TV (in the form of Satellite/Cable) gave it up for good!

[jamesspo]

A few months back, I was perusing over the monthly household expenditures, and was shocked (or more like re-shocked...I already knew roughly how much I was spending) at the Satellite TV bill (DirecTV in this case). I've got one of the standard "top 100" type packages, with two HD DVR's. 113 buckaroos / month. In the past months my wife and I had, on a near constant basis, waded through the copious numbers of channels, and found absolutely zero to watch.

I'm not at all "anti-TV" or anything like that. I'm 46, so squarely in the "TV" generation. I'm also not *that* concerned with the money. In constant dollars, I'm not sure typical cable/satellite bills have gone up that much over time. However, what I'm annoyed with is the value proposition. The endless reality TV shows, and other useless fodder - it just ain't worth that much to me. TV has always had good and bad content. But for me, it's just taken a real nose dive in quality the last few years. Even the science channels have become really low value.

Now, keep in mind, I'm not subscribing to any of the premium pay channels (HBO, Showtime, etc), and I understand a lot of good content is being created there.

So, what to do? Cough up more for the premium channels and take my chances? Naah. Instead, I just decided to ditch the whole thing, and see what I could do "on my own", by just purchasing the content I want on DVD, augmenting that with Netflix to try things out before purchase (as well as provide some randomness), and possibly putting up an antenna to pick up local HD channels. I can't stream Netflix on my internet connection..too slow... so I just do everything via DVD.

To keep content handy, I backup my purchased DVD's to a file server, and watch it at the TVs using inexpensive media players over wired ethernet connections. I also have DVD/Blu-ray players at each set for the Netflix content. I really enjoy a lot of older TV shows, so I just watch for great deals on complete "all-seasons" sets new, or eBay. These days, even new shows seems to be available very shortly after the season is over.

I'm lovin' it. Am I saving money? Eh.. I might in the long term..it's hard to say. But let me tell you, with 113 bucks a month of budget, you can buy a *lot* of content. I only have time to watch a couple hours of stuff / night, and that's if I'm lucky. I'm pretty sure I could keep myself fed with content with the Netflix subscription (DVD only, 20 bucks / month, 3 DVDs at a time) alone. Another 20-30 bucks a month or so for purchasing high quality series on DVD, and I've got myself way more than I have time to watch. I've still yet to put up the antenna. I'm not sure I'm missing enough to do so. I guess local news might be nice, but I get what I need there over the Internet. We'll see. Even with the satellite, I hadn't watched local or national news on TV in a couple of years.

Anyone else use alternate methods for their entertainment...ditching the cable and satellite?

 

[SIG9]

I did the same thing about three months ago. My biggest surprise was that I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. In fact, most of what I want to watch is on one of the three big networks which I can pick up for free over the air. In the end, I ditched a $160 per month DirecTV bill. I'm also in my 40's.

Here's my setup.
Mohu Sky amplified antenna for the family room (and a Winegard Flatwave amplified antenna for the bedroom) - the reception is HD and better than I had anticipated
Roku 3 - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Plex (see below) [I don't currently subscribe to Netflix or Hulu Plus]
Plex Media Server (free) - software to manage and stream my DVDs/home library off my PC to the Roku via WiFi. It works incredibly well.
Amazon Prime - for streaming movies and tv shows & the occasional purchase
Redbox - for new releases
Library - for old movies worth watching again

The ONLY thing I'm missing is the DVR. Skipping commercials and timeshifting shows was a thing of beauty. If you're inclined, you can buy a TIVO for a couple hundred but there is a monthly subscription fee for their service. That's the deal breaker for me. The whole idea was to cut the monthly fees. Their are other PVR options but they're overly complicated (to me) and require a connection to a PC.

Anyway, I hope it works out for you. The $1,900 a year I'm saving can go to more important things like a family vacation or shaving gear .

So far I'm really happy.

