Getting ready to possibly cut the cord


Recommended Posts

So I am very close to deciding to ditch my cable TV in favor of using Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. I have, what I consider to be, an absurd monthly bill for cable TV which I hardly ever watch when it comes down to it. The only things I watch on any regular basis are re runs of SVU and NCIS, that's really it. 

 

I currently use Xfinity (Comcast) and will be keeping my internet with them, I am sure the cost will go up a bit for that dropping the TV portion, but it would still be considerably less than my total combined bill overall. 

 

Has anyone else cut the cord from cable and had any regrets about it? Is living without all the newest and greatest shows something that you miss at all? 

 

Just looking for some thoughts and experiences (good or bad) from people that may have ditched their cable TV.

My opinion may not be worth as much since I was never really into TV, but... I don't care at all about not seeing all the latest programmes. Honestly, it seems like  half the people around here only watch them so they will have something to chatter with others about. I don't feel like I am missing out by having more useful things to talk about instead ;)

 

Between the options you mentioned I think you'd still get your entertainment fix and then some. Netflix and Hulu have done a number on 'traditional' TV anyway. Go for it!

  • Like 2

Did it for a couple of months between moves back when I was bouncing around a few states. Wasn't a fan.. I'm no TV junkie and I do get a few shows by "alternate" means but (for me) it's no substitute. There's also a couple women in my house who would probably murder me in my sleep if they couldn't watch Spongebob and such after school. In addition to, absolutely, but not a replacement. Not only just the odd show/movie, but my cable's central DVR also acts as a front-end for a system here running the Plex media server, streams anything and everything throughout the house on every TV (including NetFlix).. I love that DVR, I'm ok with paying for it.

But yea, if you're really not watching TV much anyway, do an experiment. Just unhook your cable/whatever for a couple of weeks and see if you have a burning urge to plug it back in. Can call and cancel if you don't, no foul if you do. Litmus test to see if you're really ready to do it, and no hassle/fees if you chicken out.

I don't miss cable/satellite at all. Paying for hundreds of channels that I had no interest in, having to watch shows at a scheduled time and being constantly interrupted by commercials, it was terrible. I love services like Netflix and Hulu; I can finally watch what I want when I want for a fraction of the cost of cable. I also buy shows on DVD and rip them to my external hard drive to stream to my TV and you can watch a lot of the latest shows online. I really think cable is becoming an obsolete service that is on the way out.

Thanks for the feedback so far about this. I am pretty sure I am going to make the switch, I am tired of paying a small fortune each month for (at best) a few hours of TV watching a month and only a few shows. I am going to take Max Norris' suggestion and not bother turning on my TV for the next 2 weeks. If I can get through that and not think twice about it, then that decides that.

 

Thanks everyone!

i have not cut the cord, as i have never had cable service. I did not grow up watching television and until I moved in with my Wife's family before we got married i had never watched it. We do not have Cable now but we use Netflix and a few other sources for the few shows we choose to watch. a typical day in our house consists of a lot of reading.

The thought of cutting the cord is nice, but then I think about not being able to watch any sports, Sportscenter, Baseball Tonight, random shows on Discovery or the Science Channel, or cooking shows like Chopped or Restaurant Impossible. The list goes on.

 

There are a lot of shows I would not pay for a la carte, but are nice to be able to watch every now and then. (like the Discovery or cooking shows) And I have a DVR, so commercials and pre-determined schedules are a non-issue.

 

Overall, I think the benefits of the cord outweigh the cost. At least where I live.

I haven't been connected to proper TV in my apartment for about 2 years now. For one year I cut TV and Internet from the apartment, using my phone's 3G to check in on things. Now that I've moved I decided to go for the Internet, but leave out the TV and phone line. I don't miss either of them, having an Internet connection and my mobile phone allows me to be entertained whenever I like.

I technically did this some time ago but I still get some basic channels on TV to watch when I need those. In general though Hulu & Netflix and other methods (CBS.com and Fox.com and such) are where I get most of my stuff.

 

As for cutting the cord, I don't really miss much as I get my sports and stuff from basic channels when those are on (NBC/FOX/CBS) and other shows generally are on Hulu (plus) early enough so I can sit back and watch on the TV.

 

My bill is only for Internet, which bumped me up to 110Mbps recently too so getting more than I need to stream on 3 different TVs at once plus gaming and downloads. Works out to be like $70 a month (I could drop it lower but hey, saving so much then why not!)

