Cutting the cord help/advice needed

Good morning CZ friends, reaching out for some help/advice......

I'm trying to convince my wife to cut the cord. We pay close to $200/month for a bundled cable package, which includes internet, TV (4 boxes) service and a landline phone (never used once). On top of that we also have Netflix and Amazon Prime.

I can get 50/50 mbs internet service for $40/month. A couple of our sets are smart TVs and I have a Cromecast that I never really took the time to set up and use.

My wife's concern is she just likes to be able to easily flip through channels and land on something she finds interesting. Our TV habits are pretty basic where we watch things like local & cable news, NFL, home and cooking shows, ID, Lifetime, Hallmark channels, etc. As for sports and news, it would need to be real-time viewing. We're not into gaming.

So my question is how can I replicate our simple TV watching habits via streaming and keep it simple. She would not want to have to hook up computers to the TV, click on individual TV apps to find something to watch.......she wants to be able to still be able to watch TV easily and I of course, want to save $$.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of even trying to do a trial run where we still have cable service but simulate what it would be like to watch with the cord cut for a couple months and until she's comfortable with it.

Please share your thoughts, experience, advice.....

I am literally in the same boat as your wife. I stopped watching as much TV, but I like flipping, and am worried about sports. I like 2 local teams(hockey and baseball), and my Cowboys which are not a local team.

sunbum said:

Good morning CZ friends, reaching out for some help/advice......

I'm trying to convince my wife to cut the cord. We pay close to $200/month for a bundled cable package, which includes internet, TV (4 boxes) service and a landline phone (never used once). On top of that we also have Netflix and Amazon Prime.

I can get 50/50 mbs internet service for $40/month. A couple of our sets are smart TVs and I have a Cromecast that I never really took the time to set up and use.

My wife's concern is she just likes to be able to easily flip through channels and land on something she finds interesting. Our TV habits are pretty basic where we watch things like local & cable news, NFL, home and cooking shows, ID, Lifetime, Hallmark channels, etc. As for sports and news, it would need to be real-time viewing. We're not into gaming.

So my question is how can I replicate our simple TV watching habits via streaming and keep it simple. She would not want to have to hook up computers to the TV, click on individual TV apps to find something to watch.......she wants to be able to still be able to watch TV easily and I of course, want to save $$.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of even trying to do a trial run where we still have cable service but simulate what it would be like to watch with the cord cut for a couple months and until she's comfortable with it.

Please share your thoughts, experience, advice.....

Click to expand...

I called AT&T to cancel my home phone line. They lowered my Internet and phone bill enough to where i basically got to keep the phone for free. They also gave me a discount onmy directtv. My bill went from about 255 to 190 a month. Good luck, I'll follow this thread with interest.

Ranching said:

I called AT&T to cancel my home phone line. They lowered my Internet and phone bill enough to where i basically got to keep the phone for free. They also gave me a discount onmy directtv. My bill went from about 255 to 190 a month. Good luck, I'll follow this thread with interest.

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I've tried several ways in rearranging my service to lower my bill and savings are always minimal. They pretty much give phone service away for free and any changes to TV packages yield only a couple dollars in savings......they're not dumb and I'm sure there's departments at these cable companies that their only job is to keep your bill as high as possible.

The concept of "cutting the cord" is getting rid of all paid daily-scheduled TV services. If you switch from DirecTV/cable TV to a streaming TV service that comes over a cable/DSL/etc. cable, it's the same thing. The "cut the cord" concept is about taking control of your entertainment and no longer letting other "services" tell you what you will watch and when you will watch it. Only the events themselves should dictate that.

What it really sounds like you are looking for is just cheaper alternatives to what your local cable provider offers rather than cutting the cord.

Some alternatives to cable TV:

• Youtube TV - It just started rolling out over the last year and is continuing to expand to more cities, though of course it's focused on large cities initially.

• DirecTV Now - AT&T's streaming TV service that streams rather than requiring a satellite dish.

