More on Cord Cutting - costs going up

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I wasn't too happy to see Hulu live increase ten bucks a month either. It wasn't a small increase. But still. I'll keep it. One thing I hate about cable tv is you never actually know how much you're going to pay. They hide fees and everything in the bill and tier their price jumps in the small print etc. one thing I like about these subscriptions is yes they may jump the price at some point but I always know exactly how much the bill will be
 
Originally Posted by Aero540T
One thing I hate about cable tv is you never actually know how much you're going to pay. They hide fees and everything in the bill and tier their price jumps in the small print etc.
Exactly. That is one reason why I dropped cable. Spectrum advertises $44.95/month, but in reality you can't get it for under about $70/month when it is all said and done (higher if you want more than one cable box). For example, on top of the $44.95 they force you to pay $10/month for locals, no option, and you can't watch their programming without renting a cable box, so these should be included in the advertised price. IMO this is false/misleading advertising and the FTC should do something about it.
 
I installed Pluto on my 4 year old 60" Samsung Smart TV. It doesn't work properly. I get the main and preview page but the screen doesn't respond when I try and look at the menu for all of the other channels.
At my previous home I had installed a Clearstream antenna up in my attic and received more than 60 channels. Of course by the time I deleted the Spanish language channels and shopping channels I was left with about a dozen good ones including local stations. At my new mountain home, the AntennaWeb site shows that I have zero chance of receiving a signal with an OTA antenna so my only choices are what are available for free on the internet or paying for a moderate cost package.
After dumping Time Warner a few years ago and their $90 a month bill and not missing it much I am loathe to spend more than about $20 a month for some extra channels. I do receive the free Roku channels from the app on my TV so am not sure why Pluto doesn't work.
 
Originally Posted by wag123
Originally Posted by Aero540T
One thing I hate about cable tv is you never actually know how much you're going to pay. They hide fees and everything in the bill and tier their price jumps in the small print etc.
Exactly. That is one reason why I dropped cable. Spectrum advertises $44.95/month, but in reality you can't get it for under about $70/month when it is all said and done (higher if you want more than one cable box). For example, on top of the $44.95 they force you to pay $10/month for locals, no option, and you can't watch their programming without renting a cable box, so these should be included in the advertised price. IMO this is false/misleading advertising and the FTC should do something about it.


Yes! Thank you. Couldn't agree more
 
I cut the cord 3 years ago and haven't looked back. I have smart TV'S but I never use their features. Firesticks are cheap and easily replaceable. I only pay for standard Hulu, CBS All Access and Hallmark movie channel. Love Pluto, Stirr, and Tubi.
 
Originally Posted by alarmguy

Still blows my mind that anyone complains about the cost of pay TV when there is no reason to pay. *LOL*


C'mon. You're paying nothing? ...

I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!
 
Originally Posted by JTK
Originally Posted by alarmguy

Still blows my mind that anyone complains about the cost of pay TV when there is no reason to pay. *LOL*


C'mon. You're paying nothing? ...

I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

I'm talking rough numbers right now because I'm not at home but Hulu is $6 a month and Netflix 13. That's where I get my $20 a month actually might be $19 a month.
Some place in my insanely long posts I mention my daughter lives in another state shares her Amazon login with us so we don't pay for Amazon. We share our Netflix login with her so she doesn't have to pay for Netflix.
I want to stress only recently did we get her Amazon login and had no interest except for the fact it was free for us to have.
It must be going on close to 10 years now since having traditional pay-tv and we literally cannot watch all the programming available to us on network TV which rarely we watch anymore.
Netflix and Hulu for us has been fantastic and I could care less about having Amazon again only because it costs us nothing to have.

I was more than one hundred percent happy having Hulu and Netflix plus our attic mounted antenna for every major Network TV station Plus around 24 other channels all through our antenna which equals about 30 channels then add in the hundreds of channels available by having a Roku player and a subscription to Hulu and Netflix. I think then you can see the picture of where I'm coming from. No pun intended!

