Advice Needed: Cutting Cable TV

[Ironbar]

I asked this same question on another forum, and the answers I got were about 5% helpful, and 95% technospeak.

Anyway, my kid is turning 16 soon and will have her driver's license. Called insurance to get a quote, and even with the discounts she's eligible for, we're still facing our premiums more than doubling!

The wife and I have knocked around the idea of canceling cable to save money, going with an HD arial, and using streaming services for all else. Now that the car insurance premiums are skyrocketing for us, we're on board to do this sooner than later. Based on a cursory search, we could subscribe to Netflix, Hulu Plus, AND Amazon Prime video for less than half the cost of our current TV bundle.

I'd like some practical advice from those that have done this. I guess my main concern is, what's the best HD arial that won't break the bank, how to record shows, and what to do about wifi signal strength in the basement where the family room is located. It's sketchy as it stands now. Do we even NEED and external aerial if literally everything is online?

Thanks!

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[2A2Dend]

We bought an xbox and hooked it up via Cat5 to the router. Netflix costs $11/mo
Other options for viewing are also available.
The brunt cost of it all is the xbox. But there's good to that I get to play a few games when "I" want to escape reality

 

[Joe13]

Havnt had cable tv for 12+ years.

Netflix and Amazon prime have more then we want to watch.

 

[mkwerx]

Cut the cable a couple years ago. No aerial is needed - you can get everything streaming. We do Hulu, Netflix and Prime.

If you have sketchy wifi in the house you can get a signal repeater fairly cheap OR run an ethernet cable downstairs from your router and hook it up to another wireless router down there.

We took things a step further a few months ago and cut out our home internet - with Verizon's unlimited data you get 20 gigs of 4G a month then they may throttle you to 3G speeds. I have 4 devices on my family plan - 3 phones and a tablet. We use the mobile hotspot feature from one of the devices to stream on our TV. It works.

Does you kiddo have good enough grades and free time to pick up a part time job to help pay her insurance costs? By the time my boy is old enough to drive we may have fully operational self driving cars

If you have a smart TV you can probably hook your ethernet cable directly to it or link it to a wireless router - otherwise you can get a set top device for streaming. I am a gamer so we use a playstation 3 or xbox 1 to stream - both are bluray dvd devices so you can watch dvds or stream plus browse the internet or watch youtube plus play games.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

man, your kids lucky! my parents told me and my brother that driving is a priveledge and if we wanted to drive we would have to get jobs to help pay for car insurance.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

Havnt had cable tv for 12+ years.

Netflix and Amazon prime have more then we want to watch.

i could go without cable. its mainly mindless programming.... the wife's gotta have her shows.... i mainly watch Youtube although, theyre a bunch of schmucks at youtube so it is what it is i guess LOL.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

We ditched it 4 years ago. We also don't have any vid game players. We have kids. They can go play outside. And they do all day long till dark and beyond. We have one of those giant antennas from the 70's. Works! Netflix and those alike add up in price. Get sling. It's got the most.

 

[jbett98]

I used Antennas Direct for advise on what type of antennae to buy. I'm located out near Troutdale exactly 12 miles from the West Hills broadcast towers and I purchased a modified Yagi style antennae and it's works really well except when the planes are on a landing path to PDX and temporarily block the digital signal.
Just make sure you buy a quality cable and line filters to hook it up.

 

[Stomper]

man, your kids lucky! my parents told me and my brother that driving is a priveledge and if we wanted to drive we would have to get jobs to help pay for car insurance.

This right here.... I paid for my insurance bill as a kid, and my kids each pay me $200-$240 per month once they got their license to cover their individual affect on my car insurance premiums.


It's still cheaper for them as riders on my policy with their own cars than if they got their own policies w/o involving me.


I have cable internet only, but we still get a lot of the "premium" basic channels because our TV's still pick them up... I mainly just watch Netflix and YouTube, and other internet media like Full30, and we watch HULU sometimes on my son's account... since he uses our Netflix account.

 

[Diamondback]

man, your kids lucky! my parents told me and my brother that driving is a priveledge and if we wanted to drive we would have to get jobs to help pay for car insurance.

