Another drop cable thread...please

[trcy]

Please help me ditch cable. I am not tech savvy at all but I figure there has got to be an easy and cheap way to do this. Mostly we watch HGTV & Food Network. DD likes the Mickey clubhouse on Disney Junior. Modern Family is my only much watch. Any advise would be greatly appreciated & please dumb it down for me :)

[elbenn]

Get a Roku. http://www.amazon.com/Roku-XS-1080p-Streaming-Player/dp/B005CLPP84/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363738080&sr=8-1&keywords=roku

Subscribe to Huluplus for $8/month. There are several design and food shows available, including Bang for your Buck, Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, Designing Spaces, Design on a Dime, Paula's Home Cooking, etc. You can search on hulu.com for the shows that are available. You can get Modern Family on Huluplus.

Subscribe to Netflix for $8/month. There are many, many shows available, including many cartoons and many tv shows.

[KrystalS]

I would love to drop cable but my DH won't do it. He likes the convenience of DVR. If you have a computer with an HDMI hook up you can connect to your tv and watch lots of shows that way. Almost all the networks put their shows online, ABC does for sure. We have Netflix for kids shows, there is only 1 Mickey Mouse episodes but I'm hoping they add more eventually, DS loves MM. But on Netflix he will settle for Backyardigans, Dora & Diego. Check out Hulu before you buy and see if they have shows you will watch, I looked into it and they didn't show much that we watch, but I know others love it. You will probably not be able to see most shows from HGTV and the Food network. I love HGTV, would have a hard time giving it up!

[Philoscript]

We dropped cable a while ago now and I found some of the reruns from HGTV, such as Clean House and other Hoarding type shows. I haven't really explored to see if there were more yet.

We use a Roku and bought an antenna for local stations.

[wellyes]

I would love to drop cable but my DH won't do it. He likes the convenience of DVR. If you have a computer with an HDMI hook up you can connect to your tv and watch lots of shows that way. Almost all the networks put their shows online, ABC does for sure. We have Netflix for kids shows, there is only 1 Mickey Mouse episodes but I'm hoping they add more eventually, DS loves MM. But on Netflix he will settle for Backyardigans, Dora & Diego. Check out Hulu before you buy and see if they have shows you will watch, I looked into it and they didn't show much that we watch, but I know others love it. You will probably not be able to see most shows from HGTV and the Food network. I love HGTV, would have a hard time giving it up!
I use my Tivo (lifetime subscription) with just an antenna, no cable. No problem.

Are there particular HGTV & Food Network shows you like, or is it just 'background noise'? You can cheaply replace the latter, but not the former.

[AnnieW625]

I would love to drop cable but my DH won't do it. He likes the convenience of DVR. If you have a computer with an HDMI hook up you can connect to your tv and watch lots of shows that way. Almost all the networks put their shows online, ABC does for sure. We have Netflix for kids shows, there is only 1 Mickey Mouse episodes but I'm hoping they add more eventually, DS loves MM. But on Netflix he will settle for Backyardigans, Dora & Diego. Check out Hulu before you buy and see if they have shows you will watch, I looked into it and they didn't show much that we watch, but I know others love it. You will probably not be able to see most shows from HGTV and the Food network. I love HGTV, would have a hard time giving it up!

:yeahthat: plus since we bundle our services we get our cable for around $30 a month (DVR is $15 a month). IMHO I don't see how subscribing to all of these online services if you don't already have them is going to save you any money. As parents of young kids who like to be easily entertained by vegging out (we went to probably 20 movies a year pre kids) I figure cable has also saved us money every month!

TiVo does work with out cable if you want a DVR, but my DH prefers our simplistic cable company DVR.

[wellyes]

So what we did was:
- kill telephone, get VOIP (we use ooma)
- wait for a good deal on stand-alone internet to kill the internet-cable bundle. We pay $20/month first year, $35/thereafter for internet.
- buy an antenna, cancel cable
- use Tivo to watch network shows and stream Netflix
- use Hulu (not subscription) for the few shows we like to watch that are cable only

So we are now paying about $30/month (internet plus Netflix plus ooma).

