Dropping the Cable

[CardiffBaseball]

Anyone had any luck dropping Cable? Probably the wrong site to ask as many piggs openly brag of never watching the tube, but I should qualify any TV watchers pulling this off?

I am thinking of adding some good home networking in the new house because wireless is driving me batty. Then I start thinking, man a Roku at every set can be paid for with 2-3 months of cable.

First outside of Dexter there isn’t anything I make it a point to watch except….sports. That seems to be the killer. My wife watches the cooking reality shows, top model, crap like that. Kids rarely use Cable at this point. Facebook, X-box live, netflix. Myself the TV is basically noise while I surf.

One of my kids has the only Roku player and he usually has our Indians games on.

Are over-the-air HD antenna’s good enough so that she can get the stuff like Glee/Idol etc? Also she likes to watch the local news.

The only killer seems to be sports. MLB we are taken care of. NFL we don’t seem to give a shit about (Browns a couple years off yet again). The big stickler for us are fights. Last week we got the Pacquio fight. Week before the GSP fight, in fact we get almost all of the UFC fights. I think you can get stuff like but you end up needing a PC possibly? I put the NBA on as background noise as well, but it’s not life or death if TNT is out.

Just curious if anyone who uses a TV has pulled this off. My “get everything” on HD current method in addition to getting the fights is just too damn much for something we don’t use enough.

[FormerOwner]

I dropped my cable a few months ago and instead am using the following over my medium-speed internet from Cox Cable (around $50/mo): Roku box (which provides NetFlix, and now YouTube, Weather, plus a few other channels I don’t use much), plus Ooma (internet phone calls for $180 up front for the box + $3 per month). I also bought a $15 rabbit ears antenna that gets me 12 local over-the-air channels in crystal clear Hi Def (really) It is working really well.

I suggest you pickup up a decent rabbit ears antenna for around $15 from Best Buy (with the dial to adjust the tuning) and see how many channels you can get at your locaation. That will lead you in the direction of how you want to move forward. For my location, it works great. People are shocked when they see that I am getting all the local stations crystal clear for FREE.

You will have to experiment to find the right location/positioning for the rabbit ears antenna. For me, I set it up in a spot near the TV where I never have to move it. If the rabbit ears works, you could probably upgrade to a more modern-looking antenna for around $50-100 – but I haven’t bothered. People laugh at a high def TV connected to a rabbit ears antenna but they can’t believe how clear it is.

[FormerOwner]

I dropped my cable a few months ago and instead am using the following over my medium-speed internet from Cox Cable (around $50/mo): Roku box (which provides NetFlix, and now YouTube, Weather, plus a few other channels I don’t use much), plus Ooma (internet phone calls for $180 up front for the box + $3 per month). I also bought a $15 rabbit ears antenna that gets me 12 local over-the-air channels in crystal clear Hi Def (really) It is working really well.

I suggest you pickup up a decent rabbit ears antenna for around $15 from Best Buy (with the dial to adjust the tuning) and see how many channels you can get at your locaation. That will lead you in the direction of how you want to move forward. For my location, it works great. People are shocked when they see that I am getting all the local stations crystal clear for FREE.

You will have to experiment to find the right location/positioning for the rabbit ears antenna. For me, I set it up in a spot near the TV where I never have to move it. If the rabbit ears works, you could probably upgrade to a more modern-looking antenna for around $50-100 – but I haven’t bothered. People laugh at a high def TV connected to a rabbit ears antenna but they can’t believe how clear it is.

[FormerOwner]

I dropped my cable a few months ago and instead am using the following over my medium-speed internet from Cox Cable (around $50/mo): Roku box (which provides NetFlix, and now YouTube, Weather, plus a few other channels I don’t use much), plus Ooma (internet phone calls for $180 up front for the box + $3 per month). I also bought a $15 rabbit ears antenna that gets me 12 local over-the-air channels in crystal clear Hi Def (really) It is working really well.

I suggest you pickup up a decent rabbit ears antenna for around $15 from Best Buy (with the dial to adjust the tuning) and see how many channels you can get at your locaation. That will lead you in the direction of how you want to move forward. For my location, it works great. People are shocked when they see that I am getting all the local stations crystal clear for FREE.

You will have to experiment to find the right location/positioning for the rabbit ears antenna. For me, I set it up in a spot near the TV where I never have to move it. If the rabbit ears works, you could probably upgrade to a more modern-looking antenna for around $50-100 – but I haven’t bothered. People laugh at a high def TV connected to a rabbit ears antenna but they can’t believe how clear it is.

[FormerOwner]

I dropped my cable a few months ago and instead am using the following over my medium-speed internet from Cox Cable (around $50/mo): Roku box (which provides NetFlix, and now YouTube, Weather, plus a few other channels I don’t use much), plus Ooma (internet phone calls for $180 up front for the box + $3 per month). I also bought a $15 rabbit ears antenna that gets me 12 local over-the-air channels in crystal clear Hi Def (really) It is working really well.

