Cut the Cord?

[chiefneon]

Howdy!

After eleven years of fulltime RVing with DirecTV satellite we cut the cord over a year ago. We have unlimited data with AT&T and Verizon in our travels. We now stream everything DirecTV Now, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc... It also saved us over a hundred dollars a month doing away with DirecTV satellite.

“Happy Trails”
Chiefneon

[biker art]

Cut the cord many years ago and just signed up for cable internet with Spectrum in Or. for $14.95 plus $5 for modem rental. Available to low income SS members. No contract and will not cancel after one year. No cost to set up. Can't beat that. When I canceled Century Link the offered it at $40 a month. I said no and they said they couldn't match Spectrum.

[DonavonP]

How did it come to this? Paying a company to bombard us with advertising of products that are either useless or designed to eventually kill us.

[Finance]

Your situation is similar to ours. Ditched the satellite years ago, not worth it. $50 for DSL, $11 or so for Netflix, we have Amazon Prime. And there's plenty of free stuff.

[oldkokomo]

I'm OP. Still trying to get up nerve to cut the cord. I have begun to actually hate ANY TV NEWS; wife still has to have a little of it, though we both end up screaming at it. Seems to me that half or more of time is actually some kind of commercial. They try to sneak in things as part of program, but are really a form of commercial.

[oldkokomo]

Can anyone tell me what live tv channels you get with the HULU $5.99/mo plan? All I can find is a list of 30 or so channels, which I am sure is not the basic plan list.

[KanzKran]

Originally Posted by oldkokomo

I'm OP. Still trying to get up nerve to cut the cord. I have begun to actually hate ANY TV NEWS; wife still has to have a little of it, though we both end up screaming at it. Seems to me that half or more of time is actually some kind of commercial. They try to sneak in things as part of program, but are really a form of commercial.

I can't watch TV news any more. Of any stripe. I just want the facts, short and sweet. But DW has to have CNN, while ABC will do in a pinch. Which means I could cut the cord but keep cable internet, and since we mostly use Netflix and Prime anyway, we wouldn't be missing much that couldn't be had with an OTA antenna.* We can even download Netflix series and movies to our iPads for offline viewing, like on the road. But she won't let cable TV go. Yet.


*I've got a medium gain UHF plus an old rabbit ears set short-ish to receive high-VHF, and joined by a UVSJ to a single cable, mounted in the attic. Not an ideal location (attics attenuate signals, and cause a lot of multipath issues), but it works a treat, and the picture is the same as cable, or on some channels actually a little better.

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Seems like every time I go into Costco, I get approached by a salesperson in the first section who asks,"So, who is your TV provider?" We don't have a TV provider, so generally just say so . . . They look puzzled and say, "No really, what service do you use to watch TV?"

They just don't get it. We travel often for business, mostly in our motor home, but occasionally we use hotels. . . . get into room, turn on the TV, flip through the 250 (insert number of your choice) plus channels they advertise as receiving, and usually say, yep, that's why we don't get TV!

The 60 minute show is around 25 minutes after you take out the commercials, if you are lucky, the "News" channels spend more time discussing the talking heads social life than reporting any news, and the "Meteorologists" are generally chosen for their looks and on screen persona rather than for their grasp of anything weather related.

Coming from an aviation background, and knowing how important understanding weather is to a safe and comfortable conclusion of your flight (winds, icing, visibility, etc), I wonder if some of those so called weather people can even SPELL weather, much less understand and impart it to the viewing public.

So, yes we do have TV's in our house in in coach, well, ONE in the house, we mostly use them to view DvD's, or occasionally over the air weather if something specific is going on.

Just don't have any other use for the mainstream media who all have their own agendas, and whose journalists just clip "News" from Twitter or such, and see no reason to waste their time confirming stories, or even spell or grammar checking . . .

[DonavonP]

"Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper."

- George Orwell

courtesy reference Mr. Tony Heller, https://realclimatescience.com/

[grindstone01]

We have the portable Winegard dish and for $30/month go on a month by month pay as you go plan. The wife gets her Hallmark channel and I get the RFD channel along with the local TV channels. We used to cancel the Dish when we had good OTA signals, but now we just keep Dish full time.

[RickNC]

Originally Posted by oldkokomo

Can anyone tell me what live tv channels you get with the HULU $5.99/mo plan? All I can find is a list of 30 or so channels, which I am sure is not the basic plan list.

$5.99 only gets you Hulu's content (shows/movies) The Live TV package is $40.

Here is a link to the live TV page. Scroll down the page to see channel line-up. https://www.hulu.com/live-tv

Wife informed me we quit HULU two months ago, She now gets her "Morning Joe" and "Rachel Maddow" fix on Youtube which rebroadcasts the shows next day. Perhaps Fox does this with their shows?

[Davidrvr]

Don’t watch tv at all and haven’t for many years. News is done mostly online..

Great in-depth research and usually great comments under each topic. [moderator edit]

[Solask]

Yeah, Cable is ridiculous. Hallmark, USA, TNT, TBS, hgtv, etc, etc, Nat Geo and Hist have gone stupidwith reality TV.. We cut it a couple years ago. Use an OTA for locals when we watch them. Local news and local pro sports.. We watch lots of TV shows streamed on Netflix, Apple TV, or Prime.. Netflix $9 mo. Prime free, Apple TV, rental.. Spectrum Internet $50 mo.

[ajsfla]

I use Directv Now and am pretty happy with it. I signed up for their service when it came out so I get their GO BIG package (100+ channels) for $36. and change. That was a introductory price and am grandfathered in as long as I keep the service. It works well in the RV BUT you need good phone service in addition to the unlimited data to be able to use it. I think most RV parks wifi will not handle it streaming as most frown on streaming on their park wifi.

Not sure how your Sprint service is where you camp but most people prefer either ATT or Verizon for decent service out in the places away from the interstates and major ciities where most campgrounds are.

If you have Direct satellite service you can probably get a reduced rate on the Directv Now service. Directv NOw has a 7 day test period that is free. Since you have satellite you may want to think about ATT phone plan since they are ALL ATT owned companies. If you have ATT cell service the data used to bring in Directv Now is NOT counted against your data useage. That's a big plus

All you need to get Directv Now into your tv is one of the following connected to a HDMI input on your TV
Amazon fire stick (or Fire TV box)
Apple TV box
Chromecast
Roku
Sometimes they offer a free device to hook up I for a Fire Stick free think maybe now they are offering ROKU.

You have to be able to cast from your phone to the device that is connected to your TV. If you have a hotspot with unlimted data then the wifi from the hotspot need to connect to the wifi of the tv device.

web site is www.directvnow.com (only on "t" in web address)
phones www.att.com

not affiliated with any of these companie

You do not need a smart tv for Directv Now. It needs to have HDMI inputs where you can plug one of the devices I mentioned above into it. You can buy your Firestick Roku Chromecast Apple TV anywhere you just have to add the app for Directv NOw to it. Also I believe they also have apps for your Ipad and phone as well if you need that.

Depending on your situation you could go satellite route since you have that in your house. Cost would be lot more to buy equipment than the Directv Now route. People use their existing plans between the house and RV and I think Direct offers a RV plan add on . I've read about it never used it

Presently I have 2 Firesticks in my RV one in bedroom and the other is connected to my matrix box which can feed either or both the outside tv and the tv in the living room

If you have questions pm me if you want