Have you gone internet-only?

[legalskier]

During Thanksgiving some of our younger family members mentioned how they no longer use the triple play option, but instead have pared it down to internet-only. No phone land line. No cable. Not even over-the-air digital tv. No, they stream everything. One streams off his x-box, another from his laptop wirelessly to a flat screen tv. Evidently Netflix and a sports package is all they need- they say it saves money.

So I'm wondering: has anyone here gone internet-only? If so, what kind of setup do you use? Are you happy with it?

 

[riverc0il]

I haven't had cable TV ever since moving out of my parents house. That would have been 2002, I think? I only got a land line because I needed dial up for internet because I couldn't get cable or DSL. 2004, I moved and got DSL and ditched the land line. 2005 we ditched cell phones for two years in VT and went VOIP. Now we are back to cell phones. Throughout those ten years, never had cable TV, DVDs only. We have cable internet and Netflix but that is it. So this sort of thing isn't anything new nor driven solely by up and coming millennials, it is just becoming more prevalent.

What I really wish I could do without is mail and checks. Ick. Due to living in a condo, we don't get USPS delivery so I have to pay yearly for a PO Box (mostly for gear deliveries as if UPS or FedEx reroutes my home delivery to USPS it fails, don't get me started...). I've gone paperless almost everywhere I can. The stupid town and state still need checks for registration and so does my condo association for dues. Waste of time and paper.

 

[snoseek]

http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/

That's all the tv/movies I could ever watch in a lifetime. A good wifi is all i really ask. I use a minute phone and burn 25 dollars a month on it-almost never more. I hate hate hate any sort of monthly commitment for any kind of service. I drives me crazy!

Riv I hear you about the check free thing. I actually buy two or three money orders a year for those things like registration ect....everthing else is cash or debit for me

 

[o3jeff]

Interesting thread. Going to watch it to see what options others are using for tv. I would love to cancel cable tv since it's the biggest waste of money every month.

 

[riverc0il]

Interesting thread. Going to watch it to see what options others are using for tv. I would love to cancel cable tv since it's the biggest waste of money every month.

Just do it. All the popular TV shows end up on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon. Channel flipping is just a time suck. I'd rather time suck on the internet where I at least use a little brain cell activity and might actually learn something.

The only thing you can't get is sports, need to go to the bar for that. There are some packages but even Center Ice has local blackouts for local teams. Suck. Sports needs to get on board and let people pay per view or pay per team or pay per season or pay per all. No reason sports shouldn't be streaming profitably by now.

 

[o3jeff]

Just do it. All the popular TV shows end up on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon. Channel flipping is just a time suck. I'd rather time suck on the internet where I at least use a little brain cell activity and might actually learn something.

The only thing you can't get is sports, need to go to the bar for that. There are some packages but even Center Ice has local blackouts for local teams. Suck. Sports needs to get on board and let people pay per view or pay per team or pay per season or pay per all. No reason sports shouldn't be streaming profitably by now.

I hardly watch sports so I'm not worried about that. What do you do as far as local stations for the news?

 

[MR. evil]

Been doing this almost a year now and it saves a huge amount. We have a Wii and a Roku box that both stream to our TV's. We have Netflix and Hulu Plus and only pay $8 a month for each service ($16 a month total). My old direct tv bill was over $100 per month. We also dropped the land phone line, another $55 per month savings.

 

[riverc0il]

I hardly watch sports so I'm not worried about that. What do you do as far as local stations for the news?

Read the internet! You still get the content, don't have to watch the ads, get to pick the news that matters most to you, and don't get the sensationalism. A lot of news stations also post news videos to the internet for important stuff. For example, NECN updates their weather forecast online three times per day. News really started to offend me when they went the sensationalism route.

 

[Glenn]

Unreal on the timing of this. Just yesterday, we upgraded from DSL to cable. DSL was 1.5m down, .3 up. It was "good enough". Cable is 12-22m down and 2.5 up. It's night and day. The tech told me that even on our "low" end of the speed tests, it was good enough for streaming from the interweb (Netflix ect)

On paper, our phone is 7.95 a month. When you get the bill and add all the BS taxes and fees, it's $20. $20 a month for a basic land line...that no one but telemarketers call us on. Why bother? We have a great 3G signal on our cell phones in the house. DSL is $30...so $50 in all. The cable promo is $19 a month for 6 months...then $30 for another 6...then about $45. So if we ditch DSL and phone, we'll have faster internet and save $5 a month.

Now the tech yesterday had me thinking of netflix. We have a basic cable package at the house...$40 a month IIRC? 60 channels or so. We bascially watch the same half dozen. So if we could ditch that..and go Netflix...that would be another savings.

Cliffs: Thinking of just having a cable interweb connection, using cell phones instead of a land line and streaming TV via Netflix.

 

[o3jeff]

Been doing this almost a year now and it saves a huge amount. We have a Wii and a Roku box that both stream to our TV's. We have Netflix and Hulu Plus and only pay $8 a month for each service ($16 a month total). My old direct tv bill was over $100 per month. We also dropped the land phone line, another $55 per month savings.

