Has Anyone Ditched Cable TV for Live Streaming

[spiritbird]

I am shortly stopping all cable service except for wireless and my computer. Have been looking for alternate ways that are good like Netflix. Has anyone here done this?

[Macaw Lover]

I just have antenna tv and in my area there are several channels that play the old movies, tv shows and now one that I think originally ran on cable, shows of criminals and how they were caught. All these programs work for me as most of the old movies I never saw the first time around and I enjoy seeing a lot of the old shows such as I Love Lucy.

[Mr Peepers]

I think I might be kicking my fiber optic tv cable to the curb if the prices keep rising. I will end up live streaming and using the antenna option on my tv to pick up 15 channels that I watch anyway.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Ditch the TV altogether, you wont regret it. What few programs you really want to watch you can get through streaming.
We have one TV monitor connected to a DVD player which is for Casper, to keep him amused when we go out. He loves to hear the voices of children so we often leave him with the film "The Railway Children". Lots of plummy English voices so if he does copy any of it he will sound like a well bred parrot.

[Mr Peepers]

Ditch the TV altogether, you wont regret it. What few programs you really want to watch you can get through streaming.
We have one TV monitor connected to a DVD player which is for Casper, to keep him amused when we go out. He loves to hear the voices of children so we often leave him with the film "The Railway Children". Lots of plummy English voices so if he does copy any of it he will sound like a well bred parrot.


A plushy parrot :th_biggrin:

This parrot is no more, it has ceased to be, it is polly gone. I'm thinking of your Casper sounding like something from Oliver or a Monty Python character.

[spiritbird]

So today I got an antenna that plugs directly into tv with no other equipment needed. I will get local stations and PBS. Yea, no cable tv any more. My bill for WiFi computer with Verizon will be about $40. Per month. If it weren't for bird forums I would not even do this.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

I expect the set-up where you are is totally different to ours. We have no overhead cables - everything is underground. Nice from a visual aspect but when they first started laying cables there was no concept of a common utility conduit so each company digs it's own trench. When the council decided to relay the road and pedestrian walkways through the village they did get all the services - electricity, gas and phone and drains to replace all their stuff first so they wouldn't have to dig it all up as soon as it was laid (the usual way of things). Cable wasn't around then and when the cable companies started polling to see how many people were interested we all thought about the mess they had made of pavements in other towns and villages and said a big "No Thank You".
So, people who have televisions get their programs through satellite and roof aerials and we get our high speed broadband through fibre optic/copper phone company cables.
The copper cables are a great temptation for the less honest types who have been known to cut off whole villages by stealing the wires for their scrap value. Fortunately it hasn't happened here but it did where my mother lived in a very rural area and as she needed 24/7 carers it was a nightmare as her phone was out for about two months (in a mobile phone no signal zone).

[spiritbird]

No overhead cables here either. They must be buried for Comcast hook ups. Verizon is all fiber optic.

[Mr Peepers]

So today I got an antenna that plugs directly into tv with no other equipment needed. I will get local stations and PBS. Yea, no cable tv any more. My bill for WiFi computer with Verizon will be about $40. Per month. If it weren't for bird forums I would not even do this.


PBS is an awesome channel there is so much to watch on there. I'm glad you get that.

There are tons of online channel guides so you can still look what is soon to be played so you can sit back and watch a movie or show you like on the standard channels. Good that you are saving money this way, think of the things you can buy yourself with the savings. :th_smile:

[Mr Peepers]

I expect the set-up where you are is totally different to ours. We have no overhead cables - everything is underground. Nice from a visual aspect but when they first started laying cables there was no concept of a common utility conduit so each company digs it's own trench. When the council decided to relay the road and pedestrian walkways through the village they did get all the services - electricity, gas and phone and drains to replace all their stuff first so they wouldn't have to dig it all up as soon as it was laid (the usual way of things). Cable wasn't around then and when the cable companies started polling to see how many people were interested we all thought about the mess they had made of pavements in other towns and villages and said a big "No Thank You".
So, people who have televisions get their programs through satellite and roof aerials and we get our high speed broadband through fibre optic/copper phone company cables.
The copper cables are a great temptation for the less honest types who have been known to cut off whole villages by stealing the wires for their scrap value. Fortunately it hasn't happened here but it did where my mother lived in a very rural area and as she needed 24/7 carers it was a nightmare as her phone was out for about two months (in a mobile phone no signal zone).


A while back the government gave up on allowing anyone to have a free antenna signal to give us free channels. Everything went from analog antenna service to digital service so you had to either go out and buy a digital antenna to give you a bunch of free channels of what you use to have for free or you had to get expensive cable packages.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

I don't know whether our BBC transmissions are analogue or digital but they're not free as you have to have a TV licence to watch them. You can however watch them when repeated on the BBC website for free. I don't know how long they will be able to keep up the licensing system. I think they are existing due to people's not bothering to cancel their licence. My experience of watching satellite programs was that they were over compressed. Lots of image break up.