[SET Man]

So we got here from free coffee shop wifi as mentioned above.  But those drinks at Starbucks are at least $5 a pop.  If you have to stop in each day to check your email and the sports scores you are up to $150 a month.  But you would likely be hungry at some point with all of those tasty pastries around.  Could it be priorities?  That is some good coffee though.

Why does everyone sound so angry and snarky or smug when discussing this topic?  If you choose to ditch cable/satellite to save some cash that is awesome.  Have suggestions for others on how they can save too, even better.  But to respond with anger or disdain I just don't get.

Hey!

    Well, it had been a little over a month now for me without cable and internet at home. I have to admit that I don't miss cable TV much but I do miss having internet at home.

    Anyway, yes, I'm at Starbucks again with my computer writing this. No, I don't have to stop by to use their wi-fi everyday to check my , email I can use my phone for that an more. There are only certain things that is easier to do on computer instead of using my good old iPhone 5s. And since I do go to Starbucks regularly anyway, do it doesn't cost me more money than usual, I just have to haul my computer with me and stay there for a while.

       I see that you seems to be unhappy about the tone of many of us here on this topic. Well, if you are one of the few people whom are happy with their cable and internet service and the amount they pay each month for, than you are the lucky few. Everybody I know are frustrated by the way these companies doing their business with their, useless stuffs on their package, hidden equipment fee, bad customer services.

     I do find all the comments here useful, to see that I'm not the alone when is come to being frustrated with cable companies. And to see how everyone here manages to go about without cable and different ways of getting shows online and etc. So, thanks you all for your opinions on this. I will eventually get home internet soon, likely from RCN next month. For now I'm using my iPhone 5s for emails, streaming my 1 months free Sling TV on my new 4K TV (sadly at a lower res  ) and etc.

   And perhaps instead of pointing out how we should discuss this topic, youravhandyman could help and come up with solution that fit everyone here?

Take care,
Buddy

[Phil A]

I don't think you can buy it anymore. It appears like they were so beta the market rejected them and they stopped selling them for now.

They sell this now after that was discontinued - https://www.channelmaster.com/Stream_Plus_p/cm-7600.htm#Header_ProductDetail_TechSpecs

[gregfisk]

The reason people hate the these companies is simple. They over charge, they have terrible service and until now have had a monopoly over all of us. And on top of that they consistently raise our rates.

I set up Utube TV and couldn't be happier, $35.00 per month, all our local channels, tons of movies and you can usually skip the commercials. Plus you can record all your favorite programming. The other great feature is you can have up to 6 TVs or other devices connected and it doesn't cost any more.

I can't imagine going back to cable TV and all I have to pay them for now is internet.

[SET Man]

Hey!

   Well, just an update. So, I went back to RCN and have been using their internet service for 2 months now. I received many mails from them, so I called them and went for up to 500mbs internet service for $45/mo including all taxes. Although, that is for the first year, they all do this, but I think after the first year I'll likely ended up paying $60-70/mo. Which is not bad, still cheaper than other companies available in my area. I don't always get 500mbs. I did speed test at different time and day and the speed average around 350-400mbs, well the key word is "up to" in their ad.

  And so far the service have been fine and reliable. I'm using over the air to get my local channels and Sling TV for $25/mo and get cable TV channels that I like to watch like BBC America, AMC, Foodnetwork, History and etc. I do missed one or two channels but not a big deal. Anyway, so far so good and no more Spectrum aka Time Warner for me, by the way one of the guy I worked with just canceled his Spectrum cable service also.

   Well, so far so good. Let's wait until next year and see how much this will cost me after my first year 

Take care
Buddy

[toocool4]

I am in the UK and stopped watching TV maybe over 12 years ago now and guess what I don’t miss it. When I watch TV, I found out I watched all the crap and it was a waste of my life. It took me about 3 months to get used to not watching TV.
I buy loads of DVD’s, go to the Cinema a lot that way I get to choose what I want to see rather than the 99% crap TV put’s on.
We have really good BBC radio in the UK so a lot of my news comes from BBC radio and it’s free.

I cannot do without Internet as I need it for work from time to time, So I still have home / mobile phone and Internet.

[Elizabeth]

I quit TV during the 1970's. I gradually got back to watching at least some times, starting in the early 80's. I have had cable, then dumped it, over and over. Currently I have only internet via cable. Dirt cheap as it is some sort of deal in my area. So my use will last as long as the deal does. I have used my phone as a connection to the net to my laptop, and that limited my time due to actual data costs. The big problem with that as Microsoft doing updates to Windows 10 I could not control, stealing the entire months data in a few seconds. But if I dropped cable I would go back to using the data via the phone to run my laptop.
As for TV, I use 'over the air' get thirty channels. No problem. Don't watch much.
Usually I am listening to music.