 

[jamesspo]

Good setup. Since I'm not watching anything with commercials anymore, the DVR really isn't needed for me at this point. However, if/when I get some over the air HD coming in, I'll want some sort of DVR. I've done some preliminary looking around, and I seem to recall some set top style DVRs with no fees. I'll let you know if I find something good. There are good third party, and free guide services available.

I did the same thing about three months ago. My biggest surprise was that I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. In fact, most of what I want to watch is on one of the three big networks which I can pick up for free over the air. In the end, I ditched a $160 per month DirecTV bill.

Here's my setup.
Mohu Skyamplified antenna (and another Leaf for the bedroom) - the reception is HD and better than I had anticipated
Roku 3 - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Plex (see below)
Plex Media Server (free) - software to manage and stream my DVDs/home library off your PC to the Roku
Amazon Prime - for streaming movies and tv shows & the occasional purchase
Redbox - for new releases
Library - for old movies worth watching again

The ONLY thing I'm missing is the DVR. Skipping commercials and timeshifting shows was a thing of beauty. If you're inclined, you can buy a TIVO for a couple hundred but there is a monthly subscription fee for their service. That's the deal breaker for me. The whole idea was to cut the monthly fees. Their are other PVR options but they're overly complicated (to me) and require a connection to a PC.

Anyway, I hope it works out for you. The $1,900 a year I'm saving can go to more important things like a family vacation or shaving gear .

So far I'm really happy.

 

[SmoovD]

We gave up the cable a few years back. Fortunately we live near a major metro area so we have can get a ton of local over the the air channels. Most of our viewing is via the net. Roku box, Netflix and Amazon Prime. For a quarter of what cable cost we have too many choices readily at hand. I will mention that we have a great internet connection which makes it all possible.

 

[AABCDS]

I had cable when I was younger and lived with my parents. I hardly watched TV during college and never paid for cable after graduating. Right now, I just use a digital antenna and watch whatever is on.

 

[jamesspo]

My Setup:

Linux box with 12TB ZFS array (8TB net storage), Samba to share the content as an SMB share.
Micca (EP600G2) streamers at the TVs, hooked to the wired network.

 

[Bird_Flu]

This would be me if it wasn't for sports, specifically hockey and baseball. I also have an addiction to the shows on BBC America, Copper, Ripper Street, Broadchurch, Top Gear, and Doctor Who keep me paying for DirecTV. I also call once per year and ask for a discount.

Is it worth doing price comparisons on buying the shows I watch on iTunes or amazon vs. my sub $90 bill?

 

[jamesspo]

Yep, totally understand. If you're a sports watcher (I'm not), I'm sure it would be tough to do without Sat/Cable. Good job on the sub $90 bill. It sounds like you're getting the value.

This would be me if it wasn't for sports, specifically hockey and baseball. I also have an addiction to the shows on BBC America, Copper, Ripper Street, Broadchurch, Top Gear, and Doctor Who keep me paying for DirecTV. I also call once per year and ask for a discount.

Is it worth doing price comparisons on buying the shows I watch on iTunes or amazon vs. my sub $90 bill?

 

[Quigg]

This is timely for me, James. I already have the Roku player. With Amazon Prime, we can stream lots of TV show and movies. I know I can set up an antenna and access free public TV networks. There are two issues for me to resolve before I pull the plug on my satellite TV. First, how do I save things and time shift? Second, how do I coordinate and access all these different content sources?

I do have a Harmony One remote, which I can program. That may be part of the solution. I also have a router with wireless broadcasting. I am running Macs on my network, not PCS, if that makes a difference. I think, at minimum, I'd have to get a cheap PC and some scheduling software to record internet content. From what I have read, I might also have to pay for a TV guide to use with it.

Anyone have solutions to share?

 

[Phog Allen]

James, I did the same thing three and a half years ago. I DO NOT REGRET IT ONE BIT. And yes, I am shouting that to the world. Between Dish Network, home phone, broadband internet(which was needed for wife's online schooling), and mobile phones, it was eating up $250 per month! Ridiculous. Like you we realised we were really only watching about twenty channels. Certainly not worth it for us in the long run.

