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How many cord cutters are in here?

22K views 627 replies 106 participants last post by  hcour 
#1 ·
I'm not sure where the relevant sub-forum for this question would be, but I'm wondering how many others have done this. We dumped Dish almost a year ago and I have never looked back. It was the greatest phone call of my life and gave me some real satisfaction cancelling that contract. :D It wasn't about the money though, we bought a Roku and hooked it up to the main TV because we wanted to watch Breaking Bad on Netflix. After that series we started finding other shows and signed up for Hulu and Amazon Prime as well. Eventually we realized that we were never switching the input to Dish anymore so we got rid of it. I'm not a sports fan anymore and news and weather are easier to get on my phone so we now have a Roku on every TV in the house.

Anybody else joining the revolution?
 
#290 ·
Dropped cable/sat TV in June 2010 and have not looked back once! Of course one pretty much needs internet these days. I don't consider having that as not cutting the cord. Esp. when working from home once in a while is afforded by that and all the other benefits of internet access beyond watching content.

$58.26/mo for 12-15mbps (taxes included). Not the fastest, for sure, but plenty fast enough for the HTPC and multiple devices (two XBOX 360s, iPods, an iPad, Kindles, smart phones, etc.)
 
#8 ·
I think about cutting the cord every now and then, but I watch close to 100 NHL games a year - mostly on my regional Fox Sports Network. And I've gotta watch the Packers. Not sure how I could cut and keep watching the Wild and Packers. And I time shift 90% or more of it with my DVR. So for now DirecTV gets my $81.91 a month.
 
#15 ·
When the digital changeover happened, I never bothered to get new cable service. So that's what, 6 years? Broadband internet gives me everything I need. Had to tell the cable people to put me on a do not call list a couple years ago because they were calling daily trying to get me into a cable/phone/internet bundle.
 
#16 ·
I dont know if you would call it cord cutting but I have Netflix, Hulu and Slingtv (approx. $38) plus $50 for a good internet package.

I guess for that price you can get bundles now from different providers. My preference is however, to not have to worry about installation, paying for DVRs and managing them.

Others for that price prefer to have the whole gamut of 100 plus channels and whatnot.
 
#19 ·
I haven't cut anything because I've always been a "cord-never".

However, we recently converted our copper lines to FIOS for phone and Internet service. Point being that with their pricing structure the cost increment to add their basic TV package (150 channels, 30 HD) to the phone/Internet package is only $10/month -- add another $5/month for a cable card for my TiVo.

With that kind of pricing, there is very little incentive to cut anything -- quite the opposite -- if it's that cheap why not just get it. I decided not to get it because I've been content with my OTA content, but it has been bugging me that in a very real sense I am subsidizing the TV package for someone else. Sooner or later, cable will catch up with that pricing model that recognizes that everyone will pay for Internet and make that service the cost leader. Then TV service will be a low-cost add-on and threads like this one will disappear.
 
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#20 ·
My thought is cable and satellite have waited to long to jump on the bandwagon. They've left a bad taste in everyone's mouths for decades. As many have said already in this forum the ones that haven't cut have thought about it. The wave is already rolling and I don't think they can stop it. I see them going the way of the video rental stores, the music industry, etc. They've sat around too long thinking this was a fad instead of embracing it. Take a look at young people today. Most teenagers and early 20 year old's do not have cable in their homes. My 16 year old didn't even notice we removed his cable box when we sent it back.
 
#21 · (Edited)
But.... what about local news broadcasts, live sports like NFL games, PGA Tour, etc.

I can't live without that. And if you still have to pay for other TV, Movies, Netflix, etc. Whats the point really? I mean, your still paying to watch TV.

Recently I called Comcast. Threatened them I was leaving because of Internet TV shows. They are despirate right now, because everybody is leaving them. So they increased my channels. Increased my internet speeds, and lowered my bill by $40.

Another issue is the streaming quality of these Internet based TV shows. Still doesn't even compare to the quality you get with cable.

