about half a dozen shows regularly and maybe 3-4 movies a month, but I watch basketball almost every day this time of year, and I'm not about to watch March Madness and the nba playoggs on Justin TV.

3/2/2011 10:33:13 AM

You have to pay to play.

Or in this case you have to pay to sit on your ass and watch other grown men play children's games that will be forgotten in a few weeks.

3/2/2011 10:49:26 AM

gotta love a half hearted attempt to troll someone who watches sports

since you are such an intellectual, what do you do with your read time? read the latest edition of popular mechanics?

3/2/2011 10:51:20 AM

^^All of March Madness can be seen via CBS ota with better quality feeds than youre getting with cable.

3/2/2011 10:56:14 AM