Cord Cutting Solutions…Are You Ready?

Best HT money I spent was to hire someone to put a nice quality antenna on my chimney.
Also drove in a ground rod and connected it to the mast. The highest quality programming is now free!

I need WatchEspn to start showing more content.

Then I can cut the cord.

The only thing I need cable for is ESPN, NFL network, and the premium channels. Shows like Dexter, Homeland, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Newsroom, Spartacus, and Magic City are the majority of my TV watching. Luckily for me I am a Comcast employee who receives the steep employee discount. We basically pay to use the boxes, but the channels are free. I have been looking into purchasing a SiliconDust CableCard tuner, because we get CableCards free as well, which would drop my bill down to almost nothing (extra for 50Mbps internet). Still undecided on which one to purchase yet though.

Greetings! Longtime reader/lurker, but this topic REQUIRES me to speak up.

I cut the cable TV (Comcast, but still use their internet svc) over two years ago. Went through a mildly maddening process to achieve the results I was aiming for: perfect reception.

To cut to the chase, my problems of pixelating, low signals, missing channels, etc, all were solved when I purchased the "HD Stacker TV Antenna" for Denny's Antenna Service (online) a few months back. I use it with a Radio Shack signal amplifier, and am now getting 90+% signal!!! Before, with my old chimney mounted antenna and aforementioned amp, I never got more than 72% signal, typically 42-65. I also gained several "problem channels (CBS channel 2; note: I live in SW Chicago burbs, about 35 miles from transmitters), and many others I didn't receive before with old equipment.

Honestly, it's the best $130 I spent on my lowly home theater. I called them up, spoke with the owner, heck, he even told me what degrees on a compass I should aim the darn thing!

I also use many channels, Netflix included, on my Sony s580 blu-ray player, which I have hardwired with cat5. 50" Panasonic plasma looks great, and leaves me not longing for much other programming, and sure love the massive savings since cutting the cable. Practically pays for a nice vacation each year.

And yes, I did have some "channel-withdrawal" immediately after I ended Comcast. But honestly, in a week or so, I practically forgot about those channels. And when I hook the laptop up to the plasma, heck, there's so much to watch/listen to, I'm more than fine.

Thanks for listening, hope I didn't go on too long.

John S.
Mokena, IL

I've done this, the picture isn't terrible, but the first question it asks you when you launch WatchESPN's player is who your cable provider is. It then verifies your account/service and denies/allows you accordingly. Not sure how those without cable are getting through? Unless they have internet through their cable provider, in which case that would make sense. It's definitely a passable solution for hanging onto one of the few must-have(for me) channels.

The only reason I still have cable is Speed.

A directional antenna mounted on a rotor is what is needed where I live to get all networks off air. Allowing choices. Then I have Boadwalk Empire that I'm addicted to. If a streaming service would offer HBO, it would be a good deal for me. (upstate NY) near the Beekmen boys

I haven't had cable for about 2 years. I've been using a Roku (Netflix, sometimes Hulu, and Amazon mostly) combined with occasional Redbox rentals.

I've held off buying an antenna for one reason: I'm in a brick apartment building, basically ground level. I have a sliding glass door where I could put the Mohu. But, it's facing away from the antennas that are near me (approx. 20 miles away).

I've read differing things on whether or not I'll get anything at all using an antenna like the Mohu, so I haven't gotten one.

What do you guys think?

I have a basic TV program which is $13 a month but my cable for internet access is $39 or so. A couple of months ago Time Warner tacked on a 4$ "modem rental" fee. My basic service gets ESPN that I never watch and some other channels higher up on the dial. No AMC, HBO of course but I would do just fine with an Antennae but I am stuck needing internet (netflix) unless I cockroach off a neighbor and that I do not want to do. So , I guess I'm stuck.

I am right in assuming if u don't have cable u don't have direct internet?

The premium channels, like HBO, Showtime, Starz, need to offer a Stream-Only service. I would pay $5-8 a month for each premium channel to just stream their content to a PC or smart device. The professional sports leagues are going in the right direction with streaming packages.

MLB has MLB.tv for $125 for the season.
NHL has NHL GameCenter Live for $50 for the season.
NBA has NBA League Pass Broadband for $100 for the season. All of which allow you to watch live games via internet stream.
And of course the NFL lags behind with their NFL GameRewind service that only allows you to watch replays of all the games.

