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Matt Meiser
07-25-2017, 6:45 PM
I know this has been asked before but things are changing so rapidly it's worth a new thread IMHO. I'm ready to cut the cord and think I have my wife convinced too. Currently paying DIRECTV $125/mo and it's time for it to go. We mostly watch stuff from NBC, and ABC. I don't think we watch anything from CBS. We use PBS, Hstory and Discovery as fillers and we should be doing something more meaningful with that time. I'm looking at Hulu, Netflix (already subscribed), and off the air programming to replace it. I'm thinking a DVR is not worth the investment at about $400 for a TiVo. Currently have Roku boxes and Smart TVs scattered throughout the hose.

Am I on the right track?

Joe A Faulkner
07-25-2017, 7:15 PM
Do it. You don't need TV. Visit your local library. Spend more time in the shop. Take up pottery or leather work or quilting

Jim Becker
07-25-2017, 7:28 PM
While I'm not completely ready to "cut the cord", I am ready to seriously cut back to the most basic TV level I can and still get Food Network on my FiOS service. It doesn't work financially to go Internet only because of how things are bundled and with such poor cell service at our home (requires microcell), I'm not ready to give up the land-line, either, for emergency (and alarm) reasons.

Both of my daughters have streaming services for their own purposes; one with Hulu and Netflix and one with Amazon Prime and, I believe, Netflix. But they are now adults and can subscribe on their own. I only need local HD network channels (ABC for mornings, CBS for Colbert and FOX for "MasterChef") as well as FoodNetwork for "Chopped!".

One thing you might look at is Google's YouTube TV offer for your network stuff if you don't get good OTA on those channels.

Bradley Gray
07-25-2017, 7:33 PM
I have an FTA (free to air) sat dish - A Ku band dish about ! meter across with a rotor, all controlled by a receiver with a remote. We get national feeds for PBS and NBC, retro TV and a bunch of other stuff with no bill. Cost about $250 for the gear.

Bryan Lisowski
07-25-2017, 7:49 PM
I have been thinking of cutting the cord as well, initially the cost will be somewhat significant, but in the long run should be cheaper. Are biggest thing is upgrading the Internet, right now we have DSL and it won't support streaming. With going to Comcast we will reduce the service cost a bit over Verizon but will need to buy modem and router to avoid the rental fees. I'm just not sure if doing PlayStation Vue is better than Roku. A subscription to PS Vue is about $55 a month for basically the same channels we get through DirectTv for $125 a month. Adding Hulu or Netflix would be additional, but I think we would still come out ahead. Just don't want to make the wrong choice which has slowed going forward.

Chris Parks
07-26-2017, 12:13 AM
Ditch TV altogether is the best way. I was forced off it through work and now never watch at all and now I have convinced my wife to actually switch it off when she complains about nothing to watch where before she would just watch a repeat.

George Werner
07-26-2017, 12:24 AM
Two weeks ago I returned the cable boxes to Spectrum and cut my service down to internet only. For TV we are using Hulu, Netflix, SlingTV and iTunes. It covers pretty much everything we need except for the prime time sitcoms my wife likes. I'll be putting up an antenna in a couple weeks to pull in NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox and will be good to go. At the end of the day with the changes I've made, I've gone from paying $290 a month to $90 a month and still have access to all of the same things we watched before.

Pat Barry
07-26-2017, 7:47 AM
I need the sports programming that I get via DirecTV so that's what keeps me from cutting it. Otherwise, not sure how my wife would get TCM, Lifetime, DIY, HGTV, etc. We already do the Netflix and Amazon video but its not the same as DirecTV, not to mention we get the local network broadcasters via DirecTV without the hassle of a rooftop antenna.

Rod Sheridan
07-26-2017, 7:53 AM
Hi Matt, a couple of years ago I came to the realization that I was paying $4K per year on personal communications.

The first thing I did was get rid of cable which saved me $1K per year, we went to off air. I live in Toronto and have about 20 channels, including CBC, TVO and PBS from Buffalo.
Those are the channels we normally watched, and now we get them uncompressed, the quality is amazing, it looks like the stuff we get at work from the studio.

I also mooch off my daughters Netflix account for those rare occasions we have extra TV watching time. I don't have any recording means and don't want one......Regards, Rod.

Rod Sheridan
07-26-2017, 7:55 AM
Do it. You don't need TV. Visit your local library. Spend more time in the shop. Take up pottery or leather work or quilting


Post of the day..................Rod.

