Cutting the COX Cable cord.....

[BBatesokc]

We have a 10 dollar antenna. HD OTA is nice for weather events. Hid behind the TV.

But you have to watch them when they air. No DVR. I don't like planning my evenings around watching TV. I like to watch when I have time and pause for telephone calls etc.

We have a few TV's in the house on OTA antennas and virtually every TV has an Apple TV connected too.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't just reconnect my VCR or recordable DVD unit.

[FighttheGoodFight]

But you have to watch them when they air. No DVR. I don't like planning my evenings around watching TV. I like to watch when I have time and pause for telephone calls etc.

We have a few TV's in the house on OTA antennas and virtually every TV has an Apple TV connected too.

In that case I would just watch them at their respective websites. My wife sometimes watches her shows on the CW website or ABC. We have a Home Theatre PC or we just watch on our laptops.

[Bullbear]

and if they don't have a website you can watch your show on. I watch mine from Viptv.net and stream it through Chromecast.. works like a charm

[Mike_M]

The only reason I have DirecTV is for the NBA. When the season is over, I suspend our account until it's back in full swing and just use HD Antenna ($20), Hulu, and Netflix to watch all of our shows and movies. Requires a little sacrifice, but totally worth saving $500 in the course of a year.

Super intrigued by Sling TV. If I can get ESPN and TNT for $20, then we might stick a fork in DirecTV altogether.

[trousers]

I'm currently using the Cox Flex plan. Internet Preferred, HD box with local channels, HBO & Starz. Comes to $80 a month. Checked their website and new subscribers can get the same plan for $70 + you also get Encore.
I've got Netflix and a "shared" Hulu + account.

Really tempted to cut off the cable box and try Sling TV, if it doesn't work out come back to the Flex plan at the lower rate.

[Dubya61]

I saw today that Yahoo is now promoting a seventh season of Community. I wonder how crowded the entertainment options will get? It must be very tempting for them to start buying content. TV sure isn't what it was. With all the options listed above, it'll be interesting to see what finally falls by the wayside or becomes the king of the market.

[FighttheGoodFight]

I'm currently using the Cox Flex plan. Internet Preferred, HD box with local channels, HBO & Starz. Comes to $80 a month. Checked their website and new subscribers can get the same plan for $70 + you also get Encore.
I've got Netflix and a "shared" Hulu + account.

Really tempted to cut off the cable box and try Sling TV, if it doesn't work out come back to the Flex plan at the lower rate.

Cox tried to get me to the Flex plan as well. It got to the point where they called every two weeks to ask why we didn't have TV service and how they could make it work.

I just told them I don't want to deal with the boxes and rented equipment. Those fees add up man! Eventually I asked to talk to a supervisor about stopping the calls. I haven't had one in a few months now. I pay 60 bucks for fast internet that should be enough for them.

I believe Sling TV is also still doing the 7 day trial. Test it out before you buy.

[Plutonic Panda]

Apple is unveiling something soon that is said to compete with cable service.

[zookeeper]

Another vote for Sling TV. I'm loving it. Between Sling (which has ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, etc.), Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, I feel covered. Sling (owned by Dish) is doing great. They just announced new channels today: A&E, History and Lifetime arrive on Sling TV this month

I use every service above through one device - my Roku. Since Sling added the Roku channel, it's made it much simpler.

You can get the 7-day Free Trial here - https://www.sling.com/

[BBatesokc]

Apple is unveiling something soon that is said to compete with cable service.

Probably their streaming television service...

Apple Said to Plan Limited, Low-Cost Streaming Service

[sooner88]

Do any of these boxes have Fox Sports SW? Or are you able to watch Thunder games without cable?

[oklip955]

CT, the reason I own my own equipment is back in the old days of Dish, you went to the electronics store and bought your system, read the instructions, (and if you could find an installer you paid them) and you put the system in. Due to lack of parts for my old systems, Dish brought me whole new equipment. My old Big C band dish repairman taught me how to install and trouble shoot a small sat dish system without the fancy equipment they use now. I'm just one of the original customers and set in my ways.

[Mike_M]

Do any of these boxes have Fox Sports SW? Or are you able to watch Thunder games without cable?

I don't see Fox Sports ever being big enough to cut the cord from traditional cable/satellite since their most watched channels are regional. I have Fox Sports 1 and have really never watched it.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Do any of these boxes have Fox Sports SW? Or are you able to watch Thunder games without cable?

If you have a cox email account on someone who has HD Cable you can use that to log into Fox Sports GO to watch the games. Or just pay a friend 5 bucks a month for it.

If you are a die hard fan of the NBA you can also do League Pass. Pay about 200 and get every game.

[Bullbear]

if you live in OKC and want to watch Thunder Games don't buy league pass. All thunder Games are Blacked out in this region. you can watch all other teams unless they are playing OKC but don't waste your money if you are trying to Thunder up!

