Cutting the Satellite TV cable

[Larry Browning]

My DirecTV bill has gotten out of hand! We have maybe the middle teer service, no premium channels like HBO or Showtime with 3 TVs. The bill just seems to go up every month to where our bill is now $110 ever month.
It also seems like every time we start to watch TV, after scrolling through all the channels, we discover there is absolutely nothing we want to watch, so we switch to the Roku and watch something on Netflix. I have come to the conclusion that about the only thing we watch on DirecTV is the local channels and live sports (Especially the Texas Rangers on Fox Sports Southwest). I have also come to the conclusion that it just may not be worth $110 a month to watch the Rangers lose.
I know with just a little effort I could get the local channels and this Sling TV thing looks pretty interesting for $20 a month. SWMBO really likes the real time channel guide, but I think she would be willing to give that up to save $90 a month.
Anyway, who here has "cut the cable" recently? What did you replace it with and how is it working out for you and your family?

[David Ragan]

it is a lot of money, Larry.

We have DirecTV, and a small upgrade thing and itis ~$127/mo.

I sit there and enjoy it. And think about the black and white that was screwed up-the picture tube was bad, and so was squashed vertically. And, only 3 channels, right?

If I am not using something, 86 it.

Now, do not ask me....why then, have you not gotten rid of some of those nice tools that you never use. Ha ha.

[Larry Browning]

it is a lot of money, Larry.

We have DirecTV, and a small upgrade thing and itis ~$127/mo.

I sit there and enjoy it. And think about the black and white that was screwed up-the picture tube was bad, and so was squashed vertically. And, only 3 channels, right?

If I am not using something, 86 it.

Now, do not ask me....why then, have you not gotten rid of some of those nice tools that you never use. Ha ha.

Part (but not all) of the motivation is just general cost cutting. The wife just retired from 37 years of teaching 12 & 13 year olds, so the disposable income has been reduced by quite a bit.

[Phil Thien]

The SlingTV on Roku works pretty well. The newer (faster) the Roku, the better. The interface really runs better on newer/faster chips. But we subscribed to SlingTV to be able to watch a couple of shows we like on HBO (oh and March Madness) and have been happy with it.

[Matt Meiser]

If your contract is up you can usually get lower pricing out of them to stick around. But sounds like price isn't your only motivation.

[Steve Peterson]

If your contract is up you can usually get lower pricing out of them to stick around. But sounds like price isn't your only motivation.

We lived for years with a rooftop antenna using a standalone Tivo that came with a lifetime subscription to Tivo basic. It was limited to 3 days lookahead and had limited search, but no monthly fee. They only made a few of them. I won't give up the DVR, but I was unwilling to pay $15 per month to get full service Tivo.

We ended up getting Directv when the Tivo finally died and now the kids are hooked on a few of the channels. The intro package came with 3 months of free premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.), but then the price shoots up to $45 per month. When I called to cancel the premium channels, they offered the package for $25 for 6 months. I don't think it is worth it to keep paying especially with Netflix at $9 per month. They usually offer some type of concession when you call to cancel.

I know one person that signs up with Directv with free installation and a great teaser price for 2 years. Then he cancels and switches to Dish for 2 years. It's a bit of a hassle, but he always has a teaser price.

Steve

[Larry Browning]

If your contract is up you can usually get lower pricing out of them to stick around. But sounds like price isn't your only motivation.
Our contract is up but pricing really isn't the only motivation, put it is what is driving my interest. We are going to start keeping a log of how much we watch stuff on DirectTV that is not a local channel. My thinking is that it is going to be very little. At this point, I am not sure the value is there. I do watch at least part of a Ranger game every night, and we do watch some shows on HGTV, History, Food Channel, some ESPN but not much else. I do believe those are all on Sling TV. $20 vs $110 is pretty tempting.

