I am in the process of cutting the cord and updating my house here at the same time so I will give updates in the next few days as I get everything set up, but here is what I have done so far:

Right now I have Spectrum Cable and internet.

I ran CAT6 through my house to get as much stuff off WiFi as possible. I have 1 firestick that I bought to test the thing out and I'm pretty impressed. I also bought a RCA Yagi Outdoor antenna but I haven't hooked it up yet, it is mounted and ready to go. I bought a Hauppauge dual tuner to run 2 TV tuners to my old laptop which I am going to turn into a media server with the PLEX program then with the DVR function through PLEX I should be able to record OTA TV and watch it through the PLEX apps that I will download onto the firestick. If this all works out then I will get a couple more firesticks and put them on the other TVs.

I'm crossing my fingers that it works, but if not I will still get the OTA channels and I can get Sony Vue or Sling or something if we want.

We cut the cord almost 7 years ago.
Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and OTA.

First thing I did was pull the cable feed from the main splitter and put it directly to the coaxial cable that fed the jack in the office bedroom and that is where my cable modem is.
I then attached the OTA antenna where the main cable feed was and all my coaxial jacks in the house receive OTA signal. Except the one in the office which is a portion of our bedroom so I don’t need a TV. In the event you need a TV in that room buy a cheap single indoor antenna and you should be golden.

Then my house had been wired for phone with cat5e cable. I switched the ends to Ethernet so all the phone jacks are Ethernet now. I replaced the phone wiring splitter with a network switch. I plugged my modem to my router and plugged one port on the router to the Ethernet port in the office and now every room has wired Ethernet.
I have one FireStick in a spot that does not have a Ethernet jack near by so I am going to give a power line connector a try for that location. It rarely gets used but the Firestik sucks and it will be replaced eventually.

quote:

Originally posted by gatopescado:
I bought a Hauppauge dual tuner to run 2 TV tuners to my old laptop which I am going to turn into a media server with the PLEX program...

I looked into the Hauppauge early on and Amazon reviews scared me off. The set up and use has worked well for you? I understand that one has to take online reviews with a grain of salt but the common thread among Hauppage haters was customer service. I'll assume those needing customer service are their own biggest problem, like me.

And Plex, it looked like a pretty powerful unit was needed to act as a server. An old laptop works well?

Been off the cable diet for about 2 years and loving every minute of it. I have NetFlix and Amazon Prime which more than meets my viewing needs and those needs are quite minimal.

Plus I'm saving a nice chunk of change each month.

I've had sony Vue for well over a year now and am very happy with it. I also have Netflix, but only watch that in spurts. Sometimes not for a month or two. Then I get Showtime when Homeland and Billions are airing for 2 months and then cancel it. I save quite a bit over what I was paying with Comcast!!!

Ripley,

I will let you know how it goes, I should have everything hooked up and running this weekend.

My laptop is a couple years old so I will see if it works or not, If not I will need to find something else for a media server, maybe the NVidia shield, I know it would be cheaper than getting a new laptop.

I found I could not afford to pay for ONLY internet (FiOS), as the package of TV and internet was so much cheaper. Once they realized I was going only high speed FiOS they jacked that service price up to nearly the same cost as CATV + FiOS. No reason to cut the cord if the TV was essentially free.

quote:

Originally posted by gatopescado:

My laptop is a couple years old so I will see if it works or not, If not I will need to find something else for a media server, maybe the NVidia shield, I know it would be cheaper than getting a new laptop.

According to Plex, full NAS compatability doesn't come cheap. I'd looked at a dedicated server, they're out there and the ones to have are mucho dinero. People are getting by with far less but it's a big jump just getting in as best as I can tell.

Plex NAS Compatability

Pretty good deal, Apple TV 4K plus 3 months Direct TV Now, $105

quote:

Originally posted by mrw:
Pretty good deal, Apple TV 4K plus 3 months Direct TV Now, $105

This seems as good as any plan I’ve seen. The basic $35/mo package is ideal for us.I just ran an Internet speed test and I’m at 123/22 with my Spectrum internet which is great.

