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Educate me - getting rid of cable


caseyctsv

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My mom and dad are retired and want to get rid of cable - they are paying like 200 / month. I thought about getting them a Roku for Christmas but what else would they need. He has wireless and Road Runner but if they wanted local TV could I just get them an HD antenna? They are technology challenged so it needs to be simple to use.
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To be fair that includes their internet

 

Unless they have 100 Mbps and all the extra movie channels that's still way over priced.

 

15 Mbps is plenty for streaming whatever. If they want sports, local channels and news you should do a trial run with an antenna. Here's a cheap one to try:

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008KVUAGU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1OBLJ1TLZNI6L&coliid=I5R2KMO05DEJE

 

There are websites that show where tv stations broadcast from so you can see what direction to aim it. Depending on where they live and what they want to watch there are also larger outdoor antennas.

 

For streaming the new hotness is the Amazon fire stick. It does all the standard stuff like Netflix and Hulu but also Amazon prime, which opens up a lot of options for what to watch. Plus it's cheap.

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They are technology challenged so it needs to be simple to use.

 

to be completely honest I would just stick with cable and find a way to get it cheaper. Going the other option if they are not very good with technology might be difficult and frustrating for them just my opinion

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to be completely honest I would just stick with cable and find a way to get it cheaper. Going the other option if they are not very good with technology might be difficult and frustrating for them just my opinion

 

I am leaning more this way to be honest..

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to be completely honest I would just stick with cable and find a way to get it cheaper. Going the other option if they are not very good with technology might be difficult and frustrating for them just my opinion

 

^^ this. even I won't ditch cable for the mere fact that I won't have to hear the wife and kids complain. If the $180 per month we pay for everything including internet and phone becomes too much I'm making the wife go back to work :p

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The Roku is easier to operate than a standard channel guide for cable. Don't be discouraged because you think your technology-inept parents will have a difficult time navigating it. They won't.

 

I have heard similar things about the simplicity of the Amazon Fire stick. It will do the same things as the Roku. Both devices - the Roku and the Fire stick - are just ways of connecting the TV to the internet to get to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.

 

The HD antennae is also super simple as well. In fact, it's even more simple - you just plug it in to where the cable normally goes and - voila! - you now have all your standard channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) in HD.

 

Casey, I think you are thinking of this perfectly: all you need is a Roku (or an Amazon Firestick or Google Chromecast or Apple TV or any of the devices that get you streaming stuff) + an HD antennae + wireless in the home and you have a perfect receipe for saving a shit-ton of money while not sacrificing all that much.

 

BTW, I am speaking to you from experience. We cut the cable a couple of months ago and it's worked out great. We have a Roku, a fairly standard wireless connection (nothing uber fast or anything), and pay for Netflix and Hulu. Our monthly costs are right about $45 - and before we were paying in the area of $170/month.

 

What are the drawbacks? Well, so far, not many. In fact, the only one that comes to mind is that I no longer have ESPN and can't watch a lot of the live sports I used to be able to watch. However, whether this is just reality or cognitive dissonance I don't know, but I really don't mind not having ESPN or all the sports. ESPN pretty much sucks 95 percent of the time when they aren't showing actual sports (it's like MTV for sports anymore) and, if I want to watch a sporting event that isn't on, then I can just go to BW3's or somewhere like that and watch it if I care that much about seeing it. I'm a huge Ohio State fan and this year only had to go to a sports bar a couple of times (three, maybe) because Ohio State's game wasn't on ABC.

 

I would recommend the move without hesitancy. I have a wife and two kids, and they have been fine with the shift too. The kids just stream shit to their ipads or will watch streaming content on Netflix or whatever (there are like 1 trillion cartoons and shit, so it's actually more convenient than cable when it comes to kids), and my wife is far too busy in the kitchen to worry about what's on or not on television.

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Roku is good. Apple TV is also pretty idiot-proof.

 

The trouble is the HD digital antenna. I don't have cable (because I don't really watch much TV) but, on the rare occasion that I have watched something on the HD antenna the results have been mixed. When the weather is good the picture is HD and awesome - every bit as good as you'd get from a cable package. However, when the weather is bad, the signal can be faint and, unlike analogue antennas of yesteryear, when the signal is faint the picture just stops. That is, in the old days, you'd get a few lines on the screen and have to play with the metal rabbit ears. But you wouldn't really miss the action and the sound would clue you into what was going on. With the modern digital antenna, the picture distorts into cube-like shapes and then the transmission simply stops: no sound; no movement; nothing. Then, when the signal improves, it picks up wherever the broadcast currently is and you have no idea what happened in the intervening time. When watching sports, this sucks.

 

Edit: I agree with JohnnyBravo, generally - it's still a good move to dump cable. But one should be aware of the digital antenna drawbacks. FYI - I have been on the Netflix + Digital Antenna system for a couple of years now.

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I tried having no cable, netflix gets old, hulu doesn't have much I wanted to watch, and just local channels sucks. Got Direct TV and I'm glad I did, been better the WOW's bullshit, and it came with nicer hardware then anything else I looked at. At&T internet works great too.
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I don't see old people switching inputs to roku/apple tv/whatever. "Oh switch to HDMI 1 to watch this, then go do HDMI 3 for broadcast TV. Use THIS remote for roku, or THAT remote for other stuff."

 

They just won't like it. Then it will be your problem to change it back and make it easier or be tech support constantly. Find a cable/internet package for $100 and be done with it. With promos you can usually get something for around $80/mo. for 1 or 2 years.

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Adding a Roku (or other streaming device) won't necessarily add any more overall remotes. You need two remotes regularly - one for cable, the other for the TV - and you only need two remotes when switching - one for the Roku (or whatever) and one for the TV.

 

And really how much trouble is it really to switch HDMI inputs on a TV? It is worth $50 a month for the convenience? And, if it is a bit more cognitively complex, then he'll be doing his parents a favor: research demonstrates that engaging in cognitively complex tasks in later adulthood assists in preserving cognitive functioning and reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

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And really how much trouble is it really to switch HDMI inputs on a TV? It is worth $50 a month for the convenience?

 

I know it sounds silly but many older people have this issue. My wifes grama is as sharp as a tack but cant grasp the concept of how to use a dvd player, and cant figure out how switch from The cable to the dvd player option. Some people are just technologicaly impaired.

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We cut the cord back in october. Were paying 37 dollars a month for 18 megabit internet thru ATT and have an XBMC media center for things we don't get on one of the 27 over the air channels we receive. This might be beyond your parents scope of capabilities though. I get all my live sporting events through wiziwig.tv and use a chromecast to stream them to my TV.
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We cut the cord back in october. Were paying 37 dollars a month for 18 megabit internet thru ATT and have an XBMC media center for things we don't get on one of the 27 over the air channels we receive. This might be beyond your parents scope of capabilities though. I get all my live sporting events through wiziwig.tv and use a chromecast to stream them to my TV.

 

 

So, what do you use to browse the web on your tv? Do you hook a laptop up to your tv? Some other device?

 

I really want to cut the cord. However, I am a college football fanatic. I have 3 tv's set up in my man-cave. I need to be able to watch 3 different games at the same time. If I could use this wiziwig.tv that you speak of on all three tv's, problem solved.

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