[Mike Cozad]

I am getting ready to bail on uverse. My bill is north of $220 for Internet and television. I have found a dvr that will work with a digital antenna for local channels. We use Netflix and Vudu for movies and series we really want to watch anyway so it's a no brainer. I had the TV for the kids but they're gone now so they aren't chipping in any longer and I don't want to waste my money on it...

[Bert Kemp]

I've gone into this in great depth here on other threads that were basically about the same thing. I have everything over the internet hook to my 42 inch tv in the living room. I get everything I want. Music, News, Movies, sports, and TV for total $63 a month. There are few glitches now and then but thats mostly cause of my slow DSL But I don't mind. Works for me.

[Larry Browning]

I know one person that signs up with Directv with free installation and a great teaser price for 2 years. Then he cancels and switches to Dish for 2 years. It's a bit of a hassle, but he always has a teaser price.

Steve
The guy that came to install our DirecTV said what he does is Cancel every 2 years and switches the account name back and forth between his wife and himself. He gets all new equipment and the teaser price each time. It may not be illegal, but it does seem a bit unethical.

[Chuck Wintle]

My DirecTV bill has gotten out of hand! We have maybe the middle teer service, no premium channels like HBO or Showtime with 3 TVs. The bill just seems to go up every month to where our bill is now $110 ever month.
It also seems like every time we start to watch TV, after scrolling through all the channels, we discover there is absolutely nothing we want to watch, so we switch to the Roku and watch something on Netflix. I have come to the conclusion that about the only thing we watch on DirecTV is the local channels and live sports (Especially the Texas Rangers on Fox Sports Southwest). I have also come to the conclusion that it just may not be worth $110 a month to watch the Rangers lose.
I know with just a little effort I could get the local channels and this Sling TV thing looks pretty interesting for $20 a month. SWMBO really likes the real time channel guide, but I think she would be willing to give that up to save $90 a month.
Anyway, who here has "cut the cable" recently? What did you replace it with and how is it working out for you and your family?
Larry,
I had the same dilemma with my cable company...maybe 1 show was interesting to watch and the monthly bill steadily rising. I just decided to cut it and use my roku to stream video.

[Bert Kemp]

I think Unethical is how they keep raising prices lowering service, give you a hard time when you try to cancel, all kinds of things theses company's do that are unethical and boarder illegal


The guy that came to install our DirecTV said what he does is Cancel every 2 years and switches the account name back and forth between his wife and himself. He gets all new equipment and the teaser price each time. It may not be illegal, but it does seem a bit unethical.

[Larry Browning]

I've gone into this in great depth here on other threads that were basically about the same thing. I have everything over the internet hook to my 42 inch tv in the living room. I get everything I want. Music, News, Movies, sports, and TV for total $63 a month. There are few glitches now and then but thats mostly cause of my slow DSL But I don't mind. Works for me.That sounds more like it! SWMBO really likes the realtime guide. Even though she may have to give that up, is there any kind of replacement for that?

[Larry Browning]

I think Unethical is how they keep raising prices lowering service, give you a hard time when you try to cancel, all kinds of things theses company's do that are unethical and boarder illegal
Well, two wrongs don't make a right.

[Larry Browning]

BTW: I have a colleague who swears up and down that they passed a law a few years back that required cable companies to broadcast the local channels of their system so that even if you didn't have cable turned on at your house the local channels would still be available through their system. He hasn't had cable or satellite for 4 years and says he gets the local channels simply buy hooking up his TVs to the cable connection. This just does not seem correct to me. Is it possible that the cabling in his house is acting as an antenna and he just thinks it is being broadcast? I am going to test this theory this weekend.

[Art Mann]

I cut the cable TV a couple of years ago. We have all the network broadcast affiliates nearby and I can receive them on my home made wood and copper wire antenna. I very seldom do so because I watch commercial free Netflix and VUDU and simply can't stand the 18 minutes of advertising for each 42 minutes of broadcast programming. We do have a Red Box machine close by and I watch rented movies fairly often. I have not regretted the change.