See that, and raise that my mother expected me to not only pay for all of MY insurance but all of HERS too. Both operator AND vehicle.

Needless to say, I never bothered--unfortunately, that's still her attitude even twenty years later when she's finding out that just having a second driver who could move the car to and from parking spaces while she waddles her kolossal keister to the door or to get her to/from doctor's appointments where she won't be able to drive home afterward, like the colonoscopy she's overdue for...

 

[jbett98]

Does your insurance carrier reward a new driver when they have good grades and take a drivers education training course?

 

[mkwerx]

See that, and raise that my mother expected me to not only pay for all of MY insurance but all of HERS too. Both operator AND vehicle.

Needless to say, I never bothered--unfortunately, that's still her attitude even twenty years later when she's finding out that just having a second driver who could move the car to and from parking spaces while she waddles her kolossal keister to the door or to get her to/from doctor's appointments where she won't be able to drive home afterward, like the colonoscopy she's overdue for...

Sounds like mama needs to use Lyft or Uber instead i pity your mamas proctologist.

 

[Diamondback]

You know how hard-headed and power-tripping Egotistical Control Freak Self-Styled "Clan Matriarchs" can be... her mother was the same way.

 

[Stomper]

You know how hard-headed and power-tripping Egotistical Control Freak Self-Styled "Clan Matriarchs" can be... her mother was the same way.

Howard Wolowitz, is that you?

 

[Diamondback]

Uh, no... 1. I *have* a girlfriend (who's stuck in the same boat, her dad's 90 and married/started family late), and 2. I've been stuck having to run the Evil Old One's household as live-in caregiver by medical necessity.

Touchy subject, amigo... Mom's Basement jokes tend to leave me a little punchy since if it weren't for me she'd just wallow in her own squalor and filth.

 

[clearconscience]

I just did this as well.
Kept internet, but cancelled comcast and went to century link and bought a Roku.
We use Netflix.
We also put in a antenna, cheap one. And get a dozen channels. Only a couple worth it, we wish we could get 8 & 12 but oh well.

 

[Stomper]

Uh, no... 1. I *have* a girlfriend (who's stuck in the same boat, her dad's 90 and married/started family late), and 2. I've been stuck having to run the Evil Old One's household as live-in caregiver by medical necessity.

Touchy subject, amigo... Mom's Basement jokes tend to leave me a little punchy since if it weren't for me she'd just wallow in her own squalor and filth.

Wolowitz doesn't live in a basement, I have two elderly parents who are "big kids" that have driven themselves into over $100k in CC debt who are now living in a 5th wheel RV trailer, both are hoarders, both are advanced stage diabetics with 20-25 different daily Rx's, one can barely remember a conversation from five minutes ago yet still club me over the head for sheite I did when I was 14/15 (I'm now 50) and knows EXACTLY where some little plastic POS is buried in one of five rented storage spaces, and neither one will be told a bubblegumming thing.... yet, who has to "clean up the trash" when it's all over? My sister will, LMAO!

Besides, you were the one who brought it up your mom and made her out as "large" ball-buster who had you under her thumb. Don't start none won't be none..

 

[BWH]

killed my dish service, added netflix and also use the library(huge movie and series collections there)
I also installed a new large antenna and went from14 asst channels to 37 channels. New metal in the air really helped for free tv!

 

[308]

Frontier FIOS = $39.95/Mo

Smart TV with built in apps and also connected to a PS3 and PS4 via HDMI

Netflix
Amazon
Pureflix
Youtube
UFC​

CAT6 cable connected to all devices but also have WiFI router. WiFI sucks upstairs on IBM devices but screams on my MacBook...go figure
No landline phone...like uh, who has those anyway
​

 

[Andy54Hawken]

We just use Netflix , Amazon Prime and Hulu...

If I may suggest , maybe you could get acquainted with the local library and a used book store...
There are whole worlds out there to discover in the reading of books.

Books?!....Who the heck reads those anymore?...
Well what did ya expect from a guy who regularly shoots and hunts with antique guns?...
Andy