Matt Meiser
07-26-2017, 8:21 AM
Why read? Danged books ruined everything, getting information out to the people and all. And getting them from one of those socialist dens they call libraries???

Anyway...we have excellent reception for the major networks as I put in an antenna up in the attic. We actually watch them through an add-on tuner to our DirecTV DVR that adds them into the channel guide because the "locals" for our market aren't the most local stations. I could cover 80% of the stuff we are actually excited to watch there. I would like to be able to watch those shows on-demand either via streaming or a DVR. I looked at a Tivo and that's about $400--less than 3 months of DirecTV but if we can use Hulu (or ???) then that would make them available on more than just the main TV. I know Tivo has a solution to that too, but don't want to start putting a ton of money into equipment.

The other thing I'm going to look at is what is the lowest level TV service we could bundle with our Comcast internet. The way bundle pricing works I might be able to get something effectively pretty cheap.

Kurt Kintner
07-26-2017, 8:57 AM
We fired Dish Network about 4 years ago ..... We get news off the internet....
Movies and tv shows off Amazon Prime and YouTube .... Total cost $99 a year...

Only thing we can't get is Georgia Bulldogs football.... We go to MIL'S house
for that ....

Brian Henderson
07-26-2017, 11:03 AM
We got rid of cable years ago when we realized that we hardly ever watched it. Mostly, it was on for background noise. So we cancelled it and haven't missed it a bit. We doubled our Internet speed and stream anything that we want to watch. We also got rid of our home phone at the same time when we figured out that the only use it got was people calling us trying to sell us things. Don't miss that either.

Trevor Howard
07-26-2017, 11:55 AM
We got rid of cable 5 years ago, the times we wanted to watch TV had nothing worth watching.
Started with Netflix then added Hulu, now when we want to watch we can usually find something.

John K Jordan
07-26-2017, 12:03 PM
Do it. You don't need TV. Visit your local library. Spend more time in the shop. Take up pottery or leather work or quilting

Have a personal library and Kindle, wood and metal shop, AND a farm with animals.

I haven't watched a TV program in over 10 years, maybe 12.

JKJ

Dennis Peacock
07-26-2017, 12:09 PM
Do it!!! After several days....you'll never miss it and you'll find better ways to spend that money. I can't tell you how long its been since I've watched anything on current tv. Netflix is what we use now when we want to "watch" something. Other than that....we actually spend time together as a family, do things as a family, and help each other with various projects around the house. We even went 15 years without a tv in our house.

Michael Weber
07-26-2017, 1:39 PM
For those subscribing to Netflix, Amazon, etc. I highly recommend BritBox as well. $5.00 a month and it has a lot of great British television series and movies. I'm currently watching "Loch Ness" a six part murder mystery and "800 Words", an Australian series.

glenn bradley
07-26-2017, 2:50 PM
I married a TV watcher and now have TV for the first time in nearly 20 years. My productivity and IQ have dropped significantly mostly through proximity effects :D. We just had another conversation about 'why one pays for TV that has commercials' again today. If the first time they tried to charge you for content that included commercials, 90% of customers cancelled their service . . . ah, but I digress.

Matt Meiser
07-26-2017, 4:09 PM
I just ran some quick numbers. Buying the Tivo and using our existing Netflix, even with paying a $100 ETF on DirecTV we'd save over $800 for the next year. Its actually over $1000 if you skip the Tivo and go to Hulu instead, even the commercial-free service. The break even point between Tivo and Hulu is almost 3 years out but I do worry about how much our data usage would go up and if we'd get close to our cap on Comcast. And Tivo has the ability to record everything being broadcast, not just select shows.

John Stankus
07-26-2017, 5:02 PM
We booted DirecTV last December. I picked up a TIVO Roamio OTA for over the air broadcasts. No annual service charge. I did end up buying to more to put with each TV in the house (exercise room and master). I wanted to network the Tivo and it was easier to just put in three identical units than have a remote box. This worked out well for us since I mounted an antenna in the attic initially. We replaced our old concrete tile roof a month or two ago with a standing seam metal roof and lodist PBS. Having the networked units allow us to have different channels on the different boxes (and antennas) and be watched on any.
In December we got our first flat screen replacing a 1991 vintage tube(CRT)TV, and then this summer replaced the other CRT based TVs for pretty dang cheap.

We really like the new set up and are saving $90-100 a month.

John

Matt Meiser
07-26-2017, 10:02 PM
Thanks John, sounds like the exact same situation as us, except we just got a new asphalt shingle roof last year courtesy of our insurance company so we shouldn't be changing it out for a while.