So I am very close to deciding to ditch my cable TV in favor of using Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. I have, what I consider to be, an absurd monthly bill for cable TV which I hardly ever watch when it comes down to it. The only things I watch on any regular basis are re runs of SVU and NCIS, that's really it. 

 

I currently use Xfinity (Comcast) and will be keeping my internet with them, I am sure the cost will go up a bit for that dropping the TV portion, but it would still be considerably less than my total combined bill overall. 

 

Has anyone else cut the cord from cable and had any regrets about it? Is living without all the newest and greatest shows something that you miss at all? 

 

Just looking for some thoughts and experiences (good or bad) from people that may have ditched their cable TV.

I cut the cord years ago and bought a roku, and an Ooma for my telephone. Got an HD antenna for my live TV/football etc. Haven't missed cable tv AT ALL. Kept Comcast internet, works great.

Fiancee' wouldn't like not having HGTV. That's the ONLY reason.

Time for her to let go IMO...

I technically did this some time ago but I still get some basic channels on TV to watch when I need those. In general though Hulu & Netflix and other methods (CBS.com and Fox.com and such) are where I get most of my stuff.

 

As for cutting the cord, I don't really miss much as I get my sports and stuff from basic channels when those are on (NBC/FOX/CBS) and other shows generally are on Hulu (plus) early enough so I can sit back and watch on the TV.

 

My bill is only for Internet, which bumped me up to 110Mbps recently too so getting more than I need to stream on 3 different TVs at once plus gaming and downloads. Works out to be like $70 a month (I could drop it lower but hey, saving so much then why not!)

 

I would love to have 110 Mbps internet for $70. I pay about $70 for 55 Mbps internet... not complaining because I know that 55 Mbps is a good speed, though paying the same amount for twice the speed would be awfully nice. Where do you live where you get those speeds if I can ask?

/offtopic

 

NYC area with Optimum Online, we got bumped from 50/8Mbps to 101/35Mbps for free recently:

 

g2WAft0.png

 

The promo price was $44.95 but my promo ran out so now I pay the full price. Gotta love it.

 

/offtopic

 

Basic cable is all I need (though I do miss discovery and history channel but seems they now show their shows online free streaming (no cable subscription needed) via their app. I need to get that on my WDTV or something and i'll be in heaven! Hmm.. didn't check Xbox if they had a History Channel app!

Man, I would love to be able to get that kind of interwebz speed here in CT. The fastest one offered (but not in my area) is Comcast's Xfinity 105mbps for $89/month. All of the others are 50 or below for $100. Lame.

Man, I would love to be able to get that kind of interwebz speed here in CT. The fastest one offered (but not in my area) is Comcast's Xfinity 105mbps for $89/month. All of the others are 50 or below for $100. Lame.

Move to Southern Fairfield County then :p

Off cable for 4 years and dont miss it. Honestly its probably better for you not being glued to the TV like that...feeling like a mindless zombie when the commercials roll in.. Netflix, Hulu, amazon and youtube. Enough for me. 

/offtopic

 

NYC area with Optimum Online, we got bumped from 50/8Mbps to 101/35Mbps for free recently:

 

g2WAft0.png

 

The promo price was $44.95 but my promo ran out so now I pay the full price. Gotta love it.

 

/offtopic

 

Basic cable is all I need (though I do miss discovery and history channel but seems they now show their shows online free streaming (no cable subscription needed) via their app. I need to get that on my WDTV or something and i'll be in heaven! Hmm.. didn't check Xbox if they had a History Channel app!

 

 

I would love to have those speeds, best that I can do is 105/20 for ~$120 a month with Comcast where I live. 

 

That aside though, I think 50 Mbps will be more than sufficient to stream Netflix, Hulu and Amazon for whatever I'd need entertainment wise and still be a heck of a lot cheaper than paying for cable TV.

Yeah it's more than enough to stream... Hulu does like 4Mbps in bursts for their highest quality that I've seen so far. Netflix might have higher options but still 50Mbps was more than enough for my downloads and streaming combined. More bandwidth though is never a bad thing :p

 

Seems I use about 10GB a day streaming as well so if Comcast decides they wants to cap you again then something to keep in mind. We have no caps on my ISP so 700GB of usage per month is not a "big deal".

