All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
#26
Moderator
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
Before offering Hoopla, my library used IndieFlix.
I know some public libraries have a deal with AcornTV. You can "check out" a 7-day pass to the service, and renew it as often as you want
#27
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
Huge. My wife is hesitant to do it because of what she is used to. But $1,200 savings a year is a nice chunk to put towards a vacation. So, hopefully, that will convince.
#28
DVD Talk Hero
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
There's a service called Digitalia -- they specialize in foreign films, though, but one of the local library systems that I am not a part of also offers it to library card holders.
#29
DVD Talk God
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
I've also been hesitant to do the cord cutting thing because I like the convenience, but I also would rather save more money for a nice vacation or multiple vacations in a year.
If I do go for the cheaper streaming route for Live TV it would either be DirecTV Now or Hulu Live.
If I went with DirecTV Now, even with the Maximum package with all the premiums and multiple streams, it would cost only $101. Saving $78-100/month is a big savings. Only drawback is the cloud DVR is only in beta phase right now and only stores 20 hours for 30 days. So you have to be really picky on what you can record and realistically watch for delayed viewing.
If I manage to clear out my DVR by the end of the summer, then maybe I'll look more closer in the Live TV streaming route before DirecTV jacks up prices again.
#31
DVD Talk God
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
Well for me working in the entertainment business it was a tax write off every year. But now with the tax law changing and the standard deduction being massively high, it won't factor in anymore from what I understand.
Convenience wise, it's easier having your 3-4 shows recorded that aired that night in 1 place than having to search through multiple providers to find them.
But yeah it is expensive and only getting more expensive. I would prefer taking more vacations to Thailand and Asia with some extra $$$ saved if I could.
Convenience wise, it's easier having your 3-4 shows recorded that aired that night in 1 place than having to search through multiple providers to find them.
But yeah it is expensive and only getting more expensive. I would prefer taking more vacations to Thailand and Asia with some extra $$$ saved if I could.
#32
DVD Talk Legend
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
My wife & I cut the cable cord in 2009, we couldn't see paying $60/mo for 65 channels of shit. I had already started a library of DVDs but concentrated moreso on our library after "cutting the cord". We have almost 1200 of our favorite movies and TV shows on DVD and blu-ray, couldn't be happier since we got rid of cable. I've never been interested in spending money on "renting" movies and/or TV shows via streaming subscriptions. I'd rather own my favorite stuff and watch them whenever I want to, plus I have the physical media that I can hold in my hand and peruse at my leasure. I know that you guys find a lot of positives in streaming what you want to watch (and store on your hundred million gigabyte hard drives), but we're perfectly happy spending our money the way we do, and wouldn't have it any other way. At least until they mandate implants.
#33
Senior Member
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
My issue with "Cord Cutting" is lack of Internet access options. Can't really get Internet unbundled for a decent price locally.
#35
DVD Talk Legend
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
To be honest, we actually have cable TV as part of our internet bundle, it's cheaper that way. The issue is it's only an SD cable box that looks like absolute butt on our big screen, so we just have it in storage.
#36
Senior Member
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
Comcast/Xfinity.....If you force them they might offer Internet only at a price premium. I'm told they want all their subscribers to have "TV" so they can negotiate using their subscriber count. They used to offer a Business class service but when I checked it was no longer available in any residential areas. Like others I try and call to reduce my bill (went up $15 last month) and keep the TV box in the closet and use OTA for TV and a Roku box.
#37
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
I cut the cord in July 2014 when Charter wanted to up by bill to almost $190 a month for cable and internet. I called and asked about a new 1-2 year deal and they said "We don't have any promotions going on at the moment". Turned in my (2) DVR's and haven't looked back. They called me every week for 2 years to get me to buy back into cable TV but no way.
They did get me to sign up for their $20/month app...Spectrum. They gave me a free Roku even. Worked great...1st bill was $32. Over 50% tax on a $20 cost...screw that.
