How To Pull plug on paid/cable TV in 2021?

knarfeng said:
Cox.

Don't need pods. Like I said, we don't use WiFi much except for cell phones. They don't have a problem connecting anywhere on the property.
I have a gigabit switch downstairs. (Switches are cheap.) Ethernet cable from upstairs feeds the switch. The switch feeds the downstairs computer, the TV's internal system, and the solar panel reporting unit.

We've decided to try Roku. We'll keep the Cox internet and ditch the Cox land line phone and cable TV feed. We already have a subscription to Netflix. We think we don't mind if Roku reports to it's database subscribers what we watch. It's built into their system. Netflix does it anyway and we watch a lot of that already.
Due to work schedules, we'll make the changes this summer.
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I don’t think that Cox offers streaming TV App like Spectrum does so if you end up missing network and cable channels that much when you cut the cord, try the cheaper services like Sling as someone else had mentioned up thread. I have Roku sticks but I don’t like their interface and their remote, YMMV. The good thing is that most Apps work for Roku which is quite important as you become more reliant on streaming as opposed to cable.
 
I will talk about my setup for a minute and some plans/hopes I have for my setup due to issues I run into.

I have cable internet service (own my modem and router) and no tv service
I have 1 Roku box on main TV and 2 TCL Roku TVs (The Roku is built into the TV as its smart OS)
I have 2 PMS (Plex Media Server) The primary is a RaspberryPi 4 4GB running OMV(OpenMediaVault) and PMS the 2ndary is my Desktop PC

I do get some "complaints" about the lack of live TV but this is mostly due to no one listening to me when I say we have it just go here combined with I don't see any of my local channels in these free live TV services only in the major networks individual apps ie Peacock/NBC app. Problem is for my I have yet to find a working OTA Antenna and then my issue is how to get the signal into my network to share to 3 TVs.

I will also note that I run 2 PMS for the purpose of the type of content I load onto my PMS I have found that the RaspberryPi is only capable of DVD video and subtitles, and struggles at that, so I run my significantly more powerful PC for my Foreign language movies and anime. OMV also the RaspberryPi to serve as a NAS (Network Attached Storage) so I can easily access the PMS storage from my PC.
 
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lots of apps run live TV. I use YouTube TV currently, but have used about all of them. they all raise prices so I just switch as prices go up. its more work then cable ever was with the once a year price increases, but I've saved a ton and gotten a whole lot more.

I cut cable long ago. only use them for internet. I just ala carte pay for the apps I want and watch what I want.

I have all the paid movie channels apps, but ironically i tend to watch commercial ridden freebies like tubi more often as they have movies I tend to like better.

I used to use roku years ago but it is glitchy nowadays and I've dumped it.

if ya shop and play right you can get a lot for cheap and some ya might like for free....not counting the internet access costs.


edit part.....most important part forgot to say...if ya dont watch apps much, they kick ya out and you have to login a lot. major pia that drives me crazy.
 
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I dropped cable a few months ago and just use netflix. Problem I did have was ordering movies which evidently is run by Amazon. So when I gave my credit card to order a movie Amazon started charging unrelated monthly fees I never agreed to. So I had to cancel my CC and now I can’t order any movies because they all require paying thru Amazon.

I don’t trust Amazon and don’t want the hassle having to chase after them when I see new charges on my account.
 
PirateSeulb said:
what smart platform do you use now? I haven’t found one that is less glitchy and/or reasonably priced.
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I still have roku in the bedroom. I still have it just dumped it from main tv room watching. have a tivo one in kitchen and in my TV room i use currently Nvidia shield. I gave away my Amazon fire and apple TV I didnt care for at all.

id say stick with what works for ya...none of them have impressed me that much so far.
 
I hear you on most of them not being impressive I like the Roku for it's interface and for the number of apps it has particularly since launch when compared to the Fire stick or Apple TV(which is the most expensive you can find). I also find that everyone in the house can use the Roku very easily for majority of their needs. I could see the advantage of a TiVo unit but I don't see myself getting on of them.
 
colubrid said:
I dropped cable a few months ago and just use netflix. Problem I did have was ordering movies which evidently is run by Amazon. So when I gave my credit card to order a movie Amazon started charging unrelated monthly fees I never agreed to. So I had to cancel my CC and now I can’t order any movies because they all require paying thru Amazon.

