Cutting the Cord from Cable company

[Jer]

The big thing with cord cutting is that you have to understand that how you consume media will be drastically changed. Sitting and just channel surfing is not something you'll really do anymore. You tend to watch what you want, when you want so if you just want to mindlessly veg its more difficult. And if you're into live sports that too will be more difficult.

I've been very happy with my Roku devices running YouTube, Netflix, CRTV and Plex.

Plex is similar to Kodi but its more oriented toward media you have stored locally on your network (you have to run a Plex server on a computer). I download* a lot of movies and TV that I keep stored on a NAS and run Plex off of my wife's Mac (you can run it on Windows, Mac or Linux ... I keep saying I'm going to build a Linux box to be a Plex server, but never seem to get around to it ). Plex is easier to set up than Kodi (which I messed with back when it was still called XBMC. so maybe its gotten easier).


*no, I'm not going to explain how/where I download stuff ... y'all need to figure that out on your own



Radio Shack? I seem to recall seeing one next to the Five and Dime that I used to get S&H Green Stamps at when buying Grape Nehi ... was just up the street from the AMC dealer.

I also used a metal hanger to give you an idea how long ago that was. ;-)

I also made no mention of how we "acquire" the movies & TV programs that we download intentionally.

Between Plex apps & Chromecasts we have pretty much all the bases covered for anything we could want to do.

[ray1970]

I could cut the cord easily. I've been trying to ween my wife off of the satellite dish. Took it down for roof repairs on June 5th and haven't made time to put the dish back up. We have a Roku on each television. Been watching mostly Netflix and Amazon recently. Probably my only problem with dumping my DirecTV is that I like having the option to stream stuff that I pay for anyways like HBO, Showtime, A&E, etc. The Roku lets me stream just about everything I pay for through my satellite provider and I'd rather watch shows and movies streaming because I can watch them whenever I want instead of having to wait for them to come on at certain times.

[Honey Badger282.8]

Netflix, Prime, and HBO Go for me. There are a handful of shows I miss on Cable, but most make their way to Netflix or Prime a year after they're aired. I don't mind waiting for most. The shows that I don't want to wait for can be bought on iTunes or Amazon for about $30 per season. The biggest reason I'll never go back to cable/satellite channels is because I hate commercials. The only time I'm willing to put up with them is when I watch sports.

[Zundfolge]

The biggest reason I'll never go back to cable/satellite channels is because I hate commercials.

Oh I know, whenever we go to my mom's place or anyone else still watching cable or OTA TV the commercials start to drive me insane quite quickly.

[trlcavscout]

I have had DSL for years, at my old house i was getting 12 megs and i could stream on two tv’s while my son played xbox online. Now i get 25 megs and we constantly have 2-3 tv’s streaming and 2 teenage boys playing online games, using a cheap DSL modem, a cisco 5506 and a good Ubiquitu AP. Never have buffering and the boys are yet to complain about lag. DSL is cheaper and way more reliable then comcast in most areas, i worked for them as a tech for 12 years and now i work for a company doing phone and IT work for businesses, we make a lot of money showing up when customers call only to tell them their modems are offline and they need to call comcast.

We have netflix and hulu now, used to use kodi. I just need to find a way to get Packers games this fall for my GF.

[hurley842002]

So far liking Sling quite a bit, will let the free trial finish and try Direct next, before making a decision. Now if only the newer Galaxy phones had the IR feature like the S4 and S5, I'd never have to pick up the remote lol.

[Irving]

Are you watching very popular shows on Sling? I loved it for stuff that wasn't popular. I feel like the more popular the show, the worse the viewing experience. Nice thing is that it's just month to month so you can ditch it once your show is over and pick it up when you want.

[Fentonite]

Has anybody heard of or tried “WiFiHood”? $50/month for 50mbps. Microwave radio internet, no actual TV channels. Gotta provide your own router. Since I don’t do any gaming, I think this might be enough for us. Add an over-the-air antenna for local channels, probably all I need. Thoughts?

http://wifihood.com/plan/wifihood-home/

[cstone]

Has anybody heard of or tried “WiFiHood”? $50/month for 50mbps. Microwave radio internet, no actual TV channels. Gotta provide your own router. Since I don’t do any gaming, I think this might be enough for us. Add an over-the-air antenna for local channels, probably all I need. Thoughts?

http://wifihood.com/plan/wifihood-home/

If it delivers 50mbps for $60 per month, I would drop Comcast in a heartbeat. Sadly, it has not expanded far enough for me to consider.

You may want to call them and see if they already have any customers in your neighborhood. Then you can ask them about their experience.

I was really hoping for fiber at some point but that just doesn't seem to be coming either.

[Irving]

If it delivers 50mbps for $60 per month, I would drop Comcast in a heartbeat. Sadly, it has not expanded far enough for me to consider.

You may want to call them and see if they already have any customers in your neighborhood. Then you can ask them about their experience.

I was really hoping for fiber at some point but that just doesn't seem to be coming either.

Century Link spent a few months updating my entire neighborhood with Fiber. They must not have gotten up to the nice part of Thornton yet.