I don't know about you, but one of the most irritating things about cable television is the "package." When we signed up for AT&T's U-verse service, we had to sign up for their U200 package to get the channels we wanted - SyFy, to be exact. We never signed up for HD, never watched anything on demand, and never added premium channels like Showtime and HBO. Yet after five years, our cable bill - not including internet - had crept up to well over $100 per month. Even more irritating, we were getting 300-plus channels, of which we never watched 275 and only glanced at 10 others a couple of times a year. Small wonder I'm in favor of a la carte pricing, since I got tired of subsidizing dozens of religious channels, fifteen flavors of ESPN, the golf channel, and the like.
So we cut the cable three months ago: it's as simple as that - and you can cut the cable (or shoot down the satellite) yourself. It will require a little upfront investment, and probably requires rethinking the way you watch television as well, but I think it's worth it to never have to interface with the u-verse telephone support app again!
The way I see it, the people who are least likely to cut the cable are big-time sports fans and people addicted to shows on the premium networks. Anyone else can probably adjust, but a lot of real-time sports programming just isn't available to stream.
If you live in or near a metropolitan area, you can pick up broadcast television signals at your house. To find out your options, visit TV Fool or Antennaweb. Based on your address, these services list the available channels and suggest the type of antenna you'll need. You can get a digital indoor antenna, boost the signal with an amplifier, or go whole-hog with an outdoor antenna. In our case, we were supposedly within range of an ordinary antenna, but needed an amplified version because the broadcast signals have to penetrate several interior walls to reach the antennas. We often get better reception of a CBS station 60 miles northwest of us than of the station 21 miles to the southeast. The two antennas we chose are the Mohu Leaf and the Mohu Curve.
Broadcasting is no longer the big 3 or 4; in the digital era channels broadcast secondary and even tertiary channels of reruns, movies, or even other networks. In all, we have access to more than 60 over-the-air channels, including shopping, a slew of religious programming and perhaps a dozen channels broadcasting in Spanish or other languages. The lineup includes My20, MeTV, ION, KUBE, and the CW in addition to ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS.
Our cost for cutting the cable was $120 for antennas, $50 for the Roku 2 and $70 for a pair of Chromecasts; a total of $240. Our streaming services run $18/month plus $99 for a year of Amazon prime. In the first year, we'll have spent $314 instead of $1320 for 12 months of cable. Maybe we can afford a new Smart TV after all?
With streaming video, you aren't shackled to a cable company. You pay for only what you want, and get access to content unavailable to cable subscribers - Netflix series like "oHouse of Cards," or Amazon's "Orphan Black") - that you can watch whenever you want, binge-watching even. If you're close enough to the towers and have a suitable antenna, you'll get HD free instead of paying the cable company. You can also find episodes of favorite shows from the past (like "Leverage," "Firefly" or "The Glades"?) or start at the beginning on a series you stumbled over in its second or third season.
You don't have immediate access to shows you like. Most network apps require you to log in with a cable provider to see current episodes of shows like "The Bridge," "Covert Affairs" or "The Walking Dead." Buying them at $1.99 per episode pretty much defeats the purpose of cutting the cable, after all. Fortunately, lots of series are free once the next season starts, so patience may be its own reward. If you opt for a streaming device or two, youll start getting a pile of remotes, and all those devices come with power cords. Oh, and there's no channel guide like with cable or satellite; so bookmark a website like www.tvguide.com to see what's playing tonight.
That's our experience with cutting the cable. It's something that may not work for you, especially if you're heavily into premium channels or sports programming, since you'll end up "nickel-and-dimed" to the tune of hundreds per month for on-demand purchases of your favorite content. Those channels don't offer their own subscriptions, so users have to log in through a provider - a cable company.
Overall? we're pleased - though we miss some programs we were watching before we cut the cable, we'll be able to pick them up in a few months right where we let off - and that's good enough for us.
So we cut the cable three months ago: it's as simple as that - and you can cut the cable (or shoot down the satellite) yourself. It will require a little upfront investment, and probably requires rethinking the way you watch television as well, but I think it's worth it to never have to interface with the u-verse telephone support app again!
Are You a Candidate for Cable-Cutting?
The way I see it, the people who are least likely to cut the cable are big-time sports fans and people addicted to shows on the premium networks. Anyone else can probably adjust, but a lot of real-time sports programming just isn't available to stream.
