[shredmaster]

this is something i have been thinking about more and more to save money, not to mention, i can't stand the cable companies! one would think, after YEARS of cable tv, the price would come down! not so! it's gone way up. comcast is beyond ridiculous! monthly bill the price of a small car payment...i cancelled with them over a year ago. i'm with a smaller / cheaper co. and do like them, but still, it's around $70 a month or so. no movie channels, just basic cable with HD DVR. if it was only me, i would cancel cable altogether, as i very rarely watch tv. my wife and mainly my son, watch it. he has his sesame street and everything else a 2 year old would need. i have the ps3 recently connected to the tv where he watches his shows. i have been thinking about netflix, as it is $9 a month and many of his shows are on it. i could also surf youtube, etc.

the issue though...what about regular tv if i cancel cable...and the recording of those shows? i do watch american idol when it's on, and when conan hits TBS later this year, i can't stay up that late. if it's all on netflix, cool. i won't connect a computer to the tv...that's too much to go through. i read that google was coming out with a box for people to get away from cable.....

check this out...

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-hom...have-to-pay-for-cable-tv?mod=series-a-article

 

[smooth55]

I just dropped my ATT uverse about 2 months ago. I didn't have anything too fancy but I thought I'd miss the DVR. Honestly, between Netflix (I've got it on xbox) and Hulu as well as network websites, I haven't missed that at all. I had to adjust to not being able to pause or rewind or come in halfway through the show and skip commercials but within a week or two, I didn't even notice those sorts of things anymore.

I dropped cable altogether and just use an antennae for over the air stuff. I live in a mostly flat area so reception is good, that may not be the case for you.

For me, the only real let down is when sports are on cable. That's one thing I don't like to watch after the fact (even when I had a DVR). Still, my teams aren't where I live so without the really expensive sports packages anyway, so I was always at the mercy of the networks that are over the air.

As long as your internet is solid, I recommend the Netflix/hulu/bunny ears route. It's saving me $60 a month and I can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

 

[Jeffplaysguitar]

When I was younger I bugged my parents all the time to get cable/satellite. When we finally did when I was about 16 I think I watched stuff for a few months and then I got bored of it. Now that I've moved out I don't even own a tv. I couldn't afford a cable bill if I wanted to, but there's nothing out there that even appeals to me. I just play the guitar, video games, and like you said, find movies and shows to watch online for free. ABC has all 7 seasons of Macyver posted on Youtube which I enjoy watching on occasion.

As for sports, so long as you have an email account with a major cable provider you can watch a lot of stuff on espn3.com for free. I watched nearly all the world cup matches on there.

 

[jono]

We've thought about it considering we pay the equivalent of $1000 a year for HD satellite.

There's so very few programmes we watch, but so far haven't been able to make the final leap into abandoning it all together

 

[jemsite]

it's mostly impossible to ditch cable/satellite TV if you have kids.

I personally could dump it tomorrow and subscribe to a few sports stations (YES Network, etc). Due to triple play (phone, cable, internet) deals though i wouldn't save much yearly as one TV would need replacing for PC hookup.

To cut costs you can lower the # of cable boxes (DVRs) and replace them with slingboxes... glen

 

[Rich]

Cable and internat - $173 [Comcast]
Phones - $85 [Verizon]
Cell - $42 [Verizon]

$3600 / year :roll:

 

[jim777]

Tv/Phone/Internet all from Cablevision here - it all works fine. I had gone through 2 speakerphones and was on my third when we switched over the phone to Cablevision, and the phone line signal became much louder and clearer. I'd like it to be cheaper, but it works for me (and the 4 kids).

I only watch cartoons and hockey on TV anyway :lol:

 

[jemsite]

Rich You're getting JACKED by comcast. LOL. Do you have FIOS TV down there? if so you should consider a verizon triple play bundle TV/Inet/Phone (becomes quad play $10 additional off monthly for vzw cell). Even Verizon has you over a barrel, you can't change a line over to unlimited mobile... glen

 

[RedTiger]

I ditched cable over a year ago and by way of that, also ditched TV. I haven't watched TV since. The internet keeps me entertained, although I do notice that I have to actively search for things like new movies and new products since I'm not being force fed them anymore via commercials.

They day I can sign up for a plan that lets me pick the 10 or so channels I actually care about and just pay for those is the day I'll go back.

