E Unit

This is aimed more at those who do not have cable or satellite, but rather only stream for all their TV and movie needs. My wife and I are a couple of weeks from moving into our new house, and for the first time, will not get cable at all. I have Roku's for our TV's, so I'm going to start off with the following:

• Hulu with Live TV (has about 50+ channels which suits most of the house needs, including the Disney and Nick Jr channels our kids watch)
• HBO add on
• Netflix
• Amazon Prime
• Vudu and (services that use MA and UV stuff)

I'm guessing/hoping this will cover most of my TV needs. But I also wanted to get some people's ideas of what services you buy into that you think are worth it. This isn't meant to be a streaming vs cable thread since we have those already, I just wanted to get people's takes on this and how saisfied you are about going to streaming only.

EinCB

If you two got public library cards, you can sign up for the free Kanopy. You and your wife can each have separate accounts.

https://www.kanopy.com/

My family and I share accounts, we're a lot happier than when we had cable. We have Crunchyroll and Funimation for anime. Also, TubiTV, and YouTube.

If you're into any of the four professional sports, you can download their apps and catch some free games during their annual free previews.

Nesbit

Its tough to gauge what will work for you as far as specific streaming services but can say that I don't miss cable at all and I work from home at an often slow pace job so I get the most of my streaming services.

SunMonkey

I find that at most my household uses one paid streaming service enough for monthly access, that being Netflix.

The others like Hulu and HBO, and now Prime with the large yearly price bump, we will do maybe one month a year to catch up on something.

b2net

Outdoor antenna for local stations (news, etc).

Netflix
Hulu
CW app
CW Seed app
Amazon Prime Video
UV/MA providers

Many Roku channels for other free content

Library to check out Blu-ray

Some purchases of movies we really want on disc


Equals too much to watch and always an abundance of choices... Even though we have little way to see CBS shows... Except live via antenna as they air.

milo bloom

Been about 10 years.

Netflix
Hulu
Amazon Prime
Youtube (no paid stuff, just the ad supported stuff)
Outdoor antenna for local stuff
Plex
DVD/Blu collection (link below)

And you seriously need to check with your local library. Ours not only has music and movies, but also tons of video games. And there's also inter-library lending, where you can look at other library's inventories, and they'll send it to your library so you can borrow it locally.

Why So Blu?

Been cable-free for more than 10 years now.

PRIME
VUDU
Hulu w/ HBO NOW
Public Library
Filmstruck
Kanopy (several library systems participate and it's free and you can stack your library memberships for more credits each month)
Netflix
DVD/BD collection
Youtube (free)

TheBigDave

My local library (Broward County, FL) uses Hoopla instead. It's a similar service. We get 8 free rentals per month. They have tons of content (Movies, TV, eBooks, Audiobooks, Comics, etc). There's a Roku app for viewing on TV.

https://www.hoopladigital.com/

TomOpus

I use Hoopla through the library but I get 12 per month. I guess depends on the library?

Why So Blu?

Thanks for reminding me about Hoopla. Only one of the library systems that I am a member of has it, but it gives me 8 titles per month.

E Unit

I checked my local library and they don't do either Kanopy or Hoopla. But with the services I plan to sign up for, I think that will more than cover it. The only concern I have will be sports in the fall. But I think ESPN+ will cover almost all of that.

Trevor

Thanks for the Kanopy discussion all. Added, and very impressed with the selection.

mndtrp

I haven't had cable in 20 years. In the beginning, it was just an antenna and disc purchases/rentals. Once streaming kicked into high gear, it's been only Netflix with the occasional disc rental.

Orbi-Wan Techno

We dropped Cox Cable approximately a year ago, and went to an attic-mounted Channel Master antenna plus amplifier to get our locals. The antenna feeds all of our cable outlets (48 channels with a couple of duplicates), with 3 TVs and a media center computer with a Hauppauge 4-tuner card working with NextPVR software and an annual subscription of Schedules Direct for recording.

We use Plex software to access our antenna-recorded program in addition to the 1,000s of movie and TV shows I transferred from DVDs and Blurays I purchased over the years.

For a few months, we got DirectTV Now so the wife could see SEC sports, and we could access other "cable" channels. However, we had issues with buffering, etc., so when YouTubeTV came along with more sports channels included at a lower price, we gave it a test run and now it's our primary source of television viewing. It has all of our major locals in their line-up except CW, but CW is offered OnDemand. YouTube has unlimited cloud DVR service, and have added many channels in the past few months without jacking our price up. We also have access to YouTube Red programming.

Additionally, we have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I also use PlayOn media software to download programming from some "cable" channels, as well as Netflix and Amazon.

I also have Vudu/Movies Anywhere/FandangoNow for the movies and shows that I "must always own".

We watch 95% of everything through our Roku box (2017 model) and get pretty much all of our programming in 5.1 Surround.

E Unit

Right now I'm guesstimating that we'll spend around $60-$70/month in streaming costs. That's a win, even if it means sacrificing some stuff we liked. It's also a good enough reason to focus more on a show at a time. Currently, I think we've started about a dozen shows we're right in the middle of - although we're plowing through Bones pretty fast.

rduncan

Unless you belong to my library which is not listed.

b2net

Neither of the library systems in my area are listed for Kanopy or Hoopla...

dex14

How much are you paying for internet services?

E Unit

Who is that directed to, me? I'm paying $80 for the AT&T Gigabit.

Ky-Fi

I do have $15 a month cable TV for the local channels only.

But for the rest, Sling TV on the ROKU does it for me. $25 a month, and I get AMC, Sy-Fy, IFC, El Rey, CNN, TNT, NBC Sports, FX, History Channel, BBC, etc. I have a large BD/DVD collection for my movies, and I don't watch much regular TV anyways.

The free Pluto channel on the ROKU has a lot of stuff, too.

Thanks for the info about Hoopla--I'll have to check that out.

Orbi-Wan Techno

We pay $40 a month for FiOS 50/50 internet only, and $35 for YouTube TV. A year ago, we were paying about $80 total for 15/5 internet and needed boxes for local channels over cable. We are pretty happy now.

TheBigDave

Also remember that Vudu has 1000's of movies that are Free With Ads.

I absolutely hate commercials, and always pay extra for an ad-free service. But these aren't too bad. You get 90-seconds of commercials before the movie starts. Then a very short break (30-45 secs) every 20-30 minutes. And the ads show up in appropriate spots, not in the middle of a scene.

https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/moviesonus

Alan Smithee

The technical quality of those is great too, just as good as the ones you pay for. The time display coming on when the movie resumes is a bit annoying though, I always keep the remote nearby to get rid of it as soon as it comes back on. If I were an advertiser, I wouldn't like that countdown clock onscreen during the commercial either.

dex14

Sorry. To everyone in general. Sometimes people who cut the cord forget to even factor that into the overall cost of everything + streaming services.

I'm paying increasingly close to $200/mo for cable, internet, phone right now. That's not even factoring streaming services. Once my current "deal" ends I'm strongly considering finally doing this. From what I can tell now, I would save about $100 a month with internet + Hulu Live with cloud DVR.

E Unit

We paid about $230/month, so this new approach will easily save us about $100. That’s a big difference.