Cable Cutting

[SDSUAlum08]

Anyone cut the cord? We’re thinking of doing it.

Any recommendations for antennae? Do I need to run a cord outside?

[jacks1]

Re: Cable Cutting

Anyone cut the cord? We’re thinking of doing it.

Any recommendations for antennae? Do I need to run a cord outside?

Yep...we have. Roku with Sling package. For locals we pull in everything with a $10 indoor antenna from Walmart.

[BTownJack]

Re: Cable Cutting

I live in Brookings and run a pretty basic package with Swiftel. Thought about cutting the cord but after some research (early fall 2017) I was only going to save $13/month. We currently pay $170/month for Phone/TV/Internet and Swiftel's internet is fiber optic, very reliable and fast. Didn't seem worth running a cord for an external HD antenna, losing a few channels and not every being sure if local channels were going to work where all the major sport events are on (World Series, Super Bowl, etc). Also, streaming services seem to be creeping up in price as time goes on - as I was doing research, PS Vue was upping their middle package another $10/month, which had increased $5 or $10 12-24 months before that.

I'd simply recommend doing a lot of research and put down on paper what you will be saving versus what channels you will lose. I thought it was going to be a no brainer to cut the cord but in the end, $13/month wasn't worth it to me.

You can likely get by with a $10 indoor antenna for locals if you live right in SF. If more than 30 miles away, you'll probably have to go outdoor antenna route. No actual experience here, just what I read while doing research.

[goon]

Re: Cable Cutting

We cut it and love it. Don't miss it much. The antenna from best buy does get a little glitch though sometimes. Have to adjust the rabbit ears on it just like back in the 80s. We don't stream anything so we are cheap and or frugal that way. Actually watch a lot of the PBS channels we get several. Kids don't mind. We have lot of movies so we watch those when we have some down time. We have a rough on the other TV. Don't use it much. But is OK. Save us probably 50-60. Pay around 50ish for Internet through midco.

[SDSUAlum08]

Re: Cable Cutting

You can likely get by with a $10 indoor antenna for locals if you live right in SF. If more than 30 miles away, you'll probably have to go outdoor antenna route. No actual experience here, just what I read while doing research.

I’d save $60-70 per month. I pay $93 per month for Dish. $50 through Swiftel for phone and internet.

The above is my issue. It looks like I’ll need to put an antennae on my roof, which means 2-3 antennae up there. Seems like a huge pain in the ass. With small kids we just don’t watch TV anymore.

[jacksfan29]

Re: Cable Cutting

I’d save $60-70 per month. I pay $93 per month for Dish. $50 through Swiftel for phone and internet.

The above is my issue. It looks like I’ll need to put an antennae on my roof, which means 2-3 antennae up there. Seems like a huge pain in the ass. With small kids we just don’t watch TV anymore.

Why would you need to put one on the roof? We live in no man's land, 9,000 feet with mountains surrounding us and we pull in a great signal for local stations from both Denver (4 hrs away) and Grand Junction (3 hours away) with rabbit ears. If rabbit ears are an issue, technology has improved dramatically and a small, digital antenna box on the side of your house near the TV can also be used. We cut the cord 4 years ago. Dropped Direct TV at $170 per month. We get our internet through Spectrum at $50 per month and don't use a local phone. We use Roku, get Sling and use Amazon Prime. (which we use mostly for free shipping). We do not get Netflix, Hulu or any other. I have never missed any sporting event. We get both Sling packages from August - January so we can get the ESPN channels (including ESPN3). The rest of the year we get Sling blue for Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga soccer. It will cost us, on average, around $30 per month. Technology has changed dramatically. I can't even imagine going back to cable tv. With Roku, anything we want is right at our fingertips. No contracts, choose what we want when we want it.

I would try it. You can get a free Roku stick by signing up for one month of Sling. If it doesn't work you still have your CATV. If it does, you have freedom.

[SDSUAlum08]

Re: Cable Cutting

Why would you need to put one on the roof? We live in no man's land, 9,000 feet with mountains surrounding us and we pull in a great signal for local stations from both Denver (4 hrs away) and Grand Junction (3 hours away) with rabbit ears. If rabbit ears are an issue, technology has improved dramatically and a small, digital antenna box on the side of your house near the TV can also be used. We cut the cord 4 years ago. Dropped Direct TV at $170 per month. We get our internet through Spectrum at $50 per month and don't use a local phone. We use Roku, get Sling and use Amazon Prime. (which we use mostly for free shipping). We do not get Netflix, Hulu or any other. I have never missed any sporting event. We get both Sling packages from August - January so we can get the ESPN channels (including ESPN3). The rest of the year we get Sling blue for Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga soccer. It will cost us, on average, around $30 per month. Technology has changed dramatically. I can't even imagine going back to cable tv. With Roku, anything we want is right at our fingertips. No contracts, choose what we want when we want it.

