Cutting Cable

Yesterday my laptop went on the fritz. Kept giving me a error message and shutting down.
Before it goes totally caput and I lose all my important information I figured I better go buy a new one and transfer everything over.
While we were at the box store the wife noticed a smart TV that was on sale to clear out last years models.
Knew I should have left her home.

We have been talking about getting rid of cable for years.
Just intimidated by the unknown so we put it off.
But yesterday we took the plunge.
Bought the smart TV.
Called the cable company and told them to cut us off.
We will return the boxes and remotes Monday.

Now I need to figure out where we go from here.
We never watch local channels so I do not really need a antenna.

I mostly watch educational stuff.
Smithsonian; Discovery; National Geographic.

Wife mostly watches movies.

And grandkids watch SpongeBob and Paw Patrol when they are over here.

I guess I will be wading threw the maze of online stuff now Hulu; Amazon; ect to try and find one that fits.

When I looked at my Direct TV bill the other day,I started seriously considered dumping it. We have a ROKU with HULU and Netflix. We've got a pretty decent antenna and can get a fair number of local channels on that. The only thing we don't get on the ROKU is RFD TV,but I checked that out too. I can get that RFD Country Club deal on the ROKU for $10 a month or $90 a year. I've been playing around more and more with HULU the last few days to see what's there and what it can do. It's real tempting dump Direct. It'd just take some real getting used to without the on screen guide and watching TV on my own instead of on a network schedule.
I think if I can get used to the whole HULU thing,it's gonna happen.

I enjoy Netflix great shows and movies BUT BEST of all NO COMERCIALS I was so sick of all those stupid commercials and they took up near a forth of the show time,,the greedy cable/satellite company's have iratated me for the last time...I would rather cross thread a bolt than watch their crapp

My wife likes Netflix.

The smart TV is nice - you, as the installer, will like it.

We dumped satellite many years ago. It was a waste of money for us. All we watched were old westerns and RFD. We'd finally memorized all of the westerns, and RFD "horsed" around too much.

Look into Sling TV. It may have an app on your new smart TV. If not, get a Roku. Sling did have a promo of a free Roku if you pre-pay two months. Something like 20 top cable channels for $20, and cheap add on packages.

I also watch Netflix a lot.

Amazon video comes with Amazon Prime, free two day shipping on a lot of stuff.

I have a situation where it would really be nice to get rid of Directv. I have had it for as long as it's been available with different names, etc.

My mother, who passed away last week, lived next door to me and kept her TV on Fox News constantly. For that reason alone I have kept it. Now that she is gone I would also like to consider some other source. But, we live in an area where internet is very limited as far as choices go. Data usage and bandwidth go hand in hand, along with the cost of same. I could do Hulu or Netflix or some other things like that, but the data usage would kill me with the internet connection.

So, I suppose I'll keep the Directv for a while, so I can watch the same things you all watch. I do like Fox News as well (no political statements intended here), so I can sorta justify that. I will cut back a bit with the service that was at her house, as her dog is all that's left and I guess he is moving in with me, per her wishes (or maybe that was her demand!!!).

There is talk about fiber being out in the area we are in, but not in the next few years anyway. I suppose that is what I get for living out away from "modern" conveniences. Wouldn't consider moving though.

We're right in direct line of site with a tower just 2 miles away. We have a pretty good internet speed with no data limits. The wife was watching a movie on Netflix while I was watching This Week in Louisiana Agriculture online with not problems at all. That's the thing with RFD,pretty much except for Jimmy Dean and Woodsong's Old Time Radio Hour,I can get the shows I watch the most right online without them. I watch the current days AgDay every morning online while I'm on the elliptical. I can get TWILA on their site,Georgia Farm Monitor and Farmweek on You Tube. That just about takes care of it.

You can get Fox news live through your internet connection,,I have it in my Favorites list,,and watch it some through the day on one of my screens...

First of all, very sorry to hear about your mother.


We dumped DISH several years ago. All we have now is Verizon Wireless, and even that is by twist of fate, as the nearest Verizon tower is 30 miles away. However, there's a fairly new gov't repeater tower that gives emergency crews in the area the capacity to communicate with dispatch. As it's paid for with taxpayer $$, they make it open to the public, but with official needs taking priority. Works pretty well, considering it's about 10 miles away.

