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Ditching cable

I'm fortunate in that our local electric company got in the business of providing cable, internet, and phone through fiber optic about 10 years ago. They installed the mains, ran the cable to the house, provided the converter and Wi-Fi boxes (with a small fee), etc. This will probably never happen in larger markets. I'd be lost without the cable because of where I live - I saw all Canes games but 2 last year on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU.
 
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g8rh8rMD said:
What I got from that article is that you'll still need a cable/sat subscription to get any of their TV channels. I would presume the same would be said for any games that would only air on Watch ESPN app (like Bethune Cookman type games, although with the team now pretty much remaining a ranked entity, I think we were on TV every game last year and I would expect that to continue).
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could be possible, but why would i pay them 5 bucks if I need to pay for cable subscription? Kinda confusing, seems redundant. Got to look more into it.
 
skyman said:
could be possible, but why would i pay them 5 bucks if I need to pay for cable subscription? Kinda confusing, seems redundant. Got to look more into it.
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Agreed. It's confusing and doesn't make a ton of sense, but that's what the article appeared to say.
 
423Hurricane said:
I'm fortunate in that our local electric company got in the business of providing cable, internet, and phone through fiber optic about 10 years ago. They installed the mains, ran the cable to the house, provided the converter and Wi-Fi boxes (with a small fee), etc. This will probably never happen in larger markets. I'd be lost without the cable because of where I live - I saw all Canes games but 2 last year on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU.
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Where are you? And what do they charge, is it pretty reasonable? Just curious about the business model. Thx
 
2bja said:
Just went with a velop mesh Home WiFi system to increase internet speed in the entire house and cut cable. Have PlayStation vue on 3 TVs. One upstairs and two downstairs. Have two kids with ipads. With them on YouTube wife on her phone and a tv streaming have had no problems in the two months with freezes or lags. As long as your internet speed is adequate, cut cable and save the money.
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What's the difference with a mesh home wifi system and a $20 range extender? I had a range extender in the past, but it was required devices to choose between the home network and the extender network which had a different name. It was not ideal for a phone or ipad which you could carry from room to room. Not really an issue for a smart TV, but then the extender is really only serving the TV and not helping with dark spots for other devices. On the other hand, I don't really want to spend $300+ on a mesh router system if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance for the help, or if there is a good website resource you could point me to where I can learn more.
 
g8rh8rMD said:
So, with our move to Jacksonville, we bought an older, 1950's home. Long story short, the seller was supposed to upgrade the wiring, but didn't and offered us a cash credit at the last minute instead. We could either back out or take the credit and go forward, we decided to go forward. I say that to say that Uverse wouldn't install cable because we don't have a grounding system at this point, will get around to it...

So, we were basically forced into trying out the cord cutting thing. We are trying out a 3 month trial of DirecTV Now for $35/month, which came with a free Apple TV (look it up, the deal I think is still available and is well worth it for a new cord cutter who doesn't yet have a smart TV). Apple TV is great if you don't already have a really good smart TV, I recommend it. We rarely actually use the DirecTV Now and won't continue it once the free trial is over. Aside from sports, we rarely watch live TV (we purposefully shun the "news"). We also have my parent's Uverse login which we can use with the network apps and with Watch ESPN, so basically, we can get all the programming we enjoyed before. We have a $10/m Hulu subscription, which is nice to have because commercial free, but we could live without it.

The big difference with cord cutting is the viewing experience.

Here are the drawbacks:
  1. I really really miss my DVR. Just for normal, everyday viewing, it's nice to just click your available recordings and pull up whatever you want to watch. It's also really nice to pause your TV, go do something for a minute, come back and not miss a thing and fast forward through commercials.
  2. You have to know what you're looking for. When you have your DVR set up with season passes on the shows you want to watch, it's way quicker and easier to sit down and veg out for 30 minutes or an hour and not have to spend 10 minutes trying to find something to watch.
  3. I really just don't see how I'm going to get through football season without a real cable subscription, again, because of the DVR thing. I have to be able to pause and replay whenever I want. When watching a game, how often do they glaze right over a controversial call while talking about the ******* third string center or something? Also, the commercial breaks are ridiculous. I want to be able to get up, go fix a drink or take my wings out of the oven and come back and not miss any of the action, then just speed through the commercials. The last part is, I've found the sound, image quality, etc to simply be subpar on Watch ESPN.
  4. I also like to keep recordings of Canes games and be able to replay critical calls or big moments days later. Sure, you can usually find the videos online, but not always, and why have to search for something when you can just record it on your own box?
I think we have 50mbps Uverse fiber connection. Our home is all plaster walls, and the main TV has the fireplace between it and the wifi router, so I need to figure out a way to get a signal booster or repeater, but aside from that, the signal appears to be plenty robust.

Any other cord cutters out there that like to time-shift their watching and have tips on that or anything else? Aside from watching the Canes, I'm willing to deal with the other drawbacks of cutting the cord and saving $200/m+ (not joking, our DirecTV bill for three fricking TV's was in that range). I'm just not willing to compromise when it comes to watching the Canes. I do plan on attending most if not all the home games this year, my first with season tickets in many years now that I'm back in FLA, but still, gotta have that seemless game day experience that I'm used to for the road games.
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I think your post pretty much summarizes the issues as they are TODAY, especially with live sports.

