Author Topic: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?  (Read 21540 times)

libertarian4321

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #50 on: January 02, 2016, 06:28:15 AM »
Too.Much.Random.Free.Time

Learn a foreign language. Learn to play a musical instrument. Learn to produce art or crafts. Volunteer. Earn that certification that would help you advance your career. Learn more about investing. Learn to cook better. Learn how to grow a garden for next spring. Learn how to fix or build something. Hit the gym or work out at home.

Jealous?

Why do you care how much free time someone has, or what they choose to do with it?

Sure, you can learn to play the Harpsichord/Saxophone/Kazoo if you want to, but someone else may choose to use his/her spare time to watch TV/movies.   To each his own.

Learning to play an instrument is not "better" than any other recreational activity.  If you don't do it professionally, it's just an activity for fun or relaxation.

You know, kinda like watching TV...

 Same goes with learning a language you will likely rarely or never use, etc.

libertarian4321

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #51 on: January 02, 2016, 06:37:46 AM »
Attach an old computer to your TV.

Stream as much as you want, whenever you want.

Note:  It is NOT "illegal" to stream shows.  It is illegal to upload to those sites, or download/store/share content.

Some of those sites are a PITA with popups, etc- though Adblock Plus will take care of most of them.

And, of course, you might catch a virus or something else nasty.  So have a good antivirus program, and make sure it's an old computer that you really don't give a damn about.

Plus, if you live in a city, you can get tons of free over the air programming.

I had cut the chord for about 3 years, but recently went back to cable only because they gave me a really good one-year bundle offer and tossed in the cable TV for a pittance.

shuffler

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #52 on: January 02, 2016, 08:43:19 PM »
Note:  It is NOT "illegal" to stream shows.  It is illegal to upload to those sites, or download/store/share content.
Citation needed.

Le Poisson

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #53 on: January 02, 2016, 08:54:38 PM »
Note:  It is NOT "illegal" to stream shows.  It is illegal to upload to those sites, or download/store/share content.
Citation needed.

If there's one thing I've learned on this site its to never quote Libertarian. Good luck on this, you took his bait.

tobitonic

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #54 on: January 13, 2016, 08:38:36 PM »
So you could do some of the illegal things people are suggesting here, like illegally downloading episodes or hijacking HBO (or maybe I'm misinterpreting the legality of this), or you could legally find ways to accomplish the same goal.
That way, when you retire early and people say "how on earth can you afford to retire early????", you wont have to skirt around parts like this.

Yes, yes. I calculate I will get to retire 1.2 days early and will feel profound shame for the fact that once in a while I watched HBO on my mother-in-law's account, so much so that I will leave out that crucial detail when I discuss my early retirement with others.

I feel the best way to address this is not to argue you are right or wrong, but rather show how much money you are saving illegally.

Not sure how much HBO go is; let's say $15/month.  That's $1800 over ten years, a possible/example amount of time for someone to retire.  It is a small component of the $500,000-$1,000,000  that someone needs to retire, but a contribution nonetheless. 

Most of us here probably have some little areas where we bend/break the rules.  My bigger issue with it is your attempt to defend/legitimize it, when there is a very easy alternative that costs even less.

Well said. Do what you want, but own it.

Prairie Stash

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #55 on: January 14, 2016, 08:52:25 AM »
OTA - Over the Air TV aka Rabbit Ears! - I've done this with success. Do not buy anything before researching, most TVs come equipped with digital tuners, it's in your TV specs.
FTA - Free to Air Satellite TV - Likely installing this summer as an experiment, its cold out and I'm willing to wait
Netflix - 7.99/month
Library - Full seasons of shows, sometimes need to wait if its just released for it to be returned.

A while they switched from Analog to Digital OTA and there was a myth that OTA was being killed. Nothing of the sort happened, Rabbit Ears are the greatest way to get local news.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition_in_the_United_States  I'm in Canada, its the same here.

Total cost of my rabbit ears - who knows! Its still the same antenna from the 80's, it was in my attic of the house I bought. You do not need special antennas, I tested my TV with traditional "Rabbit Ear' antennas that were 30 years old. OTA gets better quality than cable or Netflix. Prime benefits are high quality, lasts indefinitely (going 30 years now I think, it came with the house) and requires 0 watts electricity to operate.

FTA is entirely legal and free. Its non-encrypted channels meant for rural areas and anyone else. There's several free satellites to focus on, the channel list is available online for each. I'm looking at hitting the PBS Satellite, the programming is different than Netflix so I'll get a good variety to choose. I expect to get this done for $100-$200 and have no ongoing costs.