We get about 1.2Mbps while we have our 4G, than after 15GB of hotspot use, they throttle us down and we drop to about 60 or 70 Kbps. Still, that's enough for the wife to stream something from Youtube in 360p while I watch something, also in 360p. However, we can only watch from Amazon or Netflix before getting throttled down. Sometimes we can squeak something out of Amazon at the slow speeds, but not too often. So, I'll often download shows we want to watch and then we can choose to save them. We also have a nice DVD library.

Also, on our PC's, I have ALL ads and popups and auto-updates stopped. Norton AV will do its thing while the PC sits idle, which is fine.

There's LOTS of movies on Youtube, but getting to be fewer and fewer all the time, as Youtube has a new thing where they're removing former links and offering a movie for a price. As for Netflix, just got tired of the hassles here with not having enough bandwidth so often.

Can you cut the cable? YES!! It's very do-able. However, it is less convenient. You'll have to decide how much that convenience is worth to you. What I can say at this time is, I don't ever see us EVER going back to DISH or Direct.

The local channels that I cannot get are what I want for local news. I would not be watching any of those shows.

My wife likes to watch the Phoenix Suns lose, so we keep Cox cable. If it weren't for that, we'd do something different.

(quoted from post at 15:35:59 02/11/18) The local channels that I cannot get are what I want for local news. I would not be watching any of those shows.

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ots of stuff on Netflix, but their Netflix Originals are so trashy that I don't know why anyone would want to watch.....hard to keep kids away from them! Have to keep eye on them all the time.

(quoted from post at 16:11:36 02/11/18)

(quoted from post at 15:35:59 02/11/18) The local channels that I cannot get are what I want for local news. I would not be watching any of those shows.

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ots of stuff on Netflix, [color=blue:55e521173a]but their Netflix Originals are so trashy that I don't know why anyone would want to watch[/color:55e521173a].....hard to keep kids away from them! Have to keep eye on them all the time.

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That's what we found. Started watching a couple of different "newer" shows, both on Netflix and Amazon, only to find they went WAY beyond our comfort zone.

Longmire started off as a pretty decent show, but sadly it turned south. Would rather watch older classic shows/movies, or do what we're doing now, watching things like Tim Farmer's Kitchen and such off of Youtube. But dang if those two don't make us hungry!! *lol*

If it's a smart tv, does that mean CNN and MSNBC are blocked?

(quoted from post at 08:01:20 02/12/18) If it's a smart tv, does that mean CNN and MSNBC are blocked?

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Good thing I'd finished breakfast when reading this! ROFL

(quoted from post at 11:01:40 02/11/18) It'd just take some real getting used to without the on screen guide and watching TV on my own instead of on a network schedule.
I think if I can get used to the whole HULU thing,it's gonna happen.

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A month ago we ditched cable and became streamers. Regarding HULU and no on screen guide, I've read that they will be coming out with such a guide this Spring. They've had a lot of customers asking for that. Our experience with HULU during their one week trial was constant buffering! It was really bad, every three to five minutes. They couldn't help me and I found a lot of similar experiences on their customer forum.

We are using SlingTV, Amazon Prime and an app called ViewLocal that our local Internet Provider sponsors. There are some amazing TV series on Amazon Prime! My favorite program selection was HULU and if they come out of beta and get the buffering thing figured out, I'm going back to them. The great thing with most of these services is there is no contract. Give them a try, quit if you don't like it.

In the process of getting rid of the dish here and at my parents place. Tired of $145 a month.
An antenna and a Kodi box for here with the DSL phone line. An over the air internet hookup at my parents with an antenna for local stations. Not sure to either Kodi box or just get the TV package from the internet provider.

You will have dozens of channels to choose from with a modest outside antenna. No rotor required. Will need an amplifier at the antenna with a FM trap. You want the Winegard HD7698P antenna and RG-6 cable.http://www.winegard.com/hdtv-outdoor-antennas?q=offairhttp://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d9038be5f1fe4f2

My sympathy on the passing of your Mother.
Your location will bring in "everything" with just a Winegard Flatwave antenna pointed due south.Higher is better, above all roof peaks, thick shrubs etc. etc.http://www.winegard.com/flatwave/air http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d9038884221d49d