Cutting the Cable Cord?
mod
I've been thinking about cutting the cable cord. I don’t watch enough TV to justify $120-200/month that comcast charges and my cable bill keeps going up without anything really changing. Still, there are a handful of shows I like to watch. So I was wondering what do other people around here do?
Do you have cable?
Do you stream shows?
Do you buy them per episode or season through amazon or itunes?
I'm not really interested in anything illegal. If you are, that's fine for you I guess. I just think piracy hurts our industry enough and I don't want to hurt a brother or sister industry. But still $200 a month for mostly ads and garbage channels seems insane.
So far I've found:
SlingTV https://www.sling.com/
Roku https://www.roku.com/
Amazon Fire TV/Stick [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-W87CUN-Fire-TV-Stick/dp/B00GDQ0RMG"]Fire TV Stick - Official Site - Shop Now[/ame]
Do you have cable?
Do you stream shows?
Do you buy them per episode or season through amazon or itunes?
I'm not really interested in anything illegal. If you are, that's fine for you I guess. I just think piracy hurts our industry enough and I don't want to hurt a brother or sister industry. But still $200 a month for mostly ads and garbage channels seems insane.
So far I've found:
SlingTV https://www.sling.com/
Roku https://www.roku.com/
Amazon Fire TV/Stick [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-W87CUN-Fire-TV-Stick/dp/B00GDQ0RMG"]Fire TV Stick - Official Site - Shop Now[/ame]
Replies
this
i didnt even bother to buy a tv.
well, i guess in germany its even worse because almost every german production is crappy
So don't build an HTPC if you're interested in a legal box that's easy to use for the whole family.
I too, am cable free and just have internet services. I rock Netflix primarily (have a smart tv where I can stream netflix from directly without any other device), then use other misc streaming services for specific shows that I want to pick up and rent/stream movies and stream from my workstation in my room to living room Pi or Laptop.
Could even pick up an old, used laptop from a friend or if you have one laying around and convert it into an HTPC/streaming device. A lot you can do with old hardware and some ingenuity. Lots of fun projects for home theater setups and what not. Also best thing about the RaspPi, I can have two SD cards to swapping out OS's really quick, so I can use it to emulate like 30 different old school consoles and have a retro gaming console with 30secs of setup and unraveling my USB SNES controllers for some couch co-op Metal Slug 3. (retroPi project, completely open source and free software, just have to acquire ROMs legally :poly142: )
I download some shows with the combination of netflix and some other streaming, youtube etc...
+150$ a month
Being cable free didn't really affect me too much since I was a 1-3 show per season kinda guy.
I have GameCenter for hockey
Netflix for movies and a few tv shows and I'm good.
Youtube tends to have some good mini series on there as well, if I'm looking to kill some extra time.
Anyways,
The reason I quit it was because I started to realize that I was flipping through channels for hours at night without finding a single show I enjoyed.
Be careful with comcast though. I've heard quitting them can quickly become a nightmare...
SlingTV sucks if you have more than one TV. You can only stream to one device at a time. Plus, you still have commercials and no DVR.
I simply don't watch shows enough to even bother with most things though XD.
I'm very interested in HBO go once that ends it's apple exclusivity.
There are "options" if you want to watch additional stuff thats not supported by those, like AMC and HBO, etc. But personally I have more content than I could reasonably watch with those 3 options.
but ya. most of my viewing is through netflix. only a couple shows i`ll watch online, and only for the lack of accessibility. An AMC stream would be nice. a cheaper HBO would be better. But I try to just stay with netflix. I can wait for most shows to get there.
I was about to respond until I read that fine print in your post. Define hurting a Multi-Billion Dollar industry?
I think AMC is streaming through SlingTV's basic package?
If there's a show I'm interested in (there aren't many), I just stream the episode for free from the network's own website online after the episode airs. If I like the show enough that I want to watch the episode again, or at a time other than within several days of its airing, I'll just buy the season on DVD when it's released. If it's a show I missed that was out a year or two ago that's already on DVD, I'll rent it or borrow a DVD from a friend who owns it, and then buy it myself if I like it.
I honestly can't imagine owning cable anymore. ...commercials? I hardly remember what those are.
It is. Do the free trial of SlingTV. You'll see how badly it sucks. It's basically cable TV over the internet instead of over cable. No DVR, but some shows are available to watch on demand for a limited window.