Tundra_Man

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #56 on: January 14, 2016, 11:15:45 AM »
Our family hardly watches any TV when it comes to standard shows/movies. However we do enjoy sports. I haven't figured out a good way to cut cable and still get the sports programs we want to view (many not available over-air.) I'm hoping in the future that streaming will become available so you can purchase a season's worth of games for the particular teams you're interested in watching and not have to pay the cable bill for all the additional junk I'm never going to look at.

And before the "how much time have you wasted watching sports" posts start, I'm usually multi-tasking with some other activity while the game is on. Unless the Twins are down by one run in the 9th, then it gets my full attention. :)

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #57 on: January 14, 2016, 11:19:06 AM »
If someone could find a way to watch the English Premier league legally and would share it I'd be happy..

Big soccer fan here. I suck it up and pay for DirecTV so I can get NBCSN. Love the Prem too much (and the routine I have around it, which includes lots of exercise) to give it up.

FLBiker

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #58 on: January 14, 2016, 02:17:52 PM »
We watch football via antenna, and pirate the rest.  We watch very little, though.  Maybe 4 hours per week during NFL season, 2 hours per week (or less) the rest of the year.

mskyle

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #59 on: January 14, 2016, 02:55:16 PM »
Game of Thrones - HBO Now subscription, $14.99 a month (only need to subscribe during months GoT is airing)
The Walking Dead - Buy from Amazon or iTunes - currently $42.99 for the season on iTunes
The Americans - currently $32.99 for the season on iTunes
Gold Rush - doesn't seem to be available legally
South Park, Family Guy, American Dad - all on Hulu for $11.99 without commercials, less with commercials
Better Call Saul - $24.99 for the season on iTunes

And you could either watch these on your computer (with an HDMI cable to your TV) or get a set-top device like a Fire Stick, Roku or AppleTV ($35-200).

BigHaus89

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #60 on: January 14, 2016, 05:26:48 PM »
Game of Thrones - HBO Now subscription, $14.99 a month (only need to subscribe during months GoT is airing)
The Walking Dead - Buy from Amazon or iTunes - currently $42.99 for the season on iTunes
The Americans - currently $32.99 for the season on iTunes
Gold Rush - doesn't seem to be available legally
South Park, Family Guy, American Dad - all on Hulu for $11.99 without commercials, less with commercials
Better Call Saul - $24.99 for the season on iTunes

And you could either watch these on your computer (with an HDMI cable to your TV) or get a set-top device like a Fire Stick, Roku or AppleTV ($35-200).

To add to this, the Comedy Central app is free and you can stream the latest episode of a lot of the shows. You just have to put up with 3 minutes of commercials per episode.

elaine amj

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How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #61 on: January 14, 2016, 06:03:33 PM »
We just bought a Raspberry Pi (my DH is in love with this little thing) and like many other PPs, use Kodi.

We are now used to waiting to watch our shows...and prefer it. I typically wait until we are at least a few episodes behind. Binge watching is much more fun.

We just cancelled satellite. My teens are not too impressed, but surviving. I LOVE the quiet of not having the TV in the background.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 06:10:09 PM by elaine amj »

Case

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #62 on: January 14, 2016, 07:33:53 PM »
So you could do some of the illegal things people are suggesting here, like illegally downloading episodes or hijacking HBO (or maybe I'm misinterpreting the legality of this), or you could legally find ways to accomplish the same goal.
That way, when you retire early and people say "how on earth can you afford to retire early????", you wont have to skirt around parts like this.

Yes, yes. I calculate I will get to retire 1.2 days early and will feel profound shame for the fact that once in a while I watched HBO on my mother-in-law's account, so much so that I will leave out that crucial detail when I discuss my early retirement with others.

I feel the best way to address this is not to argue you are right or wrong, but rather show how much money you are saving illegally.

Not sure how much HBO go is; let's say $15/month.  That's $1800 over ten years, a possible/example amount of time for someone to retire.  It is a small component of the $500,000-$1,000,000  that someone needs to retire, but a contribution nonetheless. 

Most of us here probably have some little areas where we bend/break the rules.  My bigger issue with it is your attempt to defend/legitimize it, when there is a very easy alternative that costs even less.

Well said. Do what you want, but own it.

Agreed, and a lot easier to own it on anonymous mustache forum.