Even if you were to purchase all four of these services (assuming the NFL offered one for $150) that would add upto $425 total or $35 per month to watch every game of the four major sports. That's still cheaper than it would cost to just add them to your existing cable bill. NFL Sunday Ticket for DirecTV is $60/month by itself.

My bill would be in the $42 range if It looked something like... HBO: $5, Starz: $5 , Showtime: $5, MLB: $10.42/mo, NFL: $12.50/mo, NHL: $4.20/mo. Lower than what my current bill after the employee discount and it includes more of what I watch. A similarly packaged cable bill with the sports packages added puts it up over $220 a month. That's about $180 savings per month. This actually has more more relaxed about cutting the cord here soon. I get cranky when I cant watch my sports.

Offer your neighbor $20 a month to leach their WiFi. As a cable technician I spend half of my time working in condos on Longboat Key FL, a lot of them "share" internet costs. That is assuming you wouldn't be downloading torrents all day and hogging all their bandwidth. lol

Or streaming TV/Movies..... Oh wait...


dbl

I've had a real roof antenna since ATSC transmissions were experimental. The cost is low, the problem is more mental....folks get a block about putting up an antenna-they will hire a plumber to install a sink but to hire a TV guy for an antenna is too complicated . The new ones aren't that big, as VHF low is gone, and VHF high elements aren't that long. TV Fool is your friend, and pretty accurate for my location...it even found two stations I can't get and reported them "below threshold" (mountains in the way).

This will only work for some folks though. I live in "hills" and depending on location it can be a 95% signal or "no lock" within a mile.

I'd cut but my cable bill isn't too big...cut out of the "triple play" I can't get too angry at $45....and the rest of the family is used to it. If I was moving and starting over, I'd get broadband and just a cell phone.....and would not bother with cable OR landlines. I don't care about sports, and the Netflix app in my TiVo is wonderful.

Most Networks will legally stream to you the news and primetime shows, although not HD...sometimes with a 24 hour delay, but since no one has watched in real time since the VCR was invented, no problem.

A cablevision commercial has actors exclaiming "you can't share other people's wifi"..Liars.

I believe radio waves go through brick just fine.

Thanks, Vinny. And really, I wasn't much of a television watcher before I cut the cable; regularly only watched less than 10 cable channels. I'm much more into music, specifically, live concerts.

JTK and I are quite similar, I get most of my viewing from Amazon Prime, Netflix, the occasional Redbox (sign up for their text messages, I get at least one free rental/month), and OTA.

Netflix's streaming library, especially music, leaves a lot to be desired. But I enjoy Pandora a lot. Quality isn't bad. But I've streamed Cream Reunion, Royal Albert Hall, numerous times for friends thru Netflix, and everyone, I mean everyone, says, DANG, that's through the internet?

And yanno what? I find I'm much more productive now. I don't plop my dupa down in the couch and surf anymore; I just find fiction sort of a waste of my precious time. Sure, I like Sons of Anarchy, Madmen, Breaking Bad, etc, but ultimately, it's not really that important to my life.

I'd much rather put on a CD/stream some music while reading, building something in my workshop, etc. Almost have enough saved up to buy the Hsu sub I'm longing after. Another month or so, I'll get it; should round out my 2.0 system quite nicely. Way off topic, I know....

We have been the same since 2001. We did do DirectTV (2yrs) and then Dish(last 3 yrs) mostly as we wanted DVR service and more kids programming than PBS Kids. Now the kids have no time for TV so we bought a TiVo with lifetime subscription and a ROKU. Free at last, though I am going to miss my European Football and golf (which my wife won't mind at all).

All the time we have been using our antennas in the attic Channel Master 1818 and 4228 combined and preamped with a 7777 preamp, whole house distributed through the cable install. My issue is I cannot find a TV guy to them on my chimney in our area, seems to be a lost art/trade and the height is very high. No reason to push it right now, but it would be nice to have a proper outside install,with both angled at the proper transmitters at the highest signal strength.

Being a recent cord cutter, and working in the TV business, I was a bit miffed that one can't simply buy a decent ATSC OTA DVR. There's a few out there that act like older VCRs that you program with day-of-week and time of day, there's TIVo but at that cost I may as well keep paying for cable....

