Cable TV solutions

I'm sure this has been discussed before but what are solutions to cable TV? It's getting outrageous anymore on the price, pausing, "pixalating" when I'm watching channels and not real thrilled about satellite neither. I see commercials for Sling and Fubotv but it looks like those are on a trial basis too then it will go up. I'd like to watch news, football, college, sports ingeneral, Motortrend, A&E, local news, some of the free movie channels, etc.

I have good internet, Amazon prime for things I need if it helps. I've never used a "Firestick", or anything that streams. Looking for options

Opinions/Advice. Thanks

Spectrum is driving me nuts with the pixalating and pausing too! Price hikes no good either. Friends keep telling me to drop them but I'm afraid of change lol. I record about everything because commercials drive me nuts. I have a Firestick now but haven't connected it. They recommended several other things that I already forgot but it seemed like Firestick was good for me because I'm boycotting NFL. But I'm sure I'd miss some other stuff so I'm going to try it while I still have Spectrum and hopefully eventually give them the boot along with their price hikes and pauses and pixes.

Check out YoutubeTV. I just switched after 20+ years with Directv and it offers a DVR type option.

If I watch football, I'd prefer college over pro stuff but also will miss my favorite team too but oh well. The price is getting outrageous and for crap, IMHO. If I can watch my favorite channels

best thing going in my opinion.

My parents still use cable TV but their package comes with all the extras as online streaming also so really they could be dropping cable and paying for that and save a bit of money but they don't.
For news if you could get local stations with an antenna before you can still do that now.

depends on how tech savy your vs spending money premade.
local channels can be set up with an antenna.
if you are wiling to set it up, plex is a good display program and dvr for recording local shows, but you need a capture card installed on your computer to use that feature.
roku's have a bunch of free channels, and local news for free.
both plex and roku offer a bunch of free movies and tv shows.
you can also add your library of movies to plex and watch those too.

the only issue would be sports.
I don't remember if it was hulu or someone else that offered that seperate.
I know I have seen amazon ads for local sports too.

Easy.

Drop it.

No cable for over 33 years, there is plenty of other stuff to do with life.

I know, right?

To use an antenna, does it have to be mounted on a window and some sort of cable going to the TV? Or, is there an antenna like in the God old days where it's on the back of tv, minus the tin foil or "rabbit ears"

Run a roku and firestick in the house.

Pay for Hulu live+ which has most of the sports and local channels. Hulu live has ESPN+ which is good for college football season.

truly depends on where you are and how close you are to the broadcast towers.
I get like 50 channels with an indoor antena sitting on top of a cabinet.
could get more if I mounted one of the big ones on my roof.
having radiant barrier doesn't help my signal.

lol. living 90 minutes from the nearest interstate limits your options

I'm close to towers

My buddy runs one of these in his shop. We're roughly 60 miles from any television towers, and in a low-lying area. He still picks up up 20ish channels (on most days). If you're close to broadcast towers, I'd probably spring for a better one. You might get all the TV you want, for free.

https://www.amazon.com/WA-2608-Ampl...=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1D03Z37P3IO17

same here yrs since i had cable.............. i use some different web sites to watch shows and reddit links to watch the browns football and the blue jackets hockey and tv from around the world some times

This^ Been using Hulu+ Live for about 4 yrs now. I have Firesticks on all my TVs so they all function the same....same remote,same home screen/menus etc. Hulu+ Live gives me all the local networks for news/sports/national programming plus 60ish other "cable" channels such as History/HGTV/TBS/TLC/MT, etc. Includes access to the Hulu library and 50 hrs of cloud recording space. We save $60-$70/month over the Spectrum TV we had and have MORE than enough stuff to watch. Don't miss cable TV and their stupid prices one bit.

I don`t watch much TV but when the cable went out recently I realized that I missed it as I had no tv and no internet for a short period. I could do without TV but definitely not the internet. As someone said I don`t save much when I drop the tv portion of the whole package so I stay with it for now.

That can be an issue....streaming is based on internet so if that goes down you're out. However it seemed that TV and web went out together so..... We had a $220/month "bundle " bill that included internet, TV(basic) and land line. We dropped everything but the internet....so $70ish/month for internet and $70ish for Hulu+live.....almost $70ish/month savings. That's $700+/year. We've done it for going on 4 years...don't miss cable TV at all.....$2800+ ahead and counting!