Retire-Canada

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #63 on: January 14, 2016, 08:15:36 PM »
Well, we officially got rid of cable today, so hopefully it goes well, I am optimistic.

Congrats! Good luck. You'll make it work.

I've been cable free for 17yrs or so. I occasionally stay somewhere with cable and am always shocked how lame it is.

I have a fair number of shows I watch when the pass my way on Netflix or from a friend. I'm never current, but I always have stuff to watch.

llorona

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #64 on: January 14, 2016, 09:08:39 PM »
We haven't had cable or other television service for many years, although we subscribe to Netflix.

After reading the Game of Thrones books, I really wanted to see the television show so I bought the DVDs for Seasons 1-4 on eBay for $59. (Free shipping, no tax!) When we're done, I'll sell them back on eBay, or maybe Craigslist if I'm too lazy to ship them.

tobitonic

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #65 on: January 14, 2016, 09:12:16 PM »
I realized I never chimed in with my thoughts. We've never had cable. We do have a TV. We hook up our laptops to it to watch movies, whether via Hulu, Lifetime, etc, or even old-fashioned DVDs. Had Netflix in the past, don't anymore. Lots and lots of free stuff online, even directly from the stations you like. We've seen so many shows via HGTV.

Bettis

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #66 on: January 15, 2016, 08:11:33 AM »
Quick note about the Twins games... I bet they're available over the radio which makes it easier to multitask.  Plus baseball on the radio is so much better.

Go to TVfool.com and enter your address (or a nearby one if you're iffy about doing that).  This will tell you what over the air channels are in your area and whether you need plain old rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna.  I'm in a fortunate area where I can pick up Boston and Providence channels so I literally get 50-60 channels with just a rooftop antenna and a rotator.  In MN, I'd assume most stations nearby are coming from one area so you likely will not need the rotator.

Tundra_Man

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #67 on: January 15, 2016, 08:49:54 AM »
Quick note about the Twins games... I bet they're available over the radio which makes it easier to multitask.  Plus baseball on the radio is so much better.

Go to TVfool.com and enter your address (or a nearby one if you're iffy about doing that).  This will tell you what over the air channels are in your area and whether you need plain old rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna.  I'm in a fortunate area where I can pick up Boston and Providence channels so I literally get 50-60 channels with just a rooftop antenna and a rotator.  In MN, I'd assume most stations nearby are coming from one area so you likely will not need the rotator.
I'm actually in South Dakota. Sometimes we can get Twins games on the radio but it's not a guarantee. My wife is an Ohio native and follows Ohio State, University of Dayton and the Cincinatti Reds. Where we live, if you want to see any of those games with any regularity right now cable is the only decent option.

We tried the antenna with a digital converter box for a few years. There are supposedly about 21 channels that broadcast in our area, but realistically we could only pull in about 12 of them that didn't suffer from digitization rendering them unwatchable. Even for those 12 we'd notice they'd break up frequently on windy days (which is the norm here.) So the improved picture quality was another perk to moving to cable.

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #68 on: January 15, 2016, 09:05:07 AM »
Quick note about the Twins games... I bet they're available over the radio which makes it easier to multitask.  Plus baseball on the radio is so much better.

Go to TVfool.com and enter your address (or a nearby one if you're iffy about doing that).  This will tell you what over the air channels are in your area and whether you need plain old rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna.  I'm in a fortunate area where I can pick up Boston and Providence channels so I literally get 50-60 channels with just a rooftop antenna and a rotator.  In MN, I'd assume most stations nearby are coming from one area so you likely will not need the rotator.
I'm actually in South Dakota. Sometimes we can get Twins games on the radio but it's not a guarantee. My wife is an Ohio native and follows Ohio State, University of Dayton and the Cincinatti Reds. Where we live, if you want to see any of those games with any regularity right now cable is the only decent option.

We tried the antenna with a digital converter box for a few years. There are supposedly about 21 channels that broadcast in our area, but realistically we could only pull in about 12 of them that didn't suffer from digitization rendering them unwatchable. Even for those 12 we'd notice they'd break up frequently on windy days (which is the norm here.) So the improved picture quality was another perk to moving to cable.

Fellow Buckeye fan here. I'll piggy back on the crapiness of antennas. My mom cut the chord last year and pretty much all sports on networks are unwatchable. She has to come over my house for every Ohio State game.

Basically sports has us by the balls. People go on and on here about antennas, but the reception is shit and I'm not willing to put up with it. Plus all the costs of all the stuff I like to watch and I'm paying close to cable anyway.