 

[Rich]

Rich You're getting JACKED by comcast. LOL. Do you have FIOS TV down there? if so you should consider a verizon triple play bundle TV/Inet/Phone (becomes quad play $10 additional off monthly for vzw cell). Even Verizon has you over a barrel, you can't change a line over to unlimited mobile... glen

If I use internet/phone I'd have to pay $500 / year in insurance premiums for the merchant account, I'd loose anything I'd save.

No FIOS on my street yet, but the price is no cheaper, my best friend switched just because he was sick of Comcast, didn't save a penny.

 

[jemsite]

Rich - you won't get competing comcast vs fios offers until a town has 100% coverage. then you save significantly if you switch back & forth.

not sure who your merch. account or gatweay is thru but based on what you posted you might be paying too much. You manually process all orders right? How would you incur a $500/yearly premium?... glen

 

[Rich]

My friend has 100% coverage, there was no savings with FIOS over his triple play.

The insurance charges have to do with how the information is transmitted. If it's over hard phone lines there is not security issues, but once it goes over the internet then it becomes a risk and they will charge you insurance. They did a complete sweep [this was my old provider] 2 years ago on how the data was actually transmitted.

 

[jemsite]

2 years = dog years. i'd check again.... glen

 

[shredmaster]

Glen, you're right...and if it was just me, it would be gone. i will look into the slingbox thing.

i ditched lan line about 10 years ago and haven't looked back. it was very odd the first month, but it just made sense. i have moved others over to the cell-only world. it's difficult to abandon if you were raised with it, as we all were.

i did check with netflix and all my son's shows...full seasons...are there. this is cool. the only thing i would miss would be recording tv. i do not want to connect a pc to my tv...i like the clean look, not the macguyver mess.

so the only issue would be dealing with stuff on network tv and how to watch them. i don't want to do that on a laptop. i may try the netflix thing out, it can't hurt, and it's only $8.99 a month.

so network tv: american idol, house, etc...what do i do for that? and hockey..... have to find out how to watch that. maybe it will still hit the airwaves..antenna?

Rich - $173 a month for comcast?! AHHHHHH.....so many people are doing that. that's why i got away from them. i'm spending around $95 a month for WOW (wide open west) for the same HD channels, fast internet, and HD DVR (no movie channels..HBO, SHOWTIME, ETC...waste of money.) i'm saving $90 a month. i want to save more....only using WOW for internet....$42 a month. add to that netflix possibly, and it's $50 a month.

i'm a little lost with the insurance / lan line thing? what is that in regards to? not taking credit card payments is it? i take credit cards via quicken over the web with a bank...no insurance charges lan line thing? what is this in regards to? what is going on?

 

[Thund3rDong]

Theres another option. The PS3 is getting Hulu and they are only charging 10 bucks. But i think the catch is you need Playstation Plus, which is just Xbox live, in a sense. But im not sure how much it costs since my PS3 is mainly used as a flashy doorstop. :mrgreen:

Or theres other ways to go about it.
Like this: http://www.ps3news.com/PS3-Online/guide-how-to-enable-hulu-on-ps3-with-a-workaround/

You can watch your shows, your son can watch his. Everyones happy

Actually, apparently they took Conan O'Brien off of Hulu. Dont know why but they did.

 

[IbanezFreak777]

Not to sound like the criminal of Jemsite... but I dont subscribe to any TV in Australia. We have a few new HD channels recently which are all free to air, and they play alot of the popular stuff from the USA, UK etc... Anything that I want to watch specifically, I download the instante it finishes airing in the US, and im kept up to date..

The internet is the future of TV ...

I only pay for a high speed internet with many gigs for download... I am kinda over letting the TV stations tell me what I can and cant watch . I like the fact that on the net I can choose what I want to download and watch it in my own time...

 

[Bang_Bang]

who needs cable tv when you have internet and http://www.justin.tv/directory?order=hot&lang=en

 

[hiflyer]

Ive got direct tv satellite HD, and it was getting expensive with the package I have. My contract is up so I called them up and and asked for a reduction $$$ . So they did knock the payment down $ 25.
They have alot of good concerts and HD channels so I think its actually worth it.

 

[jay ratkowski]

Our only option currently is Time Warner. We are in the hills, can't get antenna reception, can't get satellite reception, no FIOS/IPTV options. But, we just have the "basic" package which includes about 20 channels (and only about 8-10 of them are ever worth watching, most in spanish or public access).

Very content. Might get cable again some day, but not too eager right now, plenty of stuff to do without watching TV.

 

[Petie]

Since we got Apple TV we're really starting to get bored with cable TV.