I don’t trust Amazon and don’t want the hassle having to chase after them when I see new charges on my account.
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So, is amazon just doing this to you? Or are other people on here experiencing this? I've never had amazon charge me for something I didn't agree to, and I've ordered plenty.
 
craytab said:
colubrid said:
I dropped cable a few months ago and just use netflix. Problem I did have was ordering movies which evidently is run by Amazon. So when I gave my credit card to order a movie Amazon started charging unrelated monthly fees I never agreed to. So I had to cancel my CC and now I can’t order any movies because they all require paying thru Amazon.

I don’t trust Amazon and don’t want the hassle having to chase after them when I see new charges on my account.
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So, is amazon just doing this to you? Or are other people on here experiencing this? I've never had amazon charge me for something I didn't agree to, and I've ordered plenty.
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I would say to make his story remotely plausible he has to be using an Amazon Fire Stick or some Amazon smart device but even then the device would allow you to use apps such a VUDU & RedBox to rent from neither of which would require payment through Amazon in any experience I have been able to find. I would suspect at best a lack of attention when renting a movie resulted in being subscribed to Prime as the only potentially feasible scenario whether he is trying to condemn Amazon out of spite or ignorance I am not certain.
 
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PirateSeulb said:
I would say to make his story remotely plausible he has to be using an Amazon Fire Stick or some Amazon smart device but even then the device would allow you to use apps such a VUDU & RedBox to rent from neither of which would require payment through Amazon in any experience I have been able to find. I would suspect at best a lack of attention when renting a movie resulted in being subscribed to Prime as the only potentially feasible scenario whether he is trying to condemn Amazon out of spite or ignorance I am not certain.
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I don’t even know what any of that stuff is (VUDU and Redbox). I also never use Amazon to buy anything online and that is where the issue is. I use a firestick. When setting up payment one has to uncheck "Set as default payment method”-which is a trick since they will set up Amazon Prime if you DO NOT UNCHECK that small box. It is a tiny little box before you get to the pament page and it always stays checked unless you uncheck it. There is no description what it actually means and even customer service did not know until they researcehd it. Anyway, they charged me amazon Prime plus one other thing they charged monthly which I forget what it was. After I discovered it on my statement and called Amazon they said it was too late and they would not refund. Then they still charged me the following month.

Don’t give amazon your CC #. But I know most people use them all the time so if you are a regular customer and buy things through Amazon you won’t have these issues.
 
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I use an amazon firestick, and have installed Kodi with Supreme Builds add-on wizard.
I also have free Trakt and Real Debrid accounts and have paired my firestick.

However, using Kodi is a hassle if you aren't computer-inclined, and it makes getting the tv going more of a task than just turning it on and choosing a channel.

I do run a VPN to "protect myself from online predators" by obfuscating my IP address.

I can get the NHL out of market games I want, but getting movies and old tv shows has been spotty at best and extremely frustrating at worst.

Since many of these options (eg, Kodi add ins) do not comply with copywrite laws, the software is constantly being taken down from the source and sources are "turned off" routinely, requiring a complete rebuild of the software.

I have found that IMDB and Tubi on the firestick (or a smart tv that allows it) is acceptable; I can find some movies abd tv shows (these free streams aren't searchable but you can "discover" movies and shows from their list), and what I like is that, even though they have commercials, I am paying to watch the content by allowing the commercials. With Direct TV, I have to pay through the nose to watch their programming which is 30 to 40 percent commercials, not to mention all the "paid advertisement" shows - a third of the channels are paid advertisement.

In the end, it is what you will put up with versus what you will pay.

Cutting the cable sounds noble, but in operation it can be a lot of trouble to get where you want to be.

best

mqqn
 
colubrid said:
I don’t even know what any of that stuff is (VUDU and Redbox). I also never use Amazon to buy anything online and that is where the issue is. I use a firestick. When setting up payment one has to uncheck "Set as default payment method”-which is a trick since they will set up Amazon Prime if you DO NOT UNCHECK that small box. It is a tiny little box before you get to the pament page and it always stays checked unless you uncheck it. There is no description what it actually means and even customer service did not know until they researcehd it. Anyway, they charged me amazon Prime plus one other thing they charged monthly which I forget what it was. After I discovered it on my statement and called Amazon they said it was too late and they would not refund. Then they still charged me the following month.