Edit: Cool thing about streaming is..if internet goes down you can use your phone as a hotspot and connect the TV to that and boom...TV! Bad part is you'll burn through data in a hurry if you're on a limited plan(like I am)

the nice thing about having a plex server is if the internet goes down, I still have old movies or tv shows to watch.
it was really important when the kids were younger. especially during storms and such.
have battery backups for the plex server and a tv. so I could put on a funny kids show for them so they wouldn't freak out as bad on the thunder and lightning.

now that they are teenagers, it is important so they shut up about how the internet is down and they don't have anything to do.
it was out for like 2 days when att fiber came through and cut everyones lines.

cheapest is antenna... still need internet for most services so the cable company still have their claws in ya. with a good internet connection, a good vpn use one of the many IPTV services out there.. only problem is services like sling tv, youtube tv and the like is many times they will have the cannels ya want separated so you'll need a more expensive plan to get what you actually want to watch.

Decisions decisions. Hmm. Thanks

Thought I'd pass on what I've found lately. I have Cox and decided I'm not going to pay them 140/month for cable and internet. I will say both the internet and cable package works well and provided plenty of download speed and content on cable.

So I dropped cable and got a Roku box. The box is cheap and works well. And there is no monthly fees. It gives you basic news and weather and a bunch of other content( none that interests me though). I enjoy sports and history and discovery channel, neither are on Roku. I pulled the trigger on Sling Blue. 35/month and I get all the news that I can stomach and history/discovery, and the nfl network. So far so good.

Antenna hasn't worked very well here, but I may try again. I think this guys website is worth a look. From what I can tell there is no such thing as the "best" antenna. It depends where you live and what channels you're trying to watch.

antenne man

All these 'cable alternatives' are great, but what internet provider are you using to access them?

Antennas don't require an internet connection. Not sure on the roku, firestix etc.

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I have a 1GB fiber internet feed. It's about $40/month and Hulu live is $70 Hulu live has unlimited DVR.

Have amazon prime as well. Plenty of stuff available.

I have Cox for now

I decided to get Amazon Fire Stick since I have prime.membership. downloaded YouTube TV. I'll give it a try for now

they need an internet connection.

I'll explain a little more........ I used to have Cox cable tv and internet access. About $140/month. I dropped the cable tv, the new bill for internet only is $68/month. Bought a roku box w/remote for about $30. The roku box is wirelessly connected to my modum, roku box then connects to the tv with an HMDI cable. So turn on the tv with the roku remote and start watching everything that's free. Also within the roku app that is displayed on tv are a bunch of streaming channels that you pay separately for if you want. I choose sling blue for $35/month which gives me 30 or so more channels. Lots of options for tv these days.......

I'll explain a little more........ I used to have Cox cable tv and internet access. About $140/month. I dropped the cable tv, the new bill for internet only is $68/month. Bought a roku box w/remote for about $30. The roku box is wirelessly connected to my modum, roku box then connects to the tv with an HMDI cable.

This is pretty much what I've done, but in doing this, you still haven't broke completely free of cable as you need them for internet.

And this is where it sucks because you're still dealing with the cable company. When I moved in here two yrs ago, internet AND 10 basic (local) channels cost me $56 a month, End of first year, price had risen about $30, so I dropped the channels for just internet and the price dropped down to $68. Here we are at the end of the second year, and I'm at almost $80 a month for JUST internet. What's it gonna be in another 12 months? Well over $100 for just internet? And this isn't the latest fiber optic service either. What annoys me more so than the pricing is the lack of alternatives for internet. I don't live out in the sticks, yet cable is still the only game in town.

Well it depends on what TV programming you are talking about. Not going to watch HBO over the air. Another thing i noticed crapcast cable put's the local stations on their cable. There was a movie on one of them i haven't seen in years so watched it. I also have an antenna in my attic and found the local station it was on. Over the air didn't have it in wide screen format but the cable did. Guess it depends on the local station if they want to broadcast it in wide or standard. If you are not connected to some cable (fios/cable co etc) it's going to need fast internet. I have been looking and fios is not available here along with most of the over the air cell based internet survives. Cable is overpriced for similar plans from their competition(IF ONE COULD GET IT!) Hey Mr Biden what about the that infrastructure bill to get fast internet!!??? I also heard he was in town and they had to shut down the roads. They should have drove him on the ones that we have to drive everyday to work that is covered in pot holes, patches and cracks. Then you see road crews fixing the side walks that no one walks on instead of fixing the roads. Painting the lines on the damaged road surfaces. Pure idiots running things! Sorry had to vent. I also found out that the T Mobil home internet regulates how many users it has in an area. It is available where i am but they are not allowing any new customers. Didn't hear that on their TV commercial! How long do we have to wait for fast internet or someone to come up with a affordable way to watch TV? Wish that C band satellite was still available. It was awesome if you missed a show in your time zone you could watch it on another feed for a different one.

i was talking about what i quoted.. roku, firestick, chromecast...etc...etc.

