Who has cut the Cable TV cord...what are you using now?

[Dean P]

Started watching "The Handmaid's Tale" on Hulu in the last month......entertaining

Wife loved that show...

 

[BigN8]

My Dad (77 yo) cut the cord about 6 months ago. Last weekend he informed me he just called the Dish Network guy to come hook him up to satellite. He said the hassle was not worth the savings. And, I think he was tired of getting yelled at by the ole lady!!

 

[Julian]

My Dad (77 yo) cut the cord about 6 months ago. Last weekend he informed me he just called the Dish Network guy to come hook him up to satellite. He said the hassle was not worth the savings. And, I think he was tired of getting yelled at by the ole lady!!

There is NO WAY my Dad would have a clue how to work a TV that didn't come on when you turned it on, and then change channels with an up and down channel button! (he's 85)

 

[the MfM]

Thanks for the reminder. Just ordered an additional firestick. Dog ate the remote on my 4k stick and replacement was about $30. Cheap stick with remote is only $15.

The 4K stick and remote is $25 now... not sure I could live without the voice command remote.

I’ve got an IR/RF blaster and IR repeaters all programmed through Alexa. Without the voice command my wife would be yelling at me.

 

[jacoviii]

Zboxtv love it Overpaying for Cable? | Cut the Cord with ZBOXtv | United Sates

 

[OCMD]

It has finally happened. After a very long time (20 plus years), this faithful DIRECTV user is finally giving them the heave-ho. After years of paying sub $40 per month, I have grown weary of DirecTV’s increasing prices and refusal to reduce charges. It used to be (as I documented on this site) that you call them up, threaten to leave, and you received a $50 credit and much more for 2 years, etc etc. It hasn't been that way for over a year, but I never got around to cancelling as I am certain Infinity, comcast, Verizon et al are just as expensive once you get off the promo price. IMO DirecTV has gone down the toilet in pricing and customer service ever since they aligned with A T &T. But that is a story for another thread.

Now, for 5 months, I have been getting a mailer from Dish. It looked inviting, but I had too much work to do so I never got around to inquiring. Well, they just about cancelled our arena football season after Week 1 (GoIFL.com) last week (40 plus hours a week work); and they have shut down the courthouses and workers comp hearing sites in Maryland, so things are on hiatus for me, other than catching up and studying/brushing up on replay for the fall football season. So yesterday, I said screw it, let's call the Dish number. Wow. They answered quickly. I spoke with someone who spoke English, working out of Arizona. (2 pluses right off the bat). I learned I received the mailer because of stellar credit and the fact I was with DirecTV - they bought some list. Thus, the monthly mailers, figuring eventually they would get me, which they finally did.

What I really require as far as TV service is 1) TV for three homes, with having to pay for only 1 service; 2) the ease of operation of "normal" TV (I just can't get into hooking up/navigating devices, well I guess I will have to now to some extent but I can learn); 3) I need 3 DVRs; and 4) I need HD. Presently, I ran my own dish (non-HD) years ago at my Ocean City house. All I had to do is bring a DVR box when I occupied that house, hook it up, and voila, I had the same TV as my main residence, albeit non-HD. But it was free. Lately, from what I have learned, is that something has been done internally at DIRECTV to bring this practice to an end, so there goes free TV at my beach place as I will not pay the outrageous cable fees in the Ocean City proper. As far as my house in Daytona Beach, well – no TV as I don’t visit there much and my college kid who lives there doesn’t want or need TV as she is training flight students all the time and when she gets home she drops.

But now? After speaking with the clear English speaking rep from Arizona? I am paying $84 a month (includes all taxes/fees) on a 2 year contract. I am receiving the equivalent channel package as I currently receive with DirecTV, which price I have been paying had been $175 a month. Yea, outrageous and it’s about time I actually looked into this. $175 a month, after years of paying sub $40 a month! Screw this. Corona virus downtime has saved me some money! And after 2 years (I checked with current Dish customers I know) they saved a few dollars more than what they were paying, when they renewed! But I will cross that bridge in 2 years, if I am still here.

What do I get? THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? For the small price of 3 firesticks, I can now have free TV and ACCESS TO MY DVR’s via the firestick in my Daytona Beach house, my Ocean City house, my main house, and (which I just thought of) my 87 year old mom’s house! Yes, even my mom will be able to cancel the thieving company known as DirecTV/AT&T! TV in 4 homes. Access to dvr’s from each home. For the price of $84 per month. Dish will allow access to 5 devices at a time per account, which is fine with me as I am not a big TV watcher anyway. But it used to be nice to be able to travel and watch my soon to be former favorite NFL team wherever I was. But if they don’t draft Tua with the second pick and instead, waste it on yet another Ohio State fraud (last year Haskins this year Chase Young) then I am done with my soon to be former favorite team – except to hope they lose every game in 2020 so they can draft Trevor next season. But I digress again – too much time on my hands.