Don’t give amazon your CC #. But I know most people use them all the time so if you are a regular customer and buy things through Amazon you won’t have these issues.
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Thanks for the update and anyone I have worked with to setup a Firestick has been a Prime member already or at least has an amazon account with a saved payment so you are a bit of an exception to the experience and why the specifics of the experience are unfamiliar to many. I want to look into this in more detail so thanks for the information here it will help. I don't condone poor business practices but I can't say I will readily accept a singular experience to paint a company as one who participates in such behavior. From the sounds of it when you cancelled you were already in a month and got billed for that month after cancelation I am not sure canceling your CC itself was required at that point but if you don't want them to have your CC on file I certainly can respect that wish. I would suggest for you and anyone that you do any account setup and such from a computer before using a smart device the experience and clarity is usually much better and helps protect one from missing some details. I suspect the other service was their music service or a premium network subscription such as HBO as they don't have too many other subscriptions I can think of that time to the products and services you used.
 
colubrid said:
I don’t even know what any of that stuff is (VUDU and Redbox). I also never use Amazon to buy anything online and that is where the issue is. I use a firestick. When setting up payment one has to uncheck "Set as default payment method”-which is a trick since they will set up Amazon Prime if you DO NOT UNCHECK that small box. It is a tiny little box before you get to the pament page and it always stays checked unless you uncheck it. There is no description what it actually means and even customer service did not know until they researcehd it. Anyway, they charged me amazon Prime plus one other thing they charged monthly which I forget what it was. After I discovered it on my statement and called Amazon they said it was too late and they would not refund. Then they still charged me the following month.

Don’t give amazon your CC #. But I know most people use them all the time so if you are a regular customer and buy things through Amazon you won’t have these issues.
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Ah, so you just messed up and bought things you didn't mean. I don't think Amazon is using people's credit cards without permission en masse...
 
dumped cable a few mos back and didn't feel a thing. had amazon and picked netflix back up for now. agree with prior comment that tv was more or less background noise and couldn't stomach news anymore after that utter embarrassment of an election cycle...
 
Try Pluto tv and peacock. Both are free and have live TV or on demand. They have commercials but not as many as normal TV.

These two options can fill the gap really nice. Pluto is CBS and Peacock is NBC
 
craytab said:
Ah, so you just messed up and bought things you didn't mean. I don't think Amazon is using people's credit cards without permission en masse...
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I had this happen to me too unintentionally. I noticed I was being charged for Amazon prime membership when I don't recall ever signing up for it. I think it's the "free" offers option that they slip in at the checkout page.
 
marcus52AR said:
I had this happen to me too unintentionally. I noticed I was being charged for Amazon prime membership when I don't recall ever signing up for it. I think it's the "free" offers option that they slip in at the checkout page.
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My point being, you had to agree to it at some point. This isn't some fraud or scam amazon is running. You know what they say about the fine print...
 
colubrid said:
LOL!
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I had Amazon music, which started off around $6 a month - then I recently noticed it had crept up to around $19 a month!
Are they using people's credit cards without their knowledge "en masse"? Perhaps not in the way that is being thought, but they sure are good at price creeping. Amazon Prime was $90 a year when I first signed on for it, and the price for it has crept up to $130.31 (with TN tax) - and I don't remember being asked if it was ok to raise what I was paying for the service, although it may have been slipped into the deluge of garbage emails I receive on a daily basis.

Additionally, if you have Prime, try to find a movie you want to watch. We enjoy the older 80s and 90s movies. We searched for Money Pit, Robocop, Used Cars, Car Wash, and many others. All of them were either unavailable (1) or they were available for a fee. These old movies are extra cost options on Prime?

Walmart Plus is offering a similar service without, as far as I am aware, the almost worthless video addition and it has the same free two day shipping etc that Amazon offers. At least for now it is priced similar to what Prime used to be.

Now - back on topic - There is a Kodi add-in called Mobdro that used to work really well for live tv and tv shows. I am trying to get it implemented in the build I have running. We'll see. I look at it as more of a challenge than anything.

Lately the wife and I are watching a lot of recorded shows on DTV, and as such we are able to get a lot of that through Kodi, IMDB etc., which are free.

best

mqqn
 
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