[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Getting rid of cable tv...HOW? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 3/28/2016 4:52:36 PM EDT
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COX Cable is getting ready to stick it to me again and I've had it.
I hear about people getting rid of cable tv but I have no idea what's involved in receiving tv without cable. Can any offer tips or point me to a good source of info? Thanks. |
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Step 1 stop watching TV at all
Step 2 get Netflix Step 3 get Amazon Prime sub Step 4 use the internet to watch any specific shows you want on that channel's website (Supernatural , Grimm, etc) Bask in the glory that is saving a ton of $$$ Also don't forget to crank your internet connection way up bandwidth wise ;p |
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Go here to start reading about receiving broadcast TV with a digital antenna. For streaming content from netflix and other internet sources, I use Chromecast. It costs about $35 (you can find it online and at Target). I use a old android cell from my media center, but you can use your current android or ipotatoe. Others can talk about the other boxes, I know nothing about them. |
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We have a small home server that we store all our TV shows, movies, and music on. We use Apple TV's to stream to the TV's in the house, in addition we can watch Netflix and Hulu off the Apple TV. We use an aerial antenna for local stations and iTunes to rent/download movies.
You can do the same thing with a Roku box and use Amazon to rent movies. I'm sure there are other solutions out there but those two are pretty much the most popular. |
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cancel
get 30 dollar HD antenna get Netflix for the kids amazon prime if you want more variety if you want the recent shows, just watch from the networks hompage check GD for any news, click on linkies After a while you wont give a shit about any of it, and never watch again. |
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Getting rid of cable tv...HOW? Its quite simple. Call the cable company and cancel the TV service. Seriously, it really is that easy. It seems scary at first but over time you realize how much time one wasted watching stupid shows or watching moronic talking heads. Then if you have a TV with a ATSC tuner embedded or a separate ATSC tuner box connected to the TV you can put up one of these to get digital over the air TV. 
Go to Antennaweb.org and or TVFool.com and input your address to find out what type of antenna you will need and what channels you may possibly receive. Then you can, depending on your viewing habits, can expand to using set top boxes like Chomecasst, Roku, Amazon FireTV/Stick, Android TV boxes, or various media servers like Kodi or Plex to stream content from the internet to one's TV. One can pay for streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, SlingTV, etc. There are even streaming sports (baseball, football, etc) that one can pay for. |
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Roku 3 Amazon Prime Netflix Hulu Plus HD Antenna I don't miss the bill. 
I don't miss the cable bill either. I have everything mentioned above, plus a Sony device (similar to Roku) for my not-so-smart flat-screen in the bedroom and have A Sony Playstation 3 hooked up to the Smart TV in the living room. I was already paying for Amazon Prime, so no extra cost there for me to stream their content. I pay extra to Hulu to stream their content commercial-free and the extra money is well worth it to me, as their commercials suck. I pay just the standard Netflix fee. With all of the above there is plenty to watch, but we don't watch sports, so if you like sports you'll need to figure something else out. |
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Step 1 stop watching TV at all Step 2 get Netflix Step 3 get Amazon Prime sub Step 4 use the internet to watch any specific shows you want on that channel's website (Supernatural , Grimm, etc) Bask in the glory that is saving a ton of $$$ Also don't forget to crank your internet connection way up bandwidth wise ;p This describes us perfectly. We use netflix, amazon prime, and TV channel website streaming to cover everything we want to watch. I love listening to friends complain about cable prices
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COX Cable is getting ready to stick it to me again and I've had it. I hear about people getting rid of cable tv but I have no idea what's involved in receiving tv without cable. Can any offer tips or point me to a good source of info? Thanks. I thought you were old enough to remember TV antennas. 
Get an antenna, and an internet connection for the TV. Not only will you spend less on TV, you'll probably end up watching less of it. Win-win. Check the following links for info on what broadcast stations are available, and what kind of antenna you'll need: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/ http://tvfool.com/ |
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For us it's: Amazon Prime Netflix Fire Stick Playstation Vue HBO Now We pay $45 a month (not counting internet) and get to watch everything we used to watch. Saving nearly $110 per month over cable. Just canceled this month when Vue went nation wide. ETA- We also have one of the small digital antenna's. |
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I thought you were old enough to remember TV antennas.