Bottom line is that it's a luxury I'm willing to pay for.

zephyr911

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #69 on: January 15, 2016, 09:48:23 AM »
Basically sports has us by the balls. People go on and on here about antennas, but the reception is shit and I'm not willing to put up with it. Plus all the costs of all the stuff I like to watch and I'm paying close to cable anyway.

Bottom line is that it's a luxury I'm willing to pay for.
I'm with you on the antenna - it's crystal clear one day and 100% unusable the next. Weather seems to have little correlation.
But I can go to a bar and drink beer at bar prices for all the games I really want to see, and still pay less than I would if I had cable just for sports. Sometimes I do. Just my $.02.

Re: OP, I think the rest is pretty much covered.

ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #70 on: January 15, 2016, 11:58:58 AM »
Basically sports has us by the balls. People go on and on here about antennas, but the reception is shit and I'm not willing to put up with it. Plus all the costs of all the stuff I like to watch and I'm paying close to cable anyway.

Bottom line is that it's a luxury I'm willing to pay for.
I'm with you on the antenna - it's crystal clear one day and 100% unusable the next. Weather seems to have little correlation.
But I can go to a bar and drink beer at bar prices for all the games I really want to see, and still pay less than I would if I had cable just for sports. Sometimes I do. Just my $.02.

Re: OP, I think the rest is pretty much covered.

Problem for me is that I love so many sports that I'd become an alcoholic with your plan.

zephyr911

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #71 on: January 15, 2016, 12:05:45 PM »
Soda? lol

AZDude

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #72 on: January 15, 2016, 12:17:36 PM »
Regarding sports, it depends greatly on what sport it is. NFL is easy, since there are lots of games on free tv, and if you must search the internet for a live stream, they are easy to find and of decent quality. You can also watch NFL at any sports bar without pestering some teenager 18 times to get them to change the channel.

NCAAF is also relatively easy. OTA plus Sling TV from August until January(6 months, $20 a month for $120 a year /12 = $10 a month). You will get 75% of the games, including almost every bowl game and the playoffs.

MLB is also very easy if you have some technical skill. Google unlocator, read, and go from there. MLB.tv premium is $25 a month for roughly 6 months, and if you have a roku or similar device, or even just a long cable you can connect directly to a TV, you can see every game(including local ones) for roughly $30 a month during the season($30 * 6 / 12 = $15/month). In fact, if you like baseball, then MLB.tv is far superior to cable since you get every game and can choose which broadcast to watch, can pause tv mid-game, and can watch any replay. You can also choose to start watching a game at any half-inning, so if you catch the first five innings while out, then you come home and go to sleep. The next day you can turn on MLB.tv and start last night's game at the top of the 6th without a hassle.

NBA - This is the tricky one. Watching the local team on my big screen without buying cable is very difficult. You can do it, but it requires some work and NBALP is not cheap($35/month for one team, like $50 a month for every team.) Alternatives to LP and cable would be OTA plus sling TV, where you can get ABC/ESPN and TNT games, but not much else. If you *need* NBA then probably go with cable.

For anything else, I don't know because I don't watch it.



ReadySetMillionaire

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #73 on: January 15, 2016, 12:32:55 PM »
Regarding sports, it depends greatly on what sport it is. NFL is easy, since there are lots of games on free tv, and if you must search the internet for a live stream, they are easy to find and of decent quality. You can also watch NFL at any sports bar without pestering some teenager 18 times to get them to change the channel.

NCAAF is also relatively easy. OTA plus Sling TV from August until January(6 months, $20 a month for $120 a year /12 = $10 a month). You will get 75% of the games, including almost every bowl game and the playoffs.

MLB is also very easy if you have some technical skill. Google unlocator, read, and go from there. MLB.tv premium is $25 a month for roughly 6 months, and if you have a roku or similar device, or even just a long cable you can connect directly to a TV, you can see every game(including local ones) for roughly $30 a month during the season($30 * 6 / 12 = $15/month). In fact, if you like baseball, then MLB.tv is far superior to cable since you get every game and can choose which broadcast to watch, can pause tv mid-game, and can watch any replay. You can also choose to start watching a game at any half-inning, so if you catch the first five innings while out, then you come home and go to sleep. The next day you can turn on MLB.tv and start last night's game at the top of the 6th without a hassle.