Bottom line is Dish is offering a great loss leader deal currently, to increase their customer base. They hit a home run with the customer service for sure. And once hooked up? They will send me a $300 visa card. TV issues solved for 2 years! Okay, my soapbox time is over. Can’t believe I wasted 30 minutes writing this. Aye, Corona!

How apropos at 1.35

 

[Weeb]

It has finally happened. After a very long time (20 plus years), this faithful DIRECTV user is finally giving them the heave-ho. After years of paying sub $40 per month, I have grown weary of DirecTV’s increasing prices and refusal to reduce charges. It used to be (as I documented on this site) that you call them up, threaten to leave, and you received a $50 credit and much more for 2 years, etc etc. It hasn't been that way for over a year, but I never got around to cancelling as I am certain Infinity, comcast, Verizon et al are just as expensive once you get off the promo price. IMO DirecTV has gone down the toilet in pricing and customer service ever since they aligned with A T &T. But that is a story for another thread.

Now, for 5 months, I have been getting a mailer from Dish. It looked inviting, but I had too much work to do so I never got around to inquiring. Well, they just about cancelled our arena football season after Week 1 (GoIFL.com) last week (40 plus hours a week work); and they have shut down the courthouses and workers comp hearing sites in Maryland, so things are on hiatus for me, other than catching up and studying/brushing up on replay for the fall football season. So yesterday, I said screw it, let's call the Dish number. Wow. They answered quickly. I spoke with someone who spoke English, working out of Arizona. (2 pluses right off the bat). I learned I received the mailer because of stellar credit and the fact I was with DirecTV - they bought some list. Thus, the monthly mailers, figuring eventually they would get me, which they finally did.

What I really require as far as TV service is 1) TV for three homes, with having to pay for only 1 service; 2) the ease of operation of "normal" TV (I just can't get into hooking up/navigating devices, well I guess I will have to now to some extent but I can learn); 3) I need 3 DVRs; and 4) I need HD. Presently, I ran my own dish (non-HD) years ago at my Ocean City house. All I had to do is bring a DVR box when I occupied that house, hook it up, and voila, I had the same TV as my main residence, albeit non-HD. But it was free. Lately, from have I have learned, is that something has been done internally at DIRECTV to bring this practice to an end, so there goes free TV at my beach place as I will not pay the outrageous cable fees in the Ocean City proper. As far as my house in Daytona Beach, well – no TV as I don’t visit there much and my college kid who lives there doesn’t want or need TV as she is training flight students all the time and when she gets home she drops.

But now? After speaking with the clear English speaking rep from Arizona? I am paying $84 a month (includes all taxes/fees) on a 2 year contract. I am receiving the equivalent channel package as I currently receive with DirecTV, which price I have been paying had been $175 a month. Yea, outrageous and it’s about time I actually looked into this. $175 a month, after years of paying sub $40 a month! Screw this. Corona virus downtime has saved me some money! And after 2 years (I checked with current Dish customers I know) they saved a few dollars more than what they were paying, when they renewed! But I will cross that bridge in 2 years, if I am still here.

What do I get? THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? For the small price of 3 firesticks, I can now have free TV and ACCESS TO MY DVR’s via the firestick in my Daytona Beach house, my Ocean City house, my main house, and (which I just thought of) my 87 year old mom’s house! Yes, even my mom will be able to cancel the thieving company known as DirecTV/AT&T! TV in 4 homes. Access to dvr’s from each home. For the price of $84 per month. Dish will allow access to 5 devices at a time per account, which is fine with me as I am not a big TV watcher anyway. But it used to be nice to be able to travel and watch my soon to be former favorite NFL team wherever I was. But if they don’t draft Tua with the second pick and instead, waste it on yet another Ohio State fraud (last year Haskins this year Chase Young) then I am done with my soon to be former favorite team – except to hope they lose every game in 2020 so they can draft Trevor next season. But I digress again – too much time on my hands.

Bottom line is Dish is offering a great loss leader deal currently, to increase their customer base. They hit a home run with the customer service for sure. And once hooked up? They will send me a $300 visa card. TV issues solved for 2 years! Okay, my soapbox time is over. Can’t believe I wasted 30 minutes writing this. Aye, Corona!

How apropos at 1.35

At&t is giving up on directv. They’ve already lost 4 million customer. It will eventually be bought by Dish who tried to buy it before. I’ve had it with their prices too. Spectrum is my only other option but their Dvrs only record two shows. I hadn’t thought of dish I might do a little investigating I keep throwing their flyers out without looking at them. How many shows can you record at once with dish? At&t is moving to the streaming game.

 

[OCMD]

You can record 16 shows at one time, apparently. But I am not sure if that is because I will have 3 DVRS. So maybe 5 per DVR at a time? I don't really care I don't record much. BUT - Dish DVRS are 2 terrabytes, not 500 gigs(?) like the crap Directv DVRs. 3 times as much storage capacity. Don't throw that flyer out. I am happy they kept sending them for 5 months. They mean business. I also transferred 3 cell phones over to Verizon from AT and T and when the At and T contract is up, the remaining 2 will be flipped over also. Although I believe the At and T cell service is better than Verizon's in my area. But AT and T continues to gouge. Is it any wonder they are losing customers in droves?

