Cable and satellite TV have become outrageously expensive. Maybe looking to get Philo through Roku or Firestick. Anyone doing this? Anyone have a better way? Philo has the channels Mrs. Houston likes. Thank you in advance.

We cancelled the cable and Dish/Direct TV a good while back and replaced it with a big ole Roku smart tv. You can load the apps from whatever you want to watch and come out less expensive, even those that require a subscription.

We check out a lot of CDs for free from the library. They have a huge selection. No commercials, too. Watch 'em, return 'em, get more. Lots of movies and TV serials.

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protocalldesign.com

Smart and tv should not be used in the same sentence

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Remain Viable

Dumped DirectTV a number of years ago when the bill got close to $150/month. We started using Firesticks on our 'dumb' TV's and eventually purchased a couple smart TV's. We live in an area where we have crystal clear reception of ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX (plus others) via antenna and we subscribe to a few streaming services for around $100/month less than what we were paying for dish. We might miss something from time to time by not having 200 channels at our access but I don't think our quality of life has suffered much . All things considered, the less time spent watching the better.

We dumped Comcast Cable but kept their internet. We bought Roku sticks for our non smart TV's and subscribed to Fubo. We chose Fubo because they were the only streaming service that I could find that carried NESN, because Red Sox and Bruins. We're saving about $80.00/month.

We also dropped Comcast cable, kept the internet, and went to an antenna to pick up local stations (which we rarely watch). So far, the $100 per month average savings has been a good trade off for so many channels we neither wanted or nor watched.

We are currently streaming a few channels and are going to try a firestick to see what might be of interest.

I put up a 40’ pole using EMT and pipe with an antenna. Got a antenna booster and get all the local stations with news, weather and lots of good decent old shows from 50s-70s.

An absolute necessity for any service in my case would be a programmable Recorder and local channels. Reception of the latter OTA really sucks here. I record virtually everything I watch regularly so I can zip through commercials. Without a recorder, I am not interested.

I have U-Verse which I find ideal, except for its cost. My basic service including internet runs about $170/month.

I have an antenna on my roof and an old brown Channel Master that operates the rotor. I get a bunch of different channels, Other than the old shows from the 70's and 80's and Bugs Bunny cartoons, there's not much else too interesting. Ol Frank Zappa had it right...

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

If you’re a Verizon customer check 5G Home Internet. $25 a month. We also pay for Amazon and Paramount Plus. We are still saving money.

We stream everything. Nothing good on live tv anyway.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Over the air and Amazon Prime. But now Amazon wants an extra $3/month to avoid commercials.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I say do away with all TV. I did many years ago, don't miss it. I can watch old movies on tape and DVDs. Good stuff on the computer too. When do I see modern TV, I want to puke.

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No baby we aint

It's all about "Needs vs Wants".

"Needs" can cost as little as $0

"Wants" can cost more than you realize with product you don't watch but still pay for. It's kind of like that piece of parsley with your meal.

Cut the cord about three years ago. If you have stable Internet at reasonable speed, More programming than you’ll ever watch. If Philo meets your needs, you can always add individual apps on an outboard device. Don’t want a “smart” TV monitoring and squealing on my TV watching choices, but the Firestick/Roku/Apple TV outboard take care of that. Like the Roku search for their live TV search-can find where virtually anything is online. Currently have Hulu Live/ESPN/Disney bundle, Amazon, Netflix and Paramount+. Netflix is going to get canceled soon - lots of great content, but don’t watch it enough for the cost. Excluding the Internet cost, still paying less than DirecTV.

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50 Years of Wish You Were Here

I have to do something. DirecTv went up again. If I use a digital antenna I get about 20 channels OTA.

I guess some sort of streaming is in the future.

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BTDT, Got The T-Shirt

lawsuit has already been filed.

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NRA RSO

We have an antenna and receive broadcast TV and are completely happy with it. We have more than enough channels to pick from the 15 different channels we can chose from. For streaming we have a Roku box and get all of our movies through them. No cable or satellite TV bills!

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Bill

We do YouTube TV and subscribe to NESN 360 during the baseball season. Happy with it but $ keeps going up and wish it included NESN.

I’m considering dropping Direct Tv. My one reservation is I’ll loose the ability to record things.

I’m no up on stand alone recording equipment. What are you using to record shows.

Put a pen and pad next to where you watch TV. Write down every show you watch, including sports, newscasts, etc. Do that for 2 weeks.

Now that you KNOW what you watch, shop for a means of getting those programs. Or, at least the ones you get the most value from.

I tried only OTA, but my better half missed shows that were not available. Ended up saving by changing ISP and going to YouTube TV.

