Cutting Cable and Alternatives.

[RubberBullets 65]

Ok.. Thanks again for the help. If you happen to come across anything a little more compact please let me know. Not sure if I can sell the wife on a big ass antenna out on the roof. But if im only losing a few channels from the previous mentioned.. perhaps it would still be worth it. Perhaps ill get lucky and get an ABC stream on roku one day.

[ryan_j 0]

There's this:

 

http://www.aereo.com/

 

Legal (for now), not free but much cheaper than cable.

[Candide 0]

I got myself a western digital media player with a 1 tb hard drive and then I use the internet and download pretty much any tv shows I want. I also have netflix.

[Big Jay 0]

Simple. Call and tell them you're cancelling. I do this once a year, when my package expires. Where I live I can get both Fios and Cablevision. After a year is up and they attempt to raise my bill, I call up and cancel my service. I switch to the competitor OR take the break they give me.

 

Couple months ago they dropped my bill from what would have been $165 to $105. Now I have a DVR box, regular digital box, 90% of the movie channels, internet, phone and all that crap.

 

The other alternative is:

 

Roku/DLNA device + icefilms.info or one of the other downloading sites out there.

[djg0770 481]

ryan_j - can you give me some advice? What equipment would I need or benefit most from? Mi familia NO hablo espanol...

 

attic mount - http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d1dda541a15fd95

 

approx 10' pole on top of house mount - http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d1dda598af19823

[djg0770 481]

There's this:

 

http://www.aereo.com/

 

Legal (for now), not free but much cheaper than cable.

 

 

This is what I get on "basic" cable without a box - almost exactly, and for much much cheaper. Interesting.

[MikeK77 8]

i found this site. comes in handy for sports

 

http://www.skyaccess.org/

[RubberBullets 65]

Simple. Call and tell them you're cancelling. I do this once a year, when my package expires. Where I live I can get both Fios and Cablevision. After a year is up and they attempt to raise my bill, I call up and cancel my service. I switch to the competitor OR take the break they give me.

 

Couple months ago they dropped my bill from what would have been $165 to $105. Now I have a DVR box, regular digital box, 90% of the movie channels, internet, phone and all that crap.

 

The other alternative is:

 

Roku/DLNA device + icefilms.info or one of the other downloading sites out there.

 

Ive been doing that for years.. but as of the last few years the "best they can do " is about 10-15 more a month per occurrence. So my 100 dollar bill has increased to 160 post negotiating for cable and internet. Its certainly become a matter of principle to give a big FU to cable companies. They are a dieing industry that failed to adapt just as the MPAA did with their stranglehold on major movie releases.

[ryan_j 0]

ryan_j - can you give me some advice? What equipment would I need or benefit most from? Mi familia NO hablo espanol...

 

attic mount - http://www.tvfool.co...d1dda541a15fd95

 

approx 10' pole on top of house mount - http://www.tvfool.co...d1dda598af19823

 

I lived in Wayne at one time and it is very easy to pick up the local HD channels there. You could get away with something like a channel master 3016 which would work fine in the attic and even better outside.

[cigarsnscotch 0]

Well I finally did it. Cut the cord on Verizon and am having cablevision installed Internet only on Tuesday morning. 50 down/10 up for $44.95 a month, no contract! (Which is what I needed because I am moving to SC this summer). VZ didn't bat an eye at me canceling an didn't want to work withe for Internet only. Stupid pricks.

 

Going to run a hybrid mix of local cable, Hulu plus and Amazon Prime. Everything running through my xbox360.

[kahout 0]

For those who stream a lot from their Internet connection, do you run into any problems with bandwidth or usage caps?

 

I have 8Mbps/1Mbps service with a cap of 150GB per month.

 

Is this fast enough and do I have enough capacity for streaming a moderate amount?

 

Other plans are 15/2/200 or 35/3/250.

[ryan_j 0]

For those who stream a lot from their Internet connection, do you run into any problems with bandwidth or usage caps?

 

I have 8Mbps/1Mbps service with a cap of 150GB per month.

 

Is this fast enough and do I have enough capacity for streaming a moderate amount?

