Let's talk about cutting cable

[disneysteve]

If we cut cable, we would wind up with WIndstream for internet. We live in a rural area so not a lot of options. And, their internet is via the phone dsl lines versus cable so not as good.

We will keep cable for internet, just not for anything else.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

So we pay $100/month for 1 gb Fiber internet. We pay for nothing else. We have netflix/Disney+ BIL, my mom still has cable so i use it to login into Fox, CBS, Etc on our roku. occasionally we pay for CBS all access to watch star trek. I bought amazon prime this year because my mom wanted it so I bought it for her and added it my DH to it. I don't buy much from them and we watch nothing on it. We watch almost no tv. We don't even have an antenna. But our friends will tell you tht we aren't tv watchers. We aspire but our kids go to bed so late and we are so busy every night even in covid that we don't have time.

For A LONG time we had local channels with our internet because it was $79/month to "bundle" local channels. It was $75/month to have internet and for $4 we could watch sports!

[disneysteve]

Step 1 and 2 complete.

Step 1 was getting an antenna. That came on Thursday.
Step 2 was signing up for Sling which I did today.

So far, Sling is great. No problems at all.

We are, however, having some difficulty with the antenna. Earlier, we were getting our local ABC station with no trouble but later we couldn't get the signal. Some online troubleshooting suggested it could be due to some electrical interference so we have to see if there might be anything in the room causing an issue.

We have a 3-day trial with Sling though unless we see something clearly wrong with it, we'll keep it for the month to really give it a thorough test run including using the included cloud DVR service (10 hours free; can upgrade to 50 hours for $5/month).

The main issue will be getting the antenna working consistently. If we can't do that, we'll have to figure out what to do next as having our local channels is a must.

[kork13]

......
We are, however, having some difficulty with the antenna. Earlier, we were getting our local ABC station with no trouble but later we couldn't get the signal. Some online troubleshooting suggested it could be due to some electrical interference so we have to see if there might be anything in the room causing an issue.
.......

The main issue will be getting the antenna working consistently. If we can't do that, we'll have to figure out what to do next as having our local channels is a must.

If it's only one channel causing problems, you might look at where that station is in town relative to where your antenna is at. If it's in the"wrong" side of the house, all the stuff inside could impact the signal. In general, the best place to mount your antenna (if feasible) is somewhere in your attic or outside near the roof, oriented toward the transmitter antennas of your local TV stations.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

how much are you saving with sling?

[disneysteve]

how much are you saving with sling?

I can't answer that because we haven't cancelled cable yet.

Our cable bill is $228/month. When we cancel, we will keep internet service so I'm guessing (based on what others in the area have told me) that will be around $75/month. Let's round it up to $100 just to be conservative.

Sling is $30/month plus tax. I don't know what taxes they hit you with but let's say it adds 20% or $6.

That would put us at $136 vs. $228, but that's just a ballpark estimate.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

How do you do DVR with sling? Is it on the cloud instead of a box?

[disneysteve]

How do you do DVR with sling? Is it on the cloud instead of a box?

Yes, it’s cloud-based.

[scfr]

I know disneysteve's family has already figured out what they are going to do, but for anyone else interested in cutting cable ... don't forget about your local library. I'm in an apartment right now so I have limited cable but before that for 10 years I had just an antennae. I supplement with DVDs from the library. My local library has a very generous checkout policy and great curbside service during the pandemic. I keep a stack on hand with a wide variety of movies, TV shows, and educational DVDs so I can watch whatever I'm in the mood for. I've never paid a subscription fee for TV or movie viewing.

Also, more and more libraries are starting to offer streaming services like Kanopy or Hoopla.
If you haven't checked out what your local library has to offer for a while, I recommend you take a look.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I'd probably do youtube or sling tv if i ever pay for tv again. Of course the more likely probability is local channels from fiber because it's cheaper than our internet only bill. Ridiculous how expensive internet is. $100/month. Of course monopolies can do that. I wonder how much higher it can go?

[disneysteve]

Thought I'd post an update. We've been doing the antenna and Sling for the past 8 days.

The only slight hiccup remains our local ABC affiliate. I did reposition the antenna on Friday and that helped. It seems to be exceedingly sensitive to proximity to metal, even the nails in the wall paneling or a small tack to hang it (and when I used a heavier metal hangar we lost the signal entirely). As I was moving it around to find the best spot, I found that when I held it about an inch from the wall, we got better reception. So I ran a string through the mounting holes and hung it from a plant hook. No metal within about 6 inches of the antenna. That seems to be working for the most part. There's still some occasional signal degradation but since I did that, we've been able to watch ABC pretty consistently.

We'll probably give it another week or so and if we're still satisfied, I'll give Comcast a call to cancel and see how much I can negotiate the internet bill.

[QuarterMillionMan]

DS same for me with antennae ABC hit or miss when someone or a bus or a plane blocks the signal. Fox too. CBS & NBC seem fine in Los Angeles.

[disneysteve]

DS same for me with antennae ABC hit or miss when someone or a bus or a plane blocks the signal. Fox too. CBS & NBC seem fine in Los Angeles.

I did a quick Google search and found lots of reports of people in this area having trouble with the ABC channel (6). There was even something mentioned on their own website acknowledging that they're aware of the problem and working to improve their signal. At least I know it's not just us.

[QuarterMillionMan]

DS I bet everyone’s ABC signal is like ours, they just haven’t come out and said it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Los Angeles people discussing on a forum ABC's weak signal and transmission using old VHF vs UHF or something like that (FOX too). https://community.getchannels.com/t/...-angeles/16923