I ended up converting a PC into a MythTV box for my home theater and using an existing Sony network player in a second room to only watch shows after they finish recording. My total cost for this solution was $10 for an antenna that didn't work, $15 for another antenna that didn't work, $20 for another antenna that didn't work, $1.20 for a cheap balun, $6 for some RG-6 quad jumpers, $3 for a splitter, a couple of screws I had on-hand, a coat hanger that I essentially cut in half, a small wood block that I had on-hand, $110 for two HDHomeRun Duals (I got them on Black Friday sale... they're normally about that much each and I was willing to pay that much), $6 for a better balun, a cardboard box that I had on-hand, and a piece of aluminum foil.
Yes. I'm using a single-bay bow-tie antenna made from a coat-hanger. No, I did not tune the elements, I essentially cut the hanger in half and bent each side to make the vees, scuffed up the corners as to make better contact, put screws through them and the balun into the (2x2x4) wood block. I was having some issues with one of the lower power stations in town so I got a box that was slightly small for the antenna, poked some holes in the side and let the antenna 'float' inside it and coated the back with aluminum foil (there's also a hole in the back/bottom for the coax to escape). I also replaced the original balun with the RadioShack model as I noticed some issues with the initial cheap balun and a lower power channel. Being in a market with 4 OTA DTV stations, 4 tuners + mythtv works quite well as I can record anything and not really worry about conflicts. I get CBS and the CW; NBC and ABC; Fox and My; and PBS, Create, and World. Half of this is VHF-High, Half is UHF. There's a "high power" and relatively "low power" in each band. I'm using a non-tuned single-bay bow-tie through a 2' cinder block wall and a neighboring building but otherwise would have line of sight.

In my experience, bow-tie antennas seem to work the best in the most situations. More bays makes them more directional and usable at further range. If I were a bit further out, I'd likely have to tune the whiskers (get them all the same length and the appropriate length for the channels I want). A bit further, two bays. A bit further, four bays. Eight and sixteen bay bow-tie antennas are certainly doable but are likely overkill for most. If you want to make your own, just search youtube for "better HD antenna" and browse around -- most of these are four-bay bow-ties but reducing them to one or two bays is trivial.

Talk to the local Dish/DirecTV installer types. I'd expect that this would be in their wheelhouse.

i cut the cord approx 10 years ago,had enough of the crap my cable provider was "providing".the majority that i watch is NHL,NFL,MLB,and NASCAR.most is watchable OTA in my area.another good thing about OTA,especially during the summer months,is you can receive out of market channels due to tropospheric conditions,which means more channels.there has been numerous occasions where i had the option of watching more than 1 NFL or MLB game being broadcasted from FOX affiliates.and its accomplished with an indoor TERK HDTVA antenna.

I'm more an almost cord cutter. I went from every channel offered from Comcast, to no premium, to just standard, and now just limited basic. I'm on limited basic because I haven't mounted the antenna and need find the cable distribution box for the house. Why rewire the house when it's already been done. Then all I need to is run one line for the internet. Limited basic is around $22 a month in my area. I still want to see the local news and what not. I've been on this setup for around two years. If I cut cable TV, my internet bill will go up $10 a month., but I will still save $120 a year.

That said, I'm a bit of a sports addict. And for many people this is kind of the last barrier. First, you need to have a decent internet connection to get sports. Most sport leagues have online packages such as Major League Baseball's At Bat service. They all show out of market games. The costs of these packages typically range in the $100 to $300 range. There are some exception's such as the NHL right for $50, but that's more because of the lockout. Some services are for replays only such as the NFL Game Rewind; these services are much cheaper, usually around the $50 per season. There are some sports leauge's that don't because they either have TV contracts through the world such as WSBK motorcycle racing, or just behind the times.

A cheaper cost is to use stuff such as JustinTV, Ustream, and various other self broadcast services. There's other people who will rebroadcast games. There's no law, at least in the US for consuming games this way, only to provide it. The problem is the quality is inconsistent, the feed get cut off for copyright infringements, or there's no feed.

Next, I would recommend as internet service provider that gives WatchESPN (EPSN3). This service is only offered by EPSN to ISP's, so you not able to subscribe directly. There is some limited exception in the United Kingdom with the ESPN Player, but that's only for college sports. ESPN3 everyone who gets WatchESPN gets it. The other EPSN channels such as ESPN1, EPSN2, and ESPNU, are available if you have a TV subscription; obviously this doesn't apply to the topic, but if you have friend who's will to share their WatchESPN account, then it could be had. This would give you Sports Center. Another option, although not great, is some cellphone services give access to ESPN Mobile which shows live games on EPSN1 and a few other show like Pardon the Interuption and a truncated Sports Center. The only issue, the mobile apps don't usually allow HDMI out on mobile devices that are equipped with that ability. Although some people hack the apps.

