Your Guide to Cable TV Cord-Cutting

[rgd1101]

i dont care what i will have, i am not watching xfinity keep raising my rates by nickels and dimes. funny, i sign a two year contract and they can make all the changes they want to my channel selection, taxes they throw on at a whim etc but i cant get out of my contract because they jump the rate after one year and take a way channels. so just on principal im quitting but i do know that the cornerstone is the internet connection and they are the only game in town so i will be staying with them for at least that. but i do have netflix and amazon prime and im going to make them work. and with a powered hd antennae. if it sucks, oh well. guess i get off my arse and enjoy the outdoors more.....awe shucks.

Same here, few years ago, cancel TV and only keep Internet.

 

[spcordcutter]

Sling, in early 2016, started to offer the option of ESPN or Local Sports (Fox Sports) in their $19.99/mo package. This turned me into a cord cutter because I can now stream the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers.

I also added a Channel Master DVR+ that allows me to record anything OTA from my atenna. It incudes recording any series and you can select to only record NEW shows in the series. Very nice.

 

[Gburg20877]

Only thing keeping us from becoming complete cord cutters is availability of Washington Nationals baseball games. MASN (local sports network) is only available via cable...no online/streaming option...and MLB package does not work since Nationals games are blacked out locally.

 

[dennphill]

Man-oh-man is it ever HARD 'cutting the cable' - two days now and my other half is POed at me...I have yet to call the cable company back and threaten them with my stopping the cable TV. (Cox Cable, after 15+ years, jacked my internet, phone and TV from around $140 to $220 in 2015 and when I screamed bloody murder and got purely offensive, they gave me a guaranteed rate of $185 for two years (and I had to reduced TV options!) then 2 months later they upped my charges to $250, and told me the customer service rep had made an error and was not authorized to give me the $185 rate. I didn't just go ballistic, I wrote hard copy complaints, detailing ALL the recent troubles Cox had put me through and sent it to Cox and the FCC, and to the Florida Department of Agriculture (our ombusman here on telecommunications issues in Florida) and sent copies of the letters to Consumer's Report, and posted on CNET and several other sites. Several months later I finally got a letter from Cox, who BTW had reduced the bill back to the $185, only saying they were glad for my input and they were glad to be able to resolve my complaints. the did nothing of the sort...only gave me the deal they originally promised. Well 18 months later (into the two yer promise) I got a bill again for over $200...saw they reduced my telephone service (which I have NEVER really used!) and took away a 'bundle reduction credit' of $50. When I called the other day, after a half an hour of a customer representative promising she could help me reduce my bill, the bottom line - and she finally just out-and-out told me this - was if I wanted to pay less than the $212 per month I would have to either slow down my internet connection (Premier at $68 per month) ot reduce the number of TV channels I receive. That's the history) So I looked at Sling TV for my ROKU - I have Roku TV in the living room and a ROKU 3 hanging on my bedroom LG TV. I saw lots of complaints of people unable to cancel in the first 7 days for the free promo period...and LOUSY channel selection. (Sling does not have Fox News, Velocity, CSPAN American Heroes Channel, TLC, Science, Discovery, Weather Channel, PBS (any!), Animal Planet and only has Hallmark and LMN, Cooking Channel and others if you have the $5 'Lifestyle Extra, and so on. POOR selection!) So I next looked at Sony's PlayStation VUE. Marginally better selection so i signed u for a free week but plan to quit tomorrow. (PS Vue Does not have History, Lifeline, LMN, CSPAN, Hallmark Channel, (any) PBS, Weather Channel, ION, A&E, and so on. Also still a poor selection.) I already have Amazon Prime. I re-activated Hulu+ (from a few years ago when I tried it and did not like it). A year ago, I looked at DirecTV and Dish and fond them only marginally less than Cox Cable...and ther IS the weather issue for satellite. I am very disgusted. Waste two whole days, have my beautiful wive of 40+ years wondering why I can't leave well enough (that is, Cox Cable) alone...and I hate Cox so much I AM going to quit and cut that cable. (I have to leave Cox's $68 internet access in place because the only other option for internet is copper connected to the Verizon FIOS down the street with CenturyLink at about 5-8 Mbps (Cox Cable, according to Ookla, is giving me 55+ download and 6+ upload.) So I just gott figure out how to keep my wife happy with Bluebloodss, sYes to the Dress, Hallmark shows and movies, ION, Lifeline, etc. Nobody - and I'm talking to the providers: Sony (PS Vue), Dish (SlingTV), DirecTV Now, the satellite services and Cox and Comcast - Where is the 'ala carte' selections. I DON'T need or want 250+ channels...just to 10-15 or so my wife and I regularly watch. In this day and age, that is very technologically doable - it's just you are such poor companies with shitty marketing, you figure you can stick it to us on the watching end! My rant's over. Hope everyone at Tom's and you readers are doing well.

