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Finally Ditching Cable/Dish. Anyone else convert yet?

 
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 12:20 pm    Post subject: Finally Ditching Cable/Dish. Anyone else convert yet? Reply with quote

After too many evenings looking at the f****** tv guide and seeing somewhere between jack and squat I want to watch, I've finally convinced the wife to ditch the Dish. I did some math, and found out that over the first 2 years of the switch, we will save $2000+ which is nuts.

My initial out of pocket expenses:

$50 Antenna
$75 TiVo (shipping+tax+1st month)
And recurring cost will be $15/mo.

We already have a Roku and an Apple TV (both were gifts) so getting additional content is pretty easy.

We have Amazon and use it predominantly for Prime shipping, and I subscribe to MLB.tv regardless, so I consider those sunk costs. I also am using my dad's Comcrap login, so I can get pretty much any channel under the sun and Airplay it to the tv.


Curious if anyone else here is doing it? Experiences? Pros/Cons?

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jt09
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 12:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

what antenna? i got one that sucks balls, or i'd be more likely to actually cut that cord.
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churchy
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would be interested as well, but think I would suffer during football and basketball seasons.
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E.J.
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

churchy wrote:
I would be interested as well, but think I would suffer during football and basketball seasons.


Bingo....
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We're at the looking stage, so not much help. When we move into our new house, we're considering all options.
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senorbueno
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just did last month... I've found that right now I just watch less TV without missing it (didn't watch a lot besides sports to begin with). For watching sports I either use my apple tv with my folks' login info or been using airplay with an old iPhone 4s I had lying around the house. Seems to workout for now. We'll see once football season picks up
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eeven73
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So when do the providers wizen up to the free ride on ma and pa's cable login game?
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ontrider
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PostPosted: Aug 18, 2015 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OTA Antenna with Pre-Amp.... Initial Cost around $125 - monthly FREE
Netflix - $8.99/month

other than that, we just watch less TV and if I want to watch sports it gives me an excuse to go to my parents house for a visit. Laughing

We pay a whopping $120/year roughly.
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 6:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jt09, I picked up an outdoor directional 4-bay antenna off Amazon for $50. I am <40 miles to the towers and have line-of-sight. According to AntennaWeb and others, I would actually be fine with a much simpler antenna. I wanted to be sure I'd get a lock so I went for a outdoor unit. I am going to re-use my dish mount, which is in a good spot thankfully. Plus I have wiring already to that location. http://amzn.com/B00CX6QBIO

churchy, as mentioned, you need to get your hands on a login for Xfinity/TWC/Cox/Dish/Direct. You will likely get most of the games you are looking for that way. For instance, using my Dad's Xfinity login will net me live ESPN/2/3/U, P12 Network, SEC Network, ACC Network, B12 Network, Longhorn Sports, along with Fox Sports 1/2, NBC Sports, and more. It's all just a press of the Airplay button away from being on the big screen in HD.

eeven73, probably about the same time the networks in conjunction with the cable/sat companies realize they should have gone a-la-carte with channel offerings. Seriously though, the day when they kill the borrowed login will eventually come. However, I think that we are one disruptive service (I'm looking at you Apple) away from the old model being broken irreparably. CBS is kinda the lone wolf here (along with SHO and HBO if you count those) by offering their channel standalone via subscription.

senorbueno, perfect. My barrier with the Airplay idea is my wife's willingness to use it. I don't mind it in the least.

ontrider, this is basically where I am trying to go. I wanted the Tivo mostly for an easy to use guide w/DVR capability. It's a bridge between having a full blown dish setup w/DVR and going full OTA. I looked at a few other offerings here (Channelmaster, Tablo) and the TiVo seemed to be the most polished. So for TiVo we can pay $150/yr and have that convenience. I can re-evaluate after that year and determine if it is necessary still. The TiVo box itself was only $50.