Hope this helps!
 
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Originally Posted by JTK
I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

Hulu Premium (with no ads) is $12/month. I suppose one could claim that Amazon Video is free if you already have Amazon Prime.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by JTK
I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

Hulu Premium (with no ads) is $12/month. I suppose one could claim that Amazon Video is free if you already have Amazon Prime.

Don't forget to add in Internet cost.... since you need that to stream.
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by JTK
I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

Hulu Premium (with no ads) is $12/month. I suppose one could claim that Amazon Video is free if you already have Amazon Prime.

Don't forget to add in Internet cost.... since you need that to stream.

Well sure, but I think most households that did not cut the cord are paying for internet as well.
 
Internet access is a given with or without cable TV, and it must be paid-for with or without cable TV.
 
Originally Posted by WhizkidTN
Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by Propflux01
I use PHILO for "basic cable " channels. Netflix and one HBO. Along with pluto , some other free app channels, and, of course, broadcast tv. Even with 100MB/S internet, Aim still $100+ less than the DISH I had before. Yes, a little cumbersome to get used to , but its not $100+ cumbersome.
And for $20/month your Philo credentials allow you to log into the individual channel websites to stream all the available shows.
If I have a Roku Ultra and 100Mbps fiber for internet, how does Philo (at $20/mo) allow me to watch, HGTV or Fox News for example?

For those channels that Philo streams (such as HGTV, History Channel, FOOD Network, etc.) you can download the corresponding standalone channel app and use your Philo credentials to sign-in and watch any show they offer. Philo does not stream Fox News so you cannot do that with your subscription, in order to do that you'd need a streaming service such as AT&T TV (the old U-Verse TV) that provides Fox News as part of their streaming package.
 
Another steaming option to consider is adding a subscription to your local PBS station, for $5 a month you get PBS Passport so you can watch everything on demand including NOVA, Masterpiece, American Experience, etc. Many of the shows are on Amazon for a price, so if you're into that sort of thing the $5/month is worth it to stream all the available seasons of shows like Downton Abbey, Antiques Roadshow, This Old House or children's programming.
 
A great thing about these threads is that you can find out about other options that you didn't know or hadn't heard of. Kschachn has a good one above and I hadn't heard of Stirr before this. I'll check that out.
 
Don't forget....Youtube has Free Movies also.
https://www.youtube.com/feed/storefront?bp=kgEmCGQSIlBMSFBUeFR4dEMwaWJWWnJUMl9XS1dVbDJTQXhzS3VLd3iiBQIoAg%3D%3D
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Some additional suggestions for free content on Roku:
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/top...rd-cutter-should-try-updated-april-2019/


I just noticed last night that Pluto got installed on my Roku TV and I can't believe how many good channels I get.


For the benefit of others who may end up with a Roku. There are endless amount of channels not installed on the device. You simply seek out the types of channels you want to add, then select.
Roku of course will like Warstud said add channels on its own but there are dozens of others individuals can also add.

Its really a great platform of endless choices. Even though all our TV's are "smart" TVs, I never hook my Tvs up to the internet, I keep them dumb, even our latest rather expensive Sony 65.

I simply add a Roku device to each TV and hook up our attic antenna. I dont need or want the manufacturers smart software activated and any benefits to my detriment those companies may get from it.
Best of all, I always have the latest best device that I select myself, not the TV maker.
 
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I picked up a Roku express from Wally yesterday for $29.

I've had netflix for years, so that was a snap to setup. I added pluto and a 3mo trial of the cheap version of hulu.

So far so good. I'm not totally new to this, but it's not as clean and nice as whipping through your cable channels. Something new always has a learning curve.

Next is setting up my OTA stations with an indoor antenna I'm waiting to get. I know I can at least a few of them well. That and turning in my cable box and recently dog chewed remote. Ugh..
 
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