I would try it. You can get a free Roku stick by signing up for one month of Sling. If it doesn't work you still have your CATV. If it does, you have freedom.

According to the websites that you put in your zip code, Brookings is 56-57 miles away from a few of the major towers. The website tells me I’ll need to put it outside at least and possibly on my roof.

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: Cable Cutting

According to the websites that you put in your zip code, Brookings is 56-57 miles away from a few of the major towers. The website tells me I’ll need to put it outside at least and possibly on my roof.

When I was living in an apartment in Brookings, I tried using one in my living room and could only get 2/4 major networks or something, so I think I'd agree that you would need to do roof.

[SDSUAlum08]

Re: Cable Cutting

When I was living in an apartment in Brookings, I tried using one in my living room and could only get 2/4 major networks or something, so I think I'd agree that you would need to do roof.

Can you get cbs, Fox, abc, and nbc from another source? I know you wouldn’t get the local channels, but we hardly watch the news anymore. I follow most news online now.

[slosho]

Re: Cable Cutting

Can you get cbs, Fox, abc, and nbc from another source? I know you wouldn’t get the local channels, but we hardly watch the news anymore. I follow most news online now.

OK I'll put in my $0.02 (cus I've never been known to do that, HA!) we have Dish and we used to have quite a few channels and 3 TVs with satellite boxes ($7 ea/Mo. and $12/Mo. for the Hopper Receiver/DVR) and the bill was redic. we now pay $68 and get all of the channels we actually want (Via the "Flex Pack").

You might ask What do you do about your other TV's ? well The Amazon fire stick has a native DishAnywhere app (we have 4 viewing locations and 3 firesticks) that I can run in my house and utilize my DVR (can use anywhere with internet actually) We really like the DVR and the fact that it records all of the prime time programming so we can go back watch it and skip through the commercials. you could save $12 a month not having the DVR and not have the extra "pack" and you could save more I believe the base price is comparable to Sling (who Dish owns)

Now I'm not saying that is a great option for anybody else but we're out in the country so we are a bit more limited for options.

As for streaming, well my freind uses my Prime and I use his Netflix so we can catch the other original series when we want to.

Then there's KODI on the Firestick but we haven't used that much in quite some time (now that we officially settled on a dish package that fits our needs, we were going to drop it all and run just KODI Streams)

[jacksfan29]

Re: Cable Cutting

According to the websites that you put in your zip code, Brookings is 56-57 miles away from a few of the major towers. The website tells me I’ll need to put it outside at least and possibly on my roof.

That's pretty crazy. Being in Eastern SD I would expect the SF TV stations would have towers between SF and Watertown. Sounds like an opening for the Fargo stations to expand their coverage area. We have towers which boost the signals coming from east and west. And one can't say it is because Denver is such a large metro area. Grand Junction is much smaller then Sioux Falls and we get their signal out here in the sticks.

Time for KSFY, KDLT, KELO, PBS and whoever the Fox affiliate is to get their crap together.

[TransAmBison]

Re: Cable Cutting

I live in Brookings and run a pretty basic package with Swiftel. Thought about cutting the cord but after some research (early fall 2017) I was only going to save $13/month. We currently pay $170/month for Phone/TV/Internet and Swiftel's internet is fiber optic, very reliable and fast. Didn't seem worth running a cord for an external HD antenna, losing a few channels and not every being sure if local channels were going to work where all the major sport events are on (World Series, Super Bowl, etc). Also, streaming services seem to be creeping up in price as time goes on - as I was doing research, PS Vue was upping their middle package another $10/month, which had increased $5 or $10 12-24 months before that.

I'd simply recommend doing a lot of research and put down on paper what you will be saving versus what channels you will lose. I thought it was going to be a no brainer to cut the cord but in the end, $13/month wasn't worth it to me.

You can likely get by with a $10 indoor antenna for locals if you live right in SF. If more than 30 miles away, you'll probably have to go outdoor antenna route. No actual experience here, just what I read while doing research.