I still have their cable internet, which has been great overall. Its only 60mbps download speed but it works for me...streaming, some online gaming, etc.
VUDU (1100+ titles)
Netflix: $12 a month
Amazon Prime: $10 a month or so averaged out. I also usually use my Amazon Prime cost up in shipping by March of every year.
$64.99 per month for internet service. Overall I'm very happy and spend 70% of my time on VUDU watching something.
I doubt I'll ever go back to cable TV. I loathe commercials and get all my news off the internet.
They did get me to sign up for their $20/month app...Spectrum. They gave me a free Roku even. Worked great...1st bill was $32. Over 50% tax on a $20 cost...screw that.
I still have their cable internet, which has been great overall. Its only 60mbps download speed but it works for me...streaming, some online gaming, etc.
VUDU (1100+ titles)
Netflix: $12 a month
Amazon Prime: $10 a month or so averaged out. I also usually use my Amazon Prime cost up in shipping by March of every year.
$64.99 per month for internet service. Overall I'm very happy and spend 70% of my time on VUDU watching something.
I doubt I'll ever go back to cable TV. I loathe commercials and get all my news off the internet.
#38
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
I don't miss cable at all. I spend 65 on internet only through Spectrum and have Netflix for 12. That's really all I need. I get around 40 channels with my OTA so I have more than I need. Once college football season hits I will bounce around the different streaming choices (DirectvNow, Sling, etc.) and pay a bit more for 4 months but cancel all by January. Rinse and repeat the next football season. My bill was almost 250 a month before. 250x12=3,000 a year. Now 65x12=780. Add on a few months for the football packages I'm still saving over 2,000 a year.
I'll probably stay with Spectrum unless they change policies. They don't throttle, I use a VPN and have noticed they don't monitor my activity, and no contract, if I want out I just cancel and no penalty. I bought my own router and use that. Verizon made me use theirs although that might have changed, not sure.
I'll probably stay with Spectrum unless they change policies. They don't throttle, I use a VPN and have noticed they don't monitor my activity, and no contract, if I want out I just cancel and no penalty. I bought my own router and use that. Verizon made me use theirs although that might have changed, not sure.
Last edited by Barth; 06-22-18 at 01:14 AM.
#40
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
I finally "cut the cord" and got rid of Dish. My main reason for staying with Dish so long was for live sports. I don't care much about other broadcast TV. After doing the free trial of Playstation Vue, which works awesomely well on my Sony TV and PS4, it was a no brainer to ditch Dish and pay $40 less per month for Playstation Vue as I can still get all my local sports, the streaming quality is very solid and at 60fps.
The downsides I've run into so far are:
The downsides I've run into so far are:
- The pausing of live TV seems to have a max limit of 5 minutes or less, which really isn't very practical. I think that can be worked around by adding the show you're watching the DVR, but I haven't messed with that much yet.
- No History Channel. I'm going to miss my American Pickers!
- The Guide is set up differently than I'm used to with the time axis along the side rather than along the top.
- Different features on different hardware - multi-view is supported on the PS4 but not on the app on my Sony 4K TV.
#41
Banned by request
Thread Starter
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
Get Hulu Live. We have that and haven’t looked back since. It’s pretty damn good, has History Channel, and you can pause live TV. They finally added a guide, which is fairly good, but I can see them refining it in the future.
#42
Inane Thread Master, 2018 TOTY
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Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
I have all the services. Not entirely sure why as I don’t watch all I want to, but I just couldn’t live without the ease of cable and all those channels in real time or recorded time...
#43
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: All you Cord Cutters - what satisfies you?
I looked into Hulu Live first. Unfortunately, the Hulu app doesn't support their Live TV service on a bunch of platforms, including Android TV and PS4, which are the two that matter for me. It works with Chromecast which was my other option, but doesn't do 60fps on that which is an non-starter for sports.