 

[Julian]

I will never return to leased hardware from a cable or satellite provider. I'll just pay for high speed internet and buy the streaming service that gives me what I want to watch today. Right now that is YouTubeTV and Netflix, with CBS for a month free.

Youtubetv has unlimited DVR and 5 streams. Netflix has 4 stream and 2 stream packages (perhaps more).

Never have to worry about hardware issues. We use a mix of apple tv and smart tvs.

Since my neighbor and I share, I'm paying $49 for youtube, and then my internet package.

 

[gwrace1]

We cut the cable and satellite TV cord in 2003. We have high speed internet and just use streaming services. Right now that includes Kodi, Youtube, Netflix and Amazon

 

[Compatico]

We cut the cord 15 years ago. For us it was less of a cost savings issue and more of getting rid of crappy programming full of commercials. So went to Netflix and Youtube, and threw in other online sources into the mix and we had more than enough to watch. Years ago Prime Video came along and added even more. We generally watch it more heavily during the winter months, and in the summer hardly watch TV unless it's late night or raining.

 

[Weeb]

I just signed up with dish network my bill was $195 with direct it’s going to $119 with all the channels. Their doing the installation tomorrow. I thought the hopper 3 recorded 16 programs? I need at least 5 for prime time during football season I don’t like commercial.

 

[BakedZiti]

YouTubeTV, $50/month..we use it between two households up to 5 users at a time. Its been excellent, has all our local channels, all the sports channels, free dvr storage etc. If you are paying more than 50/month at this point, you're paying too much. Not to mention just get the app and take it with you when you travel..no brainer

 

[Weeb]

YouTubeTV, $50/month..we use it between two households up to 5 users at a time. Its been excellent, has all our local channels, all the sports channels, free dvr storage etc. If you are paying more than 50/month at this point, you're paying too much. Not to mention just get the app and take it with you when you travel..no brainer

Do you have to watch commercials during regular shows?

 

[BakedZiti]

Do you have to watch commercials during regular shows?

Yessir, if you watch it live, not if you record

 

[Peelz]

I forgot how long we've been free of DIrecttv... but no regrets.

Hulu live, netflix, amazon... don't miss anything.

if anything, there's too much.

the ONLY thing I notice gone is the mindless channel flipping. lol

occasional internet probs... especially now... limited bandwidth, maximum users.

 

[2kwik4u]

Just wanted to update a bit on my setup. Dug out some older equipment and put it back to use this week.......I've been working from home for the last week, and it looks like I'll have another 2-3 weeks of this, easily. I'm going nuts down here in the basement without some form of background noise while sorting emails, waiting on calls, and things like that.

SO, I put the HDHomerun back on the network, and have been watching TV over the wired network connection. Took a little work to upgrade the firmware, and get it working just right, but now that it's up and going. It's working great.

Looks like they are offering unlimited DVR management on your network for $35/year. Wife and I are discussing getting this setup again in the house. Basically they provide the software to create the guide, and the interface for the DVR. You use your own hardware for actual physical storage and tuning. It's an interesting concept, and relatively inexpensive. DVR Service - SiliconDust <--there's how it works. I'll report back if we get that far into it.

 

[zipper]

We were with Directv for 25 years, got too expensive. Dish network for 10 months, ya it was that bad, we bought out the 1 year contract. Could not stand the bad service anymore. Wife tried to bundle our TV with our Wi-Fi, Xfinity, but they messed up the activation on their end and sent my wife to “technical support” which was a bot that wanted to increase speed. Wtf. They pissed her off.

Started using Youtube TV yesterday. A little early to tell, but seems to have checked all the boxes for now.

 

[Crob83]

We were with Directv for 25 years, got too expensive. Dish network for 10 months, ya it was that bad, we bought out the 1 year contract. Could not stand the bad service anymore. Wife tried to bundle our TV with our Wi-Fi, Xfinity, but they messed up the activation on their end and sent my wife to “technical support” which was a bot that wanted to increase speed. Wtf. They pissed her off.

Started using Youtube TV yesterday. A little early to tell, but seems to have checked all the boxes for now.

I've been using it since it came out. It's pretty good and has all the channels I need, plus $65 a month is reasonable

 

[2kwik4u]

I'll report back if we get that far into it.

Two years later.......we never got into it.

Currently running subscriptions that have GOT to be sneaking up on a cable bill.

Disney+ Bundle - $19.99
Netflix - $15.99
Amazon Prime (more than just TV, but still) - $16.67
Spotify - $15.99
Apple TV - $5.99

So....$74/mo for all that "stuff" and there's still nothing on. I end up watching "This Old House" on its own channel on SamsungTV's free streaming service most of the time, mostly because it's a known quantity and I can get to it without starting another streaming service; it's baked into the guide on the TV.