How do you like that Roku box, saw it on Hulu site last night. Also what model do you have of it?

 

[kbroderick]

What I really wish I could do without is mail and checks. Ick. Due to living in a condo, we don't get USPS delivery so I have to pay yearly for a PO Box (mostly for gear deliveries as if UPS or FedEx reroutes my home delivery to USPS it fails, don't get me started...). I've gone paperless almost everywhere I can. The stupid town and state still need checks for registration and so does my condo association for dues. Waste of time and paper.

Does your checking account offer online bill payment? Mine does, and they will mail a check if the recipient is not setup to receive electronic payments. You can even sent payments to individuals. I'm still working on the same checkbook from several years ago because I only end up writing checks for a handful of transactions each year.

 

[Nick]

I've got a Logitech Revue, which I think for $99 now is one of the best deals out there, and it now has Honeycomb on it.

I have Dish Network for TV, and to be honest I'm mixed on it. I do like certain shows... modern famliy, etc. , but I almost never watch just whatever is on. I usually am on Netflix or Amazon VOD.

Sports would be an issue though. I don't watch a lot but the couple times a year Ihave people over to watch a game or something would be tough.

 

[Nick]

Does your checking account offer online bill payment? Mine does, and they will mail a check if the recipient is not setup to receive electronic payments. You can even sent payments to individuals. I'm still working on the same checkbook from several years ago because I only end up writing checks for a handful of transactions each year.

Yeah, I do the exact same. I just sent a check to my father in law from the bank of america website.

 

[ctenidae]

Cable internet, satellite TV, no land lines (see below)

Seriusly reconsidering the satellite TV part, but the last thing I want to do when I sit down for 30 minutes of mindless TV is think about what I want to watch. Fortunately, either Top Gear, Chopped, or How Its Made are always on, so channel flipping is minimal. Still hate commercials, though.

We have the business version of cable internet, since my wife needed a static IP for her office phone system. My office just converted to Lync, fully internet based and Microsoft integrated- my laptop is now my office phone, which is pretty cool (if my computer's off, my phone doesn't ring!).

Use online banking, so only check I write is for rent and the occasional DMV or similar. Our checkbook is 4 addresses old, and actually predates our marriage 10 years ago (we had a joint account before we got married, and my wife kept her name, so it works).

 

[mlctvt]

How do you like that Roku box, saw it on Hulu site last night. Also what model do you have of it?

We've got a Roku box that we use in our condo in Vt. It's the HD model. We love it. Even though we only have a very slow DSL line that's only about about 1.5M the streaming is still excellent quality on an older CRT TV. It's works equally well wireless or connected directly to our router.

There are many channels to chose from , and some are free.

Be carefull what model you chose. Some of the newer ones only have an HDMI connection while older models have both HDMI and composite RCA connectors.

 

[soposkier]

I could do without it, but the girlfriend disagrees. Only downside I see would be, like others mentioned live sports. Last June during the Stanley Cup some games were on Versus, which even with cable I did not get. Made for a nice excuse to go out to the bar on a Monday night.:beer: Found a free online streaming site, but the quality was mediocore at best.

 

[St. Bear]

Been doing this almost a year now and it saves a huge amount. We have a Wii and a Roku box that both stream to our TV's. We have Netflix and Hulu Plus and only pay $8 a month for each service ($16 a month total). My old direct tv bill was over $100 per month. We also dropped the land phone line, another $55 per month savings.

We tried doing this over the summer, but when we started 100% streaming, our internet connection got really spotty. I think Comcast put buffers on our account. As soon as we went back to DirecTV, and only streamed occasionally, we haven't had any issues with the internet at all.

It's really frustrating.

 

[WJenness]

We tried doing this over the summer, but when we started 100% streaming, our internet connection got really spotty. I think Comcast put buffers on our account. As soon as we went back to DirecTV, and only streamed occasionally, we haven't had any issues with the internet at all.

It's really frustrating.

I've heard they throttle when you go over a certain volume of data each month... That's probably what you ran into.

I really only use my cable for sports... But that's pretty much all I watch... As a result, streaming isn't quite there for me yet.

I'd rather watch an NHL game between Phoenix and Winnipeg than 99% of what's on TV... so Game Center on the computer is attractive, but that doesn't cover the Bruins games, and that's a problem for me.

-w

 

[gladerider]

I've heard they throttle when you go over a certain volume of data each month... That's probably what you ran into.

I really only use my cable for sports... But that's pretty much all I watch... As a result, streaming isn't quite there for me yet.

I'd rather watch an NHL game between Phoenix and Winnipeg than 99% of what's on TV... so Game Center on the computer is attractive, but that doesn't cover the Bruins games, and that's a problem for me.

-w

me too, i have cable to watch live sports. mostly ncaa football. don't know how others deal with this when they stream....

 

[MR. evil]

How do you like that Roku box, saw it on Hulu site last night. Also what model do you have of it?

Love the Roku, have the HD model.

One thing to consider is most of the newer blue ray players have the ability to stream many sources just like Roku. So of you don't yet have a blue ray player, consider getting one over a standalone Roku box.