Here is what we do now. About 50-ish per month for broadband internet with 18mbs download and NO caps. $8 per month for Netflix which is still the best bang for buck out there if you are not addicted to new movies, and a pre-paid Tmobile account with our home phone ported over to it. We buy $100 cards which gives us 1000 minutes and with the gold reward for doing so another ten percent in added minutes to that amount with a one year expiration. We still have the $90 per month mobile bill but our other expenditures all in for this stuff is about $65. or a net savings of nearly $90 per month. It DOES make a difference yearly. And we don't watch as much mindless tv rubbish now. We stream through our PS3 but if I had to do it again I would get a Roku for that and build a Linux box with Chrome browser for the rest of it. Likely add XBMC for the home networking solution and run it on a back end. There is much out there for free that is perfectly legal and accessible. I intend to put it to use before the powers that be tax it to death and the providers up the costs...til we all start looking for the alternatives again. The only downside is following our local basketball team. Many games this year are going to be dodgy at best for availability.

As an aside, which programme do any of you favour for backing up your DVDs? I have looked at AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD and they look perfect for such things but I would like some real world opinions.

Cheers, Todd

 

[jamesspo]

As an aside, which programme do any of you favour for backing up your DVDs? I have looked at AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD and they look perfect for such things but I would like some real world opinions.

Cheers, Todd

I use makemkv. It's a simple app that just demuxes DVD or Blu-ray content to an MKV container. Space hasn't been an issue for me, so I don't bother with conversion to h.264, etc. The Micca's I have can actually play raw DVD iso's as well, so no need to do encryption breaking extraction, if you don't want to.

 

[jamesspo]

I hear you. It was funny - my college years are the same way. I didn't even own a TV. There's a sort of a big hole in my knowledge of that era of TV stuff that I sometimes notice when asked about trivia of the time. There is a bit of social context that you loose not watching much TV, although today that's not nearly as true. In the 90's and prior though, a lot of "context of the time" was carried by television - having little other (fast) means to do so. Today that's been utterly replaced by the Internet.

I had cable when I was younger and lived with my parents. I hardly watched TV during college and never paid for cable after graduating. Right now, I just use a digital antenna and watch whatever is on.

 

[JazzyJ]

I've been cable-free now for 5 years, and it's great! I pay for internet, split a Netflix account with my brother, and if there's anything I really want to watch that's not on Netflix, I can find it streaming somewhere online for free.

 

[jamesspo]

I also call once per year and ask for a discount.

This reminds of cancelling my service. You would not believe the sell job this person tried to do to keep me. I have a tough time being just overtly rude to people, but I had no choice. This person drolled on and on for like a half hour..all the time, me politely saying "yes, please just cancel my service. What you're offering does not interest me". I gave them a chance.... I told them I'd stay if the whole shootin' match was 20 bucks. Obviously that didn't fly .

 

[Black Adder]

The antenna on my roof is all I'll ever need.

There are broadcast stations that have kind of gone "retro" in their approach to providing entertainment... Antenna TV, ME TV, both provide plenty of classic TV shows for entertainment value, and I'll watch those shows long before I'll get into any of the stuff they offer today. Really, there isn't much to look at in terms of television nowadays.

Don

 

[shaveitoff]

I'm off the cable. What I found was that it made no sense to pay a bunch of money when there were still only a few shows that I wanted to watch.

For internet and cable, I was paying $125 per month. If I wasn't working out deals with the cable provider every 2 or 3 years, I would have paid about $180 for what I had. On the TV side, that included a PVR, basic cable with a couple of extra packages - one for movies that got me HBO and another that threw on some cable networks like A&E, Discovery, CNN.