Matt Meiser
07-27-2017, 8:50 AM
Just pulled the trigger (well, clicked the one-click button) on the Tivo Roamio so I'll report back on how that works out. We've got about 3 weeks before our next billing cycle with Directv so the goal is to cancel before then.

Small bummer...yesterday the Roamio was $369 and today it is $399, both shipped/sold by Amazon.

David Masters
07-29-2017, 9:48 PM
We cut the cable 5 years ago and haven't missed Direct TV at all. We use a combination of OTA/Tivo, and Netflix primarily. We don't desire to set our schedule to when the broadcast channels air the program, so a Tivo or some time shifting device is a necessity. I looked at Tivo alternatives, but none were as wife-friendly as Tivo. We pay around $15 a month for the Tivo service. The only downside of cutting Direct TV was that my wife likes to watch Hallmark movies. We found a $35 a year service called Feelin' that plays Hallmark movies and it satisfies my wife's needs. We also have Amazon Prime, but rarely use it's video service.

I looked at Hulu, but didn't feel it provided enough value over the other choices we already have. Our Direct TV bill was running $90/mo. for a pretty basic package of channels. We dropped that down to $25-30 a month not counting Internet service, which we would have regardless of Direct TV service.

Dave

Jim Becker
07-30-2017, 10:38 AM
My interest in this has kicked up further after additional research. The two solutions that appear to be contenders are OTA with TIVO Roamio/Mini and Google YouTubeTV via AppleTV. The content is better with the latter, but it has a monthly cost of $35 plus taxes. The former has higher one-time costs, but no monthly costs afterward. The reality is that we don't watch much TV, so OTA would meet the majority of our needs.

Dropping our landline wasn't really an option in the past, but now that we have a whole house generator that will keep our FiOS Internet connection up as well as our microcell, we can consider that more seriously now. I can port the number out to something free or cheap to cover a transition time period...the number is on too many official records to just drop it immediately.

What's really making me look at this more closely is my consideration of cutting costs before something like retirement comes along as well as my younger daughter's college costs. I have a few months before my triple play contract ends to decide. :)

Bryan Lisowski
07-30-2017, 12:04 PM
My interest in this has kicked up further after additional research. The two solutions that appear to be contenders are OTA with TIVO Roamio/Mini and Google YouTubeTV via AppleTV. The content is better with the latter, but it has a monthly cost of $35 plus taxes. The former has higher one-time costs, but no monthly costs afterward. The reality is that we don't watch much TV, so OTA would meet the majority of our needs.

Dropping our landline wasn't really an option in the past, but now that we have a whole house generator that will keep our FiOS Internet connection up as well as our microcell, we can consider that more seriously now. I can port the number out to something free or cheap to cover a transition time period...the number is on too many official records to just drop it immediately.

What's really making me look at this more closely is my consideration of cutting costs before something like retirement comes along as well as my younger daughter's college costs. I have a few months before my triple play contract ends to decide. :)

Jim,

Since you are on the fringe of Philly, I will ask since I'm sort of on the fringe of NYC and really half way between Philly and NYC. YouTube TV is available in major markets and to this date I haven't been able to find out what the radius is for the service. Have you found any info on this, cause right now it seems like you would need to take a leap of faith.

Matt Meiser
07-30-2017, 12:37 PM
I got the Roamio yesterday and got it all set up. That's kind of a slow process since there was an update and all the initial guide data to download and apply. I have all our favorite shows set up, even ones that won't restart for a month or two.

I can't speak to the quality but PBS has a ton of cooking shows. We've only ever followed Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Country in the past.

I didn't order any Minis. You can apparently watch content on a Fire TV app. $35 refurbs are available so that might be the way to go for an occasional-use location. You can do a ton of control with the iPhone app (but not watch content with the Roamio.). In fact, i think searching is easier with the app because of the keyboard.

Jim Becker
07-30-2017, 6:11 PM
We only have two TVs, Matt...the media room and the master bedroom. Putting the Roamio in the media room and the Mini in the MBR would directly mirror our current FiOS DVR setup with the DVR master in the media room and a slave in the MBR. It is a bummer that content can't stream to "devices" since we have that now with FiOS, but it's not a heavy use scenario. The girls have their own personal subscriptions to streaming services that they use, err...waste their money on :D ...so no biggie.

