Cutting the Cable Cord?

Comments

• EMAW42

  September 2017

  I've heard good things about PlayStation Vue if you want to keep sports. Even better is if your parents or someone you know will let you use their cable log in, because almost every channel has an app now on console/smart tvs and if you have a log in it's basically like having cable. I'm able to watch ESPN, AMC, FX, and Fox Sports on my X box, I just let my friend use my HBO Now login and I get to use theirs for all of those.
  
  Netflix, HBO Now, and a good HD antenna are all musts for cord cutters. If you have Amazon Prime you get a lot of content too.

  
• gguenot CA

  September 2017

  If you have access to another persons log in the cost savings become huge. Try setting up a sharing system with someone where, for example, you subscribe to Netflix and Hulu and they do HBO Now or something like that

  
• Garthgou81 Placerville, CA

  September 2017

  I use my Apple TV primarily and I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu (without ads), Amazon (through Prime), and HBO Now. A friend of mine lets me use her Sling (essentially this is a streaming TV) account for everything else. For things that aren't covered with all of that, I will buy a season pass. I've found most of my bases are covered through those services. And I am willing to bet all that combined is still like half of what you are paying. I don't miss cable one bit. 

  
• WonderedObject SAN Francisco, CA

  September 2017

  As a student you can use the school email for a student discount of amazon prime. Boom. 2 day shipping AND a ton of tv/movies for only 50 bucks a year.
  When I was in school, I had
  -an antenna to get all the local channels for tv/games.
  -Netflix (split with parents)
  -amazon as mentioned above
  -hbo (split with classmate)
  It was all extremely affordable and I had endless content.
  
  I can't go back to cable so I'm testing out sling tv, so far so good.

  
• Garthgou81 Placerville, CA

  September 2017

  I've enjoyed Sling, but I've had issues with the app at times. If you are going with Hulu and really want live tv, I know they have packages available that allow you to have access to live tv as well. 

  
• [Deleted User]

  September 2017

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• A_Ron_Hubbard Cincinnati, OH

  September 2017

  The Sling app is very annoying.  The chromecast function, for example, is essentially a toss of the coin whether I can stream it to my TV or not.  And at least once or twice a TWD season, the desktop app will completely shit out on us and have us frantically uninstalling and reinstalling a bunch of shit to get it working before 9pm EST.  Love the service, but they really need to tighten some of that stuff up if they want to survive.

  
• Travis CA

  September 2017 edited September 2017

  HI @Wa1kingDistance. We don't have a cable subscription right now. We have a Roku in one room (pretty old one, I'm thinking about 6 years or so) and a Fire Stick in another. We use Sling for TV (we kind of hate it, WAY too buggy). We also use Hulu, Netflix, HBO Go (thank you to my parents for letting us rip their service) and Amazon for the bulk of our watching (we have some other aps as well, but those are the ones that we use about 95% of the time). Sling aside, I have no complaints with any of those aps. Sure, there are still some blind spots, and it's hard to watch a couple of shows in real time without buying season passes or by episode at Amazon, but even with that in mind I think we still come out cheaper and don't have to trifle with commercials for most things. I like it.

  
  

  I've been curious about Hulu's attempt to get into Sling's business. Haven't committed to trying it out yet, but I think we'll be going for making the change soon. I really like Hulu for what they have provided so far, and I imaging that anything is better than Sling. I like the theory of Sling, but it will just freeze and kick you out out of nowhere all the friggin time. It's really obnoxious. This also might be a little better with a new Roku, but I hear that complaint about them a lot so I'm guessing it is more of a systemic problem and not just our equipment.

  
  

  As for the equipment, both our Fire Stick and Roku have served us well. I think that I like the Roku more personally. I think it is just formatted better and is much more user friendly to me. 

  
  

  One frustrating thing that I just thought of, the cable companies are hip to all of this and knowing that we need a lot of internet power for streaming have started stacking their packages where you pay very little for cable and the bulk of the cost in internet service. We are still saving money ultimately, but we have definitely done the math a few times about whether it is worth it (particularly with our Sling frustrations). We actually aren't saving a ton (even not including Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix into the equation since we would probably keep them anyway) and it might not be worth the trouble to fight with a streaming tv ap for 20-30 bucks a month depending on your frustration thresholds.

  
• Garthgou81 Placerville, CA

  September 2017

  Yeah, I think the highest cost service is the live TV streaming services. It looks like Hulu's is around $50. So depending on your cable package it may be pretty close to a wash. I think if you dropped the live streaming and just paid for a combination of Hulu/Amazon/Netflix/HBO you'd probably notice a sizable difference. 

  
• iMatty94

  September 2017

  From the UK. Netflix is an absolute must with just £6 and like 280+ originals is a no brainer. We have now tv between me, mum and dad. That gets us twd, got, the cw DC shows and tons more (not quite as much as Netflix) im watching the strain on there too. And then just a good freeview box that can record 2 shows at a time and watch a 3rd just incase. Amazon is an option but I don't have it.

  
• bizmarkiefader San Francisco

  September 2017

  If it's available in your area Youtube TV is pretty good. 35 a month gets you the local and national sports channels (I can still watch the SF Giants on their Comcast owned channel which most services don't seem to offer), it has AMC and FX and most of what you want with some notable exceptions. The channels I've missed the most are Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, and NFL Network including Red Zone so you'd need to go other roads to get the shows you want from there.
  

  
• DreamRycher Newark, DE

  September 2017

  I'm trying Hulu TV this month.  I don't watch a lot of live TV, only NFL football and it's been a bit spotty during the games that I've watched the last couple of weeks.  The stream will pause and buffer and I was losing some action towards the end of the game last week and it was KILLING me!  They don't have any kind of channel guide, so you have to go to each network to see whats playing live and what's coming up.  No way to channel surf or swap between live channels.  They do have a 50 hour cloud DVR, but it's convoluted how you have to set up a show to be recorded and you can't fast forward through the commercials so I wouldn't really call it a true DVR.  You do get access to the rest of the Hulu library with limited commercials, but that just bothers me that I'm paying to access their content and I STILL have to watch commercials, unlike Netflix or Amazon.

  
  

  I don't think I'm going to stick with Hulu after this month is over.  I've been looking into DirecTV Now, they offer live streaming of channels for a bunch of networks for $35/month plus you can get HBO for $5/month.  They have a deal where if you pay for two months they will give you a Roku box (the Premium, I think, I'm not familiar with their models) for free.  I figure I'll give it a try for a couple of months and even if I don't like it I'll get a free Roku out of the deal.

  
• Wa1kingDistance

  September 2017

  Thanks for the thoughtful responses! This has given me a lot to think about. Really appreciate it!