Get an antenna, and an internet connection for the TV. Not only will you spend less on TV, you'll probably end up watching less of it. Win-win. Check the following links for info on what broadcast stations are available, and what kind of antenna you'll need: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/ http://tvfool.com/ Quoted:
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COX Cable is getting ready to stick it to me again and I've had it. I hear about people getting rid of cable tv but I have no idea what's involved in receiving tv without cable. Can any offer tips or point me to a good source of info? Thanks. I thought you were old enough to remember TV antennas.
Get an antenna, and an internet connection for the TV. Not only will you spend less on TV, you'll probably end up watching less of it. Win-win. Check the following links for info on what broadcast stations are available, and what kind of antenna you'll need: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/ http://tvfool.com/ I am old enough to remember. I'm also old enough to be clueless in the new fangled technology 
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Any of the boxes (Fire TV,Roku,etc)
+ Sling Tv (this costs money but only like 20-40/month for STABLE live tv. + Kodi + Ares Wizard + Maybe an antenna if you give a shit about local stations = Access to decent live tv and access to everything ever aired on TV or in a movie theater on demand...fucking everything..ever...made... is available. |
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Step 1 stop watching TV at all Step 2 get Netflix Step 3 get Amazon Prime sub Step 4 use the internet to watch any specific shows you want on that channel's website (Supernatural , Grimm, etc) Bask in the glory that is saving a ton of $$$ Also don't forget to crank your internet connection way up bandwidth wise ;p this, and i don't even bother with nextflix. arfcom gives me the news before it's the news. amazon and free hulu cover everything else. only thing i miss is sports, but i suppose i could get an antenna/digital box if i didn't watch football with my brother over at his place. why waste all that money? |
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cancel get 30 dollar HD antenna get Netflix for the kids amazon prime if you want more variety if you want the recent shows, just watch from the networks hompage check GD for any news, click on linkies After a while you wont give a shit about any of it, and never watch again. This. Amazon had the Mohu Leaf refurb antennas for $15 a week or two ago. I snagged one and it works great. About the size of a sheet of paper and just hangs on a wall in your house. Unamplified but it should pick up any stations in 30 miles. Considering we only have 5 stations less than that many miles from me, it works fine. 
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Please keep your TV Cable subscription. Think of your spectator sports! that's important. You need to watch people who don't live in your community, get paid millions of dollars to put on a shirt that represents your community! After all, your tax dollars for the special arena fee paid for that! Then you can get excited about how WE WON! So keep cable - it's important. You are subsidizing my internet connection, as well as keeping bandwidth down, so Cable TV is aweesomme!!!
(note sarcasm identify above) Meanwhile, if you are near an urban area, basic $10 rabbit ears of any type will get you 5-15 HDTV channels and about 10-30 non-HDTV channels. If you want, you can buy the $15 rabbit ears that are identical, but say HDTV - just to be sure. 2/3 of the channels will be in Spanish/walking with Jesus/specialty crap you don't care about/buying faux jewelry (call now)/etc. Installation requires a wizard. Because it involves the following four difficult steps: 1) unbox the antennae, 2) extend the ears, 3) screw the antennae cable into the "cable" slot on the back of the TV 4) hit "scan for channels" on your TV remote. If you go nuts and try to do this yourself, be sure to print this post out, for reference instructions. |
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This. Amazon had the Mohu Leaf refurb antennas for $15 a week or two ago. I snagged one and it works great. About the size of a sheet of paper and just hangs on a wall in your house. Unamplified but it should pick up any stations in 30 miles. Considering we only have 5 stations less than that many miles from me, it works fine. Quoted:
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cancel get 30 dollar HD antenna get Netflix for the kids amazon prime if you want more variety if you want the recent shows, just watch from the networks hompage check GD for any news, click on linkies After a while you wont give a shit about any of it, and never watch again. This. Amazon had the Mohu Leaf refurb antennas for $15 a week or two ago. I snagged one and it works great. About the size of a sheet of paper and just hangs on a wall in your house. Unamplified but it should pick up any stations in 30 miles. Considering we only have 5 stations less than that many miles from me, it works fine. I picked up one of the powered versions of these, probably $35. I have to say, it dramatically increased my reception. I had tried 4 or 5 different styles before this, and none were really any better than cheap rabbit ears in the end. But those powered flat square things totally work. And since it's powered, I was able to run about 80 foot of cable extension snaked through the house to a spot of the house closer to the community broadcast locations - which helped even more. Only step up from here is one of those full sized outdoor units. |
