Getting TV service without cable?

[Jimmy9190]

My wife and I are thinking of trying Hulu, Netflix or any other method we can use to get TV without using cable. We have heard just a little bit about Apple TV, basically heard its name and that is all. We are starting our online research tonight but I figured maybe the BITOG community might know more about it and/or what is the best way to go about setting up the house for TV without cable? We do have high speed internet that would likely support any TV format we choose. I would appreciate any info on this, because I am clueless about TV or video. Thanks.

 

[barlowc]

We don't have cable or satellite TV, just over-the-air. We live close enough to the stations that our signal is very strong and we get perfect digital/high-definition reception of all the major networks.

We stream Netflix over our 6 Mbps cable modem connection which is plenty of bandwidth for such. It provides us access to various TV series (past seasons), movies (but not new releases), and children's programming (lots and lots of it). The Netflix "app" is on our Xbox 360 which is connected to our primary TV, a 46" LCD, via HDMI.

I believe there's a Hulu app for the Xbox 360 too, but I've never tried it.

Occasionally I'll connect my laptop to the TV (via HDMI) and stream something from one of the major networks sites. It works OK, but the quality isn't great. It's good enough to catch up on that one episode of whatever show we missed.

 

[fdcg27]

If you have a decent antenna (remember those?) and you aren't more than fifty or so miles from the stations you wish to view, you're set.
We have never had cable, since we don't watch anything more than the news, the ocassional ball game or PBS, and our directional antenna picks up broadcast stations just fine.
How long before broadcast TV ceases to exist, though?
All that bandwidth for the few users without cable?
Heck no, we can sell it!

 

[wrcsixeight]

See what TV stations you can receive through an antenna on this site:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

 

[RiceCake]

Get game consoles or PC's with TV connections if you wanna use a real TV...load up NetFlix or Hulu, both run fine on almost any major highspeed connection. Go nuts, have fun.

 

[hattaresguy]

I haven't had cable TV in years, I stream over my internet connection from all of those sites and a bunch of others. I have my computer hooked up to my regular monitor and a 46in TV, so I just switch depending on what I want to watch.

A lot of my friends do it with an Xbox, my set up is pretty basic.

 

[eljefino]

I have a computer with HDMI out that fits the TV fine. Most laptops and even smart phones have HDMI now too and run quiet.

There's kind of a format war between netflix and Amazon Prime right now. I had netflix and dumped them, Prime has different stuff. Feel free to flip flop back and forth. Prime also has free fast shipping on stuff.

Netflix needs to get their act in gear and either start making their own content or alliance with a studio that is. They are making baby steps.

Then there are the free sites like hulu and even complete movies on youtube.

 

[Donald]

You have to decide what you want to watch. Sports games (live), news, debates. Netflix and Prime and others have content but typically older movies and TV show reruns. Most you get some kind of a free trial.

If you want full 1080p HD, that might be tough over the internet. I do not think Netflix is HD, but not sure as I dropped them when they made their foolish change a year or so ago.

I have Direct TV and have no complaints. The boxes are DVR, they are also connected to the internet to get some info, your smart phone can be a remote anywhere. You can watch stuff anyplace in the world (maybe not North Korea) on your laptop or tablet or smart phone and of course you can feed a laptop to a HD TV. So Direct TV is kind of blurring as a pure satellite provider. And satellite is really the only media (except FIOS which is going nowhere) that has virtually unlimited bandwidth.

Cable is still bogged down by the analog channels they carry for all those grandma's who do not want to upgrade to a set-top box. And the analog takes a lot more bandwidth than digital. Satellite is all digital and its a given you have a set-top box. Cable will try to push people to set-top boxes. Once that is done, then they will only broadcast locally the channels that are being watched and the set-top boxes can tell them that.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the info. Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime all look promising. We ma stop at a Best Buy some time soon and check out the Roku streaming player too. We do not watch sports. I don't think we would need the very best streaming service, we just watch regular TV and the NBC news at night. She watches a lot more TV than I do but there are a few TV shows we both enjoy. As it is right now we pay $160.00 a month for home phone, basic cable with a DVR and high speed internet. I have to have the internet because I work at home. I have a fax machine that uses the phone line. But we could save some money if we had a cheaper way to receive our TV service. There are a lot of choices and we still need to read more about it to make a decision.