Bryan, we are very much in the Philadelphia market with our zip code, so YouTube TV would work just fine. I may still do the trial, but I'm seriously leaning toward OTA and the TIVO at this point. The shows I sometimes watch on FoodNetwork are not available on either scenario, but I can view them online if need be.

Matt Meiser
07-30-2017, 9:13 PM
Yeah, we may end up adding one or two of the minis but we'll see.

We cut off DirecTV today. We either passed a milestone date or I was told wrong a few days ago--breakup fee was only $50 so the payback is that much sooner.

Ole Anderson
07-31-2017, 9:11 AM
I couldn't do it. Yea, I read, do some boating, work on the Jeep and WW, but I am hooked on numerous TV series on the Discovery Channel, DIY, NatGeo, History, Animal Planet, HGTV and the like as well as a few network programs. Just loving my 65" curved screen 4K TV and my surround sound with the SVS sub. Bit of a techie here. Stream with Netflix and Amazon prime. Loved Longmire and Hell on Wheels. Won't admit to how many programs are set to record on my X1 box over the year. Not a huge sports fan, but I will watch the Tigers, Lions and Spartan football. I did cut the landline and Xfinity phone though, just cell phones now. So I pay for cable TV, 90 mbps internet and home security, got it down to $161.55, not proud of it, but it is what it is. No prime channels either, not an HBO/Showtime (or movies for that matter) fan. Retirement is highly advised by the way...
365033

John Sanford
07-31-2017, 11:51 PM
I come under the category of "why cut the cord?" I've got enhanced cable, but none of the premium channels, for $45 a month. With a DVR. Also includes my Internet. From what I'm reading here, I can't see how it would save me much money to "cut the cord" aside from ditching TV completely. And it definitely sounds like it would complicate things. I appreciate this thread because it's given me more of a sense of the costs and complexity involved. (note: I don't think it's TOO complex, simply a good bit more more complex than my current situation.)

Matt Meiser
08-01-2017, 8:58 AM
That's a good deal. I have Comcast 150 meg internet, which I get reimbursed for by work so effectively I don't pay for it. Adding TV with a DVR was going to raise the bill $60, but the way they would break it down on the bill, my internet would have gone down and the TV would have been about $80 so not much savings. And I could have cut back the number of TVs with DirecTV client boxes and gotten to that price. I could go to Charter, and at least for the first year save a good bit more but the internet speeds are about 60% slower and they are quite vague on "regular" pricing. AT&T has ditched U-Verse TV and replaced with DirecTV here so no savings there unless we went to U-Verse internet which is 90% slower.

Jim Becker
08-01-2017, 11:28 AM
John, I did a little financial analysis this weekend pitting our current Triple-Play (FiOS 150/150 symmetrical Internet, home phone, no premium channels with a reasonable assortment of channels, multi-room DVR with one remote box) vs OTA with TIVO Roamio + Mini over the same 150/150 FiOS Internet vs Google YouTubeTV via AppleTV and Airplay over the same FiOS 150/150 Internet. The payback period for OTA with the TIVO boxes and antenna (one time costs included) is 9.5 months vs staying on the Triple Play. It's 13.5 mos for the other option but that has continuing monthly cost for the YouTubeTV subscription. YouTubeTV has a lot more stations than OTA, including many "cable" favorites, but it's a bit more cumbersome to use because it has to be streamed from a personal device or computer to the TV. OTA with TIVO is 'simpler'.

I'm installing the antenna this coming weekend, as long as it arrives on Friday as scheduled, to confirm the available HD digital channels we'll receive if we "cut the cord". Things look really good based on my online research for signals, etc...as many as 40+ channels plus sub-channels. (some stations have as many as 4-5 sub-channels) The only thing we currently actually watch that would be missing is FoodNetwork and most of those shows I can watch online. We really don't watch much TV at all...and there's little point of paying a premium to have it available at this point. Cutting monthly cost from over $200 to about $100, not including up-front equipment is very attractive to me, given my younger daughter is starting college in three weeks (with the associated bill coming next week) and my contemplation of potentially a partial retirement in the next year or so. :)

Matt Meiser
08-13-2017, 12:07 PM
We've had our TiVo up for a couple weeks now. I really like the interface and we really don't miss the shows we were recording and "watching" for something to do. This fall we'll have a lot more shows recording but if we find ourselves bored over the winter we can always hit up Netflix.

John Stankus
08-13-2017, 6:01 PM
We've had our TiVo up for a couple weeks now. I really like the interface and we really don't miss the shows we were recording and "watching" for something to do. This fall we'll have a lot more shows recording but if we find ourselves bored over the winter we can always hit up Netflix.

