Cable TV Replacement Recommendations?

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ar surround

ar surround

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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Joined
Apr 3, 2010
Messages
6,164
Location
Bumbletopia, NJ
Our bill for broadcast basic cable recently went up to $66 a month. $66 to get essentially the five networks, PBS, two local channels, and "garbage" channels is rather absurd. Also, we currently have two free cable boxes that go away next December, which raises the bill to a quite insane $92 a month.

So we are seeking alternatives. I've looked at YouTube TV ($73 a month) and Hulu+ Live TV ($77 a month) and Sling. Sling (Blue) at $45 a month might be OK because it offers live ABC, Fox and NBC, and we could get CBS because we have Paramount+; but it doesn't have PBS and the two local channels.

I don't really need ESPN because I don't want the temptation to watch more sports other than the NFL.

Anything that I may be missing here? Any recommendations? Thanks.
 
I wanna cut the same cord. But mine is a tier higher than basic and costs more, and includes ESPN, MSG (Sabres games), and my favorite OTA channel MeTV. Gotta watch Svengoolie on Saturday nights along with Off Beat Cinema. Since none of the streaming providers offer this, I'm afraid I'm going to have to look into an antenna. I've heard good things about Hulu+live

https://www.metv.com/svengoolie/

https://www.offbeatcinema.tv/
 
I went with DirectTV Stream (not the satellite deal) because it has the best sports. However, it does skew more expensive that some others. It's very reliable though. But like I said, I wanted the regional sports teams (baseball and college basketball) so DTV was my only choice as those cheaper services don't have these channels - but if you don't want them, who cares? :)
 
ar surround said:
Our bill for broadcast basic cable recently went up to $66 a month. $66 to get essentially the five networks, PBS, two local channels, and "garbage" channels is rather absurd. Also, we currently have two free cable boxes that go away next December, which raises the bill to a quite insane $92 a month.

So we are seeking alternatives. I've looked at YouTube TV ($73 a month) and Hulu+ Live TV ($77 a month) and Sling. Sling (Blue) at $45 a month might be OK because it offers live ABC, Fox and NBC, and we could get CBS because we have Paramount+; but it doesn't have PBS and the two local channels.

I don't really need ESPN because I don't want the temptation to watch more sports other than the NFL.

Anything that I may be missing here? Any recommendations? Thanks.
Click to expand...

One of my son in laws has google fiber & YouTube TV. He loves the combo & no, I can't tell you what it costs. Probably different in your area anyway. One of the cool things about YT TV is he can split the screen 4 ways. Yes that's right. Four sports games on at the same time on his 10' screen. Of course you choose which one to listen to.

My younger son in law has google fiber Hulu Live TV. He seems pretty happy with it but had lots of pixelated break up pictures until he switched to google fiber.

Me? I've got plain 'ol Spectrum cable at $192 including taxes & the other weird charges. But this buys a premium cable package (no HBO or Showtime), land line phone service and a solid 375Mbps internet connection. Of all the services I've checked Spectrum Sports is the only one that carries the KC Royals MLB. That's more important to my wife than me.

If it was up to me, I'd get Google fiber, drop any kind of cable/TV service and get an HD OTA box. I have one of those in my Bassment & it works very good, 62 chs for free although the box did cost me 70 something dollars.
 
Go retro? Get a rooftop digital antenna and rely on broadcast digital TV. I live in a rural coastal area where signals are sometimes complicated by hilly topography and I can still pull in almost a dozen channels. And quite a few of our regular shows (including some cable-only shows, and we don't have cable) are also available on the web for anywhere from a day to several weeks after broadcast. Throw in a rotating assortment of streaming services and we're good to go.
 
