Who has cut the cord (cable)?

[PamAndJim]

This has been on my mind a lot lately and have finally decided to put pen to paper and come up a plan. I am currently in a 2 year contract with Fios and have a "triple play" meaning I have cable, Internet and phone. I pay a cool $236/month. We very rarely watch live TV. If anything it's stuff we've DVR'd. We also have Netflix and Hulu subscriptions. I do have a 6 year old daughter that likes Disney Jr and Disney XD. Here's what I am thinking:
Downgrade Fios to local channels and 75/75 Internet (which I can do without any early term fees) - $69.99/mo
Keep Netflix - $8.99/mo.
Upgrade Hulu to premium - $11.99/mo.
Sling TV w/ kid's pack - $25/mo. This is really just to have live TV available if we want it. Plus it gives us ESPN.
Various premium channel packages - $15-30/month.

If I am understanding all of this correctly most shows from the major networks hit HULU a day or two after they air (so, my wife can watch her stupid Bachelor shows). So, we won't miss those. We'll have local channels to watch the news, etc. So, really the only thing we'd lose is the whole DVR thing. I also probably need to figure out a way to have a phone line for our security system. But, that shouldn't be too difficult. Even if I keep the Verizon phone I think it's like $10/month.

So, what am I missing? Too good to be true? Is the availability on Hulu as good as it sounds? Looks like I could easily cut $100/month off my bill. Thoughts? Experiences?

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[04SloSnake]

Being stationed overseas I have learned a way to watch all of my shows at a fraction of the cost. I have an Apple TV with Netflix and Hulu memberships and then I have an unlocked Android based TV box with XBMC. I'm not sure about the legalities of it, but we can stream any TV show or movie for free.

 

[DigitalPackrat]

Officially cut the cord in 2008 but started building servers to stream TV and movies around the house in the late 90's. Currently running 7 physical servers and a bunch of virtual ones with about 12TB of flash plus 130TB of spinning disks that can stream to my dedicated HTPC's, desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.

The trick is to not worry about trying to watch stuff the moment it comes out which could be a difficult transition especially since you have a kid.

 

[Gdyup50]

My only problem with this is that I haven't found a good source to watch the news I like to watch, or live sports. I use Kodi to watch movies and TV shows that I used to DVR, but I keep my TV on pretty much all day on the News while I do my work and things on my computer. If I could figure out a way to get live sports that I want to watch, and a solid News feed of the channels I watch, I wouldn't pay for cable. Of course you still need to pay for Internet, landline phone was gone long ago

 

[stoli]

I cut the cord a long time ago. As others have mentioned, I've been using XBMC/Kodi since it was XBox Media Center run on hacked gen 1 xboxes. I even created one of the skins and contributed to another that are still being developed for it.

I'm not as far along as [MENTION=21600]DigitalPackrat[/MENTION], but my tv shows are almost all downloaded within an hour of airing, but I 'only' have about 1,000 episodes online at any one time.

As much as people may dislike it just by name, Al Jazeera US has good live streaming news... For some reason that's one of the hardest things to come by.

 

[MikeD1]

IF you live in a major metro area, its easy since the new digital signals you get for free OTA is better than cable - that takes care of your regular channels. You can buy a TVio & now you have pgm control & a DVR. That leaves you to buy Netflix, Hulu etc. for movies etc.

Unfortunately for me, I live out of range to get OTA so I'm stuck with the greedy cable bastages for now :rant:

 

[Gdyup50]

IF you live in a major metro area, its easy since the new digital signals you get for free OTA is better than cable - that takes care of your regular channels. You can buy a TVio & now you have pgm control & a DVR. That leaves you to buy Netflix, Hulu etc. for movies etc.

Unfortunately for me, I live out of range to get OTA so I'm stuck with the greedy cable bastages for now :rant:

Ya I watch Cable news, so that won't work...

 

[PamAndJim]

Unfortunately I have to maintain some sort of cable or pay the $180 early term fee. So, I'll be keeping FiOS for the locals. Sling has ESPN, so at least most of the NFL will be covered. We never watch stuff right when it comes out, we have full seasons of Homeland and Blacklist on our DVR now, so that's not a huge concern. My daughter mostly watches Disney/ Disney Jr. which always the same shit played over and over again. Even still, Sling provides live TV for both of those channels. The nice thing is none of this requires any contracts. So, if it doesn't work out I can cancel everything and upgrade cable back to what is now.

 

[jtmat]

I did in 2014, for good.

I moved into my condo and wanted to get "basic cable" like I had before.

My internet alone was $49 (I purchased my router, so no monthly fee for that). To add cable would have been an additional $20 for cable. Great deal... but I had to rent the box for like $15/month and then pay another $10 to $20 in taxes (can't remember, but it was a lot). Taxes for only internet were nothing....

I kept internet only plan... and purchased flat "rabbit ears" from Amazon. Heck, I never watch TV... I do netflix for the 1 out movie. I don't stream...

I get abc, cbs, etc from rabbit ears for free. Looks damn great... all HD for free. I have over 15 stations for free, I think... somewhere around that number. I don't watch so don't know for sure.

I watch my one or two movies per week and I'm good. I'm out enjoying life the rest of the time or working on my business.... or farting around on the internet forums.

 

[Tamadrummer88]

No cable. I have an Apple TV and a Netflix subscription. If i want to watch the local news then i just log on to the local news website and stream the newscast live through AirPlay on my TV. For national news ill either watch SkyNews or BBC.

 

[Spartan_Stang]

I currently live with my parents and they have full Xfinity X1, its great, but I plan to move out soon and was curious about the different options I had. I don't watch much live TV (all DVR, On Demand, Netflix, etc..) However I am a huge sports fan, any of you "cord cutters" found a solution to live sports other than pay Comcast or someone of the like?

 

[stoli]

The only decent option for live streaming tv and sports is SlingTV...


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[daltron]

I can't cut the cord, my wife would kill me if she didn't have her cooking channels.

And then there's NFL Sunday Ticket, ESPN, NFL Network...

lol.

 

[VinnAY]

If you look past right/wrong, you can get nearly anything you want on a Torrent, use a VPN and you're golden.
Toughest part cutting the cord is getting used to not having it on-demand, as it were. Sure you'll miss something like news as said above. If you embrace the change and your habits, you can watch most anything you want, either stream, download, torrent...whatever.

 

[BBB]

roku 3
hulu
netflix

All of which I "borrow" from friends... I don't watch enough TV to justify paying for any of it really

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