Cut the cable

[jayray07]

I want to cut the fighting the cable people over $$ and their constantly failing to honor their prices. We watch and record local tv stations, 2-1/2hr programs daily recorded, and occasional movies, we do watch the Tennis Channel but also use Roku in the living room for streaming content of the internet.) I do stream one football teams games not shown locally off my comp. or tablet to tvs. But that is pretty much the extent of it. I was going to hook up an outdoor antenna and try recording the local programs and figure out the Tennis Channel later.

Any insight and suggestions are valuable, we are now fixed income people and sick of exorbitant changing prices and flat out lies. 33 years of cable tv! Insane really. I installed a 10' dish and watched C & K bands for quite a while using cable when our kids lived here for all the tvs basics for everyone.

 

[budwich]

kodi on any media player / center / pc

 

[g-unit1111]

Well the nice thing is that we live in an era where you can be entertained and not have to pay for cable or satellite. You have to figure out what kind of content you want streamed and then you can pay for that content accordingly. Whether it's HBO Go/Now, Netflix, Hulu, and about 1,000,000 streaming services you can choose from, it's easier to pick and choose what you want to watch than pay for a cable or satellite service.

 

[MikeyrInKY]

We reached the tipping point when the cable company wanted $186 per month. Fired U-verse, got TWC internet only and a Roku 3. Signed up with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video (we were already Prime members.) Added Showtime and Stars to Amazon. Signed up with Playon which lets us record programs and movies on streaming channels. I refurbished and upgraded an old PC with a decent graphics card and a 2TB hard drive which holds our recorded shows and movies. I downloaded Plex onto the PC for organizing all of our recorded stuff. Everything runs off our cable modem and router.

Next we got a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna for Over The Air (OTA) broadcast TV. We will be getting an HD Homerun Extend (by Silicone Dust) which will allow us to record and/or pause live OTA TV. The antenna connects to the HD Homerun box via coax cable. The HD Homerun box will give us a 2-week guide with the ability to set up recordings of shows and/or seasons in advance.

Everything, including the Roku, the PC and the HD Homerun is connected to our 60" Vizio TV.

 

[americanaudiophile]

An tuner with built in DVR should work for your over the air needs.
https/www.groundedreason.com/ota-dvr-without-cable/
You already have a Roku. If you need more content a device running KODI will let you access almost anything. You can run Kodi on a computer amongst other devices and is free so no reason not to give it a whirl. There is now a pre-configured version that already has many addons installed so it's easier to try.
https/www.tvaddons.ag/tvmc-windows/
http/kodi.wiki/view/Main_Page

 

[jayray07]

kodi on any media player / center / pc

We reached the tipping point when the cable company wanted $186 per month. Fired U-verse, got TWC internet only and a Roku 3. Signed up with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video (we were already Prime members.) Added Showtime and Stars to Amazon. Signed up with Playon which lets us record programs and movies on streaming channels. I refurbished and upgraded an old PC with a decent graphics card and a 2TB hard drive which holds our recorded shows and movies. I downloaded Plex onto the PC for organizing all of our recorded stuff. Everything runs off our cable modem and router.

Next we got a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna for Over The Air (OTA) broadcast TV. We will be getting an HD Homerun Extend (by Silicone Dust) which will allow us to record and/or pause live OTA TV. The antenna connects to the HD Homerun box via coax cable. The HD Homerun box will give us a 2-week guide with the ability to set up recordings of shows and/or seasons in advance.

Everything, including the Roku, the PC and the HD Homerun is connected to our 60" Vizio TV.

 

[jayray07]

Thanks for the great answers. I neglected to mention that my wife has tech phobia. She like the ease of turning the tv and box on and seeing the guide. I don't blame her at all. So, with that said, which solution would you recommend? I know a bit about Tivo, but like I said being back paying fees when everything but Tennis Channel is local OTA I am unsure here which way to go. I would keep internet and phone or internet and Magic Jack (if it can run multiple phones through existing wired voip system does now. Antenna and dvr that has a guide would work for us. At least I think it would?