Dropping the Cable

[Diego Mamani]

[quote=spdrun]Nope — a lot of the channels are un-encrypted. You may even get them in digital (look up clearQAM).[/quote] That’s great. So just hook up your TV to the wall outlet?

[Hatfield]

[quote=spdrun]Most VoIP sounds like shit compared to the phone network, which was designed to carry voice and does it well. It’s not only a matter of speed, but of latency.[/quote]

Understood. Our phone is through the cable, so it’s *already* VOIP. I would just be exchanging one VOIP service for another.

[spdrun]

Diego Mamani — no reason not to try plugging the TV into the wall and scanning for QAM and analog channels. Worst case, you don’t get anything.

[LAAFTERHOURS]

I decided that I was going to drop cable when we moved (which is coming in two weeks) but then Directv dropped the hammer with their current offer. Sunday ticket with redzone channel and mobile app access, all receivers free (99 bucks one time for whole home dvr), credits monthly for all sorts of nonsense).

Our current cox bill is 165 a month for hd cable (no movie channels), three hd boxes, long distance cable and internet.

Cable and internet in our new location will only run 40 a month first year, 50 a month second year.

Directv is 55 a month first year, 65 second 9 months then 80 the last three. Thats still cheaper than cox and I get the ticket.

The stickler for me is NFL and once I am a year in on Dtv, i will do the annual call, complain, cancel nonsense.

I hate paying for cable, but if its cheaper and I can still have it, im sold.

[Coronita]

[quote=nocommonsense]I have AT&T Uverse internet only (~6 mbs). Does anyone know if that comes with basic cable? If yes, what channels? I live in 4S rach and indoor rabbit ears don’t work, even the expensive ones. Actually they kinda do if I stand in a particular spot holding it up.

I’ve been looking for a way to receive free local HD channels to no avail. Any suggestions will be appreciated.[/quote]

No uverse doesn’t not come with basic cable. Though you can get something with only basic cable. Actually, in CarmelV, if you only want the major channels, I found I can get OTA HD signals from the major stations plus PBS HD with just a small 18″ antenna.

That said, I’m pretty happy with my uverse.

And for most every call, I’ll use my cell. And for those long adult calls, I have Ooma VOIP, which isn’t too bad.. The box is around $150, $35 to port and old number, and taxes come out to be about $3/month for unlimited calls. Not bad. If I move from one house here to another for a long time, carry the box with me.

The only drawback is if you have a house alarm, you don’t have landline +cell backup. You would only have cell and something else like internet (if it’s supported).

[afx114]

I just cut the cable myself. HD antenna on the roof and AppleTV/Roku/Netflix/Hulu/iTunes/AmazonPrime pretty much provide everything we need. Saving $100+/month. The only bummer is NHL games. I would get GameCenter or CenterIce, but they black out local teams. And somehow SD is in the LA Kings market rather than the Anaheim Ducks market. Whatever.

To get around that I’m researching setting up my own VPN on a Linode in Atlanta to route all my traffic through there so that I can stream Kings games. Anyone have experience doing that?

I guess I could always just go to Stout House for every game…

[rent4now]

[quote=Diego Mamani][quote=Hatfield]apparently if you have cable internet, they don’t have a way to turn off the analog cable TV channels. So we’re still get 60 or 70 channels for free.[/quote]
Don’t you need some kind of box or decoder in order to get those freebie channels to your TV?[/quote]

I just called cox and they said if you only have the internet plan that your basic cable will not work. I pay $15/month for your basic 4-11 channels. Looking for alternatives like rabbit ears but those look so “ghetto”.
🙁

[spdrun]

Encase the antenna in something pretty. Wood is transparent to RF signals. Besides, if it works, who cares if it looks old-school? Not ghetto, since ghetto is buying a teevee better than yours … on credit with 25% interest.

[briansd1]

Antenna is not ghetto.

I just installed one on the roof of my Vegas house. Perfect TV reception for a vacation home.

BTW, per Federal law, homeowners associations cannot legally prevent you from installing antennas on your roof, even if the CC&Rs say so.

This is the one I got:

[spdrun]

Cool — if I bought a house in a HOA area, I’d install one just to piss off my prissy-ass neighbors.

[briansd1]

The big old antennas were ugly, but the new ones are really no big deal.

My friend’s mom lives in and HOA. She refuses to have an antenna because of the mental association with it being old fashioned. She watch very little TV so cable is a wasted monthly expense, IMO.

There are lots of channels that can now be broadcast in HD. Lots of Spanish channels, probably because Hispanics are less likely to have cable and rely on OTA.

For me, getting the major network channels plus PBS is enough. Add Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming service (which you can share with friends and relatives) and I don’t have time to watch it all anyway.

[spdrun]

“Mental association with being old-fashioned” … got to love gullible people who gobble up the cable cos’ marketing. Hook. Line. Sinker.

[an]

There’s no need for me to drop cable. I’m paying around $40/month for cable/DirecTV 200+ channels with DVR. That’s the cost/saving of browning bagging 4-6 days a month.

[Hatfield]

[quote=rent4now][quote=Diego Mamani][quote=Hatfield]apparently if you have cable internet, they don’t have a way to turn off the analog cable TV channels. So we’re still get 60 or 70 channels for free.[/quote]
Don’t you need some kind of box or decoder in order to get those freebie channels to your TV?[/quote]

I just called cox and they said if you only have the internet plan that your basic cable will not work. I pay $15/month for your basic 4-11 channels. Looking for alternatives like rabbit ears but those look so “ghetto”.
:([/quote]

Hmm, I’m not sure what to say other than “well of course they would tell you that.” If I was in their shoes, I would tell people that too.

Here’s what I know: When I finally got around to canceling cable, I had the cable box on, and within a minute of making the phone call, Cox had sent the box some sort of packet to disable it. I returned the cable box and have not paid for cable TV in over two months. I posted this on FB and someone mentioned that if you have cable internet, they don’t have a way to filter out all the analog channels. So for grins I plugged the coax cable coming out of the wall into the back of the TV, and whaddya know? I used the auto-program function on the TV to go find all the TV channels it could, and it found around 80 or so. I am guessing these are all or most of the basic cable channels.

I had no real objection to putting up an antenna. My issue was that this old TV can’t receive digital broadcasts, and we never bothered to get a digital broadcast adapter box when they were practically giving them away. Now they’ve gotten oddly hard to find. They’re like $100 on Amazon or eBay, but for $400 you can get a whole new LCD TV with a digital tuner built-in.

But I didn’t do any of those things. The whole point of this exercise was to stop spending money on television.

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