The only remotely illegal thing we do is use a proxy to spoof a UK address, this lets us watch a huge amount of awesome content on BBC iPlayer as well. We would happily pay for such a service if it was offered in the US.
Making the switch has been fantastic. If you're the sort of person who loves to just turn on tv and watch whatever is on, going with streaming services won't be for you. You will have to put in some effort to find something to watch. The great part about this is you end up watching a lot, and I mean a LOT less terrible shit that just happens to be there.
I put together a HTPC running Win 8 (terrible for dev work but ok for HTPC, it's a tiny Intel NUC machine. It costs a lot more than one of those Roku boxes or the amazon stick thing, but honestly we haven't found one of those with an interface we like or that would allow us to do everything we do with an HTPC, like watch BBC and PBS or any other site/service that those systems don't support.
Oh yeah for sure, and we watch a lot of it there, but there is a massive amount of content on Iplayer as well if you're the sort of nerd who is in love with british stuff.
Well.. technically my current apartment has a big generic LCD screen, but I didn't even bother getting a remote to turn it on.
Streaming isn't the future, its the present. I might hook my PC to said screen, and use it for netflix stuff, but I didn't use cable in years.
but what the actual shit?
Then you got to add extra 10channels package for HBO, another extra 10channel for AMC etc....
And if you want hockey games, thats another 10channels.
So is like having 60 channels for 3channels that you wanted......
No.
Yes.
Neither - catch up TV is free in this country for a few channels (BBC, Channel 4, as examples).
When all else fails, I'll watch stuff at someone else's place and make a social thing out of certain shows
Cable is just too expensive, IMHO. I tend to binge watch a lot of things, so I'm happy to wait for the entire thing to come out on DVD. Way cheaper if you only watch one or two things, like I do.
Welcome to North American pricing :P Not sure how the pricing is in EU but yeah prices are fucked here. Add to that the constant rising price for shitty internet for higher price and with a data cap. Quit cable etc all together when i moved to college and just relied on netflix and hulu at the time with vpn.
hehe. People may bitch and moan about German TV, but for being almost free the value is not that bad, when comparing it to many other countries' TV offerings and pricing schemes.
And that's how you get Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and other huge budget US tv shows.
Game of Thrones cost about $6 million per episode, Breaking Bad $3 million. On free, Network TV I think The Big Bang Theory has run about $2 million per episode; dumb broad appeal comedies are what bring in the most viewers and therefore advertising dollars.
i hate waiting for the next episode so i rather wait until the whole season is on dvd
not waiting is certainly not worth 200 a month
urgh. reminds me of the people selling satellite here where you have to pick a bundle of shitty/mediocre channels, with 1 gem. And of course there's no single bundle with more than 1 good channel. It's just made so that you have to buy multiple bundles of channels.
What about House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and the Youtube shows with almost TV levels of production value?
Big budget shows can come from anywhere and free network TV channels have produced some of the most expensive TV shows of all time - an example off the top of my head, the BBC did Planet Earth a few years back - 11 episodes costs £10 million ($15 million). I suspect it easily recouped it's costs since it's been broadcast on well over 100 other channels since.
I kind of prefer this model, since it means series don't get locked into single cable distributors and can get to a wider audience with a lower barrier to entry.
I'm not saying the bundle situation is good and right I just appreciate that the side effect of it was a station that used to only show old movies, American Movie Classics, was able to spend the money to put out some amazing shows. We'll tell our grandkids about the golden age of television.
I usually catch everything of interest online since around that time, I just hate having to set my schedule on their clock.
For those who subscribe to Hulu: I tried a free trial, but noticed many shows that are on Hulu have random selection of episodes. Ie i find a full season 1, but season 2 is only episode 4, 6, 7, and 12. Is that the norm? Speaking specifically about shows that air on ABC, CBS, NBC, etc major networks.
Here in the Uk, i don't have a TV for the simple reason they want a £145 a year for BBC. I mean seriously for 5 channels they want that on top of your package costs with no exemption. I've had 'inspectors' come over to see the place because they wouldn't believe i didn't have a tv. When they got here he said he wanted access to the history on 2 laptops and my workstation to prove i wasn't streaming bbc channels. Laughed him out of the place.
The news & adverts are all depressing propaganda so why pay to watch it at any rate?
The TV license only applies to watching live TV. You can use iPlayer to stream anything half an hour after it has been shown.
edit: get satellite.