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jt09
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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

thanks for the link chavez
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 7:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jt09, check out this link too: www.antennaweb.org

Put in your address, and it will tell you where to point the antenna, what kind of antenna will work, etc.

For instance...


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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It will be interesting to watch how a la carte effects smaller channels, like say H2 or cooking chanel, that one would think wouldn't survive without being bundled into a package.
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wakeboarderdave1
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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 11:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

EJ, can't you sign up for NBA League Pass without needing a cable or satellite subscription now?
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wakeboarderdave1, yes: http://www.nba.com/connected/index.html

Also NHL: http://gamecenter.nhl.com/nhlgc/cdsignup.jsp?cmpid=gcl-devices-van-url

Also, believe this stuff or not, NFL: http://www.directv.com/cms2/NFLWS/NFLST.TV.html

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ontrider
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PostPosted: Aug 19, 2015 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only thing that will drive you nuts with the Antenna is if there's a storm or something, we usually lose channels or the signal is on and off which makes watching anything completely frustrating. That said, Netflix sometimes does the same thing and I don't know if that convenience is worth the crazy cable prices these days.
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PostPosted: Aug 20, 2015 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We switched to OTA about 13 years ago and haven't looked back. Not being a big sports fan, most of the programming we care about is local anyway. Netflix satisfies the kids just fine and we've have a few apple boxes since the beginning. We now have HBO now which has been a really nice addition. Can only expect other subscription based online programming to completely take over soon.

Been using old school antennas the entire time mounted in the attic. We live quite a ways from any towers and these have always done the trick. Outside of lightening strikes directly between us and the towers, we never have reception issues.

In our current house: probably 12' length and 8' span


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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 20, 2015 6:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That antenna is a monster! I'd expect to grab stations at 80-100mi even with it attic mounted (if you have line of sight).
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PostPosted: Aug 20, 2015 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can also get ESPN if you subscribe to SlingTv.
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PostPosted: Aug 20, 2015 7:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chavez, great links...thanks for sharing. I'll be putting those to good use.

ontrider, at our last house we had DirectTV and an off the air antenna in the attic like Brent. We would lose the local channels on the dish. but they continued to work off the antenna during heavy storms.

BrentC5Z, that's about like what we had in the other house and it worked well. I think we're going to do something similar in our new place.

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ontrider
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PostPosted: Aug 20, 2015 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is BIG Laughing

I just took mine down out of the attic since we're moving, you will love the mounting device though. I was thinking of getting something stronger for the new place.




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RampageWake
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PostPosted: Aug 20, 2015 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cut the cord 3+years ago and only have Roku. I rarely watch that. I really don't miss it.
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 21, 2015 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ontrider, bwahaha. That is awesome. Laughing

Got my TiVo yesterday. Haven't had time to mount the antenna yet, so I left it in the box, ran a cable to it, and put it on the floor next to my media cabinet. I'm already getting most of the channels. Cool

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PostPosted: Aug 22, 2015 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Its been a couple years for us. I do miss college football, but other than that im good with the switch. I guess we pay about $40 a month for hulu, netflix, hbo and showtime, plus we get all the locals from either san antonio or austin.
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 24, 2015 6:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Antenna is up. Had to get a booster from Radio Crack to get PBS. So far so good.

My dad was over for the weekend. He couldn't figure out how to get to anything but the locals - so I found him in the family room watching a My Three Sons marathon on one of the local subchannels. Laughing

A couple of clicks later, and I had NASCAR on. A few after that, MLB. So far we can get to basically everything we watched before using one device or another.

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PostPosted: Aug 24, 2015 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I went to netflix only on my apple tv. I also piggyback showtime and hbo off a friend. So I always have something to watch.
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chavez
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PostPosted: Aug 24, 2015 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nmballa, so far my wife has gravitated toward using the TiVo and the AppleTV. Seems like we can do everything through just those two. I really like the Roku, but the ATV is very much wife-friendly.
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