Alternative methods to watching TV besides Cable/Satelite

[Deltaphoenix]

So, I am kind of sick of giving Cox $150 a month for mid speed Internet, Medium Cable package, HD, HD DVR & HBO. We also pay for NetFlix.

I want to have the news available for me to watch. I gots to have my HBO shows. I really enjoy having DVR too. I am not an absolute TV head but I do enjoy a few shows and the news.

Apple TV? $99 one time fee but then some of the "apps" have costs associated? Can't get HBO unless I have that through a cable provider…
I called Apple and the guy there was like I have basic cable and Apple TV. I mean maybe that would get me down to $100 a month, which is an improvement.
Anybody have Apple TV, what do you think of it?

Is Amazon Fire the same thing basically?

If so, I would choose Apple because we have several other Apple devices.

Roku?
Looks like Roku has HBO 2 Go, News and other stuff.

I like college football, and could get by with the SEC Network.

IDK, how are you saving some $ but still pretty happy with what you have?

[Achtane]

Piratebay

[odontophobia]

So, I am kind of sick of giving Cox $150 a month for mid speed Internet, Medium Cable package, HD, HD DVR & HBO. We also pay for NetFlix.

I want to have the news available for me to watch. I gots to have my HBO shows. I really enjoy having DVR too. I am not an absolute TV head but I do enjoy a few shows and the news.

Apple TV? $99 one time fee but then some of the "apps" have costs associated? Can't get HBO unless I have that through a cable provider…
I called Apple and the guy there was like I have basic cable and Apple TV. I mean maybe that would get me down to $100 a month, which is an improvement.
Anybody have Apple TV, what do you think of it?

Is Amazon Fire the same thing basically?

If so, I would choose Apple because we have several other Apple devices.

Roku?
Looks like Roku has HBO 2 Go, News and other stuff.

I like college football, and could get by with the SEC Network.

IDK, how are you saving some $ but still pretty happy with what you have?

AppleTV is great if you're doing the Netflix and Hulu+ Combo but both of those Services work with Google Chromecast which is a cool little HDMI dongle that you can stream to from iOS/Android devices and using the Chrome browser on Mac or PC. Amazon Prime has streaming video, too. Not sure if that works with AppleTV. It doesn't work with Chromecast, yet.

You can mirror newer Mac computers to AppleTV as well. Therefore you can stream anything that you play in VLC player/whatever.

If you watch a lot of sports, not just one sport, I think you're shit out of luck. You could pay for MLB.tv and NFL shit or whatever and maybe spend less than your cable but I really don't know.

There isn't a way to get HBO without subscribing to it through your Cable TV Provider.

Perhaps someday we'll get the ability to subscribe to the channels we want... until that time???

I guess it all boils down to what you're watching most on TV - if you're mainly watching movies and reruns and a handful of current shows than you're probably fine with AppleTV/Chromecast/Roku and subscriptions to Hulu+ and Netflix. You're stuck pirating anything that's on HBO.

[Warpsmasher]

Get a TV or bluray that plays various types of video files if you don't have one already. Most now come with Netflix and Amazon apps already built in, along with Youtube, Facebook, Twitter etc. We have this capability in both of our Bluray players and TVs now, so we can watch downloaded videos anywhere in the house. I download stuff to the computer and put it on a thumb drive, then just plug the thumb drive into the TV or the Bluray and watch from there.
We got the most basic Cox cable/internet package that was available when we moved in December, $60 a month for 20 or so channels (mostly locals) and mid speed internet. It also included free HBO and Starz for a year. I don't even need the cable, my wife just wants it for the local news and her network TV shows. It was $59 for the internet without the stripped down cable anyway, so for an extra buck why not. We just torrent movies and AMC shows, sometimes before they even hit the west coast airwaves. I like it better that way anyway, the commercials are removed.

[Warpsmasher]

Also, DVR is so not necessary, just a giant waste of money. You can OnDemand just about anything you would have recorded anyway.

[Deltaphoenix]

I have a Dynex, 32" Flat Screen LCD tv from 2011 that doesn't have the capability to play various video files. I don't want to throw down for a new TV.
I see wifi streaming blue ray players for $88. I don't have any blue ray discs so I really don't care about adding that capability. We do have Apple products- Mac Book Pro, iPad 4, 2 iPhones…so maybe Apple TV.