I have Apple TV, DirecTV (just for NFL Sunday ticket) and UVerse TV as well. Yes, our house is Grand Central Station on weekends, especially Sundays. All this with a shltty 25 mbps coax bandwidth. Supposedly sometime this year uverse is improving to fiber optic throughout. I’m hoping it’s true.

My goal is to ditch as much of the UVerse TV pkg as possible, just keep the basics, and get my premium stuff in a cord cutting fashion from Apple TV - the premium stuff - HBO and other movie channels Netflix, etc. I really like the Apple TV except for live sports.

But eventually, I want to complately cut the cord. When? I think it’s going to take about 3 years to reach the right combination of bandwidth and price point.
 
g8rh8rMD said:
Where are you? And what do they charge, is it pretty reasonable? Just curious about the business model. Thx
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I'm in Bristol, TN. If you look at the extreme NE corner, it borders extreme SW VA. The city is unique in that a "state line" runs between 2 cities - Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA. Due to several factors - population - in 2 counties the size of Dade and Broward, there are only about 400k - limited competition in cable distribution due to the rural area, and the way electricity is distributed (TVA in TN, AEP in VA are the generators) through local distributors. It began in VA about 20 years ago. The local state senators and congressman decided that the cable company had too much of a monopoly (Comcast) on the distribution of the services. They came up with the idea to allow the local electric distributors to offer cable, internet, and land line phone service in an effort to reduce the stranglehold Comcast had on the market. Took the city of Bristol, VA about 5 years to construct the infrastructure and off they went. Initially, the costs were about 30% less than Comcast. With the VA sides success, the TN general Assy passed similar legislation soon after that allowed local TN electric distributors to do the same. Quite frankly, the TN side has done a much better job. Anyway, electric, cable, internet, and land line phone services run me on average about $220 a month. The locals provide basically the same options as the big boys at a much lower cost with 10x better customer service. Sorry this is so long. tried to keep it as short as possible.
 
2bja said:
Just went with a velop mesh Home WiFi system to increase internet speed in the entire house and cut cable. Have PlayStation vue on 3 TVs. One upstairs and two downstairs. Have two kids with ipads. With them on YouTube wife on her phone and a tv streaming have had no problems in the two months with freezes or lags. As long as your internet speed is adequate, cut cable and save the money.
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Holy cow EPIC BUSY HOUSE HOLD GEEEZZ
 
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I've got DirecTV and recently changed over to the AT&T fiber optic 50mbps service. My city literally just had the fiber optic system installed less than a year ago and the 50 mb speed is more than good enough for my house. Although, I admittedly don't have more than one or two devices going at once. I've toyed with the idea of dropping DirecTV but I moved my senior father in and I don't want to have to explain how to use a smart TV to him every time he wants to watch television. My buddy has the PSvue with the added sports package and he loves it. Right now, my bill with DirecTV and AT&T internet isn't crazy so, I just bite the bullet and pay.
 
I have Directv and been thinking about getting rid of it. Only issue I have ran into is Comcast is getting smart and not offering internet only deals. Last time I talked to them they said they had no deals for just internet but I get the same speeds if I added even their lowest tv package. Tried calling multiple times to speak to someone new and even the retention guys said the same thing when I cancelled and went to Uverse for internet.
 
Switched to PlayStation Vue almost 2 years ago. Haven't regretted it one second. The cloud dvr is tricky but you can save entire games to re-watch later. My wife is the expert with that crap and her 1000 reality TV shows she watches. I have a spare Samsung tablet that I use as a portable TV that I carry around to watch live games in the bathroom, on the back porch or working in the garage. I'm running 150mbps with high end Asus Wi-Fi router and Netgear nighthawk extender for strong signal anywhere in my house or yard.

Edit: I also bought my own cable modem. Don't ever use the crap the company rents to you. Especially if you have comcast as their routers turn into public hotspots for all comcast customers.
 
g8rh8rMD said:
What's the difference with a mesh home wifi system and a $20 range extender? I had a range extender in the past, but it was required devices to choose between the home network and the extender network which had a different name. It was not ideal for a phone or ipad which you could carry from room to room. Not really an issue for a smart TV, but then the extender is really only serving the TV and not helping with dark spots for other devices. On the other hand, I don't really want to spend $300+ on a mesh router system if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance for the help, or if there is a good website resource you could point me to where I can learn more.
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It’s much better than an extender. You can also prioritize your devices so the top ones get all the speed they need then whatever is left gets distributed to other things. Google WiFi is pretty much the same thing and cheaper for just one hub. I’m not super technical but CNET has reviews on all this stuff. The $300 sucked but saving $60 a month between dishnetwork and PlayStation vue makes it worth it in the long run.
 
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I cut a year ago. Advise you to buy all the other ways to get tv before cutting. Run it for a few months. You will realize cable isn't worth it.
 
holdnorth said:
With so many internet TV options I decide to rid myself of Cable TV. Are you guys able to view Watch ESPN with internet subscription only?
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I cut the cord and have been using directnow for 4 months and it’s been one of the best decision I’ve ever made.

I use Roku hardware and I’m only paying $22 per month for $65 channels, because I get a $15 per month discount for being an AT&T customer
 
holdnorth said:
With so many internet TV options I decide to rid myself of Cable TV. Are you guys able to view Watch ESPN with internet subscription only?
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It doesn't work without a subscription yet. But Disney may be offering it as option soon. Or borrow a cable customer's login. Or find someone who works for Disney and they get Watch ESPN for free.
 
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