Have you gone internet-only?

[legalskier]

New device Roku will be rolling out-

Roku Streaming Stick Expands Company's Horizons Beyond Set-Top Boxes
Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/roku-streaming-stick_n_1184097.html

 

[dartmouth01]

I'm currently still using a Walmart RCA flat panel antenna with amp as my antenna. Its good enough for me because I'm pretty close to the towers. However, my grandma in a nursing home in downtown NY was a difficult spot to get signals (concrete walls, only 1 window, surrounded by high rises), so I went with this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GIT002/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

Its a winegard knockoff. Since I couldnt mount it outside, I mounted it the end of a golf club handle and tied it to the back of her TV. I have it pointed towards the one window in her room and voila, it improved the signal remarkedly over the flat panel she originally had.

You can also invest in amplifiers to further help boost the signal. Good amps cost around 50 or a bit less....

I am using a Winegard SS 2000 SquareShooter UHF Amplified antenna for my OTA reception. It does work well, it's mounted outside on a former Dish Network mount (about 8' off the ground, pole mounted). I have it oriented in such a way that I get the Hartford, CT (3.1,2,3,4,5,6), (18.1,2.3,4), (20.1,2), (24.1,2,3), (30.1,2,3), (59.1,2) and (61.1,61.2). From Springfield, MA(22.1,2), (40.1,2), (57.1,2,3,4). Channel 59 is hard to get. Also on windy days channel 20 and 61 will pixelate. The antenna is stable and does not drift in the wind. I had the "super" Dish (the one with multiple LNBs) on it and that kept the satellite signal on windy days.

I am about 40 miles away from the Hartford broadcast area and 20 from Springfield.

When I was having work done at my house over the years, a contractor would always ask what type of satellite antenna the Winegard it was

 

[ctenidae]

so I went with this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GIT002/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

....

I like it that the "frequently bought together" list is coax cable and HDMI cable.

 

[SkiFanE]

We haven't had cable/pay tv since 1999. We did netflix by mail for about 5 years, now do streaming. Have to look into Hulu, Netfix has a sucky selection. We use antennae for TV. Only thing we miss is Red Sox.

Phone? I refuse to drop landline, like having 911 access, reverse 911, etc. Plus during the Halloween power outage, cable was out over a week and FIOS customers had no phones after their batteries died (about 12 hours). Once we generated, had DSL and phone during the outage, the only one in my hood haha. Plus with kids being left alone at home, having a hardwired phone is a peace of mind thing - can't rely on teens to always charge or have their phones turned up ($30/mo is a small price for this IMO). I'm sure we pay too much for DSL (Speakeasy which has since been bought out), but am not in love with Verizon and don't really want to deal with them for DSL.

 

[ski stef]

Anyone use Hughesnet? We are trying to find a satellite internet provider....directv is a no go and so is wild blue.

 

[dartmouth01]

Check out RV forums like RV.net and rvnetwork.com. Some of those guys use Hughes.net, especially the full timers when they are in areas with no cell service.

 

[Geoff]

Anyone use Hughesnet? We are trying to find a satellite internet provider....directv is a no go and so is wild blue.

http://www.nationwidesatellite.com/HughesNet/service/HughesNet_vs_wildblue.asp

If you think you're going to stream video, forgetaboutit. There are big latency issues that make it work poorly. Latency also makes web surfing slow since it takes a while for TCP acknowledgements to get back to the sender. The speed is marginal and it's set up to penalize high volume data users.

The two satellite providers only make sense for specialized applications. An off-the-grid house in the boonies with no cable or DSL access. Live-aboard yacht. RV. The data rate is fairly low. If you use it a lot, both providers put you in "low speed jail" where they rate-limit your data rate. You can pay more to change how much data you can pull down before the rate-limiter kicks in.

For the masses who have access to data services from a cable company (the hated Comcast, Time-Warner, Cox, Charter, Cablevision...), a cable overbuilder (RSN), or the phone company (DSL or fiber), satellite doesn't make technical or economic sense.

 

[Glenn]

Bump...

Seriously looking into dropping cable TV. Long story short, an Amazon Prime account and a few Roku boxes later(They come up on Woot.com every so often: $49 for a refurbed XD); I don't think we've watched cable but once in the last two weeks. Even if we added nextflix or hulu, we'd be paying less than half of our $40 monthly cable bill.

 

[dartmouth01]

I am still cable free (and cable internet free, I share my neighbor's now) and loving it. Lots of money in my pocket every month. I do have a DVR running on a computer, that records TV from local channels. While I can't get paid cable channels of course, I do get most of the shows I watch, in realtime or DVR'd if I want, and that's enough for me! I wait for the paid channel shows I like to come out on DVD or streaming and catch up on those shows then.