 

[nine9fingers]

boy to kick the cable company you need a internet connection! My internet is through the cable company! I OTA general TV and subscribe to netflix, amazon and acorn.
When are they going to limit my bandwidth or put the brakes on when I stream something on netflix

 

[Lshields]

What about internet service?

 

[everhartgreg]

I understand "cutting the cord" with one tv, i.e. wireless antenna for local channels, playstation vue, etc. But, I have 4 tv's, all with DirecTv satellite access. My question is, how do I and what do I need to "cut the cord" so I can watch tv on all 4 tv's? Buying a wireless antenna for each tv is no problem since you can get one for about $40. But if I have playstation vue, how do I make this work for all 4 tv's? What equipment is needed for dvr, and can this somehow be hooked up to a wireless router?

 

[Vikingt]

Do not make the same mistake. I signed up for 2 month prepaid and I received a free Roku to receive sling TV. I asked the sales person if I could watch more than one TV at the time. And I was told I could watch 3. They have already taken my money, they got their sale, then I received 1 Roku remote. I called them and asked how am I to watch 3 TVs with one remote? They told me you are not, you can stream 3 devices not TVs. I requested an immediate cancellation and an address to send the Remote back to and a refund. The initial person was confused so I asked for a supervisor, he promised me a refund and a cancellation. Then I received an email stating that they do not do refunds. I then call them back and of course it is a different person who is even more confused I again ask for a supervisor. The woman was rude, disrespectful and a liar. So I have now been lied to by 5 employees from this company watch out. I watched 4 minutes of sleeping my tv to find out if I could watch on other TVs. Do not sign up it is a scam. Terrible business policy - NOT ACCEPTABLE and is a SCAM. Totally unnecessary stress added to my day, and rest assured after this experience I will never consider getting services and will relay to friends, family, and reviews online that this type of policy is NOT OK.

 

[l_wood]

I got an XBMCMART box last month, and it's wonderful! I have access to just about every network I did with cable and more! I also bought an HD antenna for the local channels. I'm not missing cable at all, especially the expensive bill each month. I felt so good when I boxed up all of my old cable equipment and sent it back to the cable company. Watching TV feels so much better now without having to pay a cable subscription every month. I'll never look back....

 

[brianreasoner3]

1st if you dont watch sports like i dont my ant,directv now and att access internet I save $89.00 amonth

 

[marfredfarm]

After comparing the streaming services, it seems that Hulu Live TV has every channel I ever watch on DirectTV, for half the price. Sure, I have to have internet, but I am going to have that anyway. My total of 90 dollars a month for high speed internet (100 Mb) AND Hulu Live TV, is less than many folks are paying for cable or satellite.

 

[Kerry_12]

Is there a website people can go to learn about all of this cut the cable?

thanks, everyone, Kerry

 

[rgd1101]

Is there a website people can go to learn about all of this cut the cable?

thanks, everyone, Kerry

this is the comment thread for the article, if you read the first post
http/www.tomsguide.com/us/cord-cutting-guide,news-17928.html

 

[ricdoug]

When COMCAST bought Pluto TV on 4/3/2019, they vowed to keep it free because of the 12 million plus viewers and they already had the commercial sponsors. Since I don't mind commercials this is a legal way to stream movies, TV, network news, sports, documentaries, food channels, crime channels, music and much more and it's formatted like cable TV. There are no fees and the app is available for smart phone, ROKU, Chromecast, Firestick and smart TV's. Another free favorite of mine is XUMO, where you can stream live concerts and other content.