Define fast internet? Why does Biden have to provide it? That's the cable/cell companies job....keep the damn gov't out of it! We get 200Mbps from Spectrum(trust me, I've had issues with them too)...some folks would say that's slow. We stream 2 TVs and surf the net on 2 laptops at the same time,have multiple devices(16) connected to it....zero issues.

Not an IT guy, but someone told me ethernet is more stable than wifi. We have a fire TV box on one tv and it's on ethernet, but can also go on wifi. I did a speed test on it and it's faster on wifi, but keep it on ethernet since it's close to the wifi router. If you go with a device, maybe see if it's ethernet capable as well as 2.4GHz and 5 GHz wifi.

Fast internet is anything faster than what i have now witch is DSL 0.7mbps up load and 0.0 down( and that's not a typo!). Spectrum, Verizon,AT&T(cell based) and others witch i can't remember are not available. Well there was one that said it was available but cost almost double. I refuse to give any more money to the money leach cable co! The infrastructure bill before it was pasted was supposed to be(part of it) to bring fast internet to those who don't have it as i heard on the news. I'm not political nor do i chose sides just stating what i heard. T Mobil won't let any more people on the unlimited 5G home internet where i am but what is available is called the "Internet Lite Plan". It's data caped depending on witch plan you choose. I haven't set it up yet but it has to be faster than what i have now.

Keep a close eye on that "CAP" especially if you start streaming movies music etc.

I have Verizon FIOS and it is costly with channels in flux. FIOS drops channel with almost no warning. The lack of real competition is the problem - vendors have no incentive to improve as the market is close to being a monopoly.
Speaking of alternatives --- Elon Musk has been attempting to deploy satellites in low orbit dedicated to fast lower cost internet access - I was hopeful but it looks like this effort stalled.

Competition among alternatives is key to better service / lower costs but that is not happening. BTW I have an antenna setup but have not used in years.

hey on the Elon Musk Star link. I have a guy at work that uses it up at the campground he go's to, he loves it and it does exactly what the literature says it does. he shares the cost with two other family's and they have kids that cant leave there phones alone for 5 minutes. he said no issues at all. I am waiting for the star link to be available in my second home in Tennessee so I can drop HughesNet. they suck.

Star Links website lets you input your address and it will show if there is reception. It's a real option for those who have none.

I've been on hulu's "basic" plan for about 2 years @ 6.99 a month and have been happy with their service. However I just received a notice that they are raising the price to 7.99 next month, about a 15% increase. Not bad IMO, an affordable increase unlike my house insurance which jumped 35% (after 28 years I am no longer with them )
I wonder if all these companies raising their prices are raising their employees wages by the same amount?

I "cut the cord" in Oct 2015. My internet has been thru Charter Spectrum the entire time and has been $80 per month the entire time. They are the only high speed provider but its ok as my service is fantastic. That $80 per month - I'd like it lower but it's fine. It not only provides my viewing television entertainment but I pay all my bills online as well as the entertainment on my laptop and phone. I pay for several streaming services. I could get by with just YouTube and one other service but I'm happy with my current lineup. No frickin 22 minutes of commercials in a 1 hour time slot and no direct funding of MTV CNN MSNBC ESPN TrueTv ..................ect.

My sister signed up for 200 MIPs Metronet fiber optic last year for $80 per month.

When a nearby construction crew cut the 1000 pair underground telephone cable on purpose because they had a time deadline to complete an Amazon warehouse foundation we lost service for 44 days, and switched to $45 per month 100 MIPs service, and found that the 2 unit Eero brand WiFi system Metronet uses is also a nice touch.

I have had a Mibox 3 Android TV for awhile, and a Sony Google TV before that.

There is so much praise for the $20 Walmart ONN box online
that I have been thinking of trying one,
especially since hackers have “rooted” it and expanded what can be done,
such as instal Linux, run the Kodi media player, etc.

I get how annoying cable TV can be. I had it, too, and got tired of the high prices and the issues like the screen freezing and getting all pixelated. I wasn't into getting satellite, either.