LuvMyQuad said:
What box did you get?
Click to expand...
Much to my surprise, since it's been a few years, the same box is available on Ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2229812624...Zqgdg0bNi3xHVpcZXGyS05uw==|tkp:Bk9SR7bFypq1Yw

Do note the USB where you can hook up a ext HDD and record programs just like on a regular cable box. For me the HDMI out goes into the rear HDMI input on my Oppo and the Oppo HDMI out goes straight to my projector. And then the digital LPCM output of the tuner box plugs into a digital input on my Anthem pre-pro which is just old enough not to have HDMI.

The antenna is critical too. Maybe 35 years ago I put a large Winegard VHF TV/FM antenna in my attic so I could listen to FM radio in the basement. But I switched it over to the little OTA box & it works great.

This is a useful guide to see what's available OTA digital TV in your area:

https://www.antennaweb.org/
 
humprof said:
Go retro? Get a rooftop digital antenna and rely on broadcast digital TV. I live in a rural coastal area where signals are sometimes complicated by hilly topography and I can still pull in almost a dozen channels. And quite a few of our regular shows (including some cable-only shows, and we don't have cable) are also available on the web for anywhere from a day to several weeks after broadcast. Throw in a rotating assortment of streaming services and we're good to go.
Click to expand...
We do this here in Vegas. It's worked great, but recently several of the channels have gone dark. I suspect issues with the antennas/broadcast, which all share a particular hillside south of town. They're not channels I use much (until I needed to and discovered this). We have a newer TV so only needed an antenna with a booster put in line of sight on a wall facing a window, I think they're like $30 on Amazon. We're about 17 miles as the crow flies from that hill, mostly good line of sight. Back in New York we were 30+ miles from the nearest towers so our OTA experience was poor and we were forced to go with cable and satellite for much longer, until streaming services caught on. Even if we wanted to do something external with an antenna, we had trees all around our house and in the line of sight. IIRC we only got one or two channels reliably, versus 20 on an average day in Vegas.

I have cable, satellite, and streaming experiences as well. Too long to post it all here. Pricing decisions have a lot to do with what channels you want/need. It sounds like OTA (over the air) will work if you are close enough to get the channels that way, otherwise you're going to be limited to the options already listed. I like Sling for basic stuff, fwiw. Base plan cost is fair compared to most other options, and some sporting channels can be added a la cart.
 
Last edited:
stoopid said:
We do this here in Vegas. It's worked great, but recently several of the channels have gone dark. I suspect issues with the antennas/broadcast, which all share a particular hillside south of town. They're not channels I use much (until I needed to and discovered this). We have a newer TV so only needed an antenna with a booster put in line of sight on a wall facing a window, I think they're like $30 on Amazon. We're about 17 miles as the crow flies from that hill, mostly good line of sight. Back in New York we were 30+ miles from the nearest towers so our OTA experience was poor and we were forced to go with cable and satellite for much longer, until streaming services caught on. Even if we wanted to do something external with an antenna, we had trees all around our house and in the line of sight. IIRC we only got one or two channels reliably, versus 20 on an average day in Vegas.

I have cable, satellite, and streaming experiences as well. Too long to post it all here. Pricing decisions have a lot to do with what channels you want/need. It sounds like OTA (over the air) will work if you are close enough to get the channels that way, otherwise you're going to be limited to the options already listed. I like Sling for basic stuff, fwiw. Base plan cost is fair compared to most other options, and some sporting channels can be added a la cart.
Click to expand...
I considered switching from Youtube TV to Sling to save money, but Sling doesn't do local channels, which I can't get OTA, or have the regional sports network that carries the only local team we have.
 