NBA - This is the tricky one. Watching the local team on my big screen without buying cable is very difficult. You can do it, but it requires some work and NBALP is not cheap($35/month for one team, like $50 a month for every team.) Alternatives to LP and cable would be OTA plus sling TV, where you can get ABC/ESPN and TNT games, but not much else. If you *need* NBA then probably go with cable.

For anything else, I don't know because I don't watch it.

So $20/month for sling, $10 per month for MLBTV, $10 for increased internet speed to run these web-based subscriptions. Then I'm still out NBA, Premier League (soccer), Champions League (soccer) and any Ohio State games not on ESPN/ABC (usually 4-5 games per year). Then the antenna reception is complete dogshit for anything on network.

Again, I think the extra $30/month (or whatever) is just worth it for a sports junkie like me.

AZDude

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #74 on: January 15, 2016, 12:39:07 PM »
Yes, if you watch that much TV and follow every sport including obscure ones, then yeah... you need cable.

Tundra_Man

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #75 on: January 15, 2016, 12:41:50 PM »
Regarding cable, one step I did take last Feb. was to show up at the cable company's customer service center and ask them what I could do to reduce my bill. After casually mentioning that I would probably be investigating other options such as Direct TV they gave me a 25% discount on my monthly rate (which includes my internet access.) The discounted rate was good for two years. I'm guessing next year when the discount expires I'll show up at the counter again and repeat the process.

MandalayVA

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #76 on: January 15, 2016, 12:42:57 PM »
Regarding sports, it depends greatly on what sport it is. NFL is easy, since there are lots of games on free tv, and if you must search the internet for a live stream, they are easy to find and of decent quality. You can also watch NFL at any sports bar without pestering some teenager 18 times to get them to change the channel.

NCAAF is also relatively easy. OTA plus Sling TV from August until January(6 months, $20 a month for $120 a year /12 = $10 a month). You will get 75% of the games, including almost every bowl game and the playoffs.

MLB is also very easy if you have some technical skill. Google unlocator, read, and go from there. MLB.tv premium is $25 a month for roughly 6 months, and if you have a roku or similar device, or even just a long cable you can connect directly to a TV, you can see every game(including local ones) for roughly $30 a month during the season($30 * 6 / 12 = $15/month). In fact, if you like baseball, then MLB.tv is far superior to cable since you get every game and can choose which broadcast to watch, can pause tv mid-game, and can watch any replay. You can also choose to start watching a game at any half-inning, so if you catch the first five innings while out, then you come home and go to sleep. The next day you can turn on MLB.tv and start last night's game at the top of the 6th without a hassle.

NBA - This is the tricky one. Watching the local team on my big screen without buying cable is very difficult. You can do it, but it requires some work and NBALP is not cheap($35/month for one team, like $50 a month for every team.) Alternatives to LP and cable would be OTA plus sling TV, where you can get ABC/ESPN and TNT games, but not much else. If you *need* NBA then probably go with cable.

For anything else, I don't know because I don't watch it.

I'm a hockey fan and I swear by hockeystreams.com.  It's a site based in the Netherlands where EVERY NHL and minor league game is available in HD.  Its legality gets questioned, but it's been around for about seven years and the site owners say it's not illegal because the NHL has no jurisdiction in the Netherlands and it's been bandied around on the net so much there's no way Gary Bettman doesn't know about it.  It's $120/year and in addition to the games has stuff like the draft and NHL awards.  I bought the playoff special three years ago, was pleased with the quality, and immediately fired DirecTV.

pompera_firpa

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #77 on: January 15, 2016, 12:43:52 PM »
Excellent, and good luck!

We've been cable-free for years, and mostly get our entertainment from Netflix and PBS, the better to avoid having our kid see commercials. We avoid so many battles and tantrums by just plain not exposing the child to the raft of crap out there that people are trying to get us to buy for her.

Eventually I'd like to transition into having only evenings where we listen to audio books while doing whatever else we're up to-- puzzles, crafts, etc.-- because honestly there is a lot of time when we only have the TV on for noise, and I'm getting tired of it.

StartingEarly

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Re: How do you cut cable and still watch your shows?
« Reply #78 on: January 15, 2016, 08:11:05 PM »
Right now we don't have any tv since I ordered a new one. We got a tiny tv after ours broke, but that wasn't working out the best and it was 60hz, so action didn't work well on it. Ended up ordering a tv that was around $600, but it was a good brand so hopefully we won't have to replace it anytime soon, the last one only lasted four years, but it was a known bad model.