Should I expect Spectrum to sabotage me by buffering my internet (like some have reported) if I discontinue their cable TV and keep their internet? Aren‘t there laws to protect consumers from these tactics?

I have no issue with speeds from Spectrum here in Texas. If anything it’s a little faster than what I’m paying for. I’ve never noticed any throttling.

I have Amazon Prime and am considering adding Netflix as I cut the cable service about a year ago. Is Netflix like AP in that you have to buy certain series or is it inclusive in the subscription price? I have found a couple of shows on PBS that I would like to watch earlier episodes but find it somewhat off putting on Prime that I need to pay another fee to watch what was free over the air. If Netflix uses the same model that I need to purchase these shows I will just stay with AP.

We cut the cord about 2 years ago. Saving $70-80 a month has been great. Plus we're reading much more instead of watching TV. My wife was really bad at watching dumb ass "reality" shows which I would have to listen to. We still have Netflix and Amazon Prime which is good enough for us. Still, we rarely have the TV on. In fact, I don't think the TV has been on in 3 months or so.

We still have internet for about $45/month.

Cutting the cable cord was one of the best decisions we've ever made. Wish I would've done it sooner.

quote:

Originally posted by bettysnephew:
I have Amazon Prime and am considering adding Netflix as I cut the cable service about a year ago. Is Netflix like AP in that you have to buy certain series or is it inclusive in the subscription price? I have found a couple of shows on PBS that I would like to watch earlier episodes but find it somewhat off putting on Prime that I need to pay another fee to watch what was free over the air. If Netflix uses the same model that I need to purchase these shows I will just stay with AP.

No extra fees with Netflix one monthly price.
It is a tiered monthly fee based upon how many screens it can be on at once and if you want 4K.

And if you want to be able to get discs in the mail (if they are still even doing that)

While not as big an issue as with phones, it is my understanding that there are even data limits for home internet. If you are streaming all your TV will you reach this limit by the end of the month? Will five hours of HD streaming per day cause Comcast to throttle you?

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
I found I could not afford to pay for ONLY internet (FiOS), as the package of TV and internet was so much cheaper. Once they realized I was going only high speed FiOS they jacked that service price up to nearly the same cost as CATV + FiOS. No reason to cut the cord if the TV was essentially free.

Here Comcast and AT=t have introductory offers for new customers for a year. Sometimes you can get Comcast internet at the introductory offer for a year......then switch to AT+T for a year, then back to Comcast.

quote:

Originally posted by mrw:
Pretty good deal, Apple TV 4K plus 3 months Direct TV Now, $105

This seems like a good deal but there is no dvr, cloud-based or otherwise. Does this mean no pausing/reversing/fast-forwarding live tv? That is a deal killer.

What streaming services offer a cloud based dvr? Isn’t this what I need for recording programming?

Here is my cord-cutter update:

Today I went to just internet no cable TV from Spectrum/Time Warner. Just my internet is $65.00

We are using the Amazon Firesticks in the house and are getting the Sony Playstation Vue service for $55.00

We are using an Antenna for the local channels which is free, and I set up my old computer as a media server/DVR with the PLEX app and a Hauppage TV tuner. By the way it is working great!!!

So on a monthly basis I'm going to be saving $50 a month which the savings should pay for my firesticks, antenna, and Hauppage TV tuner in 5 months. After that then I'm ahead of the game.

Like I said everything is working real good!!

It's just taking my wife a little getting use to the new remote and how to get around the screens and apps.

I cut the cord some years ago when COX cable decided to move Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to an upper tier (Digital tier) and charge me extra for a cable box rental and access to the upper tier.

I was paying $78.00 a month for TV and Internet.

So, I dumped COX and got about 32 free channels, some repeats, but what I wanted. Next door neighbor and I split her Internet bill 50/50, so Internet cost me $25 a month.

GF has moved to a new apartment high above Tucson which gives her close to free 50 TV channels, some repeats of the Mexican channels but a few good movie sites.

She also gets a free Internet WIFI and with her son's Netflex account, we watch classic movies on her "LG Smart TV".

So, we're good to go. Screw Comcast and COX and their jacked up prices.