[Larry Browning]

I cut the cable TV a couple of years ago. We have all the network broadcast affiliates nearby and I can receive them on my home made wood and copper wire antenna. I very seldom do so because I watch commercial free Netflix and VUDU and simply can't stand the 18 minutes of advertising for each 42 minutes of broadcast programming. We do have a Red Box machine close by and I watch rented movies fairly often. I have not regretted the change.
I am still saddled by the desire to watch live sports on ESPN and the like. I think if I didn't have that, it would be a lot easier to cut the cable.

[John A langley]

Larry are Direct TV the bill used to be $ $210 One Saturday morning about six months ago my wife got on the phone with them after about 45 minutes or Bill is now 157.50. Good season tickets for KU basketball can run 10 gran I figure I'm saving 8 grand, go to a Rangers game and go to Field level See what that cost , point being whats the trade-off

[Jerry Thompson]

I could do without cable but my wife has a couple of programs she likes. I would love to dump the TV and phone. I may try an antenna to pick up the local fare. Then see if it sits well with the spouse. I have not seen any movies offered that remotely interest me. I have Roku but dropped Netflix as it is was a waste of money due to the movies offered that did not interest me.

[Jim Koepke]

If your contract is up you can usually get lower pricing out of them to stick around. But sounds like price isn't your only motivation.

One of the Direct TV sales people told me to get the discounts for new subscribers it has to be under a different name. The same name can not have been used in the last 6 months.

Currently our service is in my wife's name. If we wanted the "new subscriber discount" we need to restart service with my name.

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

The reason I won't get Sling TV is it appears there is no DVR option. If I can't record shows and play them back when I want then the TV service is of no use to me.

[Jamie Buxton]

I have a package from Dish that sounds very much like you're getting from Direct -- the usual networks, the local stations, several ESPN channels, a local sports channel (Warriors and Giants), a bunch of other stuff, but not HBO or Showtime. It costs me $76/month.

[Myk Rian]

I have found a dvr that will work with a digital antenna for local channels.
No such thing as a Digital antenna. One from the 70s, with a VHF yagi and UHF bowtie is all you need.
When HD came out on OTA TV, antenna manufacturers renamed all their products to be Digital, or HD compliant. They didn't change a thing. Just the package.

[Brian Elfert]

I am currently paying $99 plus taxes and fees ($112 total) for Comcast cable plus Internet. Not terrible considering Comcast Internet alone would cost nearly $60 a month I understand.

[David Masters]

I cut the cord with Direct TV three years ago. The very next day after I cancelled my service, I received a call offering me the same package for $35 a month with no contract. I declined. This evening I received an offer for $20 a month for a year (two year contract) and a $150 Visa gift card. It's sitting in the trash. I found that the broadcast channels plus a Tivo was all I needed. I only get about an hour or so a night to watch TV. I can alway buy a series off Amazon or iTunes if there is something off the cable channels I want to watch.

Dave

[Curt Harms]

I am still saddled by the desire to watch live sports on ESPN and the like. I think if I didn't have that, it would be a lot easier to cut the cable.

It might be worth a look at Roku. We just got one to experiment with after reducing our TV lineup. We're thinking Huluplus for $7.99/month which appear to carry most of the cable TV channels we watch. ESPN is available on Roku though I haven't investigated it yet. I do know ESPN got more than a little annoyed at Verizon for offering TV packages that don't include ESPN. If this spreads, watch Pro Athletes' salaries drop. Poor babies:rolleyes:. There is one downside to streaming vs. cable/satellite; a subscription to a streaming service i.e. Huluplus is only good for one streaming device. As I understand it, if we wanted to watch non-free progamming on more than one Roku (for example) we'd need a subscription for each box. I could be wrong on this but that's my understanding.