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Reg. Magnum wants/Rossi wallet

You live in Houston, as I do. Get a Tablo. You hook up an OTA antenna to it. It broadcasts to all your TVs via your WiFi network. There's no monthly fee just the purchase price of $99-$130 depending on 2 tuners or 4 tuners.

I get 180 some odd channels. Many are duplicates or foreign language. But I get all the networks and then some. All you need is to point an antenna south.

It includes a DVR for recording, and an antenna amplifier that you probably won't need if your antenna has one. My antenna came from Amazon and was $35 or something. It's just a little flat box that I have mounted in a window frame.

You can PM me with questions.

Attached Images

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The Fubo streaming service I was using, mostly for sports, was about to bump their cost up over $100/mo so I cancelled. Looked into going back to SlingTV but the way they have their tiers set up it would have cost me $85/mo plus taxes and fees. I said the heck with it and just started using my OTA antenna. The channel pretty much stays on Grit TV and occasionally there will be something sports wise on one of the main channels.

I spent the last two or three nights watching the lead up to the 12 Hours of Bathurst streaming on Youtube. There is usually something that can be found movie wise on Youtube if you can put up with the commercials.

Where I live now an antenna to receive over the air TV broadcasts won't work. So my only choice is one of the small satellite dishes or paying Spectrum, my internet provider for one of their TV packages.

However, since I'm already paying $49.95 for high speed internet and my cell phone service through Spectrum, I only watch free programming like YouTube, Roku, Tubi, and others. I'd like to have Netflix but I don't miss it enough to want to pay for it.

Something to be aware of is that some older TV's cannot download some of the free streaming channels. For example, my 8 year old Samsung isn't compatible with a lot of the free services than came with my new Amazon Fire TV. But there are a heck of a lot of free channels available. The only things you really have to pay for are some sports packages and movies that are only available on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I cut the cable back in 2015 and don't miss it enough to pay any extra on top of my high speed internet which is an essential these days.

We use Comcast internet, and had Dish for TV, but adding more TV's required more Dish boxes which was getting expensive and adding more Dish boxes was a hassle, so we dumped it and went with YoutubeTV. I'm sure there are other options out there but we've been satisfied with the YoutubeTV product. The only downside wasn't technology,, but having to use a Google product was dissappointing to me.

FWIW......

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.............SmithNut

Cancel DirecTV and get YouTube TV. Much less money, and you can record everything. It’s like having unlimited DVR. You just select shows/movies as “add to library” and it’s recorded, you can fast forward and rewind your recorded/library program. YouTube TV also has all of your local channels. Its a good option and the price is decent for now.

On another note ( I’m going long on this one…), what many people don’t understand is just how expensive television programming is now. Nothing is “free.” Legacy providers like cable and satellite are very expensive because they’re ‘mature’ (mature in the product life cycle/business growth curve) providers that are losing customers and are saddled with legacy costs. Cable and satellite providers are in a position where they need to keep raising rates to make their profits. The new streaming companies have the advantage of still growing subscribers and/or advertising eyeballs so they can have lower cost (for now). They are “buying market share.” As they mature, they’ll also have to raise rates. We see this now with providers like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The same is happening with high speed internet providers. Cable is losing customers, alternative providers/cell phone companies are new entrants buying market share with lower cost solutions. These new providers will raise rates as their business matures.

People can either realize that video programming is a bit of a luxury nowadays, and pay, or just drop out of the game and save money by not feeding the beast. Or, you can do what so many are doing now and ride the waves of new entrants. Cancel when your provider starts to raise prices, and jump to a lower cost (and usually lesser quality/option) providers, until their business model stops buying market share with artificially lower prices and they also have to raise their rates. TV providers are expensive largely due to a combination programming costs (with sports being by far the largest programming cost driver) and corporate-driven government involvement/regulations that has mandated licensing fees to carry over the air broadcast signals that were originally intended as a public benefit but have become just another corporate $$ grab. People totally sleep on how companies buy politicians to write laws that funnel incredible amounts of money to their industries/companies. Of course these publicly held companies need to maintain their large profit margins in order to be viable as a publicly held company. If you can’t show larger profits and/or large growth, you’re done as a publicly held company. You’ll go bankrupt and/or be bought out by another company that’ll figure out how to make large profits and/or growth (spoiler, sooner or later, you’ll end up paying more money as a result…)

Sports programming is so high because people love sports and the cost structure is out of control. Huge athlete salaries, and owner profits are paid by all of us. Between professional and “college” sports, we’re talking greater than billions of dollars. And don’t think that you’re not paying for some NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL dude’s salary, or owner’s profits because you don’t pay for TV anymore. If you buy consumer products, you’re paying for these athletes and team owners profits.

