Electronics

[kitcat51]

Never paid a dime to watch tv & never will. I have a cheap antenna from Radio Shack & get lots of over the air channels...I live in the country, 50 to 75 miles between 2 cities & have great reception. For wifi I use AT&T, it's the cheapest service in my area.

[meem120]

There are no numbers on the Roku clicker.  Its to be used with your cable clicker or whatever one you have.  Once you set it up, its very easy.

[Kachina624]

@CherryHugs.  Do a "search forum" and enter "electronics in the forum box (upper right corner).  There's a ton of info that's already been discussed.

[Kachina624]

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@dsw503 wrote:
We have had the same issues with costs. Here's what's worked for us: DH calls the provider and tells them we want to cancel. Provider then offers to reduce the price of service to save the account. This has worked more than once. We have also switched providers and found that as a "new" subscriber you get a reduced rate for the service. When the reduced rate ends (typically after a year) it's time to call and threatened to quit. See if they offer to continue the reduced rate. If not, go to another provider. If it sounds like a game, it is but it can save you $$.

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@dsw503.  This used to work for me too.  Not so effective anymore so I cut the cord 2 years ago.  Doing just fine without it

[Meowingkitty]

I cut the cord when my contract with DirectTV was up in August. They were going to raise my rate $65 a month.  No specials,  nothing. In fact they didn't even care.  All I seemed to be paying for was 65 channels of informercials plus 5 or 6 channels that I watched. We did buy new tv's from Costco that had Roku. I subscribed to Hulu for $45 a month and it gives me lots of what was on cable but fewer commercials. No Spanish, religion, music channels or kiddie channels. (I suppose you can find them if you want). I also have Amazon Prime, and Roku, plus antenna tv.  Don't miss DirectTV at all. Now I have so much to watch it's crazy. I kept my WiFi through Centurylink. 

[kaydee50]

First, it's not so much the cost of cable/internet/phone as the taxes and fees that are added on.  Check your bills and those costs are almost as much as the services.  The government should do something about reducing them.

Second, while I would like to get rid of our cable provider, I do not want to have multi providers, i.e.,  Hulu, Amaazon Prime, Firestick or whatever to watch the programs I want to watch.  Sounds all too complicated to me.

Third, from what I've read, the cable alternatives are raising prices and won't be too much different in the foreseeable future.

I do wish our condo building had more than 1 provider.  We're kind of stuck right now.

[SeaMaiden]

We have Comcast basic cable lineup....plenty of channels. We have three HD set boxes and two  regular set boxes for (5) TVs total.  We pay about $159 a month.   

We we are home 95% of the time,and TV is on all day somewhere in the house. We enjoy it. Not going to watch the news on my phone....or have to do weird stuff just to watch TV. I enjoy my cable ad will continue to pay. 

[phoenixbrd]

@dsw503  This used to  be the case, but no more.  We used to switch providers when the price went up....now they will check and see when you were with them last to prevent this from happening.  We have called to say we want to cancel the account....don't care.  This is since the take over of Spectrum and even the store has said that they can no longer offer discounts for established accounts.  No changing names on the account if at the same address.   No real competition is the problem.

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@dsw503 wrote:
We have had the same issues with costs. Here's what's worked for us: DH calls the provider and tells them we want to cancel. Provider then offers to reduce the price of service to save the account. This has worked more than once. We have also switched providers and found that as a "new" subscriber you get a reduced rate for the service. When the reduced rate ends (typically after a year) it's time to call and threatened to quit. See if they offer to continue the reduced rate. If not, go to another provider. If it sounds like a game, it is but it can save you $$.

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[CherryHugs]

@Kachina624  Thanks so much!

[SilleeMee]

I bought a big 4K TV and I really enjoy watching it with excellent picture quality which satellite TV provides. You cannot get that type of image quality with an antenna or with streaming services. I am willing to pay extra for top-notch picture quality. If I didn't then I would have settled for a smaller TV with lower resolution. Owning the latest technology doesn't come cheap and for me I prefer it when it comes to watching TV. I won't be 'cutting the cord' anytime soon.

ETA- I live in an area with lots of hills, valleys and mountains. Antenna is not an option around here. Signals are blocked by the landscape. Streaming services with good quality speed is very expensive and that wouldn't make sense to go there if I wanted to reduce my 'cable bill'.