I bought my first satellite tv dish from WalMart, put it up myself. After 19 years I told them to F off when AT&T bought them and jacked the prices and went to Dish for two years. Then done.
Like Bruce said, "57 channels and nothing to watch".
We're still on ADSL but we already had Prime and added a few channels and all is over the internet now..
2 Gig Fiber coming this year, cable run down my driveway but not hooked up. We'll see what we need to re-evaluate. Not a big TV guy myself, but there's TWF.
 
humprof said:
Go retro? Get a rooftop digital antenna and rely on broadcast digital TV. I live in a rural coastal area where signals are sometimes complicated by hilly topography and I can still pull in almost a dozen channels. And quite a few of our regular shows (including some cable-only shows, and we don't have cable) are also available on the web for anywhere from a day to several weeks after broadcast. Throw in a rotating assortment of streaming services and we're good to go.
Click to expand...
I went retro in 2016 with the rooftop antenna and I love it. I basically use it to watch the NFL/Cleveland Browns games. Highly recommend it too!
 
stoopid said:
We do this here in Vegas. It's worked great, but recently several of the channels have gone dark. I suspect issues with the antennas/broadcast, which all share a particular hillside south of town. They're not channels I use much (until I needed to and discovered this). We have a newer TV so only needed an antenna with a booster put in line of sight on a wall facing a window, I think they're like $30 on Amazon. We're about 17 miles as the crow flies from that hill, mostly good line of sight. Back in New York we were 30+ miles from the nearest towers so our OTA experience was poor and we were forced to go with cable and satellite for much longer, until streaming services caught on. Even if we wanted to do something external with an antenna, we had trees all around our house and in the line of sight. IIRC we only got one or two channels reliably, versus 20 on an average day in Vegas.

I have cable, satellite, and streaming experiences as well. Too long to post it all here. Pricing decisions have a lot to do with what channels you want/need. It sounds like OTA (over the air) will work if you are close enough to get the channels that way, otherwise you're going to be limited to the options already listed. I like Sling for basic stuff, fwiw. Base plan cost is fair compared to most other options, and some sporting channels can be added a la cart.
Click to expand...
First, there's no such thing as a "digital" antenna. Any good TV antenna will do the job quite well. If you're thinking about going with an antenna, make sure it's a VHF/UHF capable model. Most stations are operating in the UHF band, which has proven better for digital TV. Your local stations may be identifying by their old analog channels, the ones you're familiar with. Stations use what's called a "perceptual" channel. This keeps them in the same position they'd be on an old, analog set. You also have their digital subchannels, which add a "-2" and above, to that number. If your TV is a newer model that also includes "NextGen TV", which offers an even better picture, better sound, and a host of new features that will be offered in the near future, you'll be able to take advantage of the improvements it offers. In my area, all of the major stations are available using the NextGen advanced system (also known as ATSC3.0). This will deliver, currently, a 1080p picture, rather than either 720p or 1080i., and with better color, better contrast and brightness, and sound which can include Dolby Atmos. Eventually, they'll be offering 4K programming, too. I recommend using antennaweb.com, a website that can help you determine what type of antenna you'll need in your area, but also where to point it, and how strong the signals will be. Most important is the RF channels your local stations are broadcasting on. Happy hunting! Oh, and stoopid, you may find the channels that went missing if you re-scan your TV.
 
Last edited:
ar surround said:
Our bill for broadcast basic cable recently went up to $66 a month. $66 to get essentially the five networks, PBS, two local channels, and "garbage" channels is rather absurd. Also, we currently have two free cable boxes that go away next December, which raises the bill to a quite insane $92 a month.

So we are seeking alternatives. I've looked at YouTube TV ($73 a month) and Hulu+ Live TV ($77 a month) and Sling. Sling (Blue) at $45 a month might be OK because it offers live ABC, Fox and NBC, and we could get CBS because we have Paramount+; but it doesn't have PBS and the two local channels.

I don't really need ESPN because I don't want the temptation to watch more sports other than the NFL.

Anything that I may be missing here? Any recommendations? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Have you considered a TV antenna?
Dropping cable 15 years ago was one of the best decisions I've ever made!
I missed it for about 3 weeks then never looked back.
With my antenna mounted in the attic, I get all the major networks, SC and NC PBS channels and several independent channels.
I think we get a total of 55 channels.
 
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