I do care about College football particularly SEC Football, there is a new SEC Network.
I could upgrade the internet, pay for Hulu + for about half of what we are paying now.

I am game to pirate GOT next season...

[Mike]

So, I am kind of sick of giving Cox $150 a month for mid speed Internet, Medium Cable package, HD, HD DVR & HBO. We also pay for NetFlix.

...

IDK, how are you saving some $ but still pretty happy with what you have?

Have you tried calling Cox to negotiate a lower payment? I know, I know, sounds kind of crazy, but it often works. Cable companies usually give significant discounts to keep customers.

Call 'em up. Tell them you can't afford what you are paying now, and want to cancel. This usually gets you pushed to a "retention" department.

Tell the retention department that, one way or another, you have to lower your bill. Do what I do and blame it on your wife-- "I really like the service, but my wife thinks it is a waste of money, and it is not worth arguing with her anymore." Mention a competitive "new customer" offer from an alternative provider, like one of the satellite providers. Ask them to reduce your payment to keep you as a customer.

If you are polite but firm, they will almost certainly give you a deal. If they don't think you are serious, you won't get as good of a deal as possible. Be prepared to setup a cancellation for a few weeks in the future so you can "get new service in place before you shut me off." You can always call up and cancel the cancellation.

BTW, DirecTV gives me the $200+ NFL package every year... sort of. I call and threaten to cancel (they must hate my wife!). They offer that if I buy the NFL package, they will to give me monthly credits that, over the course of a year, total more than the cost of the package. Piece of cake.

A single phone call could save you $50/month.

Good luck!

Mike

[Deltaphoenix]

We went and bought a Roku3. Fuck Cox, I am going to just get internet from them and save $100 a month with netflix & amazon prime accounts, stream sports with a friends cable password...

[tuffteef]

youtube.com

[spacelordmother]

[blahquaker]

amazon prime, mlb.tv, netflix, torrents, antenna

I have the amazon fire tv box. it's basically the same as apple tv, roku, etc. of course amazon's video offerings are the main thing, so if you don't have prime, it's probably not the way to go. the box works well, overall. only downside for me is that there's no native DLNA support, so I have to use Plex to stream videos from my computer.

of course, my PS3 can handle all of those streaming services too, but it's getting noisy in its old age.

[retinal orbita]

I ditched cable 5 years ago, have never looked back.

Bought an Apple TV, it's been great. I basically only use it to stream from my wife's laptop (I use Linux so it doesn't work with my computer)

Bought a $25 HD antenna which covers all the major networks for news/World Cup

Using a startup internet company that offers 300GB a month for $41.99 plus you have to buy the modem so you don't pay for an $8 modem rental. Then I download whatever I want to watch....

My cell phone is on a big network because I'm on the corporate plan through work, if it weren't for that I'd be close to off the grid for tech needs....

[Deltaphoenix]

The Roku is working out well so far, calling the Cox to cancel cable today & maybe upgrade internet speed.

[bigchiefbc]

I cancelled cable last fall. We do Netflix, and I bought an antenna just so we can get the standard ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX channels so my wife can watch news and I can watch football. We have a PS3 to watch the Netflix on our main TV and I bought a Roku for the bedroom. We use my father-in-law's HBOGO account to watch GOT and shit. And I'm a big baseball guy, so I got MLB.TV this year too. Still get Internet from the cable company. Went from about 160 a month down to 50-something all told

[t-rey]

We cancelled cable like a year and a half ago and haven't missed that shit at all. We have Hulu+, Netflix, and Amazon which cover 90% of what we want to watch. I'm pretty pumped that Amazon getting all the older HBO shows too - we have a password to use HBOGO, but it never works worth a shit, so I still ended up pirating GoT anyway. I torrent the few shows that I can't stream, and we have a cheapie over the air antenna to pull local networks so the wife can watch the Today Show.

The problem we have been having recently is badly fluctuating internet speeds during peak times, sometimes to the point that we cant stream anything. I blame the TW/Comcast merger somehow trying to fuck us out of internet and money.