Cutting the cable.

[ftwildernessguy 778]

My family will tell you I am the cheapest man alive. I prefer to think of myself as careful with money. Anyway, a few years ago I got tired of paying for cable with increasing fees and declining service, so I cancelled it and bought a high def antenna for the roof. This has worked well, but lately several of the channels are sporadic, due, I have found, to the increased sun spot activity and solar flares. Go figure. Anyway, I have just taken the next step and installed a ROKU box today and it is amazing! Roku allows streaming of TV off the internet. I bought a Roku LT for just under 50 bucks on Amazon. Literally took under 10 minutes to set up and the picture is amazing. You can stream Netflix if you have an account, plus hundreds of other channels. Most are free, some have a small onetime fee, others have a monthly subscription, but you can customize your TV service and only pay for what you want, if you want to pay anything at all. I still need my antenna for local stations and the networks, but otherwise I figure I am paying for internet anyway, so what the heck. You will need highspeed internet, although I only have the lowest speed DSL from Verizon, and a WIFI with the LT box. If you don't have WIFI, you will need to buy one of the higher priced boxes.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Sounds like something we may be interested in. I am going to look into it. Thanks Jim!

[Millermouseketeers MaryAnn 150]

That sounds like a great idea. I am sick

of rising cable bills.

[4mickey2 41]

Way to go Jim! We did this a few months ago. Called and got rid of the Direct TV. I love not having that bill to watch nothing more than regular tv. We got the Roku that is a little more money. I'm not sure what the difference is with them. But, we really like it. If we want to stream movies in the room w/o the Roku -- we take my lap top in there and hook it up to that tv.

It feels kind of liberating to get rid of that bill....

[NVWSSV 25]

I've seen the boxes but this is the first personal feedback I've heard. Thanks Jim I will definitely try this out!

[Just Whipperwhirl 24]

That sounds interesting. We are ditching the TV all together - we have less and less time to watch it.

[SCTigerCock 171]

I would so do this, but I needs my ESPN, Speed and Discovery channels. And that is why I pay Direct TV monthly and only why I pay Direct TV monthly.

[AuburnJen 772]

I am with Genia. 3/4 of the year, I am ok doing without the tv...however, when college football season comes around, I am all about sitting in front of that tv and watching the games

until they can work something out with live streaming of games, I am stuck

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Sounds like a good deal, Jim!

We recently dropped all the "extras" off our cable service. We would have gone to the very basic service, except I was told we need ESPN. :argh:

We got a Tivo box and Netflix subscription instead and still saved ourselves over $20 a month.

Loving Tivo/Netflix so much! We already watch it 100x more than we ever did HBO.

[Brent... Just Brent 83]

I can't say enough good about TiVo. I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to the newer Premiere (so I have HD) from the Series 2. Somehow, I decreased the internet package and went with basic digital cable and my bill is $20/mth cheaper. TiVo does have a fee, but I find I actually WATCH tv since I have it instead of just having it on in the background when I'm home.