[Doublej]

I quit TV during the 1970's. I gradually got back to watching at least some times, starting in the early 80's. I have had cable, then dumped it, over and over. Currently I have only internet via cable. Dirt cheap as it is some sort of deal in my area. So my use will last as long as the deal does. I have used my phone as a connection to the net to my laptop, and that limited my time due to actual data costs. The big problem with that as Microsoft doing updates to Windows 10 I could not control, stealing the entire months data in a few seconds. But if I dropped cable I would go back to using the data via the phone to run my laptop.
As for TV, I use 'over the air' get thirty channels. No problem. Don't watch much.
Usually I am listening to music.

One fix for the Windows 10 updates is to head over to your local library on Patch Tuesday and manually trigger to the download and install.

[Bemopti123]

Hey!

   Well, just an update. So, I went back to RCN and have been using their internet service for 2 months now. I received many mails from them, so I called them and went for up to 500mbs internet service for $45/mo including all taxes. Although, that is for the first year, they all do this, but I think after the first year I'll likely ended up paying $60-70/mo. Which is not bad, still cheaper than other companies available in my area. I don't always get 500mbs. I did speed test at different time and day and the speed average around 350-400mbs, well the key word is "up to" in their ad.

  And so far the service have been fine and reliable. I'm using over the air to get my local channels and Sling TV for $25/mo and get cable TV channels that I like to watch like BBC America, AMC, Foodnetwork, History and etc. I do missed one or two channels but not a big deal. Anyway, so far so good and no more Spectrum aka Time Warner for me, by the way one of the guy I worked with just canceled his Spectrum cable service also.

   Well, so far so good. Let's wait until next year and see how much this will cost me after my first year 

Take care
Buddy

Remember Buddy, when the year is up and you see your bill being readjusted up....you call and you state that you are getting bunch of fliers from Spectrum and Verizon tempting you from dropping RCN and bang, you will get your bills down to the original cost or get a massive speed bump up.  Theoretical 300 Mbps....actually gets me around 345 on their end.  Plenty sufficient for anything and everything here.  They even offer 1000 Mbps....Jesus.  It is insane.   

[OzarkTom]

My wife and I quit about eight years ago and never have missed until the College BB playoffs. Now that I have my Amazon Fire Stick, I have too many shows to catch up on. It is great to have all those classic shows at hand.

Alexa, please play Rocky. And it is free on the Sony channel.

[Bob in St. Louis]

My monthly cable bill was $205/month, and the day I got a letter saying that next month my bill would increase by $15 a month, I cut that cord.
Don't regret a single second.
Bought an OTA antenna and mounted it on the roof for less than $100. The wife wants the ability to have a "smart DVR", so we bought a TiVo unit, and pay about $15 a month for the "TV Guide", and all that goes with the "smart" recording.
The internet takes care of all our other needs. So for less than half the price, we're just as happy.
Now... If I can only figure out where that $125+ a month went... 

[Bemopti123]

My monthly cable bill was $205/month, and the day I got a letter saying that next month my bill would increase by $15 a month, I cut that cord.
Don't regret a single second.
Bought an OTA antenna and mounted it on the roof for less than $100. The wife wants the ability to have a "smart DVR", so we bought a TiVo unit, and pay about $15 a month for the "TV Guide", and all that goes with the "smart" recording.
The internet takes care of all our other needs. So for less than half the price, we're just as happy.
Now... If I can only figure out where that $125+ a month went... 

The cable companies are getting desperate but they should figure out that people are waking up and talking with their wallets.  Most of the programming they offer in their 500+ channels...is low quality reruns and many local channels with their strange cadre of actors/aspiring actors ranting strange strange things.  Do not miss it a bit.

[bacobits1]

Yea I'm looking at the TV Cable BS again too. Mine was at $98/month and went up to $120 recently
( not as bad as Bob's)
(promo over) now it went up to $122 79. WTF! They tacked on another $1 to the rental cable box which is now used anyway, the other $1.79 I can't really find but service charge or something comparing bills. TV is absolutely drivel and garbage!!!!!!!
January change coming.

There is no way $205 /month is worth it. People are fed up.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Found out that Disney will be starting their own streaming service in 2019.
While that may not mean much on the surface, if you think about everything they own, will now no longer be available on any other streaming service.
So.... everything StarWars and LucasFilm is now proprietary.
Remember "back in the day" when you couldn't buy a Disney movie (on VHS) because they weren't releasing it, but every so often to create extra demand?
It's going to be like that again.

[Tyson]

Found out that Disney will be starting their own streaming service in 2019.
While that may not mean much on the surface, if you think about everything they own, will now no longer be available on any other streaming service.
So.... everything StarWars and LucasFilm is now proprietary.
Remember "back in the day" when you couldn't buy a Disney movie (on VHS) because they weren't releasing it, but every so often to create extra demand?
It's going to be like that again.