Be sure to check out the secondary channels, especially if you like old reruns. GRIT shows old westerns, COMET shows old Sci-Fi, a bunch show reruns all the way back. Watched a good episode of "Tombstone Territory" that had the lost glove (ala OJ) as a key plot device back in the late 50s early 60s. The PBS stations usually have the "CREATE" channel as one of their secondaries. Create carries Roy Underhill, this old house, and several other woodworking shows.

Jim Becker
08-13-2017, 9:08 PM
So, we've run into a "minor" (not!) hitch in the idea of completely "cord cutting" here. The reception OTA is really, really great...except for one station. THE one station that I wake up to for news and GMA in the morning. Two different antennas; amplification out the proverbial "wazzoo", etc. No usable signal for WPVI and it's subs. So plan B may very well be to take the relatively inexpensive "Local Channels" package from FiOS and just use Clear QAM directly to our two TVs. That also gets us access via apps on mobile devices and AppleTV and somewhat eliminates the need for a DVR since having the subscription, as minimal as it is, gives us access to live TV and online content. I really, really wanted the OTA thing to work, but that one low-VHF station not working is a real monkey wrench when I actually use it daily and only watch 1 or two other programs on other stations in a week. And the ABC online app requires a provider subscription so OTA plus that app doesn't fly. Sling is a reasonable price, but no CBS. And having the local channel subscription may actually cost less because of the effects of bundling. Sheesh...

Matt Meiser
08-13-2017, 9:59 PM
I already knew we were good on reception because we've always gotten our locals OTA so we could watch Toledo instead of Detroit. We are much closer to Toledo but the FCC says we live in Detroit.

Jim Becker
08-14-2017, 9:13 AM
This is the first time I've ever had an antenna on my house (over multiple houses) so it was a real bummer that the one station that's really important to me just doesn't come in with a usable signal. It is what it is...

If ABC had a method to independently subscribe for live TV, there wouldn't be an issue, but unlike CBS, they only allow live TV if you have a "provider". At least for now.

John K Jordan
08-14-2017, 9:28 AM
This is the first time I've ever had an antenna on my house (over multiple houses) so it was a real bummer that the one station that's really important to me just doesn't come in with a usable signal. It is what it is... If ABC had a method to independently subscribe for live TV, there wouldn't be an issue, but unlike CBS, they only allow live TV if you have a "provider". At least for now.

I assume you aimed the antenna?

If you are old enough (BC, before cable) you probably remember the tall towers some people put up to get the TV antennas way up in the air, especially in hilly country. Most of them had rotors to point the antennas toward specific stations or away from interference. (The better TV antennas are highly directional)

Be sure to use a lightning protection!!

JKJ

lowell holmes
08-14-2017, 7:34 PM
I just found this post. I've seen small sat dishes on maybe two houses in our neighbor hood. Can you get local newscasts on it as well?

Jim Becker
08-14-2017, 7:42 PM
I just found this post. I've seen small sat dishes on maybe two houses in our neighbor hood. Can you get local newscasts on it as well?
Satellite TV service from DirectTV (ATT) or Dish generally provides access to local network stations just like "cable" does. But you need the subscription to do that and there may be some geographies where "local" stations are limited.

Matt Meiser
08-14-2017, 8:44 PM
And sometimes the definition of local some bureaucrat, who apparently doesn't have a map, decided on doesn't make sense.

Jim Becker
08-14-2017, 9:11 PM
I'm glad the new forum software will have a "like" button because I really want to use one on your last post, Matt. :)

Russ Filtz
08-25-2017, 7:16 PM
I've looked into cutting the cord several times, even built a HTPC to get started. Since I like too many TV channels/shows, it never seems to work out. You either live without, or have to keep piecemealing multiple subscriptions together.

Right now I have full boat Cox cable w/ DVR service on two TVs, 300/30 internet, ALL premium channels, mostly a full boat of others, all for around $160/mo. On top of that I have Amazon prime Fire TV, Hulu Plus, AND Netflix.

And there's still nothing on!

BOB OLINGER
08-26-2017, 8:54 AM
Does anyone have experience with OMGtv or EasyviewTV? I saw exhibitors at last week's IA State Fair pushing these. As I understand, you make a one time purchase for the box for about $400 (was $300 at the fair as specials), hook up to your internet, and get all the stations. Also, can research and watch any old program. This seems too good to be true which always raises concern. (OMG said the only station he couldn't get is RFD which I can live without). So, what's the real story on these?