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COX Cable is getting ready to stick it to me again and I've had it. I hear about people getting rid of cable tv but I have no idea what's involved in receiving tv without cable. Can any offer tips or point me to a good source of info? Thanks. Antenna: http://store.gomohu.com/leaf-50-indoor-amplified-hdtv-antenna.html and Steaming services: Amazon, Netflix, hulu, etc. OR streaming tv: Sling TV, Playstation VUE |
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Dang, I tried for an hour this am to find a walk through for that to get a stable news link. Looks like this may do it. eta: Nope. Says I need a turner, and software to go through that set up. The link it gave me talks about it not being that stable without a turner card. |
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I would totally ditch DirecTV if I could stream all the NFL games (Sunday Ticket). Any one do that? If you are a sports guy, ,you're pretty much screwed until enough people dump cable/satellite and ESPN decides to offer a competitive internet subscription service. My company was big in CableTV biz. With settop boxes going away... so has that part of the business, and a bunch of my friends. That being said, I dumped my cable TV ~ a year ago. I'm on a Comcast Biz plan, so no penalties for using too much data each month. Have Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. |
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If you are used to sitting in front of the TV for entertainment, you'll not be able to walk away.
If you only watch interesting shows a couple times a week, and maybe a series that you'll watch if you are around, you can just get broadband internet (50Mbit+) and find pretty much everything you want, ad free, on the Internet. I've never got the hang of "Watching TV", so I haven't had cable since the mid 90's. Hobbies took up my time, and now I just have cable Internet. When I did have a TV, the only thing I used it for was to watch VHS/DVD movies. So it wasn't a big deal for me. I'll still glance at a TV if I am somewhere where it is on, but the commercials are insanely long for the amount of content. I generally listen to audio books while waiting/driving/etc. |
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I am old enough to remember. I'm also old enough to be clueless in the new fangled technology
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COX Cable is getting ready to stick it to me again and I've had it. I hear about people getting rid of cable tv but I have no idea what's involved in receiving tv without cable. Can any offer tips or point me to a good source of info? Thanks. I thought you were old enough to remember TV antennas.
Get an antenna, and an internet connection for the TV. Not only will you spend less on TV, you'll probably end up watching less of it. Win-win. Check the following links for info on what broadcast stations are available, and what kind of antenna you'll need: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/ http://tvfool.com/ I am old enough to remember. I'm also old enough to be clueless in the new fangled technology
You and me are apparently in the same club  Tag!
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COX Cable is getting ready to stick it to me again and I've had it. I hear about people getting rid of cable tv but I have no idea what's involved in receiving tv without cable. Can any offer tips or point me to a good source of info? Thanks. equipment: Digital tv antenna HD (get the good outdoor one and hooks into your existing cablebox $99 at Best Buy) we get 45 channels free (abc cbs nbc fox etc etc) Roku Or Amazon fire stick Services: Netflix. Amazon prime Hulu. You can order HBO or anyother service on your roku |
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cancel get 30 dollar HD antenna get Netflix for the kids amazon prime if you want more variety if you want the recent shows, just watch from the networks hompage check GD for any news, click on linkies After a while you wont give a shit about any of it, and never watch again. QFT we cut it about two years ago and havent missed it one bit. The kids have Netflix and amazon, and we have the HD antenna that gets 32 channels, and trying out sling TV. but i have come to the point that i dont even watch TV at all anymore |
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You'll never believe this until you try it but just do Netflix for a month. If you immediately go out and start replacing all the shit you can't live without you'll end up spending $60/month.
If you force yourself to wait a month with Netflix only, the pop culture fog will lift and you'll realize most of the shit you were watching was dumb and you're better off without it. When you don't have constant stimulus from television you find other things to do that you surprisingly like more than watching silly TV shows. |
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I am. You can find streams online for every game. Quoted:
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I would totally ditch DirecTV if I could stream all the NFL games (Sunday Ticket). Any one do that? I am. You can find streams online for every game. Ok, you have my attention. I've done online streaming but I had to log in to the stream with the DTV login. If I'm not paying for DTV how can I stream? I've not once come across a free streaming service for all NFL games. |