Athlete/coach/team salaries, team/stadium sponsorships, advertising placement for these games, programming costs etc. are all baked into so many products and services that you buy. Every can of Coke/Pepsi/Etc, every Toyota/Ford/Chevy/Honda/Jeep/etc, the bank/financial institutions, pharmaceutical company/pills that you take, McDonalds/Wendy’s/Burger King/Taco Bell, the movie that you go to see, the tires on your car, the cost of your car parts, your insurance rates, the tuition bill that you have to pay is affected. They pay to advertise and or sponsor and they raise their cost of goods that you have to pay for their products and/or services. Heck even many of the politicians running for local, county, state and National office are paying to advertise in sports... All these things, and so many more cost more because of our infatuation with sports.

The programming contract between the leagues and the television networks/programmers for major sports are hundreds of billions of dollars. Networks/programmers charge advertisers to recoup this investment. You buy the Chevy and the Pepsi to recoup the advertisers’ investment. Sports fan, or not, you’re paying!!. Nothing is free, corporations pass along all costs to taxpayers, and the government doesn’t make money, it takes ours. Have a great day!

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NRA Life Member

I got a pretty decent OTA antenna and I get a ton of channels. I have DISH and they don't broadcast NBC, which also carries METV. I live pretty high so all the local stations are crystal. As long as wife can watch Hallmark Network, we're all in a happy place.

I have been using Roku and Hulu since 2017 when a move carried us out of antenna reach.

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Front sight and squeeze

I watch some stuff on Amazon Prime but for most things I use a few bootleg sites that stream movies and TV shows, old and new.

I've been cable free since 2006.

I upgraded to a TLC/Roku tv a couple of years ago. Best upgrade TV ever. Cut the Dish off and put the money saved in S&W steel. Plugged the TV into the internet and now have way over 1000 channels running live at any time and untold number of on demand stuff, I have several free apps and some I pay 5-10 bucks a month for the service. I would recommend that route to anyone that has good internet service to upgrade to a smart TV where you can download as many apps ( providers) as you desire.

I'll second the Youtube TV, great channels and unlimited DVR, saved me right at $150 a month. I don't really watch it much but my wife and daughter love it.

My TV watching when I do is in the detached garage, with the digital antenna I get about 35 channels, but it stays on MeTV.

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Life Member GOA and NRA

Still using my wife's aunt's prime subscription-she's been dead for around 5 years. Also using my daughter's netflix. Firestick was a Christmas present.
As of now I'm into spanish speaking drug series on netflix and watching poker on youtube. That keeps me pretty happy

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Forum consigliere

Dumped my 25 years of ever buggy cable internet for Frontier fiber at twice the speed and half the price. About to pull the plug on the cable tv for Youtube TV. My upstairs neighbor has it and loves it. Local channels are on it, too. Tried a digital antenna for the local OTA, but the broadcast towers are all northwest of me, with tall buildings downtown in a direct line from where my 1st-floor apartment is. Only getting three of the seven OTA's I should see, and two of them are fuzzy.

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Heavily armed old man.

You guys with your "digital antennas" crack me up. There's no such animal, the frequency bands used by TV are the same as they ever were except for the high UHF channels that were sold to 5G operators.

Depending on where you live, TV broadcasts can be on Low VHF Ch 2-6 (54-88 MHz), High VHF Ch 7-13 (174-216 MHz), and UHF Ch 14-36 (470-608 MHz). Channels 38-69 have been turned over to 5G and similar services. BTW, all those channel numbers relate to the actual frequency, not what a station calls itself. For example, the local CBS affiliate is "Channel 8", but its frequency is channel 7.

The "digital antenna" nonsense started when the FCC started chipping away at the upper UHF channels. It meant that the antenna builders did not have to stress over trying to cover 330 MHz of bandwidth. About that time digital TV was starting, so to boost sales, we now had "digital" antennas. Recall how everything was "turbo" in the 80s? Same game, different decade.

Vegas has signals on all three TV bands, and has been filling in the gaps after everybody got kicked off channel 38 and above. My antenna is a hot mess of different sized elements, but it seems to work in terms of signal strength. Wish I could say the same for the stations. Many of them are getting programming via satellite or via the Web, and break ups and pixelation are common on certain stations. When I check the diagnostics, I have all the signal in the world and no data errors, suggesting garbage in, garbage out. Then there is the some of the programming, but that is another story.

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Release the Kraken

I need to learn Spanish, but maybe my wife wouldn't like it as I would then know what she is saying about me to all her Hispanic friends.

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Release the Kraken

It all boils down to what kind of internet providers you have where you are.
If you can get high-speed internet for a reasonable price (WITHOUT having to "bundle" it with phone and cable TV) then there's no reason not to "cut the cord" IMO.
With a decent high-speed internet connection, you can get all the streaming services you want for TV/entertainment - either free or by subscription, and you'll pay WAY less than you would for any dish or cable TV service "package".
Plus you get to be a lot more selective. You only pay for what you want - rather than paying for whatever the dish/cable provider wants to "bundle" together for whatever monthly amount THEY want to charge.
JMO, and YMMV...

