Community Forums

oldkokomo · 12-14-2018, 07:18 AM

We pay $145/mo for cable TV plus internet, bundled so don't know how much is internet. Think I can get good internet only for approx $50/mo.

[Mod Edit] Getting my news mostly from smart phones now. Can't get into movies anymore, imagination gone? Used to like specials on history, military channels, bet find them all repeats now.

Seems to me I am hardly using TV service; could maybe save $90/mo if I streamed with something like Hulu plus live TV. Would have to buy smart TV, as mine 22 yrs old. Am I wrong? Would my cable company slap on some new charge (besides internet) when I cancel cable TV?

[Mod Edit]

HoneyBadger · 12-14-2018, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldkokomo

We pay $145/mo for cable TV plus internet, bundled so don't know how much is internet. Think I can get good internet only for approx $50/mo.

[Mod Edit] Getting my news mostly from smart phones now. Can't get into movies anymore, imagination gone? Used to like specials on history, military channels, bet find them all repeats now.

Seems to me I am hardly using TV service; could maybe save $90/mo if I streamed with something like Hulu plus live TV. Would have to buy smart TV, as mine 22 yrs old. Am I wrong? Would my cable company slap on some new charge (besides internet) when I cancel cable TV?

[Mod Edit]

If you have Comcast, you can certainly get rid of your TV service and have internet only; its what I did. Not familiar with other cable companies, but you'll just need to match your internet speed with your usage in whatever plan you choose.

And as long as your TV has an HDMI port, it doesn't have to be smart at all; just connect your computer to your TV via HDMI cable and stream away with Amazon Prime, Netflix or Hulu. I don't use live TV myself.

[mod edit]

oldkokomo · 12-14-2018, 08:10 AM

Thanks, my old TV probably has nothing. I have Suddenlink cable; all that's available here. Yeah, Fox has been losing my confidence too. I toy with the idea of just cutting off all TV and getting my news off smart phones and PC's. When I turn on TV, I just end up throwing things at it. I'd still need internet, though.

charliez · 12-14-2018, 08:19 AM

Ive dropped regular tv. had Direct TV. Funny how they have a way of starting you at 59.99 then one day it's 150. I watch YouTube and netflix and with Christmas shopping online this year, I've added Amazon Prime. With all that I have way more interesting things to watch and pay a whole lot less

Bob_C · 12-14-2018, 08:19 AM

Got a radio?

Pepper2 · 12-14-2018, 08:33 AM

We cut the cord 5 yrs. ago while still in our house. We have been FT'ing for 2 yrs. now, and have not missed having it. Now internet, that's where I find my news.

KyleC · 12-14-2018, 08:38 AM

We also just use the internet service. TV just isn't what it used to be.... Too commercialized and too political. and I agree that the alphabets are falling down that path to so it's hard to even trust the internet! But for right now we just stream, and that is getting harder. All companies are putting their politics in (right and left). Not sure of my internet capacity, but I pay 70 a month and have not hit any sort of streaming limits.

60sumtin · 12-14-2018, 09:01 AM

We cut the TV cord about 15 years ago and never looked back. We still have a TV but only to watch movies on disks we've purchased or stream them off the internet. Our TV is not a smart TV either but you can still get movies through an add-on box like an Apple TV or a Roku for example. My wife likes to subscribe to Netflix for a couple months in the fall for their Christmas programs but other than that we don't subscribe to any kind of TV service. But I hear ya, pretty much garbage on network television these days.

Wrktfsh · 12-14-2018, 09:06 AM

We cut our bill in half by dropping cable tv and cable phone. The cable phone was useless except for telemarketers, we use cell phones exclusively. We now watch Netflix, YouTube tv, and amazon prime tv. Sure there’s some stuff we don’t get but we adjusted pretty quickly

RoadDogYVR · 12-14-2018, 09:06 AM

I worked in television for 6 - 10 years (and video/visual communications as a whole for 18), depending on how exactly you define "working in television" - 6 years at a station doing hard news and another 4 shooting and editing documentaries - starting in 1999. Gave up video production entirely a couple of years ago...

I haven't had cable in over 7 years.

I'm pretty immersed and I still can't find a reliable place to find investigative, non-biased actual news coverage so I scour media online for print and television stories that I can stomach.

It ain't easy.

"News" has largely devolved into tabloid opinion and sloganneering across the political spectrum - the Left, Right and "Middle" are ALL equally suspect. Too many personalities talking AT us instead of looking objectively at the facts. No one is asking REAL hard questions for fear of offending someone or offending their corporate, political or faith-based sponsors or base.

Pull the cable - too many pundits, not enough journalism.

Streaming services like Netflix supply me with my "distraction". News comes from online sources for me.

RickNC · 12-14-2018, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldkokomo

We pay $145/mo for cable TV plus internet, bundled so don't know how much is internet. Think I can get good internet only for approx $50/mo.

[Mod Edit] Getting my news mostly from smart phones now. Can't get into movies anymore, imagination gone? Used to like specials on history, military channels, bet find them all repeats now.

Seems to me I am hardly using TV service; could maybe save $90/mo if I streamed with something like Hulu plus live TV. Would have to buy smart TV, as mine 22 yrs old. Am I wrong? Would my cable company slap on some new charge (besides internet) when I cancel cable TV?

[Mod Edit]

We canceled cable tv about 4 years ago. I haven't missed it once. In it's place we have Spectrum(formerly Time Warner) Internet for $55 a month.
There are several online content providers than can deliver cable content for what ever political viewpoint you want to embrace. I don't watch political TV at all but my wife wants her MSNBC in the morning and my neighbor wants his Fox and they both get it through HULU.
On the road we hardly watch anything. No TV in RV. She still gets her MSNBC fix on her Ipad using her phone as a wifi hotspot. I have a few Youtube channels I subscribe to and those I also watch on an Ipad.
Youtube also has a live TV subscription but they only offer it in some cities.

RRR · 12-14-2018, 10:00 AM

Got wireless? Dump everything but internet and cell phones.

Get a Roku if your older TV will work with it. (Or upgrade your TV. Now is the season for that.) It will need a USB or HDMI port. Has some limited news in it. The included free movie channels are a PIA as the advertising interrupts are sometimes mid-sentence.

Wife uses Tubio to cast the "alphabets" channels. Don't know if Fox is on it, works so-so but it's free.

Pair of rabbit ears for the local channels.

Netflix and Amazon Prime for movies till the return of GoT then I'll add HBO again for awhile.

MRUSA14 · 12-14-2018, 10:12 AM

No problem cutting out cable at home, but in the RV the internet-based TV options are often problematic. Wireless TV uses up huge amounts of data. Most wireless internet plans have data caps or slowdowns after a data amount is reached. When slowed, they are too slow to stream TV shows. There are also lots of places where cellular service does not reach. If you watch only a little TV it could work, but DW watches lots of TV so we find satellite service works best for us. No quantity limits and we can get TV anywhere we can see the sky. We use the same satellite account to get TV at home so with the one account we are covered whether at home or in the RV.

RoadDogYVR · 12-14-2018, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRUSA14

in the RV the internet-based TV options are often problematic.

I meant to mention we are intending to buy a Windows 10 laptop (I'm currently all Apple as all my computers were bought when I was still editing video) so that we can download Netflix content for viewing offline without using bandwidth.

Wouldn't work as well for full-timers but for those of us with a home base, it sure looks feasible for that type of content anyway.