Well they'll stream stuff on their own platform and not make it available via any other platforms.  Not just Star Wars but all the Marvel movies too. 

What we'll end up with is we (consumers) will have to subscribe to several different services in order to get all the content we want.  I'm already doing this - Hulu, Netflix and Filmstruck.  About $35 per month for all 3.  Combine that with the fiber gigabit internet I spend $80 for, and it's about $115 total.  I don't mind, because there is literally more good quality content on these 3 services than I can get to in a lifetime.  And I can watch anything I want at anytime I want. 

Having said that, I definitely will not subscribe to the Disney platform for the same reason I don't subscribe to HBO or Showtime etc... that's because I've already seen most of the good content those platforms offer, so I'm not going to subscribe in order to watch a bunch of stuff I've already seen. 

[mjosef]

Hey Buddy...wow, its been a long time since we chatted..haven't been on here much lately, so just came upon this thread. So here's my take on this...
In my area there's only one cable co., Cablevision, they were bought out last year by a French Co.
I think Cablevision were better to deal with than Time warner or Comcast, my opinion

Two years ago I decided to drop the cable and phone, and just have the internet...my bill was 180-190 for the triple play, and this was a promotional deal ...every year I had to call in and to get whatever promotional deal they had, so the regular price was about 25$ more. I had enough when they raised the fee on the remote! and the cable box and initiated a $6. extra fee for espn.
My cable package inc. hbo and showtime...the silver package.
At that time(2yrs ago)I got just the 60Mb basic internet. $49.
I already was a Amazon Prime member, so I was looking for a streaming option just as DirectvNow streaming service was kicking off. They were offering a free AppleTV if you signed up and prepaid for three months in advance which I thought was a damn good deal, who doesn't like free stuff. I jumped right in with their special promotional GoBig package @$35. for 100+ channels...whoopie, I was immediately seeing savings of $100. They also offered hbo add-on for $5.  This promotional pricing was pitched as "forever", as long as I don't cancel. Regular price was $70.

Drawbacks: DirectvNow had teething problems throughout their first year...freezing frames, drop outs...my work around was to use the individual network apps. Now the DTN app is much more stable, its still a little slow loading.
Two years on, I'm pretty satisfied with the service. A few months ago, they raised the price by $5. across all their packages, so now I'm at 40.+5(hbo)=$45. plus internet at $55. Total $100.
All the streaming companies raised their prices by $5. at the same time...can u say, collusion? No no collusion. lol
Altice (they bought Cablevision)claimed they no longer offer the 60Mb basic speed, basic is now 100Mb at $69. I had to haggle with them to get back the $49. pricing which is a 1yr. promotional deal, so have to call every March to keep that pricing. Of course they had to nickle and dime an extra 5$ by suddenly start charging for the modem(they claimed the regular price is 10$). My next counter would be to buy my own modem...lol.
Cable companies, the bane of the digital world.

So thats my story. Later.

[SET Man]

Remember Buddy, when the year is up and you see your bill being readjusted up....you call and you state that you are getting bunch of fliers from Spectrum and Verizon tempting you from dropping RCN and bang, you will get your bills down to the original cost or get a massive speed bump up.  Theoretical 300 Mbps....actually gets me around 345 on their end.  Plenty sufficient for anything and everything here.  They even offer 1000 Mbps....Jesus.  It is insane.   

Hey!

   Yup, that's my plan. But I don't mind switching every year, the problem is that I in a rental apartment and have to bother my landlord to get access to the back yard to hook up the cable  Yeah, as for the 1000Mbps, I can't think of why I would need it, right now 300-500Mbps is fine for me 

Hey Buddy...wow, its been a long time since we chatted..haven't been on here much lately, so just came upon this thread. ......

Hey!

    Man! yes it had been ages! I don't come here much lately ever since the the NYAR disbanded and another big reason is that I'm DONE with my system. Because it seems like the more I tried to improve it, make it of what I think should be technically more accurate, the less enjoyable it becomes. So, I came to a conclusion that I have to stop before I loose all that emotionally goodness. Well, I'm sure you know what I mean because you've heard my system before.

    Sorry for being of topic a bit, just a little shout out to an old friend 

Take care,
Buddy

[Bob in St. Louis]

Because it seems like the more I tried to improve it, make it of what I think should be technically more accurate, the less enjoyable it becomes. So, I came to a conclusion that I have to stop before I loose all that emotionally goodness.

Bingo! 

[macrojack]

Bingo! 

Why, Bob, I didn't know you played.

[macrojack]

Bingo! 
[/quote

[Bob in St. Louis]

Why, Bob, I didn't know you played.

That was my first time!