[Pat Barry]

I am still saddled by the desire to watch live sports on ESPN and the like. I think if I didn't have that, it would be a lot easier to cut the cable.
I agree - this is a problem that needs to be solved. ESPNs, Fox 1, Fox 2, Fox Sports North, CBSSN, NDCSN, etc. How do I get those without Directv/Cable?

[Pat Barry]

No such thing as a Digital antenna. One from the 70s, with a VHF yagi and UHF bowtie is all you need.
When HD came out on OTA TV, antenna manufacturers renamed all their products to be Digital, or HD compliant. They didn't change a thing. Just the package.
Not sure what that VHF Yagi is doing for you Myk, aren't all the digital signals UHF? Also, the digital signal is not like the old analog signal.. You really need a good antenna or you will not capture / have signal drop out - not just a snowy picture like you were used to

[Phil Thien]

Someone was just in the shop yesterday showing me some fractal antennas he had made, they apparently had been working wonderfully for him at picking up far-away stations. Just make using some online instructions, copper wire, and a piece of hardboard.

[Phil Thien]

I agree - this is a problem that needs to be solved. ESPNs, Fox 1, Fox 2, Fox Sports North, CBSSN, NDCSN, etc. How do I get those without Directv/Cable?

With the Sling packages I got the base package ($20) and the "Sports Extra" ($5) packages, so sports is pretty well covered. They don't have Fox-1 or Fox-2, though. They only have Bloomberg and CNN for news. I never watch network news, though.

https://www.sling.com/package
(https://www.sling.com/package)
So I have Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu (paid Hulu, I guess they're dropping the "Plus" naming), and Sling.

Some of this is easy to justify because I can use it all from other locations, it is all very portable.

Even easier to justify because someone else is paying for my SlingTV.

[Jason Roehl]

Not sure what that VHF Yagi is doing for you Myk, aren't all the digital signals UHF? Also, the digital signal is not like the old analog signal.. You really need a good antenna or you will not capture / have signal drop out - not just a snowy picture like you were used to

An antenna is an antenna is an antenna. Provided it's tuned to receive the carrier frequency, it will work.

The difference is in signal conveyance and processing. You need good and proper cabling and connections, and the signal amplifiers need to be of good quality, too. Digital signals are pretty much all or nothing down to some signal level threshold--they'll be clear at a much lower strength than an analog signal, but when the digital signal gets too low there's nothing. That happens at a much lower level than where the snowstorm on an analog signal would drive you batty. And the snow starts at a relatively high level on analog. Digital does all this with much less bandwidth, too, and needing much less of a frequency buffer between channels.

[Matt Meiser]

My experience has been that you need to choose an antenna that's best for your location. Some are good at nearby, some at distance. I have a DirecTV OTA tuner so we can get Toledo stations since we are in the Detroit Market. I have a small RCA antenna and amplifier in my attic and a decent powered spltter in the basement and get excellent reception at all my TVs. I'd previously tried a different well rated antenna and it didn't do anything for me. If you read antenna reviews on Amazon, they all have 5 star reviews for excellent reception and 1 star reviews for poor reception.

Also, luckily for us the Toledo transmitters are all roughly the same compass heading so the antenna can be aimed at all of them at once. Aiming definitely makes a big difference.

[glenn bradley]

I'm not a great example since I haven't had "TV" for nearly 20 years. I have a lot of other interests ;-) At any rate, LOML is a TV watcher and like you her bill just got beyond what the service is worth. I picked up a ROKU box for her and a subscription to Hulu for a few bucks a month. It has been about a year and we are still combing through the available things to watch. It sounds like there are options for sports fans as well. A lot of the online service via ROKU is on demand to no DVR required . . . unless you want to watch a broadcast-only show later.

