The Official "I dont have dish or cable" anymore thread

So can you watch, say, BOARDWALK EMPIRE?

I got rid of Directv years ago. My problem is my connection is less than 3G speed, so it takes me a while to view anything over the internet...not really a problem if you don't mind buying a few shows on blu-ray every now and then...still beats shelling out over $100/month.

Nice!

Cut off network 20 years ago. Sat/Cable 5 years ago
I enjoy premium sat shows whenever I desire. Blu-Ray is always around.

You might find yourself missing it from time to time, but give it a year and you'll really laugh when you visit friends and hear the 'Noise' coming from a tube. Just garbage washing over the ears after you get away for a while.

Good Luck

I stopped cable 3 years ago, saving $2300 so far. We watch OTA or borrow library DVDs, which usually involves a wait, but it's free. My internet connection is too slow for online viewing. What I like best about OTA is that the TV is off when there's nothing to watch. The quiet is rather nice.

What about sports?

Dish subscriber since April 1997... lets see: we now get cooking and wrestling on Syfi; the Science channel now has a reality program; History is all reality all the time and no history; I am forced to pay for the highest priced cable/dish channel of them all, ESPN and I never watch sports; Spike has a habit of stretching CSI to over 1 hour and 20 minutes just to place additional advertising in the block; American Pickers is not only found on History but Lifetime as well; and then there are the snipe/pop-up ads telling me what I know I am already watching and the horrendous garish channel logos even on premium programming. Then to ad insult to injury, Dish Network charges me a rental fee of $17.00 a month for receivers I own outright. Screw it. Dish Network will soon be losing a long term customer and Netflix will be picking me up. I have been an idiot long enough and have finally noticed I am not getting what I have been paying for, month after month over the course of 15 years...

That's the deal killer for me.

I can see cutting the cable or dumping the dish if I wasn't into sports, but there is no other way to get the live sports content I want.

?

Maybe where you live. Not where I do. Try to avoid such broad generalizations, as they can be very wrong.

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I couldn't cut it. Even with satellite, I still have to resort to Hulu because I have too many things taping a night

hockey and basketball?

In LA, NYC, and Chicago, the largest DMAs, you need cable/satellite for RSNs, otherwise you'll miss pretty much every basketball/baseball/hockey game. Football is the only thing you're safe from unless you want to watch monday/thursday/saturday night games that your local team isn't playing in.

That's because the NFL has agreements to allow local broadcasts of MNF games in the home team markets.

Along with most all (all?) other markets where pro teams are located.

I got rid of Dish 3 months ago and don't miss it at all. I have 2 HTPCs and can record 5 OTA shows at any time, so I've got a lot of content stored and will have plenty to watch over the summer. I used some of the money I saved to subscribe to MLB TV to watch games I couldn't get before anyway. The only shows I watched on sat are all available online anyway and the PQ is actually pretty good surprisingly.

The main reason I had sat or cable was for college football, so I'll probably have to bite the bullet and get Comcast for 6 months during the season. Wish someone would come up with a sports only package at something resembling a reasonable price.

well, my point was, if the 3 biggest markets are set up like that, its hard to imagine a smaller one isn't

I have cut the cord twice...

- Several years ago. I had TiVo for OTA and it lasted a year. The Tour de France made me sign up with Dish (HD Absolute with DVR).

- Last Fall - When my Dish commitment was up I saw no reason to keep going on. I still have TiVo for DVRing (I'll give up all TV before DVRing). I viewed my Timers and found most of them were for OTA shows and the few satellite ones I had I pretty much never got to since I was streaming various Netflix shows above them.

I tend to miss the less popular sports like cycling, tennis grand slams, etc. But once you remind yourself you can always go back it never seems like I am missing out at the moment. ESPN360 offers a little fix... I watched an NBA playoff game the other night.

Actually, they do show a decent amount of Pro baseball here in Chicago OTA, spread amongst three (HD) channels. Between the Sox and the Cubs, it's not unusual to be able to see games 4 times a week total.

(Although the way both are playing right now, it might be a bit of a stretch to call it "Professional" Baseball.)

Now that I think about it, I'm sad my bro no longer manages a blockbuster store lol--but he still has satellite and lives within a stone's throw, so if there are any sports I just have to see that aren't broadcasting locally...

Meanwhile there's teams like the Minnesota Twins who have a whole whopping total six games OTA this season. Last year in comparison Sunday games were always OTA along with whatever games Fox had on their Saturday afternoon lineups.

Other teams in Minnesota OTA going by 2010-2011 seasons:

Vikings = All games OTA.
Timberwolves = 12 games OTA.
Wild = 19 game OTA.
Gophers = Occasional basketball game otherwise no.
NSC Minnesota Stars (NASL Soccer) = Online only.
Saints = Apparently online only.
Swarm (La Cross) = Occasional game OTA.

I've been free for about three months. With Netflix (which we also had when we had Satellite.) and OTA, we have enough to watch. When reruns start we may pay $5 more and get the 2 DVD plan, not sure yet.

As for sports, I've lost a lot of interest in them. I replaced some of that sitting around watching other people do stuff and picked up some hobby's of my own.

The exception is soccer which fortunately, has great streaming support.

If you were paying only $41 a month for pay TV you were lucky. Most pay TV prices are over $100 a month these days.

Back in November of 2008 I canceled my cable subscription when the bill hit $83 a month. It has been raised even more and if I didn't cancel I would be I would be paying $100 a month right now. I have saved $2,400 in cable fees since I cut the cord. It hurts when I think of all the money I paid for cable the last 3 years I had it. If I would have spent that money on DVDs I would have 3 bookcases full of DVDs instead of the one bookcase full I have now.

But I still have plenty to watch. I'm now watching more TV than ever since I cut the cord. And with my DVDs I'm watching what I want uncut, commercial free, and with a clutter free screen. Then I get to keep them. No more paying to watch repeats. Also I have 60 years of programming to choose from instead of just whats on TV.

When I canceled cable I was hoping I would get a fairly good picture. After buying my antenna and HDTV Tuner set top box I was shocked at how good the High Definition channels were. They are even better than cable. Plus I get 15 channels OTA including all the major networks, 3 PBS stations, RTV (The Retro Television Network) and This TV.

I watch football in HD OTA all weekend during football season and if I need to see more I can watch it on ESPN3.com.

No it is not. Our baseball and basketball teams have 95% of their games on the regional sports channel. Not sure of any market that has all the home town games (MLB NBA) on OTA outside of NFL games.

The other problem with cutting the cord is commercials, if you want to go the streaming route. With Tivos (or Windows Media Center) I can setup automatic recordings of anything I want, then skip all the commercials later. If you're streaming, you're stuck with whatever they want to force-feed you. And there's tons of current content not available for streaming right now.

But the big problem for me is that OTA is just too limited for this sports fan.