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Same here.

Back to the original topic; we have Youtube tv. It's now about $75/month. When we first started it was 65. Still much lower than cable (by around $100/month). We get 128 channels. Some areas get more or less depending on how many local channels are available. Youtube does not carry all the local channels. There are a couple of "religious" channels here that they do not carry. I think they have most of the rest other than a few of the alternate channels that the network affiliatess run on their sub bands.

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Or something like that . . .

We are at the same crossroads. Ready to drop Direct TV and go with YouTube.

I had a tech guy recommend this company. There are an amazing number of channels. The price is certainly right. The only drawback is you can't record anything. If you can figure a way to do that, you have a bonanza. Here is the blurb they sent me. If you decide to contact them, you talk directly to the owner. SEE BELOW

Thank you for your interest in Stream Connect TV

Stream Connect TV is Live “Cable Style” TV with all your favorite Live TV channels. We only offer 2 packages, All or None. It’s not up to us to decide what you get to watch, so we give you all of it and you can choose what you watch and make your own favorite line up. See our lineup at www.streamconnecttv.com

We do not offer a DVR package as it is currently not feasible with current law and affordable hardware.

Stream Connect TV

Effective Sept 15, 2022

Terms and Conditions

All Monthly Pricing is based on Automatic payment by Credit or Debit Card.

There will be a Service Fee of $5.99/month to accounts that do not have a card on file

Stream Connect TV.

14 day trial------------------------------------------------------------$9.99

First Connection------------------------------------------------------ $31.50/ Month

Each Additional Connection (Same Household)--------------$5/ Month

4k Fire TV Stick ( Sold by Amazon $50)

ZERO installation cost

7% sales tax on all orders

How many Connections Do you need?

>You need a connection for each Simultaneous TV you use.

Example – you have 3 TV’s in the house, but you only watch 2 at one time. Then you need 2 connections. Its all based on how many you use simultaneously, not how many are in the house.

Your card will be charged 5 to 7-days prior to your expiration/cutoff date.

Notification of payment or Lack of payment is sent each month by email.

It is the account holder’s responsibility to view these emails each month. If your card has failed, you are required to provide a new card for payment. Follow the link in the email to make the payment and save the new card information.

Prepay options: 10% discount

You can prepay Stream Connect TV in 6 month increments,

You can use PayPal, credit/debit card for Prepay

If you have questions about this policy please contact [email protected].

I'm a cheap (thrifty) guy. We just moved into another house about 18 months ago and I decided to only have internet service.

OTA antennae on 5 TVs (3 digital, 2 analog with digital converters). Wi-Fi / Roku box on 2 digitals, with Netflix on both. Amazon Prime (from my son's account) on 1 digital. Apple TV box on 1 digital and another Apple TV box not installed yet (got both for free from family).

Although we have all these TVs, we're not watching all of them at the same time, haha. They're just scattered around the house, from den, bedrooms, basement office, workbench.

Regarding the OTA antennae - I have a few old "rabbit ears", a flat plastic one in a window, and just some sheathed copper 2-strand speaker wire in a T-shape, pinned to the wall and connected to an old CCTV adapter.

My eventual plan is to erect an outdoor antenna and booster and connect it to the old DirectTV cabling that is in the house (from the previous owners), so I can get rid of some of the "rabbit ears".

I have enjoyed OTA TV for some time now. A lot of what I watch is TV series from the 90's. Depending on the time of day I watch old shows from the 50's and I never saw most of them.

I rescan the Tv for new channels every so often and something new and interesting always pops up. Lately,I've been spending a lot of time watching "STORY TELEVISION". There's something different every day and it's educational to boot.

I'm already paying for internet service so why pay extra when everything I might want to watch is already at my fingertips.

Yep, "Story" channel is OTA in my area as well, and it's what the old "History" channel was like IMHO.

It's cool to watch their shows about WW2, which often include interviews with actual participants, but also sombering to realize that most, if not all, of these folks are now deceased.

The $1 hear and $3 there are the new, inflated, classic being nickel and dimed story.

We finally joined the new century and cut cable/satellite. In the end we bought Roku, a modern antenna for local stations, with Philo. It seems to be enough for $25 a month. 10% of our Dish bill. Hopefully it remains inexpensive. Thank you for all of the suggestions.

We’re all just, well, despite all our rage, we’re still just rats in a cage.

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Waiting For The Sun.

Got rid of DirecTV. We have Amazon Prime all year for less than the cost of 1 month of Direc.. We do have a Brit Box add on...Lots of whodunits there. and we also use my sisters Netflix every now and then TV is not a big thing with us