[Jason Roehl]

Good points, Matt. It helps to know where to point your antenna, so there's a website for that: antennaweb.org

[Bradley Gray]

When broadcast TV went digital a few years back we could no longer get PBS over the air. I looked at dish services, but the balloon contract BS kept me away. I ended up getting a K band dish with a rotator and receiver for under $300. We now get PBS from Louisiana and Montana as well as national feeds and a bunch of other channels and no monthly bill. If you have room for a bigger C band dish you can get even more programming. Google "free to air satellite"

[Steve Peterson]

I am still saddled by the desire to watch live sports on ESPN and the like. I think if I didn't have that, it would be a lot easier to cut the cable.

What I don't like is that I am subsidizing 100s of ESPN sports channels that I have no interest in watching and there is no way to opt out. I have heard that about 1/3 of the total bill goes towards the sports channels.

Steve

[Steve Peterson]

Well, two wrongs don't make a right.

I guess both sides are slightly unethical. I wish that they would just set tolerable prices and not have to go through all of the teaser intro price nonsense. I would rather just pay $70/mo instead of $35/mo for the first year, then $90/mo for a year, then $120/mo until you get tired of the cost and switch to another carrier.

Steve

[John Pratt]

I have dish and I call them from time-to-time to get discounts related to increases in the bills. Clear Sat is a company whose business model seems to be playing one against the other. They come around every year or so and recommend that every two years when your contract is up, switch to the competing company for two years and repeat. I haven't switched yet, but I am just waiting for digital programing to go a-la-carte and then I only have to pay for the channels I watch and not all the garbage I don't. I imagine there are several broadcasting channel who are very afraid of that concept.

[Steve Kinnaird]

I dropped DirecTV about 6 months ago.
I put a small antenna up on the peak of the roof and pointed it toward Orlando.
I get around 50 or 60 channels.
I get all the local stations and I get the wood working shows on the PBS stations.
Best of all, it was a $50 antenna and now it is FREE!!!

[Matt Meiser]

BTW, unless this has changed...when we were moving we had about a month between cancelling cable and starting DirecTV. I couldn't find any way to get History on Roku, even if I wanted to pay for it. Everything wanted me to log in via my cable or satellite provider to get access. That's probably half of what we watch.

[Brian Elfert]

Can't you watch full episodes of nearly everything on History at History.com? I was just looking and they even have full episodes for shows that have been off the air for a while now.

[Pat Barry]

An antenna is an antenna is an antenna.

Digital signals are clear at a much lower strength than an analog signal, That happens at a much lower level than where the snowstorm on an analog signal would drive you batty. And the snow starts at a relatively high level on analog. Digital does all this with much less bandwidth, too, and needing much less of a frequency buffer between channels.
I basically disagree with every statement here.

Edit - clarified points of disagreement

[Tom Stenzel]

Not sure what that VHF Yagi is doing for you Myk, aren't all the digital signals UHF? Also, the digital signal is not like the old analog signal.. You really need a good antenna or you will not capture / have signal drop out - not just a snowy picture like you were used to

Not all signals are UHF. In the Detroit area channel 2 is broadcasting on the channel 7 frequency, and channel 9 is broadcasting on channel 9. At my house channel 2 is strong enough to come in with a UHF antenna.

Here in western Wayne county the channels we get with a set of amplified rabbit ears in the house- 2, 4, 7, 20, 31, 38, 50, 56 and 62.

9, 14 and 28 are spotty. I made an antenna for the garage TV so I can watch Hockey Night in Canada and the playoffs (channel 9). It works a bit better than the stuff in the house.

Don't forget when the stations went digital they greatly reduced the transmitter power.

-Tom

[Brian Elfert]

What I don't like is that I am subsidizing 100s of ESPN sports channels that I have no interest in watching and there is no way to opt out. I have heard that about 1/3 of the total bill goes towards the sports channels.


Verizon FIOS recently introduced a new package they call Custom TV that includes a limited number of channels with no ESPN channels. The problem is that the base package still costs $55 a month. You can get additional groups of channels for $10 per group. $55 a month is about what I pay for my full cable package right now.