My guess is they are killing you on the phone (taxes and extra fees can be horrible on phone). For cutting cords...Ooma is the first purchase you could make that will save you tons. If you don't know, Ooma is a VoIP device you plug into your router and plug your phone into that. Get a free Google phone number, and you have free phone service. Yes, free. If you want 911 service you have to pay a monthly fee...but if you don't go for that it is free...permanently.

The we put an outdoor antenna in and used the existing cable input so just used the existing cable jacks so all our tvs are hooked to one antenna. We also bought a OTA dvr...but only really use it for football games. We have Netflix and Sling...and have all the channels we watched before. By not having a phone and cable and instead having Netflix and Sling and the Ooma, we save about $95/month.

Again...if you need a home phone drop the landline and get an Ooma.

[goon]

Re: Cable Cutting

My guess is they are killing you on the phone (taxes and extra fees can be horrible on phone). For cutting cords...Ooma is the first purchase you could make that will save you tons. If you don't know, Ooma is a VoIP device you plug into your router and plug your phone into that. Get a free Google phone number, and you have free phone service. Yes, free. If you want 911 service you have to pay a monthly fee...but if you don't go for that it is free...permanently.

The we put an outdoor antenna in and used the existing cable input so just used the existing cable jacks so all our tvs are hooked to one antenna. We also bought a OTA dvr...but only really use it for football games. We have Netflix and Sling...and have all the channels we watched before. By not having a phone and cable and instead having Netflix and Sling and the Ooma, we save about $95/month.

Again...if you need a home phone drop the landline and get an Ooma.

You sounded like clark howard there for a moment.

[CappinHard]

Re: Cable Cutting

My guess is they are killing you on the phone (taxes and extra fees can be horrible on phone). For cutting cords...Ooma is the first purchase you could make that will save you tons. If you don't know, Ooma is a VoIP device you plug into your router and plug your phone into that. Get a free Google phone number, and you have free phone service. Yes, free. If you want 911 service you have to pay a monthly fee...but if you don't go for that it is free...permanently.

The we put an outdoor antenna in and used the existing cable input so just used the existing cable jacks so all our tvs are hooked to one antenna. We also bought a OTA dvr...but only really use it for football games. We have Netflix and Sling...and have all the channels we watched before. By not having a phone and cable and instead having Netflix and Sling and the Ooma, we save about $95/month.

Again...if you need a home phone drop the landline and get an Ooma.

Who needs a home phone anymore anyway?

I still pay for Directv because I keep calling them each year and getting them to take my prices way down, plus they give me Sunday Ticket for free. I just threaten them that I'm leaving enough times and they always bring the price down. So I pay about $90/month for internet (only game in town, but it's good internet at least) and about $45/month for Directv. At that price, I don't think I could switch to Sling and still have the channels I want to have.

The real question I have is, does sling allow you to use all of the streaming apps like Fox Sports Go, BTN 2 Go, NBC Sports, etc... the apps where I have to log in with my Directv info... does it let you log in with Sling info?

[TransAmBison]

Re: Cable Cutting

Who needs a home phone anymore anyway?

I still pay for Directv because I keep calling them each year and getting them to take my prices way down, plus they give me Sunday Ticket for free. I just threaten them that I'm leaving enough times and they always bring the price down. So I pay about $90/month for internet (only game in town, but it's good internet at least) and about $45/month for Directv. At that price, I don't think I could switch to Sling and still have the channels I want to have.

The real question I have is, does sling allow you to use all of the streaming apps like Fox Sports Go, BTN 2 Go, NBC Sports, etc... the apps where I have to log in with my Directv info... does it let you log in with Sling info?

I hear ya on the home phone...but we did find a need for it. My kids are home alone now at times...so we wanted them to be able to call us if needed...so either they get cell phones, or we pay once for an Ooma and now we have a home phone. It barely gets used, but it is there if needed. Nobody else has the number, so it just has the one purpose.

With your Directv package I don't think you can pass that up...$45/month is pretty good. Sling has some add ons for sports, but it won't grant you access to the regular apps (at least I don't think so). Now $90 for internet? That seems really high...I don't know your situation...just wondering if you are on a really fast internet and could go to a slower option and still have more than enough?

Sling works well if you aren't a channel surfer/or don't spend hours and hours in front of the tv. I only had a handful of channels I watched anyway...and Sling had all of them. I find that 90% of cable channels are garbage that just get passed over. And Sling has most shows in a catalog for a while, so no need for a dvr. It also saves your place just like a dvr. Again though, wouldn't be for you...at your price there is no reason to switch.