Another cord cutting thread... Advice plz...

[Bronn]

Thanks for all the advice!

I'm looking at that TiVo deal, but one site I pulled it up on said it had ended... Your site looks like it is still legit, though...

I'm not really a fan of the stuff I have read about the Channel Master DVR, especially considering I could possibly get the TiVo for less right now...

I know this thing is probably an incredibly cheap option, but what do you all think about something like this as a DVR to record a show here and there? http://www.amazon.com/Converter-channels-Scheduled-Recording-Resolution/dp/B00XO0WE2U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1439989694&sr=8-6&keywords=digital+converter+dvr

The only drawback I can see from that is that you have to watch the channel being recorded... But we could set it up to be recording something and watch something on another TV or on Netflix or something while whatever we were recording recorded. But it would also allow me to play shows and movies I download via its USB port... So that is a plus...

For attic mounted antennas... Do they not have to have line of sight to work effectively? Can you power multiple receivers with it if you get a splitter? Or, does that weaken the signal?

[Jase]

The box looks okay to me if you want something very basic.

A roof antenna will always be better than an attic antenna and an attic antenna will always be better than an indoor antenna.  I'm doing an attic antenna because I care about what my neighbors think about a potential antenna sticking up off my roof.

Signal degrades about ~3dB I think every time you split it and ~3dB for every 50 feet of cable you run.  The stronger stations may not be affected but you may lose some weaker ones.  If you get a splitter, make sure it passes power through all branches, and does not unequally distribute the signal among the branches (a problem with mainly 3-way splitters)

The advantage of something like tablo or tivo is that you don't have to use splitters (and therefore degrade your signal) if you don't want to.  With tablo, you can stream to any firetv, roku, etc that has an app.  With Tivo, you can do the same thing if you buy a Tivo stream.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

With al these extra devices and individual fees it seems it only seems to save a minor amount of money compared to a standard digital pkg form one of the evil providers. of course I like to watch dumb channels like the TWC sports channel for the Panther content, NFL, MLB Channel, Palladia, Hist, IFC, Sundance and don't really watch ESPN at all except for the occasional sporting event. 

I hate TWC like the next person but with HBO its $120 a month with 35mps internet...2 receivers with DVR.  Going from 120 to 80 is not worth it to me as my internet alone would increase if I terminate my pkgs. 

However with all that said I can get most of the IFC content eventually on Netflix and other than the league channels Id be okay...this crap should not be $120.00 anyway.  On top of Mobile provider bills these are all out of control. 

 

[Jase]

I've been paying $100/month for directv. I am paying $450 up front to drop to hulu/Netflix/sling with TiVo/antenna at $36/mo.  It'll take around 7 months to break even and then I'll save $770 per year thereafter. I'll take an extra $770 any year.

[SOJA]

I really should do this, I have an HBO login and Netflix- the only reason I watch TV is for the NFL

[pstall]

roku 2 or 3 is good and the Smart tv is a bit of a myth. you can get the same effect with a blu ray or xbox etc. same premise basically.

i tried Sling and my only real gripe is the lack of picture quality. its similar to the non HDMI cable so thats a bit of a sticking point for me.

but its real good that it has NFL and ESPN. 

i may be  just an old guy but i just never record shows. if i see it i see it, if i don't i know. from sports to whatever.

[Bronn]

I think the route we are going to take is this:

Get TWC to give us internet for $50 or less a month... Apparently we were already paying for 15Mbps speed and didn't know it...
 

Sling has a deal now where you pay for 3 months of service and get a Roku 3 for $49.99... We'll shell out the 109.99 that that will be up front and use the Roku for the living room...

I'll move the PS3 to the bedroom for Netflix, etc since we don't watch much TV in there anyway.
 

We'll start with an indoor HD antenna for the living room and see what kind of reception we get. I won't need a converter box because that TV has a built in tuner.

Basically, I'll be spending around $200 up front ($50 internet, $60 for 3 months of Sling, $49.99 for the Roku 3, @$40 for an HD antenna) for the first month... Add $50 each month for the next two months for internet, and I come out with $300 for 3 months of service opposed to $450 worth of TWC at our current rate.

This obviously leaves us no way to record shows.. which we have decided to wait on. Also, it gives us no digital TV in the bedroom which we can do without for a while.

After the first three months though, I will be looking at a bill of around $79 a month if I keep Sling, Netflix, and TWC internet. That'll be about $70 in savings each month, which translates to $840 a year. With those savings, I can add stuff to Sling if we decide we like it... get a TiVo if I can catch it on a deal again... whatever...

[L-TownCat]

No chord here.

Charter High Speed Internet, Apple TV, PS3, Netflix, HBO Go and the very best in online entertainment... YouTube.

I get everything I need from those services, I live in NC so a simple flat digital antenna to pick up the games and I'm golden.

Also have a buddy that has Direct TV.  I have his username/password and my ipad becomes a fully functioning TV.

and boom goes the dynamite.

[Bronn]

I just wanted to update everyone, in case someone out there is considering or currently going through the same transition.

It's been almost a week, and here is what we ended up doing:

Time Warner tried to play hardball. They wouldn't offer me a promotional rate for only internet. It would have been $57.99 for 15 Mbps. They finally offered me Starter TV (which is basically the over the air channels, and a bunch of shopping channel BS that we'll never watch, and BET?,) and 30 Mbps internet for $48.93 a month for 1 year. I went ahead and okay'd it for the time being, as it would eliminate the need to buy converter boxes or antennas for either of our TVs, and it'd be double the internet speed we were getting before.

We went with the three month SlingTV offer - $60 + $49.99 Roku 3. After taxes, etc. it was like $118 total.