• Sling TV - It's been around for a while but I have never seen it get good reviews.

• PlayStation Vue - I don't believe you need a PlayStation for this as it supports several other devices.

• Hulu Plus - It's been around for a while, but never really used it myself.

You can also install HD antenna(s) at your house and get all basic network programming (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) over the air. For best quality, you'll want an outdoor antenna for this.

You can also look at individual network subscription services like CBS, NBC, etc. Disney/ESPN is supposed to be rolling out their own subscription-based streaming service in the near future for many of their TV channels. They just bought a streaming company for it in fact.

There may be others .. you could also look at services like Netflix of course for on-demand viewing of movies and TV shows.

The 3 channels I really need are: Comcast Sports Net Chicago(which I think NBC now owns), Fox and NBC. Not sure which streaming service would have this.

The options that Reality listed above are worth checking out. For me, Playstation Vue solved the channel-surfing itch and the Cowboys watching issue for me after cutting the cord. I cut cable earlier this year, and went from cable/internet/phone at about $200 per month, to internet only, at about $60 per month. Between an HD antenna for the few times I watched local stations, and a Firestick, I was good....until football season.

So I've subscribed to Playstation Vue, for $45 per month, and I'll keep it until football season is over. It provides a decent substitute for the cable watching / browsing experience, and has a "DVR" service, which is sorta quirky but okay. The whole experience is a little less smooth than watching cable, but it's not bad, and it lets you do channel surfing, record shows, etc. For me, during football season, my bill is still about half what it was with cable. They carry all four broadcast networks, many of the most popular cable networks, and I got the package that includes the NFL Network. Come February or so, my plan is to unsubscribe from Vue until next September and save the extra $$.

The viewing experience with Vue, SlingTV, etc., is still new and clunky and they're working out the bugs and adding features as they go. I'm guessing that it will keep improving over time.

Also, I do the same thing with HBO now...subscribe to it during Game of Thrones season, watch whatever else I want to catch up on, then unsubscribe until GOT comes around again.

We use PS Vue on Fire TV boxes. Works great. Wife loves it. I've tried sling and directv now. Vue blows them both out of the water.

Reality said:

The concept of "cutting the cord" is getting rid of all paid daily-scheduled TV services. If you switch from DirecTV/cable TV to a streaming TV service that comes over a cable/DSL/etc. cable, it's the same thing. The "cut the cord" concept is about taking control of your entertainment and no longer letting other "services" tell you what you will watch and when you will watch it. Only the events themselves should dictate that.

What it really sounds like you are looking for is just cheaper alternatives to what your local cable provider offers rather than cutting the cord.

Some alternatives to cable TV:

• Yahoo TV - It just started rolling out over the last year and is continuing to expand to more cities, though of course it's focused on large cities initially.

• DirecTV Now - AT&T's streaming TV service that streams rather than requiring a satellite dish.

• Sling TV - It's been around for a while but I have never seen it get good reviews.

• PlayStation Vue - I don't believe you need a PlayStation for this as it supports several other devices.

• Hulu Plus - It's been around for a while, but never really used it myself.

You can also install HD antenna(s) at your house and get all basic network programming (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) over the air. For best quality, you'll want an outdoor antenna for this.

You can also look at individual network subscription services like CBS, NBC, etc. Disney/ESPN is supposed to be rolling out their own subscription-based streaming service in the near future for many of their TV channels. They just bought a streaming company for it in fact.

There may be others .. you could also look at services like Netflix of course for on-demand viewing of movies and TV shows.

Click to expand...

YouTube has their own version, in limited markets.

CyberB0b said:

YouTube has their own version, in limited markets.

Click to expand...

Actually, it was a typo .. I meant Youtube TV, not Yahoo. Thanks for pointing that out.

For those interested, here's a great article on the topic. A lot was mentioned by @Reality (thank you) and there several links w/i the article where further info is available.

sunbum said:

For those interested, here's a great article on the topic. A lot was mentioned by @Reality (thank you) and there several links w/i the article where further info is available.