I suggest you pickup up a decent rabbit ears antenna for around $15 from Best Buy (with the dial to adjust the tuning) and see how many channels you can get at your locaation. That will lead you in the direction of how you want to move forward. For my location, it works great. People are shocked when they see that I am getting all the local stations crystal clear for FREE.

You will have to experiment to find the right location/positioning for the rabbit ears antenna. For me, I set it up in a spot near the TV where I never have to move it. If the rabbit ears works, you could probably upgrade to a more modern-looking antenna for around $50-100 – but I haven’t bothered. People laugh at a high def TV connected to a rabbit ears antenna but they can’t believe how clear it is.

[FormerOwner]

I dropped my cable a few months ago and instead am using the following over my medium-speed internet from Cox Cable (around $50/mo): Roku box (which provides NetFlix, and now YouTube, Weather, plus a few other channels I don’t use much), plus Ooma (internet phone calls for $180 up front for the box + $3 per month). I also bought a $15 rabbit ears antenna that gets me 12 local over-the-air channels in crystal clear Hi Def (really) It is working really well.

I suggest you pickup up a decent rabbit ears antenna for around $15 from Best Buy (with the dial to adjust the tuning) and see how many channels you can get at your locaation. That will lead you in the direction of how you want to move forward. For my location, it works great. People are shocked when they see that I am getting all the local stations crystal clear for FREE.

You will have to experiment to find the right location/positioning for the rabbit ears antenna. For me, I set it up in a spot near the TV where I never have to move it. If the rabbit ears works, you could probably upgrade to a more modern-looking antenna for around $50-100 – but I haven’t bothered. People laugh at a high def TV connected to a rabbit ears antenna but they can’t believe how clear it is.

[Downtowner]

I cut the cord about 3 months ago. I have an outdoor antenna that gets me all the locals in HD – and yes the HD over the air is not compressed, so its a better picture. I live at the top of a downtown building, so you definitely need to check your reception.

I use a media center PC (with 2 TV tuners) for my main TV, so I can record and watch at the same time. I also can surf the web and stream anything I can find interesting (Amazon VOD, all the cable networks have free content on their websites). I upgraded my Cox internet to Premier ($60/month). The cool thing about still getting internet from Cox is that you can get any of the content from ESPN3 for free because you are still a subscriber. I also have a Hulu+ subscription ($8/month) so I can get most all of the cable shows that I want (Daily Show – Comedy central).

For my 2nd TV I have a Tivo which also has 2 tuners and is web enabled to get Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and Hulu+ soon. So if you don’t want to go with a full PC a Tivo is not a bad option.

The only thing I miss is Indycar & F1 racing (they do not live stream their races), but you can always find an illegal stream on the net.

One other note: if you still get you internet from a cable provider they still have to deliver the local channels over your cable, so for Cox channels 705 – 711 are all the locals in HD, so technically you don’t need an antenna.

[Downtowner]

I cut the cord about 3 months ago. I have an outdoor antenna that gets me all the locals in HD – and yes the HD over the air is not compressed, so its a better picture. I live at the top of a downtown building, so you definitely need to check your reception.

I use a media center PC (with 2 TV tuners) for my main TV, so I can record and watch at the same time. I also can surf the web and stream anything I can find interesting (Amazon VOD, all the cable networks have free content on their websites). I upgraded my Cox internet to Premier ($60/month). The cool thing about still getting internet from Cox is that you can get any of the content from ESPN3 for free because you are still a subscriber. I also have a Hulu+ subscription ($8/month) so I can get most all of the cable shows that I want (Daily Show – Comedy central).

For my 2nd TV I have a Tivo which also has 2 tuners and is web enabled to get Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and Hulu+ soon. So if you don’t want to go with a full PC a Tivo is not a bad option.

The only thing I miss is Indycar & F1 racing (they do not live stream their races), but you can always find an illegal stream on the net.

One other note: if you still get you internet from a cable provider they still have to deliver the local channels over your cable, so for Cox channels 705 – 711 are all the locals in HD, so technically you don’t need an antenna.

[Downtowner]

I cut the cord about 3 months ago. I have an outdoor antenna that gets me all the locals in HD – and yes the HD over the air is not compressed, so its a better picture. I live at the top of a downtown building, so you definitely need to check your reception.

I use a media center PC (with 2 TV tuners) for my main TV, so I can record and watch at the same time. I also can surf the web and stream anything I can find interesting (Amazon VOD, all the cable networks have free content on their websites). I upgraded my Cox internet to Premier ($60/month). The cool thing about still getting internet from Cox is that you can get any of the content from ESPN3 for free because you are still a subscriber. I also have a Hulu+ subscription ($8/month) so I can get most all of the cable shows that I want (Daily Show – Comedy central).

For my 2nd TV I have a Tivo which also has 2 tuners and is web enabled to get Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and Hulu+ soon. So if you don’t want to go with a full PC a Tivo is not a bad option.

