Post: #1

So, as the title indicates, this thread is for discussions about cutting the cord: whether that be Cable TV, Satellite, Fiber, or any other iteration or offering from the blood sucking network television providers.

I'd had DirecTV for over 16 years and I would have probably had stuck with them forever, that is until the piece of shit baby Bell company now called AT&T got their grubby ass paws into them and turned it into shit!

I finally took a good hard look at what I was getting for the $100+ that I'd been paying them every month and realized that I was only watching a couple of channels that I couldn't get over the air, and of those I was only really interested in a grand total of 6 programs.

So, I started looking at other options. I'd been using Plex for watching movies for several years and did have the Plex Pass, which for about $5 a month would allow me to hookup a tuner and watch and record live TV shows, so I did try going that route. I bought an indoor antenna, a Silicon Dust 4 tuner Homerun Quatro, which worked pretty well, but Plex didn't have a TV Guide, and wouldn't allow me to customize it very much.

Next I tried Kodi, which was free and offered pretty much everything that Plex had and a whole lot more, but I couldn't install it on my NAS, they didn't have an app for my LG TV, and there were several other things that I didn't like much about it either.

Next I tried Emby, which turned out to be the perfect, or at least almost perfect solution for me. Emby Premiere costs the same $5 per month as the Plex Pass. It had an app for my TV, would install on my NAS, plays movies, live TV, music, has DVR functionality and does have a TV Guide.

Beyond that, with Emby you can add multiple tuners, and iptv providers, as well as customized channel listings and TV Guide Data.

Emby gave me pretty much everything that I wanted, but still wasn't exactly what I was looking for. What I ended up going with was a TIVO Bolt for over the air TV, and Emby for everything else. I got the box from TIVO directly at a discounted price of $199, and the service subscription runs me $70 per year.

I also signed on to Vader Streams IPTV service for $15 a month, which gives me a shit ton of channels, including every channel that I had with DirecTV, plus HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, and just about every other premium channel there is.

Then, I signed up with iptv-epg.com for their TV Guide data for $24 a year, because I didn't need or want anywhere near all of the channels I was getting from Vaders, but couldn't easily modify the channel lineup or remove channels from the TV guide, and iptv-epg would allow me to do so.

So, all in all I cut my costs way the hell down and was able to free myself from the blood sucking leach that is AT&T, I have far more programming than I had before, and the picture actually looks better OTA that it did on satellite.

So, my setup: TIVO, Emby, Vader Streams, iptv-epg, a WD NAS and an LG LV. What are you folks using?

Post: #2

I'm looking into doing away with cable.

NCIS, CRIMINAL MINDS and SPORTS plus all the other channels I do NOT watch + Internet is costing me 198.00 a month. Working with Kodi now. As soon as I become comfortable with it, the cable cord will be cut! ;-)

Mucho thanks!!

Post: #3

Yup, cable/Satellite is a complete ripoff because they force you to buy a ton of channels you don't want. I only get high speed internet from my cable provider with no television and no telephone. I use Ooma's "free" internet phone service for my home phone. It costs about 5 bucks a month for taxes though which isn't too bad. I had to pay about 80 bucks for the device initially but it was worth it. The device also acts like an old fashioned digital answering machine when you get a voicemail.

I use Amazon Prime for movies/TV since I pay for it anyway for shipping. I have an AppleTV set top box and most of my TV watching is Youtube with the appleTV youtube App. If I want to watch a movie that isn't on Amazon Prime, I just rent it from Apple. The only sporting event I really care about is the Superbowl and they stream that for free every year. If I really want to watch a game I'll go to a sports bar although I haven't been that interested in sports for a while. When Game of Thrones comes I pay $15 bucks a month for HBO now and cancel it when the season is over.

If I ever decide to get TV service, I'd probably get the YouTube TV service for $40 bucks a month but I don't bother because I wouldn't watch it.

Post: #4

A year and several IPTV service providers later, and I'm still using my Emby, Tivo, IPTV solution and happy as ever. The Emby service also includes TV guide data from Gracenote, which is as good or better than the guide data that any satellite or cable company provide.

With the downtime from this current crisis I also built out a new computer to run Emby and serve my media. I went with Linux Mint for the OS on this machine, and have been spending time learning my way around Linux.

Post: #5

Still no cable TV. Here is what I've used the past year:

• AppleTV hooked up to my television which gives me access to everything below
• locast.org for local TV channels - might be shut down some day but still alive
• Amazon Prime for TV shows/Movies
• YouTube main source of video watching
• Previously subscribed to HBO Now but cancelled when Game of Thrones ended
• Subscribed to CBS All Access for a few months but cancelled when Picard ended
• Occasionaly rent a movie on iTunes or Amazon
  

Post: #6

I kicked DirecTV to the curb ages ago when they were offering "Free HD for Life" ... except if you were a current customer! Best thing they ever did for me. Now with a Roku I only watch stuff I really want to watch at a fraction of the cost.

I'll buy the occasional Blu-Ray but for the most part the online offerings available are good enough.