 

Other plans are 15/2/200 or 35/3/250.

 

You're probably on the same ISP as I am, which is Service Electric/PenTeleData.

 

I've never exceeded their caps but from all indications if you exceed it regularly you will get a nastygram and be charged $1 per gigabyte extra. I have 35 meg service.

 

Bear in mind that the caps are only for peak hours which are 5pm-1am which means that it's targeted against streaming. It is unlimited use all other times.

 

8Mbps should be enough for standard definition content and barely enough for some HD. Amazon won't stream at 1080p however. You need at least 10-15Mbps for that.

 

There's a usage page to check how far you are before you exceed the cap:

 

http://www2.engr.ptd...ts/res_util.cgi

[kahout 0]

thanks ryan_j.... SECTV it is.

[Big Jay 0]

Ive been doing that for years.. but as of the last few years the "best they can do " is about 10-15 more a month per occurrence. So my 100 dollar bill has increased to 160 post negotiating for cable and internet. Its certainly become a matter of principle to give a big FU to cable companies. They are a dieing industry that failed to adapt just as the MPAA did with their stranglehold on major movie releases.

 

Have you tried switching providers? Every time you switch you become a "new" customer and usually get all the promotions.

[Njgunowner 2]

Roku is nice little device. I used it with a application called Playon for the pc. It turns your pc into a media server and lets you stream ABC, History, Discovery, and a bunch of other stuff if it's available online. (aka i used it to watch "The Big Bang Theory" the day after a new episode) I used that for my TV for 3-4 months without a hitch, but with the Baseball around the corner I broke down and bought Directv. I'm paying $50 a month for the first year, no premium channels which I never cared about anyway (you can get $10 off a month for 10 months for you and a buddy if you give them their account # when signing up, and $10 for everyone who you then refer). And when the promotional price ends it's still cheaper than the promo rate Comcast offered me to try and keep me.

 

Also, haven't had ANY issues with losing my signal. Rain, snow, wind, doesn't seem to matter. The new antenna's seem to work really well. I know the mount is rated to stay true with 130mph winds.

[Njgunowner 2]

Have you tried switching providers? Every time you switch you become a "new" customer and usually get all the promotions.

 

I know comcast keeps you on file for at least 3 months. So you could potentially bounce between providers quite a bit.

[leahcim 680]

Problem with that is that it probably won't work for VHF channels, especially channel 6 WPVI (ABC philly).

I am about 48 miles from Roxboro (where all the Philadelphia station's have their broadcast antenna). I built a UHF antenna out of a 2x4, some coat hangers (the metal ones of course), and a BALUN; similar to this http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/ but I did not even need the reflective backboard. Placed it in the attic and I used TV fool to get the general direction to aim it. This does not bring in channel 6, as it is still in the VHF band.

 

To resolve this I bought a preamp (ChannelMaster 7777) that will comnine VHF and UHF inputs. Then I took an old FM dipole antenna--like you get with every FM radio--aimed that toward Roxboro and plugged into the Victor input of the preamp and that brought channel 6 in 5x5. The preamp is powered by a DC supply that attaches to the cable where it enters the house.

 

It does not look great, and is not weatherproof, but it works fine in the attic and brings in ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WHYY(PBS), NJN, WYBE (PBS), WPHL (WB I think), WGTW (Indy Christian), WPSG (CW),WPPX (Ion), WUVP (Univision).

Most of these channels have 2-4 different feeds--usually one in HD (1024i) and one in 720p, and the rest in 480i.

Of course it is limited to the free broadcast channels, but even if you keep the cable, it is handy to have as a backup when the cable goes out.

 

I am considering going to Comcast for Internet access. Currently I use DSL, but I am over 5500 Meters from the CO, so I can't get over 1Mbps reliably.

If I can get cable Internet at a decent speed I will probably switch to a Magic Jack and dump Verizon completely--I have been here for 15 years and the voice line is not 100% reliable--especially after any major rain--and they have not improved the DSL capability at all, and I am certain that I will never see Fios here. I really do not like Comcast either, but I think that is the only option for decent Internet speeds in my area.