Bert Kemp
08-26-2017, 10:55 AM
So the question is ,if there's nothing on why waste all that money each month for nothing:rolleyes:


I've looked into cutting the cord several times, even built a HTPC to get started. Since I like too many TV channels/shows, it never seems to work out. You either live without, or have to keep piecemealing multiple subscriptions together.

Right now I have full boat Cox cable w/ DVR service on two TVs, 300/30 internet, ALL premium channels, mostly a full boat of others, all for around $160/mo. On top of that I have Amazon prime Fire TV, Hulu Plus, AND Netflix.

And there's still nothing on!

Andy Giddings
08-26-2017, 11:29 AM
We cut the cord years ago and never bothered with OTA TV as most OTA is 60% commercials, 35% re-runs, 3% mediocre and 2% something worth watching :-). After having Verizon FIOS for years then being sold off to Frontier, we just switched to Spectrum for half of the cost of FIOS and twice the speed. In terms of content, Netflix is good (especially for original content and euro series), Amazon is getting better for original content and their channel offerings (BritBox, Walter Presents, HBO) and Hulu which we use when there is original content worth watching, otherwise its suspended. We also use an HTPC with a Smart DNS service to stream content from the European channels

Marc Jeske
08-27-2017, 1:29 PM
Does anyone have experience with OMGtv or EasyviewTV? I saw exhibitors at last week's IA State Fair pushing these. As I understand, you make a one time purchase for the box for about $400 (was $300 at the fair as specials), hook up to your internet, and get all the stations. Also, can research and watch any old program. This seems too good to be true which always raises concern. (OMG said the only station he couldn't get is RFD which I can live without). So, what's the real story on these?

Bob - https://www.facebook.com/pg/OMG-free-tv-909387049153322/reviews/

johnny means
08-27-2017, 1:38 PM
Sorry, but as long as a any of us is plugging a device with a screen into an electrical outlet, no one is cutting the cord. I believe "shopping for more personalized content" would be a better term.

Matt Meiser
08-27-2017, 7:47 PM
Well you can call it whatever you want but that's what the rest of the country calls it.

BOB OLINGER
08-28-2017, 4:29 PM
Anyone hooked up to EasyViewTV or OMGtv / I ran into these week before last at our state fair. Only $400 (fair special was $300) to buy the box and get every channel under the sun (not sure about local channels). Sure looked enticing :).

Matt Meiser
08-28-2017, 5:17 PM
The software on those boxes is Kodi and that content isn't legally free. Note the disclaimers at the bottom of both pages. Its pretty much the modern-day Napster and eventually people are going to start getting cease-and-desist letters, or worse. If you want to steal content you can buy a jail-broken Firestick with Kodi for way less money on Craigslist.

Brian Henderson
08-29-2017, 6:10 PM
So the question is ,if there's nothing on why waste all that money each month for nothing:rolleyes:

That's exactly the question we asked ourselves. We realized that 100% of our viewing was wither DVD/Bluray or streaming content. The only reason the cable box ever got turned on was for background noise. We never watched it. We would go months between ever watching anything live. So we got rid of it and we just don't care. We still see everything we want to watch, we just don't need to pay for cable. It just makes no sense to us.

Matt Meiser
11-11-2017, 9:42 PM
After a few months I'm glad we went this route. Don't really miss what we don't get anymore (mostly History and HGTV) and we still have more to watch than is worth watching.

Peter Kelly
11-12-2017, 12:14 AM
Do it. You don't need TV. Visit your local library. Spend more time in the shop. Take up pottery or leather work or quiltingOtherwise known as actual cord cutting.

Well said.

Jim Becker
11-12-2017, 9:25 AM
After a few months I'm glad we went this route. Don't really miss what we don't get anymore (mostly History and HGTV) and we still have more to watch than is worth watching.
I'm also pleased with my decision to just go to locals-only on FiOS with no STBs and it's actually less expensive than a streaming service. I couldn't completely "cut the cord" because OTA wouldn't bring in the one station that I watch in the mornings. The Low-VHF frequency just will not cooperate with both antennas I tried. Topology between here and the transmitter is likely the issue.

Thomas L Carpenter
11-12-2017, 10:02 AM
Michael, have you compared Britbox and Acorn? We use Amazon Fire which has no monthly fee and costs about $40 for the equipment but it doesn't have the newest programmingso we are considering upgrading to something and enjoy both the Brit shows and the fact that Britbox and Acorn are relatively cheap.