Cutting the Cord

[Dennis Peacock]

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]

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]

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 . 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 ...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]

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]

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...
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[John Sanford]

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.)