I did go ahead and get an RCA indoor antenna with a 40 mile range just to see how well it would pick up over the air stuff for the living room. That was like $30.

So... All in as of last Saturday, we came to our first three months of services being a total of $98.26 per month. After that, it drops to $68.93 a month. We have enough Netflix credit to go through the end of the year, so I think once that runs out we'll be up to around $78 a month. We could drop Sling TV at any time and be paying $58 a month.

We are already noticing pros and cons of our switch. I will briefly detail them below:

Pros:
We don't care as much about TV as we thought we might.

Roku actually has a TWC app that allows it to function as our digital receiver in the living room, so I didn't need to get an extra piece of equipment from TWC for that TV.

Our internet is noticeably faster. No trouble streaming on two TVs or slow computer while streaming elsewhere. I'm keeping a running check on it to verify I'm not being throttled too bad, and we are around 22 Mbps average at higher use times.

Some of the shows we watch are offered on TWC Primetime On Demand, so we can watch them a day or so later. We haven't gotten Hulu yet because of this.

Cons:
TWC Customer Service - I waited in a DMV like line (I was 28th) to return my two DVRs and get one digital converter box on Monday. I think I was in there 40 minutes. I won't even go into my attempt at returning the equipment last Saturday, and the failure of the lady in Jacksonville, NC I talked to to be much assistance (hint: she was Googling TWC info just like I was, but she works for them.)

No DVR service. This relegates us to watching something live, or catching it a couple days late. It kind of sucks for reality competition shows, and I can no longer digitally record the games to go back and watch later. I have been tempted to hook up our old DVD recorder to resolve this though.

SlingTV has some technical issues. Most of what I have watched there has been no problem... But try to fast forward or rewind on channels that don't really offer it and you get lock ups, freezes, etc. We even got to the end of one show that had previously aired and it locked up. Our progress wasn't saved so we had to start over or just download it. Guess which one I opted for. I have had issues with a couple of their live broadcasts freezing, etc also. We did watch Fear The Walking Dead with no issues last Sunday night, though. The jury is still out on if we will opt to keep SlingTV or not.

I don't have enough outlets to plug everything in in the living room, lol. TV, BOSE (requires 2 plugs), Modem, Router, Roku, Antenna. We would have enough room, but a couple of the AC adapters are so bulky they partially cover the outlets beside them on the surge protector.

 

Ultimately, I think we are a lot happier. We're already saving about $150 over the span of the next three months, and it will increase to about $90 a month after that.

A breakdown of what I am getting right now:

30 Mbps internet

CBS
ABC
FOX
NBC
BET
AMC
ESPN
ESPN2
HISTORY
H2
HGTV
A&E
FOOD
TNT
TBS
DISNEY
CNN
LIFETIME
MAKER
POLARIS
EL REY
IFC
TRAVEL
BLOOMBERG
ABC FAMILY
CARTOON NETWORK
ADULT SWIM
GALAVISION (Spanish channel that we don't watch)
...and a bunch of shopping channels we don't watch

I also have HBO GO, Netflix, and a slew of other apps for movies and TV shows.

 

Not too bad, and we are overall happy so far.

 

[Towelboy]

i'm thinking of using my old directv dish as an attach point for an outdoor antenna and using the coax that is already running to each room. i saw one online and i'm wondering if it will work at my house. i think its worth a $20 investment. http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-560AN-HOMEWORX-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B00P20CD62/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1446653928&sr=1-3&keywords=outdoor+antenna

[Hotsauce]

19 hours ago, Towelboy said:

i'm thinking of using my old directv dish as an attach point for an outdoor antenna and using the coax that is already running to each room. i saw one online and i'm wondering if it will work at my house. i think its worth a $20 investment. http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-560AN-HOMEWORX-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B00P20CD62/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1446653928&sr=1-3&keywords=outdoor+antenna

That looks pretty damn ingenious 

[Jase]

23 hours ago, Towelboy said:

i'm thinking of using my old directv dish as an attach point for an outdoor antenna and using the coax that is already running to each room. i saw one online and i'm wondering if it will work at my house. i think its worth a $20 investment. http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-560AN-HOMEWORX-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B00P20CD62/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1446653928&sr=1-3&keywords=outdoor+antenna

This is what I did, sorta.  My attic idea didn't work too well, there was too much signal degradation when it rained.  Instead of (what looks like) zip tying an antenna to the dish, I took the dish off the mount entirely, then used Schedule 80 pvc to make a mast that fit snugly into the existing J-mount.  I'll take a pic of my setup tonight.

My only concern with this is that the metal from the dish will block the signal coming from that direction.  (but on the plus side it will reflect the signal coming from the other direction, it all depends on where the stations are I guess)

I'm about a month and a half into my outdoor antenna  + tivo setup and I'm pretty happy.  I live in a wooded neighborhood that is tricky, but I think I finally have things positioned well enough to get pretty good signal no matter the atmospheric condition.  Trees with leaves comined with torrential downpours makes preventing occasional dropouts tricky as hell.  I do consistently get channel 62 (spartanburg) from my house in matthews, though, so that's my crowning achievement.  I could probably pick up the rest of the spartanburg and asheville stations if I put it up a little higher, but I worry about pissing my neighbors off.

[michaelnana]

If you want to go the app route, check out Intenu . It's a free app that has 50+ channels covering sports, news, movies, music etc and does have an android app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intenu.intenuapp

[d-dave]

I only pay for internet from TWC (got it pretty good though!).

Thankfully, I get the major broadcast channels pretty well.  The only thing I've been thinking about is the channel master DVR.  What I would love to figure out would be a way to stream that to my other TV.

Now that would be pretty cool!  Or if I could just hook up the DVR to a better, hidden antenna, and just have the output go else where =)  Probably more than I can do as an idiot with a wrench.