Can we chat TV?

blondie42107

Have any of you ladies gone cable free?  Dh and I are thinking about it.  I know cable is not a must have but there are some channels that we really like!

ChrisG83

My husband will never let us go without cable because of the golf channel. However most of our friends and my sister all switched to Netflix and Hulu and haven't looked back.

blondie42107

ChrisG83 said:

My husband will never let us go without cable because of the golf channel. However most of our friends and my sister all switched to Netflix and Hulu and haven't looked back.

We love our football...  :-S

blondie42107

angelacz87 said:

We have been for about a year now. Yeah, the selection sucks with just the antenna (costs like $14 to buy, then you have free basic channels), but my favorite show is still available, so it's not too bad. It kind of forces you to stare mindlessly at a (big) screen a little less! Anyway, we also have DVDs and some friends and DH borrow movies back and forth for variety.

We have a Roku and Netflix so we are set for our 3 year old who just adores his Disney Jr shows.    I think most of what we watch is on the basic channels anyways.

StefanieM522

My Husband and I just barely got cable when we moved into our house a few years ago, but for a while we only had the antenna and it worked out really well along with netflix and hulu so I was still able to watch all my favorite shows.  We only have cable now because we were able to bundle our phone, internet and cable and got a much better monthly rate than just having our internet through one company and our phone through another.

blondie42107

We currently have a bundle.  We need internet for Dh's work.  I'm not sure what we'll do about phone.  I like the idea of having a phone in the home.  

We figured if we give it a shot this summer and we don't like it we can always go back.

wesleycrusher

BandEddie said:

We've been cable free for about 5 years and never looked back. We use Hulu+, Netflix, Amazon Video (sometimes, not a lot) and honestly, anything else I want to see I "appropriate." 

same here! 

CnAnA

Whats a Roku?

nealbl

Sports center is on our tv almost all the time so we could never do it!

blondie42107

We have cable/phone/internet bundle right now.  We also have Netflix, Amazon Prime - we stream that via our Roku.  We rarely use Amazon Prime.  We use Netflix a lot.  Also the Roku has varies channels - we use PBS Kids a ton.

I just want to lower our monthly bills to knock out our car payments sooner and get more into savings.

CnAnA

Xbox 360 Netflix capabilities have been complete shit since Xbox One came out.  Pretty sure they just updated it for One and ignore 360 now.  Bastards.  It shuts down and "cannot play this title right now" after about 2 episodes (if I'm lucky.  Sometimes it just won't play.) and I have to shut the whole Xbox down and start over.  If I use my phone using the same internet, it plays without issue.  Other friends with a 360 are saying the same.  And Netflix is the only thing that our Xbox messes up on, so i don't think it's our machine.

CnAnA

@mbm1983 Ha! I am anti-Sony products. We had a horrible customer service experience about 9 years ago. We were playing one of their online games (Star Wars Galaxies FTW!) and were having some issues. When we called, we were basically told that they get our money every month so they don't care. So we boycott them now. We will watch movies from Sony Pictures, but won't buy any products from them.

Ziegeficker

I've been cable-free periodically throughout the last several years. Between Hulu, Netflix, HBO Go, MTV.com, and Amazon (for buying episodes of shows I can't find on the aforementioned sites), I get most everything I'd ever want. Total cost of those programs is around $20/month, and that's including an XBox Live annual subscription that we use to host our HBO Go app.

We used to have a computer tower hooked up to our television to making streaming all of this pretty easy, but about a year ago we got a Roku. Ehhhhh, my reviews of the Roku are mixed. It's certainly better than nothing, but the box itself restarts frequently, and I am not a huge fan of the interface. I've heard great things about Apple TV, but I am reluctant to spend more money in this venture, so Roku is fine. 

The one thing I miss with cable is the news. And I'll miss watching the Olympics. But when I did have cable, I noticed it was on all the time, I'd mindlessly watch a bunch of shit, and nothing I actually wanted to watch ever seemed to be on. So...I don't miss it terribly. 

Oh, it's also worth noting that I watch zero sports. None. I think thats the hardest thing to find outside of a cable subscription, so if you're a sports fan, prepare for a massive sacrifice.  

Ziegeficker

Lol @BandEddie's creative use of the word "appropriate." When our computer tower was hooked up to our television, we used to do that a lot. Our living room and living situation in general changed, though, hence the Roku. We never used the XBox for Netflix because it used to be in a different room altogether, but then I got desperate to get my HBO Go going, and we moved it back in the living room. Roku doesn't host HBO Go for Direct TV subscribers...fun fact :-|

Ziegeficker

@piffle42, I'll have to check out Chromecast.  DH wanted to set something like this up, and since we may put the Roku in MIL's room we will need something else. 

I don't like that I can't stream Hulu on the Roku without buying Hulu Plus.  Ugh.

blondie42107

Dh is a total computer/electronics geek. He already has our computer streamed to the TV via PLEX. He has all of the boys' movies copied tcomputer for easy TV viewing. Love it!

Rachelilly23

Um, Chromecast is my saving grace for no cable. Seriously, it's like $35 and you can stream that way. We stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Google play. DH wants to get rid of DVDs and just buy through Google play since DVDs are becoming "outdated technology." He's a tech nerd so I don't question him but when I do want to play a DVD, I just set up the laptop to an HDMI and play it on the tv that way. We only pay per episode for certain shows and then only $16/month for Netflix and Hulu plus. Also have a TV antenna and get all broadcast channels.

tamararachel2

I'm considering going cable free but we love our HBO!! I need to look into this Chromecast thing and then figure out what to do about HBO if we cut off cable.