So, I switched to iptv kopen. It's been working out great for me. I paid 60 euros for six months, which is pretty cool. With this, I get a bunch of channels - over 7000! Plus, there are loads of movies in HD, 4K, and UHD. It's got everything from sports and news to movie channels and stuff like MotorTrend and A&E. I can watch it anywhere, on my TV at home or on my phone when I'm out.

I just 'cut the cord' on Direct TV a week ago. I now need to find a reasonable internet provider other than the great satan (AT&T).

I just went and hooked up to my antenna that's been in the attic since the 70s. I get 54 channels in digital quality. Antennas aren't like they used to be, with the balls of aluminum foil trying to improve the signal and the digital broadcast television even comes with a program guide. You get a lot of movie channels, such as Grit, some military channel, Ion, and lots of others. Before I made any decisions I'd go get a $10.00 set of rabbit ears from Ace Hardware to see what happens. I may or may not have it any better, but our broadcast antennas are on Lookout Mountain a few thousand feet above Denver, so they really reach out. You never know until you try, but you can't beat free. If I need to see the game when it's on ESPN or something, I can go to the bar, but for the most part, things are great.

When CBS and Direct TV were having their contract dispute my brother called and asked me what commercial antenna he should buy.
I told him I had two different Terk models or an effective old Radio Shack double bowtie in front of reflector screen that I would give him on his next visit, or that I had stored “The World’s best 14 element UHF Yagi” in our other brother ‘s basement.

In the meantime I suggested he just improvise a “coaxial dipole” by stripping back 20 inches of 75 ohm braid and and taping it back on the cable to expose the inner conductor - nearly free antenna if you have some 75 ohm coax.

Instead he bought a $15 flat HDTV antenna and did a scan and got 60 total channels.
He was also surprised that his fairly new HDTV could had a feature to replay 10 minutes of over the air HDTV TV using internal memory, so he could even rewatch sections of the game or skip forward of ADs.

As luck would have it CBS and Direct TV settled their dispute a few hours before that football game.

We have used to pay $300 per month:

300 mps internet, six TV’s (four Spectrum DVR cable boxes, and two non DVR boxes), no land line.

About a year ago, we turned in all box’s.

Got six Roku 4+ devises at about $35 each (Amazon}.

Went with “Spectrum Select 25 streaming plan”

I think it’s around $35 per month.

You pick your most desired 25 non-premium cable channels, and a host of more common channels are automatically included.

Cloud DVR recording is an option. We pay $10 per month for that (you can store 100 recordings which are held for a year). Delete as desired to free up space.

There is a $5 version available: 50 recordings can be stored for six months.

We pay approx $140 a month for Spectrum Select 25, plus 300 mps internet.

Occasional pixelating, but tolerable. Exception: The CHARGE channel goes pixel wild from late morning to early afternoon. Can’t figure out why it’s only that Channel.

The Roku’s have all the premium channel apps: like Hulu, Slng, Netflix, Fubo, and a host of others. There is often some free programming on them, but you pay monthly for full app access individually. No contracts, so you can jump around them if you wish.

We have a roof antenna for power outages when we switch to generator. Hate the channel availability, but at least it’s something. We go to DVD’s a lot in those rare circumstances.

T Mobile is our cell provider.

Spectrum keeps trying to hook us on their cell plan via their “Second line free for 12 months” bait.

I ain’t biting as T Mobile has much better State to State coverage when we road trip.

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Do you have a "smart tv?"

If so, download the apps for all of the free tv you can find (Pluto, Plex, Tubi, Freevee, etc...).

If you don't have a smart tv, you'll need a router and a ROKU or similar device to hook to your TV. Once you have that, then you can download the free tv apps.
But even with all of the free tv, you'll probably want at least one pay app for live streaming news and new tv shows. I have Hulu. Not perfect, but it's enough for me. My sister recently hooked up Hulu and she got 1 year for a dollar a month (or something ridiculously cheap). If you don't like it after a year, try something different...

About a year ago we got new Verizon phones(existing Verizon customer) and switched to their 5g internet.$125/month for unlimited on both phones(Samsung S23) and internet. It's been flawless. We use Firesticks and stream Hulu and Netflix ($25/month for both) and I put an antenna in the garage for local stuff. If you have Samsung TVs try Samsung TV Plus....literally 100s of channels...free! Don't miss Spectrum in the least!!

I dont know the distance of your garage from your homes wifi router- but I installed a range extender in my garage and enjoy great internet in my garage. I bought a Roku Ultra for my garage TV (Ultra is about $90 and are wireless OR wired) and connected it via ethernet cable directly to my extender and have flawless streaming and great wifi out there.