 

[bvibert]

Recently dropped cable here. Prior to that we only had the very basic of cable options, basically local channels. The driving factor for us to get rid of it was that they were about to start charging us rent for the cable boxes that the required us to start using about a year ago. We have two boxes, the rental fee is ~$12/mo per box... our cable package was only about $15/mo. We weren't about to nearly triple our bill, and not gain anything. We already had Netflix in addition to the cable, now we also have Hulu Plus and Amazon videos that we watch through our PS3. I also hooked up a cheap digital antenna. We're able to get 2 over the air channels; Fox61 and Antenna TV. Antenna TV plays only old TV shows, like Adam 12, Dragnet, Leave it to Beaver, etc.. It's kinda cool, and we didn't get it before with our old cable service, so that's a bonus.

 

[Geoff]

I live in two places. May 1, I paid $25.00 for the Comcast guy to climb the pole and turn my service back on. I get the promotional triple play rate. Cell phone is marginal in my house and I'm on a lot of conference calls so it's worth it to have the telephone service. I work for a cable modem company so I'm using my own MTA and avoiding the monthly rental fee. I have an HD set-top box to drive my plasma. The entry-level HD package has Encore and Starz with commercial-free movies. I watch the Comcast free video-on-demand library of movies some. When I shut things down for the winter, I'll disconnect the service.

I did the analysis on phone + internet vs triple play. There just wasn't enough savings to miss the little TV I do watch (sports, mostly).

In the winter, my condo association pays for basic cable. I turn on the cable modem I own for the $29.95/month promotional rate and pick up an HD set-top box to drive my plasma for another $10.00/month. Cellular reception is better there and I use Skype as my backup. I buy a yearly Skype all-you-can-eat to anywhere in the world for $130.00 and expense it

 

[hammer]

Seriously considering this after paying more attention to my Fios bill and finding out that we pay $120/mo for TV service and $45/mo for phone. We aren't under contract so I was thinking of dropping the TV and phone, boosting the internet speed (think the offering is 50/25), maybe getting a VOIP service for the phone (or changing cell phone plan to unlimited voice) and adding on streaming services beyond Netflix as wanted. May have some upfront costs for additional Roku boxes but I'm guessing that they will be paid for in a month or two. Just have to get the family on board to be used to watching shows differently.

 

[bvibert]

I have rarely missed TV the last several years, just do it!

 

[soposkier]

Seriously considering this after paying more attention to my Fios bill and finding out that we pay $120/mo for TV service and $45/mo for phone. We aren't under contract so I was thinking of dropping the TV and phone, boosting the internet speed (think the offering is 50/25), maybe getting a VOIP service for the phone (or changing cell phone plan to unlimited voice) and adding on streaming services beyond Netflix as wanted. May have some upfront costs for additional Roku boxes but I'm guessing that they will be paid for in a month or two. Just have to get the family on board to be used to watching shows differently.

Just picked up a chromecast. Cheaper than roku. I recommend giving it a try if you are getting another streaming device.

 

[bdfreetuna]

I don't own a TV .. my solution is to Bittorrent everything and use a seedbox/cloud service (put.io) which I pay $9.99 monthly for. This allows me to stream torrents instantly and not get caught downloading them on my IP address.

I mostly watch HBO, Showtime, and popular comedy shows, SNL etc.. so everything I watch is easy to find online.

Was never happy with Netflix service so I cancelled it last year.

 

[Nick]

I'm also seriously debating dumping my dish network. It's 90 a month and in just very rarely use it. Rabbit ears + hulu + Netflix / amazon should have me covered. I was thinking of signing up for Areo

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[Euler]

I use a roku with Netflix, Amazon, and hulu plus. Works great for my family. None of us watch sports, however.

 

[bvibert]

None of us watch sports, however.

That's the kicker. Sports fans will probably have a hard time cutting the cord. A don't watch any here either.

 

[bvibert]

I'm also seriously debating dumping my dish network. It's 90 a month and in just very rarely use it. Rabbit ears + hulu + Netflix / amazon should have me covered. I was thinking of signing up for Areo

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If you can get local stations with an indoor antennae that's great! We used to get a few at our old house, but since we mixed across town the topography prevents us from getting any.

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[AdironRider]

Im a younger guy (28) so I've never actually even had a landline since I was 18 and living at home. Why everyone hasn't ditched that at this point is beyond me.

I ditched cable right when Netflix streaming became available. Went from 125 or so a month down to 8 (now its 16 since I added Hulu Plus). Never looked back.

Why would I? Netflix has every old Top Gear streaming. I'm covered.