Now I pay $40 per month for unlimited internet (different supplier) and $8 for Netflix. I will save over $900 per year by cutting cable. I live in Canada, but over the air I get ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Antenna TV, Fox, CW Network from the US. For Canadian TV, I get CBC, CTV, Global TV, City TV, and TVO. I cannot justify paying for this content which is, more or less, what I could get with basic cable.

As for HBO, the best series they ever did was the Sopranos and and the Wire (in my subjective judgement). I've seen both of those twice. There newer series that many people like are Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire. I saw one season of Game of Thrones and lost interest. I couldn't keep track of the 2,000 characters! Boardwalk Empire got boring after a while. However, if a person really wants to see them they can buy the DVDs or get them in iTunes.

There is no end of content on Netflix. I use a Roku to watch it on TV, but I make sure to log into on the computer and rate movies and programs. That way it makes better suggestions for me. The content varies by country, and I think there is more content for US customers than there are for Canadian customers, but it still blows me away in terms of what they have. For example, I've just started watching Star Trek TNG. I watched it when it first aired and am enjoying it again! I can't believe that that series ran from 1987 to 1993. Time is really flying by at warp speed. That series came on about 20 years after the original was on. Now 20 years have gone by since TNG ended!

You can also watch crackle.com for free on your computer or on a Roku. (I've even watcht it a bit on my phone!) It isn't as good as Netflix, but you can find movies and tv series on it.

As for sports, most major sports are still broadcast OTA, so unless you need wall to wall coverage of your favourite sports you should be happy. On a Roku, you can purchase the NHL package or the MLB package. I wouldn't bother purchasing them myself, since it goes against the whole concept of not paying for TV, but it is an option.

I couldn't imagine going back to cable. Now when I watch something OTA, I just think of my old cable provider and think to myself "I'm not paying you for this anymore!" Another aspect about OTA is that you will get full 1080p broadcasts. The cable providers just give you 1080i broadcasts. My eyes aren't good enough to spot the difference, but my inner nerd is happy. The Roku also does 1080p streaming.

I'd recommend cutting the cable to anyone who can get broadcasts OTA. If it doesn't work out you can always go back to cable, but give life a try without cable. It will be interesting to watch what happens to the cable providers in the next few years. I think people are getting tired of being forced to buy bundles just to see a few good shows. Now with smart TV's coming out that have apps for Netflix built in the viewers have more choices than ever.

 

[ctr]

I've been thinking about it. I almost pulled the trigger last fall but the provider cut 30 percent off my bill and gave me more content. The problem is the content. So much garbage with little to no value and I'm tired of having certain messages shoved in my face by the networks.

We have started reading more in the evenings and I'm thinking of adding satellite radio before making the cable ditch. I've also started word games and puzzles. Once I'm comfortable we have enough entertainment options I think we'll make the choice to ditch cable for good.

 

[SIG9]

I use DVDfab and it works like a champ. It is easy to use and regularly updated.

For changing formats or creating a file to put on my iPad, I use Handbrake which is free.

As an aside, which programme do any of you favour for backing up your DVDs? I have looked at AnyDVD and AnyDVD HD and they look perfect for such things but I would like some real world opinions.

Cheers, Todd

 

[jamesspo]

I use DVDfab and it works like a champ. It is easy to use and regularly updated.

For changing formats or creating a file to put on my iPad, I use Handbrake which is free.

Yeah, I use dvdfab as well when I want to do conversion. It seems to have a pretty good two pass conversion algorithm to h.264 and other formats. And it will do demux as well. I like makemkv a bit better for demuxing though. It's just a bit faster to get stuff done.

 

[jamesspo]

Yep... MeTV may be one of the things that pushes me to get an antenna up. Good stuff there.

The antenna on my roof is all I'll ever need.

There are broadcast stations that have kind of gone "retro" in their approach to providing entertainment... Antenna TV, ME TV, both provide plenty of classic TV shows for entertainment value, and I'll watch those shows long before I'll get into any of the stuff they offer today. Really, there isn't much to look at in terms of television nowadays.

Don