[ctchandler]

CT, the reason I own my own equipment is back in the old days of Dish, you went to the electronics store and bought your system, read the instructions, (and if you could find an installer you paid them) and you put the system in. Due to lack of parts for my old systems, Dish brought me whole new equipment. My old Big C band dish repairman taught me how to install and trouble shoot a small sat dish system without the fancy equipment they use now. I'm just one of the original customers and set in my ways.

Oklip,
I fully understand, and I purchased Directv from Sam's early on, installed it myself (it was interesting setting up the dish) and would still have it if Dish hadn't made such a good offer. That's when I sold my equipment and let Dish furnish newer and better "stuff". I wanted dvr, local channels, and HD and they offered two of the three for free. I also got free additional receivers (bedroom access) as long as I kept the system hooked up to a phone line. I pay for the dvr. I'm pretty set in my ways as well, but this was a pretty good upgrade, I ended up paying less each month for a lot more. And not for one year, I've had Dish Network for about twelve years and it's still cheaper.
C. T.

[FighttheGoodFight]

if you live in OKC and want to watch Thunder Games don't buy league pass. All thunder Games are Blacked out in this region. you can watch all other teams unless they are playing OKC but don't waste your money if you are trying to Thunder up!

Adfreetime.com

You can sign up for two bucks then change regions. Boom game.

[Bullbear]

THANK YOU!.. this is a game changer!

[FighttheGoodFight]

THANK YOU!.. this is a game changer!

Glad I could help. I have been a cable cord cutter for quite a while. I feel like I have gone through thousands of pages on the internet to find the best legal way to view my content without a cable subscription.

The best is during NFL time. I use Adfreetime to go to the UK and purchase NFL Gamepass. Every NFL game in HD and also RedZone. About $114 USD.

[Bullbear]

I dropped cable a little over a year ago. The only thing I had not mastered was Thunder games. and I actually did have a work around but this will work much better.

[Plutonic Panda]

Probably their streaming television service...

Apple Said to Plan Limited, Low-Cost Streaming Service

Yeah. I just saw an article on it. It might be worth checking into. I'll probably wait until reviews have been submitted.

Apple TV service revenue and user projections - Business Insider

[BBatesokc]

Well, I bought a Tivo Roamio in like new condition at a pawn shop for $70. I'm going to give it a try and see how I like it. Haven't set it up yet.

Should I do the lifetime subscription? I can get $100 off the normal price with a promo code.

[BBatesokc]

Update on our cord cutting for those who may be considering it.

We went from $125 month in 2010 for cable/DVR, high speed internet and phone all the way up to $175 for the same thing just a couple of months ago (after some promotions we were on ended that had us around $145/month).

To get our bill down from $175 we turned back in their HD DVR and instead bought a like new Tivo Roamio from a pawn shop for $70 and lifetime subscription to Tivo for only $200 . We dropped our HBO/Showtime, Movie Pak and Bonus Pak.

Turned in the modem/router we were renting and bought our own (refurbished NetGear R6300 for $67 online - Cox wants almost $200 for the same one new).

Cancelled our Cox phone and have been using MagicJackGo (I know, I figured it would be crapola, but so far its worked great and is so cheap - also its just an extra phone in case cell service goes out).

We now have Cox down to $83/month (after taxes/fees) for an 'economy' TV lineup and 'premiere' internet. Anyone else have this same combination that wants to share what rate they are paying? I hate that Cox makes each customer negotiate a rate instead of a flat fair rate for everyone. I was hoping for closer to $70/month.

We are going to monitor what shows we watch/record with Tivo and if overwhelmingly they are local channels, then I'm cutting the cable completely and just going with Internet.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Thats a pretty good rate. What are you internet speeds?

[Jersey Boss]

Streaming TV Is Bigger Than Ever -- But Pause Before Cutting The Cord

"Streaming video over the web is not a replacement for the quality and reliability of broadcast TV,” said Dan Rayburn, a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan and the executive vice president of industry news site StreamingMedia.com.

Rayburn said that streaming services aren't as reliable because they are dependent on the public Internet and must encode their video for a number of devices, while pay TV providers deliver video over a private, closed system.

“There's a lot of single points of failure that exist when you deliver video over the Internet that aren't there when you deliver pay TV,” he said.

“It's much harder to guarantee service over a network you don’t control,” he added.

Viewers have little patience for buffering. A recent report from Conviva, a company that optimizes online video, found that only one-quarter of people will watch a video online for more than four minutes if there are issues like interruptions or lower picture quality.

An increasing number of people, especially young people, are choosing to get their video online rather than through expensive TV bundles with hundreds of channels they don't watch. But if live TV streaming services don't become more reliable, people may think twice before cutting the cord.

The above article provided some food for thought. While I have contemplated doing what others have tried, I think I will let the dust settle first.