Another issue is in regards to blackout rules. Most people probably fans of the local teams. Thus, the sport packages may not be well suited since most, if not all games, of the local teams are on local TV. There are solutions though. The best is using a VPN service. This allows you get an IP address that is outside of the home market. Thus, someone in New York can get one with an IP in China. What IP you need may depend if the game is just on local or national TV. This is an additional cost and ranges in the $8 to $15 a month depending on the service and how long of subscription. This also gives you access to services available outside your area such as the NFL Game Pass serivce for those in the US since it's not available within the US because of DirectTV's Sunday Ticket. You can also access other TV service's possibliy such as BBC's iPlayer, CatchUp TV, Hulu in Japan, and so forth. Depending on your service, you may be able to use on your mobile device. Sometimes, sports leagues will offer these online packages free in certain areas of the world, so if you get an IP there, it'll be free for you too.

As mentioned earlier, you may be able to use your mobile device as well. Some sports league include mobile access. Some will have packages that are just for mobile access are reduced prices. They usually don't include the extra access such at that that league's sport's channel. Some mobile carrier's include mobile access for no extra cost. Two examples in the US are Sprint for the NBA (all audio and games on ESPN) and Verizon and the NFL (out of market games and redzone). Blackout rules still remain. As earlier, usually there is a way to circumvent. Some a simple GPS spoofer does the trick. Others, you need to use a VPN. Some check both, and those circumstances a bit more tech savvy will be needed.

With all that said, realize that all the leagues have language in their terms of service (TOS) agreements about circumventing the blackouts. Generally, the TOS says the service will be cancel with no refund. Plus, they will charge an additional free, some as high as $250. They also include they may sue. Depending on your county's laws, this may or may not be criminally illegal. In the US, to consume is not a criminal offense. Unless you're using the service in a public forum, the odds of being catch are very low. And most don't seek league action unless you're a repeat offender.

This could save you significant money. It may not save a penny, but you'll watch exactly what you par for and nothing more. Personally, I use a VPN year round. I also subscribe to MLB, NHL, NBA, NHL, MotoGP, and get EPSN3. I was already subscribing to some of these before I went limited cable. So I basically save on the money I spend for cable TV. Plus, I'm happier to pay for what I watch, not that and 100 plus channels I don't. Good or bad, I actually watch more sports now than I did when I had full cable TV service.

As for cutting the cord, I have found throughout the years of having cable TV to just OTA with only five channels received, you will adjust watch based on the available content. Never doubt what kind of bad programming you'll watch because it's all you have. Heck, you'll learn to like it, LOL.

For me, there are even more benefits to cord cutting than the usual money savings...

The best rule our family made was "one hour of TV per day" for the WHOLE family. It was hard at first, but now I do more housework, hit the treadmill more, getting myself ready for the next day, and the best part, getting to spend a ton more time with my daughter. She's not watching Mickey Mouse and I'm not watching Sportscenter.

Do I miss my hours and hours of TV? Sure, but I wouldn't go back to cable/sat for anything at this point.

Your pricing is flawed. No way would those premium channels be that cheap per month. I figure HBO would be around $15 - $20 alone. With Starz and Showtime being in the $10 - $15 range each. No way would they charge a lower price for a stand alone service than they would being bundled with a cable package. And the reason why the NHL package is so cheap is because of the lockout. It's normallly $160 per year. I'm not saying you couldn't save money going this route. But it won't be anywhere near what you're thinking.

I cut the cord in 2009. I installed a Channel Master 4228, with an amplifier, in my attic and it feeds all the TVs in my house. I record OTA to my Linux server using HDHomerun devices and MythTV. The only thing I'm paying for is my internet connection. All networked computers (WD TV Live, laptops, desktops, etc) have access to Netflix and my server, so everything is viewable on anything with a screen. Using Harmony remotes, I've simplified my setups so that my family can access everything with little to no headaches.

We cut the cord when we moved to our new home ~4 years ago and installed an outdoor antenna in the attic. I pick up channels clearly as far as 40 miles away.

I use Windows Media Center as my DVR connected to two dual HDHomeruns and XBox 360s as extenders. The only thing I've missed is Discovery. We didn't have any premium channels. But man I don't miss the payment. We'll never go back to pay TV.

Internet is provided via VzW 3G / 4G, so we do very little streaming. Cable and DSL Internet are not available in the area.