Weekend Open Forum: Time to cut the cable TV cord?

Gave up cable 2 years ago. I liked the digital tv conversion because we live near Chicago and get free over the air broadcasts in sharp hd. Sports are plentiful on the weekends, so I see no need for cable. We have att dsl and that's getting capped, but I guess being a volunteer librarian I just don't watch that much tv, including streaming tv. The next improvement in this house (condo) was to get Ooma phone service which costs $12 a year for a landline. Frys has that. Instead of watching tv, I keep up on the latest tech reading Techspot.

They should call it "Comcast Cable Commercial" it is no way Comcast Cable tv, Cause the commercials amount to the same running time as the tv shows or movies...

I am about to cut the Cable tv, and just keep the Internet from comcast.

But when I do cut the cable tv, they said they have to charge me an additional $10.00 a month, because I wont have cable tv ???? what is up with that ...

Talk about getting ripped off ... that should be illegal ... IMHO...

Would work well enough in the US but Canada is pretty stuffed as far as this goes.

Not to mention like another poster said before me, instead of upgrading the internet infrastructure thats mostly based on tech thats 10+ years old they simply want to restrict its use to lower the stress on band with etc.
Here's a crazy idea, how about instead of crippling the internet they spend some money on beefing up the backbone connections and possibly investing in some faster/better ways to transfer data.

Makes complete sense to just integrate tv/movies/phones all into the existing internet framework and be done with all the extra costs of running seperate networks. In almost EVERY future movie thats already the reality and makes perfect sense.

Only problem with this is because i digitally download all my games though steam or Xbox live or even the Playstation store bandwidth caps are not enought here in canada. I have one of the bigger packages now and without streaming I use or exceed my caps now.

I use to have unlimited but apparently Bell or Cogeco (my choices here) do not offer them anymore.

My family gave up cable in 2007; Between Netflix, Hulu and UTorrent we haven't missed anything. We love being able to sit down and watch 8 seasons in a row of any show in without a single advert or menu (the exception being Hulu of course). We own some Disney DVDs for the kids which serve to remind us of how imposing standard media distribution is. I.E. getting 20 minutes of studio promos, previews and adverts forced on you before even getting to the annoying 3d interactive menu. I don't like to feel like I'm being punished for buying a movie, I just want to watch the damn movie I purchased. That's why I pirate! ( a simple titled file that I just click and it plays the said named movie in whichever default media player I like. WOW! what a concept, if only the networks and movie industry could invent something like this in the next 10 years they would be rich!) My children get to watch an interesting time in history for technology : multi-billion dollar industries fail or thrive based on how they fight or embrace the change in end-users needs/wants with non-archaic digital distribution systems for media and entertainment. Meanwhile, greedy ISPs conspire and plot how to exploit and capitalize on the situation so they can bleed every last stone and our government building organizations that get to determine whether you are a jail-worthy criminal because you may have watched or read or posted the wrong image on the interweb that was trademarked, copyrighted or Eula Intellectual Property. I think it should at least be legal to pirate what you have already purchased like I have always done with games, movies and music to avoid constantly switching discs or having an obnoxious disc library in my living room. Just a thought, sorry about the non-thread related tangent.

This is a follow-up of my family giving up cable in 2007. We switched over from residential Comcast service to business class Comcast because business class is 16Mb(or maybe 12Mb) for $65 a month. It has no bandwidth cap so I can frag, download an stream movies 24/7 while my wife remotes into work. They also roll a truck within 4 hours when internet is down, they came out at 1:00 am once on my permission of course. The only downside is I can't download torrents and receive low ping for gaming simultaneously. I can only stream movies to one PC at a time while gaming if I want a low ping, and MagickJack voip device doesn't work proper during heavy torrents but still works fine while streaming gaming and remoting in.

We use around 250gb a month in downloads and streaming, back at home at least. Not so hard to see with 4 laptops, 5 desktops and a htpc running netflix. I've even gotten a call from comcast after a deactivation to ask what was I doing. After further investigation I was found not guilty of running any illegal websites, ie child pornography, torrent sites(and yes that was said to me.) I dont watch so much tv anymore. With school and working with my dad I barely have time to get on TS.

Never had cable!!! Laugh Out Loud!!!

I have not had cable, dish, etc for many years now. I simply use broadcast TV (I live in a Metro area so I have a good selection of programs). My spouse watches a lot of TV over the internet which adds to what we get over the air.

Dropped dish about 3 months ago (best thing I have ever done), only watch OTA channels and Netflix. Built HTPC that is DVR, and media server, and also have PlayOn installed, using HD Homerun tuners to stream tv channels to others rooms.

ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX is all I watch..oh ESPN and NFL...
Dammit ..Need to Figure a way around the last 2 and I'm good.

I cut cable about 10 years ago and never really missed it. There have been a few things that I have wanted, so I recently set up an HTPC using some old hardware I had lying around and just purchased additional RAM for it and a graphics card that was compatible with my big screen TV.

Just using free services like Hulu, ESPN360 (free with my internet service, not everyone has this) and Crackle I can catch a good number of movies and TV shows without paying any extra for them. The one paid for service I'm looking at is some of the online sports viewing packages like MLB.tv. In this case my teams are not the local teams, so if I wanted to watch all of their games where I live I'd need to buy those services anyway.

In the end I don't miss live TV at all, never really did. But I'm enjoying seeing some TV using the online services and I'm saving over $40 a month doing it this way.

After the cable company tried to raise price on my triple-play promotion after one year and swear to me that I had to pay the full price, I cut the cord and wen with hulu and netflix and I never looked back.
A couple weeks later a sales manager from the cable company called me back and offered me the triple-play for $69, I thanked him for giving me an opportunity to discover the world beyond what the cable company has to offer and hung up on him.
Boy that fell great after unleashed that cable tied around my neck.

All the sports area available online, including the NFL if they play this season. Its amusing that everyone is arguing sports when the sports content is better online. The interaction is better, availability, play back options. The Nascar pass lets you sit in all the drivers cars and listen to them talk trash. You could spend a few hundred dollars a year on sports, cut the cord and get everything you get now for free. There is such a lack of education on Cord cutting, someone with some intelligence on the subject needs to start a blog or something.

I would dump cable in a heartbeat, but I can't watch my team on MLB. If that ever happens, I am losing my $60/mo cable bill.

For those of you who are dropping cable - how are you getting your internet access? DSL over the phone lines, or what?

Gave up the cable tv a couple of years ago.I currently have a set top box/ direct to home using a satellite dish

I use Hulu Plus. Only 8.50/month, I get to watch a ton of shows on my iPhone 4, laptop, PS3 or Blu-ray player. Well I dont get to watch on the PS3 but of course yall know why.