The thought of cutting the cord is nice, but then I think about not being able to watch any sports, Sportscenter, Baseball Tonight, random shows on Discovery or the Science Channel, or cooking shows like Chopped or Restaurant Impossible. The list goes on.

 

There are a lot of shows I would not pay for a la carte, but are nice to be able to watch every now and then. (like the Discovery or cooking shows) And I have a DVR, so commercials and pre-determined schedules are a non-issue.

 

Overall, I think the benefits of the cord outweigh the cost. At least where I live.

a lot of Discovery and Science channel shows are available on their website or via youtube, as well as the smithsonian channel which does not have any reality television just pure education material which is nice.

My wife and I dropped cable 3 years ago. I dont miss it at all. We have a couple antennas in the house for local stations and that's more than enough.

 

The problem w/ cable is that you get roped into watch stuff that you dont even want to be watching. It's just mindless nonsense.

 

Instead, once you cut the cable, you can focus on shows and movies you actually want to see. I have no problem being a season behind in a show. there's always something else to watch, right?

Cutting Comcast Cable and relying on Internet Services is bull****. Just admit Comcast has you by the balls. You cut Comcast Cable and keep Comcast Internet. Good Luck Bud! With bundled services you're getting a bigger data cap. Cut the bundle and say goodbye to your big fat data cap and not to mention your discounted pricing. Now your watching oh say netflix and hey WTF Blackout!  You call comcast they inform you "Sorry Sir you are over your data cap". She also informs you that you can purchase a bigger data cap that will cost you your left nut.... :)

Cutting Comcast Cable and relying on Internet Services is bull****.

Oof I'll pass on caps... that's one of the first things I ask them, I wont deal with an ISP that has them. Shopped around for a good provider that doesn't have one. If they ever cap my connection, I cap my wallet. Glad at least in my area I got plenty of choices, back when I was in the sticks in Texas I was stuck with Comcast for a while, wasn't very pleased with it, didn't have caps then but the service, meh.

Cutting Comcast Cable and relying on Internet Services is bull****. Just admit Comcast has you by the balls. You cut Comcast Cable and keep Comcast Internet. Good Luck Bud! With bundled services you're getting a bigger data cap. Cut the bundle and say goodbye to your big fat data cap and not to mention your discounted pricing. Now your watching oh say netflix and hey WTF Blackout!  You call comcast they inform you "Sorry Sir you are over your data cap". She also informs you that you can purchase a bigger data cap that will cost you your left nut.... :)

 