ESPN is not happy with Verizon FIOS right now because the contract between ESPN and Verizon states they have to provide (and pay ESPN for) ESPN to all FIOS subscribers.

[Charles Wiggins]

Larry,

I have not had cable in since the late 90's. I just cannot justify the expense. The only thing I regret about it is that I don't get broadcast TV either because my TV is in the basement and I've never bothered to get and antenna, so no broadcast news. All I watch is stuff over the web like YouTube, Hulu, & NetFlix, and there is more there than I have time for anyway.

Mom has AT&T U-Verse with a couple hundred channels, and when I'm there I rarely find anything worth watching. It just confirms my decision to spend that money elsewhere.

Charles

[Mark Blatter]

We canceled DishTV about a year ago. We did not have a contract any more, but they kept raising the rates, so we would call to cancel. They would drop the price down some and we would stay with them. We only had the basic package, so were paying about $25 a month. We decided to cancel yet again, so called and they dropped it to $15. We left it in place for a couple of months and decided that even that was too much so called again. They actually offered to lower it to $9.99 per month but we passed. We have been on over the air since then and frankly, I don't miss it at all. We have a program that allows us to watch most shows using our computer which is hooked to our TV and costs something like $10 or $15 per month. Or we watch using the free options like hulu or others.

I don't miss it at all. We get PBS, two different options actually over the air. I quit watching sports about 10 years ago and honestly don't miss that either. I gave up on the NFL in the late 80's and it was the best thing I ever did. I have so much more time to do what is enjoyable and none of my kids became sports addicts either. I see friends and neighbors killing hours on Sat and Sun watching golf, NBA, NFL, soccer, etc. while I am spending time with the wife, in the shop, or in the yard. Sorry, will get off my soapbox now.

[Rick Potter]

Not quite the same, but today I cancelled Sirius radio for my car. It went up 35% since the last three month bill, and I only listen to 3 or 4 stations. The free trial on my other car is up in September, and I will dump it also. Together it will save over $400 a year.

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

I recently nipped the Directv bill in half by reducing package and signing up for 2 years with a $10.00 monthly discount. But like you many nights I cannot find anything worth watching that I have not seen at least a couple of times.

[Larry Browning]

It might be worth a look at Roku. We just got one to experiment with after reducing our TV lineup. We're thinking Huluplus for $7.99/month which appear to carry most of the cable TV channels we watch. ESPN is available on Roku though I haven't investigated it yet. I do know ESPN got more than a little annoyed at Verizon for offering TV packages that don't include ESPN. If this spreads, watch Pro Athletes' salaries drop. Poor babies:rolleyes:. There is one downside to streaming vs. cable/satellite; a subscription to a streaming service i.e. Huluplus is only good for one streaming device. As I understand it, if we wanted to watch non-free progamming on more than one Roku (for example) we'd need a subscription for each box. I could be wrong on this but that's my understanding.
Curt,
We have had a Roku 3 for a couple of years now. We also have a Boxee Box that we also watch Netflix on. I can tell you from first had experience that it is possible (and even encouraged but Netflix) to watch content streamed from the 1 account to multiple devices at the same time. We do it quite often.

The ESPN app on the Roku seems to be quite limited in what I can watch. Many of the programs they show as available will not play, saying that the program is blocked in my area or not available for me.

[Curt Harms]

Curt,
We have had a Roku 3 for a couple of years now. We also have a Boxee Box that we also watch Netflix on. I can tell you from first had experience that it is possible (and even encouraged but Netflix) to watch content streamed from the 1 account to multiple devices at the same time. We do it quite often.

The ESPN app on the Roku seems to be quite limited in what I can watch. Many of the programs they show as available will not play, saying that the program is blocked in my area or not available for me.

Thanks for the info Larry. Huluplus seems to cover what we like except for college & NFL football. ESPN seems like a bit of a PITA but I guess when they sign bazillion $ contracts with various leagues they have to maximize return.