any new info for this

su lo

Estimable
Apr 4, 2015
1
0
4,510
we r trying to get rid of cable- roku is good for 3 of our tvs- but which is the best (outside of cable) to get current tv shows when they air- I just heard of vstream but its $349 and I would need at least 2- which is pricey- also when you drop cable, internet and phone go up if u don't have all three services- and how do you know the speed of the internet? thank you
 
You can use an over the air antenna to get local channels. There are different types of antennas that you can use. It is also possible that your cable provider offers a very basic package for local channels.
You can use this site to measure your internet speed:
http://www.internetfrog.com/mypc/speedtest/
 
typically you are not going to get network tv shows at the same time as when they air unless you are a network subscriber. some services such as hulu and amazon have them earlier than others such as netflix though.

OTA (over the air) will give you some local stuff as AA stated and since the jump to digital quality is not bad though you will be a bit limited in selection.

typically your internet speed is rated in megabits (mb/s) per second. this is not to be confused with Megabytes per sec (MB/s). for every 8mb/s you will have an actual download speed of around 1MB/s though typically it will be a bit less than this with various protocols, line quality, etc. as AA stated you can measure this with speed testing websites. personally i like speedtest.net by ookla.

some internet and phone companies are not unreasonable. for example you can get fios 50mb up / 50mb down (we get 58/58 actual) plus unlimited phone for about $80/mo. they do have cheaper plans as well (25/25). not every company has reasonable deals though so your luck may vary.

ultimately when you give up network tv and drop that huge bill you also lose out on the few reasons why you liked it to begin with: the new shows. while network tv is typically full of re-runs and stuff that you do not want to watch (which is why many people drop it) there are a few current shows that you will only find on said network tv.

we have been without network tv for a good 6-8 years. we watch alot of dvds, some netflix and on occasion some amazon. many older movies which are royalty free are also available free to watch from services you find on the roku (we dont have a roku, we visit those providers via their website instead). while we do not get all of the content we want as soon as it comes out (is there really a reason you need to watch it the day it airs?) we eventually get to watch everything we want without paying the crazy bills for network tv.