That is actually an interesting point... I didn't consider that dropping the bundle might lower my cap, that could be problematic.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • If you actually used it instead of responding like a petulant child you might be surprised. I switched from Google some time ago and have been very satisfied.
    • I am one of the first people to use the DXVK technology. In the channel below you can see some videos that I have made using this technology, including Assassin's Creed Odyssey. https://www.youtube.com/@nahum7995/videos Assassin's Creed Odyssey experienced several bugs and technical issues during its first months after release. It launched with its own fair share of funny but frustrating glitches. I ran it on DXVK 9 days after its release and I played it for many hours but didn't see a single significant bug on Linux. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is widely celebrated for pushing the franchise in bold new directions and specifically for nailing several elements better than any other title in the AC series: Player Choice & Branching Narrative, The Mercenary & Cultist System, Mythological Integration, Overpowered Combat Abilities, Open World Exploration But what I'm trying to point out is that this game wasn't quite playable on most windows systems, until a few months after its release when most of the bugs were fixed. However, on Linux it ran completely flawless from day one, although DXVK had seen little development and refinement at the time. What do you think the situation will be in 2026 now that most bugs and glitches of DXVK have been completely eliminated? This is information from Google about these situations that I am quoting. In many cases, using DXVK (a translation layer that converts DirectX 9, 10, or 11 into Vulkan) can result in more stable frame times and higher performance than native Windows rendering. This happens primarily by bypassing driver overhead and multithreading draw calls that were previously restricted to a single CPU core. Older APIs (like DirectX 9 and 11) are largely single-threaded on the CPU side. DXVK translates these calls to Vulkan, which is highly multi-threaded. This reduces CPU-bound stuttering on weaker processors. In certain cases, GPU manufacturers (especially AMD) have significantly better and more modern Vulkan drivers than they do for legacy DirectX. Vulkan gives developers—and in this case, the translation layer—closer control over how resources are held in VRAM. This can prevent micro-stutters and sudden frame drops during chaotic gameplay. Yes, certain games, particularly older DirectX 9 to 11 titles, can run with fewer crashes on DXVK than on native Windows. By intercepting DirectX draw calls and translating them into the modern, highly efficient Vulkan API, DXVK bypasses the limitations and poor driver support that cause instability in aging game engines. PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 can be easily and perfectly emulated on Linux. In fact, modern Linux emulators offer high-performance upscaling, widescreen patches, and automatic controller mapping out of the box.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 PlayStation 1/2/3 games look drastically better on Linux thanks to resolution upscaling. Furthermore, it is also a fact that you cannot play many fun games on Windows either, isn't it? - The Nintendo Switch has an extensive library of exclusive games. - PlayStation has an extensive library of exclusive games - Android has "mobile-exclusive" games, meaning they are exclusive to mobile devices (iOS and Android) and aren't available on PC or consoles. And finally, it is also the case that in the next five years there will be games that millions of people will say you absolutely must play and that they want to play this specific game that released a few days ago. However, the other side of this story is that currently, absolutely no one cares that they cannot play these upcoming games right now.
    • Flameshot 14.0 RC3 by Razvan Serea Flameshot is a free and open-source, cross-platform tool to take screenshots with many built-in features to save you time. Using Flameshot is as simple as launching, dragging the selection box to cover the area you want to capture, making annotations as needed in on-screen and saving the shot to your computer, all with a very simple and straightforward interface. Flameshot allows users to simply upload their screenshots directly to the cloud in order to easily share it with others. You can upload your image directly to Imgur with a single click and share the URL with others. In-app screenshot editing - You can choose to add an arrow mark, highlight text, blur a section (blur or pixelate an area), add a text, draw something, add a rectangular/circular shaped border, add an incrementing counter number, and add a solid color box with Flameshot's built-in editing tools. Command-line interface (CLI) - Flameshot has several commands you can use in the terminal without launching the GUI via a command line interface. The command line interface lets you script Flameshot and use it as the subject of key binds. Flameshot 14.0 RC3 changelog: Translations update from Hosted Weblate by @weblate in #4612 Translations update from Hosted Weblate by @weblate in #4619 Fix pin position on Windows for scaled screen by @ElTh0r0 in #4614 Cmake Analyzers by @ElTh0r0 in #4613 Translations update from Hosted Weblate by @weblate in #4632 fix(macos): prevent config tab content from rendering behind tab bar by @Mitnitsky in #4627 fix(macos): use CGRequestScreenCaptureAccess instead of grabWindow for permission request by @Mitnitsky in #4617 Fix KDE Plasma keyboard shortcut config file by @ElTh0r0 in #4637 fix(macos): fix clipboard copy failing from tray and GUI by @Mitnitsky in #4629 feature(macos): show dock icon when config window is open by @Mitnitsky in #4628 Option to disable tray icon on Windows by @ElTh0r0 in #4634 Translations update from Hosted Weblate by @weblate in #4642 fix(macos): make fullscreen capture overlay configurable by @Mitnitsky in #4622 Update GH actions using Node.js 24 by @ElTh0r0 in #4660 fix issue with screen selection in non interactive mode by @borgmanJeremy in #4667 Uniformize both spec files + ninja build openSUSE by @QuentiumYT in #4658 screengrabber: pass non-empty parent_window to xdg-desktop-portal by @artefaktor93 in #4664 Allow multiple flameshot GUI instances (fix for #3177) by @ElTh0r0 in #4680 Unify Linux ARM CI into Linux CI (also drop QEMU) by @theofficialgman in #4702 respect system proxy settings by @borgmanJeremy in #4674 Replace ifdef LINUX with UNIX to include BSD systems by @ElTh0r0 in #4700 Download: Flameshot 14.0 RC3 | 18.1 MB (Open Source) Download: Flameshot Portable | 53.0 MB Links: Flameshot Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • I found that stability back then was really down to the motherboard manufacturer. Back then i stuck with Microstar motherboards and VIA chipsets as they were ultra reliable. Most stuff was done with jumpers and left little room for user created problems 👍
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      nothanks earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      B2Proxy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      MadMung0 earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      jefred earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Apprentice
      JoeyNeo went up a rank
      Apprentice
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      490
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      232
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      78
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      68
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      58
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!