Its all based on your Internet connection. Look I've been on Youtube many many times, and always, always there is some sort of pause while it streams the packets. So annoying. So for me to watch a Netflix movie streamed on the internet, with absolutely no interruptions is what?
 
#22 · (Edited)
If youtube is constantly pausing your internet is too slow. Do you have other options for internet? I'm an I.T. guy and Netflix and youtube will stream HD very well with 3megs or higher. I've got about 40 megs available wirelessly and we stream 4 TVs all night long without issue and looking at my graphs I typically peak at 8megs at my house. When I left Dish my video quality actually improved because there is less compression. And again, for me it's not about saving money. It's about watching what I want when I want. Binge watching is rarely available through sat/cable. If you want locals get an antenna. The antenna will give you better video quality typically than sat/cable because it's not as compressed.

And the fact that your cable company dropped your price confirms what I have said, they are scared! Dish lowered my price 3 times on that phone call to try to keep me. I think they got down to 30/month but I had no use for it.
 
#23 ·
I cut the cord when we moved to the Boston area last summer, because we could finally get all the broadcast networks OTA. Before that, I had a really basic cable package with a CableCARD and a Windows Media Center PC for TV viewing. Either way, we have streamed an ever-increasing percentage of our content for years.

Our current setup is a quad-tuner Tablo DVR combined with Plex Media Server and a variety of streaming services. We subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, Funimation and Drama Fever and also enjoy free content from PBS, PBS Kids, The Smithsonian and a variety of other sources. Plex serves up all of our music, as well as a large library of movies and TV shows ripped from our extensive disc collection. Everything is accessible via Roku on any of our TV sets and via tablet or smart phone. We also switched the majority of our movie acquisitions to UltraViolet and Disney Movies Anywhere over the last several years, although we still have at least 600 movies on disc that we do not yet have in our library on Vudu. I am in the process of ripping all of those movies to the NAS.
 
#25 ·
Short version:
Last August, I cut the DISH Network cord and kept the DSL cord. The wife an I are just as happy as having it.


Long version:
For me, the cost savings was HUGE! I was already paying for internet. We watch mostly local channels. The 3-5 shows that we watch on cable/satellite are available on free Hulu, or we can live without watching them.


I was paying $165/month for DISH (Top 120, 1 DVR and 1 HD box) and DSL (12 down/0.4 up). I also had Netflix. Together I paid $172.99/month.


I dropped DISH and increased my internet speed (24 down/4 up). Now I pay $80/month for internet only. I kept Netflix and added Amazon Prime. Together I now pay $96.24/month. A total savings of 76.75/month in my pocket. I successfully cut my bill down 44%.


I did have to purchase an OTA outdoor antenna and a TV Tuner card for my PC so it can be used as a DVR. In less than 3 months (2.2), the cost of both were already taken care of. Technically I purchased the tuner 4-5 years ago and the antenna about a year ago, but technicalities don't really matter that much when the total cost is covered in such a short time.


My cell phone provider, Verizon Wireless, offers free NFL mobile so I can watch cable NFL games. I do miss out on MLB (but I didn't have Fox Sports in my DISH package), NBA, NASCAR (OTA local for half the season) and Golf (Saturdays and Sundays matter the most anyway). I go to sleep before 10PM anyway and most NBA and MLB games go past that, especially if they are west coast games.




It is true that if you did not pay for internet already, you would not save much if not lose money. It all depends on your current situation as well. To put $76.75 in my pocket, or to put toward any other bill was worth it to me.


I've been toying with the idea of getting an Xbox One and signing up for Sling TV. Yes, I will be back to a subscription, but with the $55/month that I am saving ($76.75-$20 for Sling), the cost of the Xbox will be paid for within 10 months. EPSN and NBA would be covered.
 