[dogmom]

Where the heck do you find internet for $20? Of course we need a lot of bandwith and reliability for my husband's work.

[sunnyside]

:yeahthat: plus since we bundle our services we get our cable for around $30 a month (DVR is $15 a month). IMHO I don't see how subscribing to all of these online services if you don't already have them is going to save you any money. As parents of young kids who like to be easily entertained by vegging out (we went to probably 20 movies a year pre kids) I figure cable has also saved us money every month!

TiVo does work with out cable if you want a DVR, but my DH prefers our simplistic cable company DVR.


What's your total per month? The lowest they could get my bundled service was around $150. I have to have decent internet for work.

I ditched everything, and now just pay $50 for internet, and $8 for Netflix. I watch a couple shows on my laptop, and am getting a Roku to get more options.

[wellyes]

Where the heck do you find internet for $20? Of course we need a lot of bandwith and reliability for my husband's work.

Comcast. One year we switched cable carriers - away from them - and we've been buried under a flurry of 'come back' offers ever since, I think we got the $20/month broadband offer a half dozen times before we were able to take them up on it by ditching cable (and therefore bundling) with Verizon. I think the moral of the story is, play them against each other if you can! Now that we've ditched cable, both companies send us offers for better than we had when we were customers. Not good enough, though. We don't care about sports and don't like tv cable news so no need for cable.

[AnnieW625]

My bundled service with tax is $150 a month. We have two $5 tiers, no HD service, no premiums, we dont do ppv, and a single DVR. We also have the lowest grade Internet wifi package and it works fine. We do have a 1200 sq. ft. house so we opted not to do the higher priced Internet/wifi service. I also think it is less because we only have one tv.

I have called and threatened to cancel before to and got my rates renegotiated.

[BayGirl2]

:yeahthat: plus since we bundle our services we get our cable for around $30 a month (DVR is $15 a month). IMHO I don't see how subscribing to all of these online services if you don't already have them is going to save you any money. As parents of young kids who like to be easily entertained by vegging out (we went to probably 20 movies a year pre kids) I figure cable has also saved us money every month!

TiVo does work with out cable if you want a DVR, but my DH prefers our simplistic cable company DVR.


My bundled service with tax is $150 a month. We have two $5 tiers, no HD service, no premiums, we dont do ppv, and a single DVR. We also have the lowest grade Internet wifi package and it works fine. We do have a 1200 sq. ft. house so we opted not to do the higher priced Internet/wifi service. I also think it is less because we only have one tv.

I have called and threatened to cancel before to and got my rates renegotiated.

I'm not seeing how that's $30/month for just the cable part?


My Comcast bill is also $150/month for cable with no premium channels, no DVR, no box (I use cable card for like $2). The broadband internet portion of that is about $50.

My math is showing that if I cancel cable I'll be saving $100/month. Netflix is $7.99 a month and I already pay for Amazon Prime so I consider the Instant Video benefit free. Regular Hulu is free, Hulu+ is like $10-$15 if I really needed it. I already have a digital antenna but even a new one is like a $40 one time investment. Seems like even with all that I'll have saved enough for a new TV in less than a year.

[Nooknookmom]

:yeahthat: plus since we bundle our services we get our cable for around $30 a month (DVR is $15 a month). IMHO I don't see how subscribing to all of these online services if you don't already have them is going to save you any money. As parents of young kids who like to be easily entertained by vegging out (we went to probably 20 movies a year pre kids) I figure cable has also saved us money every month!

TiVo does work with out cable if you want a DVR, but my DH prefers our simplistic cable company DVR.

holy moly-what service do you have? we have the option time warner (yuk) or verizon (yukkier) and I have never seen a bundle for $30. I went up the food chain with supervisors to get it with phone, channels and internet (which we need phone and internet for our business) for $134.

Wow...$30!

[wellyes]

holy moly-what service do you have? we have the option time warner (yuk) or verizon (yukkier) and I have never seen a bundle for $30. I went up the food chain with supervisors to get it with phone, channels and internet (which we need phone and internet for our business) for $134.

Wow...$30!

I believe she said the $30 cable is part of a $150 bundle.