The only thing I miss is Indycar & F1 racing (they do not live stream their races), but you can always find an illegal stream on the net.

One other note: if you still get you internet from a cable provider they still have to deliver the local channels over your cable, so for Cox channels 705 – 711 are all the locals in HD, so technically you don’t need an antenna.

[Downtowner]

I cut the cord about 3 months ago. I have an outdoor antenna that gets me all the locals in HD – and yes the HD over the air is not compressed, so its a better picture. I live at the top of a downtown building, so you definitely need to check your reception.

I use a media center PC (with 2 TV tuners) for my main TV, so I can record and watch at the same time. I also can surf the web and stream anything I can find interesting (Amazon VOD, all the cable networks have free content on their websites). I upgraded my Cox internet to Premier ($60/month). The cool thing about still getting internet from Cox is that you can get any of the content from ESPN3 for free because you are still a subscriber. I also have a Hulu+ subscription ($8/month) so I can get most all of the cable shows that I want (Daily Show – Comedy central).

For my 2nd TV I have a Tivo which also has 2 tuners and is web enabled to get Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and Hulu+ soon. So if you don’t want to go with a full PC a Tivo is not a bad option.

The only thing I miss is Indycar & F1 racing (they do not live stream their races), but you can always find an illegal stream on the net.

One other note: if you still get you internet from a cable provider they still have to deliver the local channels over your cable, so for Cox channels 705 – 711 are all the locals in HD, so technically you don’t need an antenna.

[Downtowner]

I cut the cord about 3 months ago. I have an outdoor antenna that gets me all the locals in HD – and yes the HD over the air is not compressed, so its a better picture. I live at the top of a downtown building, so you definitely need to check your reception.

I use a media center PC (with 2 TV tuners) for my main TV, so I can record and watch at the same time. I also can surf the web and stream anything I can find interesting (Amazon VOD, all the cable networks have free content on their websites). I upgraded my Cox internet to Premier ($60/month). The cool thing about still getting internet from Cox is that you can get any of the content from ESPN3 for free because you are still a subscriber. I also have a Hulu+ subscription ($8/month) so I can get most all of the cable shows that I want (Daily Show – Comedy central).

For my 2nd TV I have a Tivo which also has 2 tuners and is web enabled to get Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and Hulu+ soon. So if you don’t want to go with a full PC a Tivo is not a bad option.

The only thing I miss is Indycar & F1 racing (they do not live stream their races), but you can always find an illegal stream on the net.

One other note: if you still get you internet from a cable provider they still have to deliver the local channels over your cable, so for Cox channels 705 – 711 are all the locals in HD, so technically you don’t need an antenna.

[CardiffBaseball]

Having moved to Orlando, I am with Brighthouse and apparently Uverse is an option. Brighthouse appears to be Time-Warner.

I’ll go find some decent rabbit ears today I am about 10 miles from most of the network channels (fox, abc, nbc, cbs) as they are all clustered not too far from here.

I did figure out that UFC does allow the Roku to watch over Pay-Per-View. My kids literally only watch MMA and MLB as far as sports, everything else is facebook time. The wife is a harder sell as I don’t know if Top Model and the various cooking reality shows are out there. Still there is more than enough with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD to keep you occupied.

[CardiffBaseball]

Having moved to Orlando, I am with Brighthouse and apparently Uverse is an option. Brighthouse appears to be Time-Warner.

I’ll go find some decent rabbit ears today I am about 10 miles from most of the network channels (fox, abc, nbc, cbs) as they are all clustered not too far from here.

I did figure out that UFC does allow the Roku to watch over Pay-Per-View. My kids literally only watch MMA and MLB as far as sports, everything else is facebook time. The wife is a harder sell as I don’t know if Top Model and the various cooking reality shows are out there. Still there is more than enough with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD to keep you occupied.

[CardiffBaseball]

Having moved to Orlando, I am with Brighthouse and apparently Uverse is an option. Brighthouse appears to be Time-Warner.

I’ll go find some decent rabbit ears today I am about 10 miles from most of the network channels (fox, abc, nbc, cbs) as they are all clustered not too far from here.

I did figure out that UFC does allow the Roku to watch over Pay-Per-View. My kids literally only watch MMA and MLB as far as sports, everything else is facebook time. The wife is a harder sell as I don’t know if Top Model and the various cooking reality shows are out there. Still there is more than enough with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD to keep you occupied.

[CardiffBaseball]

Having moved to Orlando, I am with Brighthouse and apparently Uverse is an option. Brighthouse appears to be Time-Warner.

I’ll go find some decent rabbit ears today I am about 10 miles from most of the network channels (fox, abc, nbc, cbs) as they are all clustered not too far from here.

I did figure out that UFC does allow the Roku to watch over Pay-Per-View. My kids literally only watch MMA and MLB as far as sports, everything else is facebook time. The wife is a harder sell as I don’t know if Top Model and the various cooking reality shows are out there. Still there is more than enough with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD to keep you occupied.

[Author]

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