#28 · (Edited)
I have a dedicated home theater with 7.1, I only use blurays in there. In the main livingroom and all the bedrooms standard audio is fine. My living room has an in-wall stereo setup with a subwoofer that serves just fine for tv shows. Streaming is a very different way of watching tv. The first couple of weeks were kinda tough because you are learning new habits. Rather than channel surfing you just click on a random show, if you don't like it look for another one. They also give you recommendations for shows based on what you watch. We've found many great shows from the last several years that I never knew existing when I was getting tv the other way.

I work for a medium sized local family owned ISP. We try very hard to keep areas from getting congested by upgrading towers before they need it. I don't have drop outs at home unless our backbone develops a problem which is extremely rare because in most cases the traffic is automatically re-routed through a backup link until issue is resolved with the primary. The larger companies have a harder time maintaining that due to the sheer number of customers at any given sector. You might look for a local WISP in your area. Most WISP's do not data cap and can deliver pretty good service. I have never had a drop out that originated from our upstream fiber.

Here's a graph from my usage last night. This would have been the main living room tv running netflix, my daughter on hulu, and my son on youtube.

It doesn't take much.

(lol I just noticed my upload and download are graphing backwards, but you get the idea)
 
#30 · (Edited)
As was mentioned further up, if you tell Dish for instance that you are planning on quitting service, they will offer much to keep you. I was paying $90 a month about 7 months ago and told them I was quitting. they cut my bill in half to $45 for 6 months. It just ran out and reading this thread, I just called them back and got them to give me 10 months at 50 bucks. Also for those who don't know take a look on youtube for demos of the little android set top boxes running Kodi and xmbc. I just recently purchased one called the Minix neo 8h plus.
 
#32 ·
Maybe you guys in the cities have maxed out your fiber, I suppose that could be the case. Out here in NM its no problem because our population is so low. We even started playing playing with Xede satellite internet at our office yesterday as we might start reselling for them to customers that we cannot reach and we were getting 15 megs from it. Watched youtube in 1080p and didn't buffer at all. Only problem there is a 25gig data cap which would be reached really fast.
 
#36 ·
I would definitely say you need a reasonably fast internet connection for cord cutting to work well, especially if you need multiple concurrent streams. I have 75 Mbps symmetrical service, which covers my needs nicely.
 
#38 ·
For those on the fence there's a lot of other benefits to doing this beyond just TV watching. Different devices have various options, but the Roku for example gives you an RF remote. Big plus as the device can be out of sight and clean looking. The main unit is so small that I have mine zip tied to the back of the TV. They have a smart phone app which makes typing a lot easier plus if I have a video or photos on my phone I can instantly send them to my TV to view. If I'm browsing Youtube on my phone and find a great video, I can press a button and it plays on the TV. You get to pick cool screen savers and it even has games. Although they are the equivalent of Super Nintendo games, but some of them have entertained me for weeks! There are apps that play continues scenes of beaches or sunsets for that romantic evening or something to fall asleep to. And the menu system just looks more modern and is a thousand times faster than any DVR I rented in the past.

Lastly, you can watch music videos! What cable provider gives you that option these days? :)

Even if you don't completely switch I really think people should give this lifestyle a try. It's like when cell phones first came out, nobody needed one and got along just fine without them, but once you had one you couldn't imagine life without it.
 
#40 ·
I cut the cord about 2 months ago and LOVE it. Took down my Direct TV dish and mounted a OTA Antenna in its spot. Bought a Channel Master DVR+ for my main TV. Have either a FireTV or Roku stick on every TV for Amazon Prime/PBS Kids. And also have a Popcornhour A210 on every TV to access all the content from my 30TB Home Server. My work pays the bill for my business internet line so I pay nothing per month. I do have to say I am not a sports fan, so that made my cord cutting extremely easy.
 
#41 ·
Cut the cord 2 years ago...loved telling Comcast to shove it! I get 45 channels with OTA and the majority of them are actually pretty good! Use Mythtv as a DVR using SiliconDust Homerun Extend and the quality of OTA HD picture blows away what I used to get from Scumcast! I have Roku's for streaming stuff and decided to give Sling TV a try for a while.
 
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