The First Step: Getting Over-the-Air Signals
If you live in or near a metropolitan area, you can pick up broadcast television signals at your house. To find out your options, visit TV Fool or Antennaweb. Based on your address, these services list the available channels and suggest the type of antenna you'll need. You can get a digital indoor antenna, boost the signal with an amplifier, or go whole-hog with an outdoor antenna. In our case, we were supposedly within range of an ordinary antenna, but needed an amplified version because the broadcast signals have to penetrate several interior walls to reach the antennas. We often get better reception of a CBS station 60 miles northwest of us than of the station 21 miles to the southeast. The two antennas we chose are the Mohu Leaf and the Mohu Curve.
Broadcasting is no longer the big 3 or 4; in the digital era channels broadcast secondary and even tertiary channels of reruns, movies, or even other networks. In all, we have access to more than 60 over-the-air channels, including shopping, a slew of religious programming and perhaps a dozen channels broadcasting in Spanish or other languages. The lineup includes My20, MeTV, ION, KUBE, and the CW in addition to ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS.
The Second Step: Streaming MediaWe had one Smart TV, but it's not as smart as a streaming media device, so we opted for of the devices already on the market. Mostly on the basis of easy availability, we picked a Roku 2 and a Google Chromecast (bestBuy sells 'em, both were on sale and we had gift cards). Roku is an aggregator that lets you choose from a wealth of "channels," from the familiar Netflix and Hulu to all kinds of weird independents - hundreds of them. The Roku 2 has an advantge over some of the other devices - it supports connection with component cables, for your older model televisions or a box that has only one HDMI - reserved for a DVD player. A Roku 2 (or 3) comes with a remote, but it's surprisingly crude. You can also use an app on a phone or tablet for a remote. Expect to pay $50-60 for a Roku 2, the middle of the company's line. |
| A Chromecast is a different animal: you run an app on your phone or tablet or open a tab on a chrome browser and "cast" to the dongle plugged into an HDMI port. There are a couple hundred apps that cast directly to Chromecast, though nowhere near as many as there are Roku channels. You can run them off a mobile device or a Chrome browser. Since the Chromecast doesn't have a remote, you need to keep the device nearby for rewinding, pausing, and such. Both devices provide HD-quality video and sound, subject to your network speed and quality. The different channels allow you to watch new or old shows to your heart's content, whenever and for however long you want. Subscriptions to many channels are free, though you'll end up paying by the movie and/or TV episode on many of them. We went with subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu plus for about nine bucks a month, plus an Amazon prime subscription for $99/year (Prime gets you other perks as well). |
Our cost for cutting the cable was $120 for antennas, $50 for the Roku 2 and $70 for a pair of Chromecasts; a total of $240. Our streaming services run $18/month plus $99 for a year of Amazon prime. In the first year, we'll have spent $314 instead of $1320 for 12 months of cable. Maybe we can afford a new Smart TV after all?
The Upside of Cable-Cutting
With streaming video, you aren't shackled to a cable company. You pay for only what you want, and get access to content unavailable to cable subscribers - Netflix series like "oHouse of Cards," or Amazon's "Orphan Black") - that you can watch whenever you want, binge-watching even. If you're close enough to the towers and have a suitable antenna, you'll get HD free instead of paying the cable company. You can also find episodes of favorite shows from the past (like "Leverage," "Firefly" or "The Glades"?) or start at the beginning on a series you stumbled over in its second or third season.
The Downside of Cable-Cutting
You don't have immediate access to shows you like. Most network apps require you to log in with a cable provider to see current episodes of shows like "The Bridge," "Covert Affairs" or "The Walking Dead." Buying them at $1.99 per episode pretty much defeats the purpose of cutting the cable, after all. Fortunately, lots of series are free once the next season starts, so patience may be its own reward. If you opt for a streaming device or two, youll start getting a pile of remotes, and all those devices come with power cords. Oh, and there's no channel guide like with cable or satellite; so bookmark a website like www.tvguide.com to see what's playing tonight.
That's our experience with cutting the cable. It's something that may not work for you, especially if you're heavily into premium channels or sports programming, since you'll end up "nickel-and-dimed" to the tune of hundreds per month for on-demand purchases of your favorite content. Those channels don't offer their own subscriptions, so users have to log in through a provider - a cable company.
Overall? we're pleased - though we miss some programs we were watching before we cut the cable, we'll be able to pick them up in a few months right where we let off - and that's good enough for us.
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