Click to expand...

I think you forgot something

Reality said:

I think you forgot something

Click to expand...

lol...duh....

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/09/17/cutting-cord-how-to-pick-your-streaming-services.html

anyone have experience using Amazon Fire stick?

sunbum said:

anyone have experience using Amazon Fire stick?

Click to expand...

Spend the extra cash on the full fire tv box.

sunbum said:

Good morning CZ friends, reaching out for some help/advice......

I'm trying to convince my wife to cut the cord. We pay close to $200/month for a bundled cable package, which includes internet, TV (4 boxes) service and a landline phone (never used once). On top of that we also have Netflix and Amazon Prime.

I can get 50/50 mbs internet service for $40/month. A couple of our sets are smart TVs and I have a Cromecast that I never really took the time to set up and use.

My wife's concern is she just likes to be able to easily flip through channels and land on something she finds interesting. Our TV habits are pretty basic where we watch things like local & cable news, NFL, home and cooking shows, ID, Lifetime, Hallmark channels, etc. As for sports and news, it would need to be real-time viewing. We're not into gaming.

So my question is how can I replicate our simple TV watching habits via streaming and keep it simple. She would not want to have to hook up computers to the TV, click on individual TV apps to find something to watch.......she wants to be able to still be able to watch TV easily and I of course, want to save $$.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of even trying to do a trial run where we still have cable service but simulate what it would be like to watch with the cord cut for a couple months and until she's comfortable with it.

Please share your thoughts, experience, advice.....

Click to expand...

That's the problem... Or should I say the unique competitive advantage of cable... The shear simplicity of the thing.

I've looked at the alternatives... But with 4 TV's & 2 cable boxes... I didn't get far.

Yeah I'm paying more, but to be able to hit one-button, turn everything on and just start flipping channels... It's simple.

And my wife would snap if it were any more complicated. For her TV viewing utopia is TV Guide + cable TV.

I've got a roku tv. The CBS News channel is free and provides 24/7 live news. Lots of other channels and services as well, many completely free. Anything else I want I get off the internet and use an hdmi cable to my laptop if I want to watch it on the tv.

MichaelWinicki said:

That's the problem... Or should I say the unique competitive advantage of cable... The shear simplicity of the thing.

I've looked at the alternatives... But with 4 TV's & 2 cable boxes... I didn't get far.

Yeah I'm paying more, but to be able to hit one-button, turn everything on and just start flipping channels... It's simple.

And my wife would snap if it were any more complicated. For her TV viewing utopia is TV Guide + cable TV.

Click to expand...

PS Vue works that way on the Fire TV. Launch the app, and you have the guide, DVR, and anything else you would want. You can stream up to 5 devices at a time.

PS Vue has a 7 day free trial and Best Buy has a 15 day return policy. Check it out.

MichaelWinicki said:

That's the problem... Or should I say the unique competitive advantage of cable... The shear simplicity of the thing.

I've looked at the alternatives... But with 4 TV's & 2 cable boxes... I didn't get far.

Yeah I'm paying more, but to be able to hit one-button, turn everything on and just start flipping channels... It's simple.

And my wife would snap if it were any more complicated. For her TV viewing utopia is TV Guide + cable TV.

Click to expand...

I'm with ya.......I'm thinking I'd need to save around $100/month to make it worth it. If I were to do this and leave the wife with a kludgy TV watching experience, paying a bit more would be the least of my concerns!!

I see there's a 30 free trial for Hulu Plus and a 5 day trial for PS Vue. Afterwards I think the Hule no commercials is $12/mnth and the PS package good for us is $45/mnth. Haven't looked into Hulu Plus that much yet.

I want to get rid of paying $162 to Verizon Fios for the bundle package but having teens at home makes it difficult. They want to flip their channels. But learning great things here. Once they are off to college, I am getting rid of Cable for good. I envy people who cut the cord really.