 

[rshaw125]

First thing I did was install an antenna high up on our house. Connected that to the house coaxial wiring. I receive 20+ channels most in HD all over the house.All the networks.

Secondly I have a DVD player with internet apps. Connected to my high speed internet. I have used Netflix and Hulu plus.

Thirdly I have a laptop HDMI into my tv. Massive amount of content on the internet. I even found a live steam last night for the Yankees playoff game. Sort of a grey area so you'll have to investigate on your own. But it's all out there. Movies, tv shows everything.

 

[hattaresguy]

When I ditched cable and went to streaming probably 5 years ago now, I was worried I would run out of stuff to watch. I find just the opposite, I'm now able to follow more series than I would if I had cable.

Two things that help, the typical 60 minute time slot on cable TV has 15 minutes of commercials, take those out and the content is now down to 45. So you can watch the same show in less time, plus you can skip intro's and endings to save even more time.

Secondly online you can pause shows and come back to them later. So if you have to do something else just stop and pick the episode back up in the same place later, sometimes days even if you are really busy. Or if you do have time you can marathon several episodes at once to catch right up.

Oh and don't waste your money on Netflix DVD service, its slow and clunky. I'm going to cancel it and put the money towards Crunchyroll, because they have a lot of good anime now in HD.

Joining Amazon prime, Hulu, Netflix streaming, and Crunchyroll will cost you about $40 a month and they have more [censored] to waste time watching than hours in the day.

 

[MysticGold04]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Thanks for the info. Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime all look promising. We ma stop at a Best Buy some time soon and check out the Roku streaming player too. We do not watch sports. I don't think we would need the very best streaming service, we just watch regular TV and the NBC news at night. She watches a lot more TV than I do but there are a few TV shows we both enjoy. As it is right now we pay $160.00 a month for home phone, basic cable with a DVR and high speed internet. I have to have the internet because I work at home. I have a fax machine that uses the phone line. But we could save some money if we had a cheaper way to receive our TV service. There are a lot of choices and we still need to read more about it to make a decision.


I have two of those Roku players and love them! They work very well for streaming content from Netflix/HuluPlus. We've been "Cable" free for two years and have not ran out of content to watch from these services. I'm thinking about adding Amazon to the mix as well. I have DSL that is supposed to be 7MB, but find that it is consistently in the high 5's - it appears to be ok, but might investigate Cable in the coming weeks for a replacement. I love that people ask us what service we have and we tell them nothing. They think we are crazy. Yes I have TV but it is on MY terms. I especially love HuluPlus because we can watch our favorite primetime shows.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Thanks for the info. Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime all look promising. We ma stop at a Best Buy some time soon and check out the Roku streaming player too. We do not watch sports. I don't think we would need the very best streaming service, we just watch regular TV and the NBC news at night. She watches a lot more TV than I do but there are a few TV shows we both enjoy. As it is right now we pay $160.00 a month for home phone, basic cable with a DVR and high speed internet. I have to have the internet because I work at home. I have a fax machine that uses the phone line. But we could save some money if we had a cheaper way to receive our TV service. There are a lot of choices and we still need to read more about it to make a decision.


I've never had cable or satellite in the 30 yrs I've been in a house. I've used a 2nd hand OTA (off the air) antenna mounted to the chimney. Always had a fine signal. Now with digital transmissions, I can receive about 15 channels.

I mostly watch DVD's I borrow for free from the local library. In addition, there are plenty of internet sites with shows of all types.

You can save quite a bit of money this way. DSL medium speed + home phone costs me $42/month.