Cutting ties to Cable tV

Steven

Member
I know this is off subject, but I thought some of you folks might be interested. My Cable (TV only) went to about $130/month. I thought that was way to high considering I don't watch 90+% of the channels (out of 130) they provide. Sooo... I dropped the cable and went with Netfix for under 15$/month. That saves me almost $1,400 per year.

I only have a download speed of 6Mb and I didn't think it was enough, but it works perfectly and the picture quality is good. I also found that I could triple that speed for only $3 per month more, so that's happening on Monday.

If you're trying to save a buck, this might be one way of doing it. That's more money for motorcycling...
 

rickster

Member
Steven...if you use the cord cutting savings to buy things for your bike or to do travel on it, then this discussion is absolutely not off subject!!! : - )

My wife and I are cord cutters too. We found that paying big bucks to watch only a few channels that we actually liked was like throwing money away. Many of the shows that we liked were from broadcast network TV stations. The ones you can still get over the air for FREE. So, like Steven, I dropped the Cable TV service, kept the internet service and subscribed to Netflix. To meet our desire to still get nightly news and some of the network shows that we liked I did two other things. The first was to have a television antenna installed on my home to receive my local stations for FREE. The second was to buy an "over the air digital recorder". It works like the one the cable company includes with it's service, only it doesn't record cable TV...it records off of the air...from the antenna. I am extremely happy with the one I chose...the Channel Master DVR+ (The + unit gives you the dongle that connects to your wi-fi so that the DVR will get a current "channel guide". ) Also, you get to choose (and buy) the hard drive for the DVR to store your shows on. I put a 2TB portable drive on mine and even though my wife has about 70 Dr. Oz shows and 30 Jeopardies recorded among others, it never gets more than 25% full.

So, now I have more shows to watch on Netflix than I can keep up with, I get my morning and evening news shows and can watch my favorite network series as well. And, I can watch all of this when I want. I'm saving just over $1000 a year. That's a couple of nice 3-4 day tours on my CTX!
 
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rickster

Member
ofdave...no. Those are cable channels and are not, to my knowledge, broadcast over the air. However, there are a lot of documentary, science and nature series on Netflix. The docu-series span a wide berth of subject matter from war to U.S. history, world history, medicine, etc. Also, Netflix gets content from a variety of sources, so I wouldn't be surprised if some shows from the channels you mention above are on there. For example, I watched Nat. Geo's series Cosmos on Netflix.

If you aren't sure if this is for you, subscribe to Netflix for one month and explore the offerings to see if it meets your needs.
 

ponydrvr

Member
Spectrum took over Time Warner earlier this year and immediately raised rates and cut services. I was at $47 /mo including 200 MB internet before this all started. Then they cut ALL my local TV from the basic non-encoded offerings. This cost me $15 /mo for their cable decoder box to get fewer stations and not all of the local HD stations I had. Then Basic local service went from $0 to $45 /mo. Internet service @ 200 Mbps remained the same cost. Then this month I received a mailer alerting me that my "discounted" Internet service will be increased to $69 /mo for 100 Mbps service effective Feb 1.

I am installing an antenna for the 43 local stations and cutting the TV offerings this week. SO ... now I get less than half the service at a 50% cost increase. I guess I'm saving some money but it sure feels like I've been violated! I already have a subscription to Netflix and YouTubeTV. I hope my family can get along with this setup but they're upset because I am cutting the cord to avoid a planned 400% cost increase to leave things as they are.

I guess what upsets me most is that so far this year I received a 3% SS increase ($7 /mo). I also got a 11.5% increase in Electric, 8% Gas rates hike, 12% water increase and 23% sewer rate hike. The total hikes cost more than $135 /mo. I'm so proud to live in Louisville.
 
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randy1149

New member
I know the pain, we're being screwed by the IPs. I'm not up and every states TV/Tel/Internet but the adds I see here in NY if you get all 3 you get a "lower" price. If you drop one service they can jack up the other 2 services and lower your bandwidth to boot.

I have 19 devices on my Wifi from my thermostat, my security cams, iPhones, iPads...etc. so lowering bandwidth is not an option if I want these devices to work. These IP providers know this, they have the upper hand. And if the current power in DC passes the Network "Neutrality"bill the big guns like Verizon. will control what we pay.
 

Steven

Member
I'm surprised that this was such an issue with many of you...

ofdave - I use ATT for my ip. It wasn't that long ago that all I could get was 720k where I live but that has all changed over the years. My TV provider was Dish. Except for the occasional drop outs during a storm or snow, it has worked well enough. I spoke with them and told them I was going to drop the service and they dropped the price $50. Still, I decided that it wasn't enough.

I think I will miss some of the shows I got on cable, but I'll adjust. The thing is that Netfix is like HBO except you don't have to wait for a show to air.

My sister has never had cable or Internet so she doesn't have anything to miss.

That channelmaster looks like a good idea.
 

ofdave

Member
thanks Steven
we have Frontier and they're internet only is not cheap.
The only other internet available is Comcast and their service isn't great.
Am continuing to look into a way.
 

ponydrvr

Member
And this morning I turned on my radio to news and learned that Louisville just became a "Sanctuary City". I guess now I have to pay more for the freebies to live here as well. Free housing, utilities, cable service (Google 1GB level), cars, food stamps, clothing etc. They don't have to work, roam the streets all night and refuse to learn the language or settle into our customs or get a job. Plus they receive a monthly cash stipend higher than my retirement value I had to work to earn. This is s.....d up!

I've got work to do to pay for my uninvited guests. I'm done.
 

ponydrvr

Member
The key word is "undocumented". These so called "refugee guests" don't fall into that category. Undocumented is simply a sweetheart term for illegal. They don't belong here. Illegal is a criminal act.
 
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