is there a substitute for cable?

[Anonymous]

We're moving to the area (just bought a house - yay!) and I'm wondering whether we can substitute something for expensive cable subscriptions. I heard that a combo of Netflix and other lower cost (or even free?) access works just as well, depending on what you're planning to watch. We aren't big sports fans so don't need fancy sports channels, have a teenager, so don't need most kids channels, and are more print oriented on news, so don't need a lot of news channels. Mostly, we watch drama series, some comedy, movies and documentaries.

Any advice appreciated - we'll need to get hooked up to everything soon.

[Anonymous]

I have comcast for internet but not TV. a combination of netflix, hulu, and amazon keeps me kept up on the shows I want to follow.

[Anonymous]

if you do not care for sports, then you can get anything you want on torrent within an hour of release for free.

Enjoy your savings.

[Anonymous]

wow - quick and useful feedback

An uninformed question or two, if I may: I'm guessing this all needs high speed internet connections - so I go for wireless through the house? Then, how can I watch stuff on the tv? Do new tvs have a feature which would connect with wireless or do you need to add something?

[Anonymous]

Get a digital antenna. You'll be amazed at how much over the air programming you'll get without the added cost. Cobmine that with either Amazon Prime, Netflix Instant, or Hulu and you're set.

As for the internet thing - there's several options. Our blue ray DVD player has a bunch of apps (hulu, netflix, but no amazon) and internet connectivity. We have a HDMI cable that allows us to plug our Kindle Fire into the TV. Our laptop has a HDMI out plug. Our laptop also had a WiDi technology that allows it to wirelessly transmit to the tv - the WiDi box is connected to the tv via HDMI.

[Anonymous]

We have no cable and no regrets. We use medium speed Fios and have a smartTV from Samsung - it lets us use netflix and hulu (which we subscribe to for a total of $18/month) and we also have an HD antenna (which was a grand total of $40 at BestBuy) for football games and local news. We are not sports fanatics though.

[Anonymous]

We ditched cable tv years ago and haven't missed it one bit. We got an apple tv (it's a $100 "box" that you connect to your tv that gives you access to internet based content (like netflix) and also allows you to stream things from your computer.

We do subscribe to netflix and we put an antenna in our attic that lets us pick up broadcast channels (we get about a dozen or so not counting foreign language ones that we deleted).

[Anonymous]

We stream off of free tv video project. And have netflix. And occasionally use the free version of hulu. No cable.

[Anonymous]

Over the air is fine for HD network tv and PBS. You probably can get by with the cheapest available antenna. For info on this check out www.antennaweb.org. You should get a TiVo box, which will offer two tuners, digital recording, etc. the TiVo will also allow you to stream Hulu, Netflix, amazon, etc over your wifi network. Unless you have to have live sports and all of the silly cable tv programming, this is all you need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you do not care for sports, then you can get anything you want on torrent within an hour of release for free.

Enjoy your savings.

No. DO NOT do this. This is a good way to get your ass sued. Stream videos from places like tv-links.eu or other websites the pps suggested.

[Anonymous]

OP here - this is great! I am printing it out and putting it in my "move" file. We are going to have to buy all electronics fresh (moving in from overseas), so I will take this all to Best Buy (unless you have other recommendations?) and get them to help hook us up.

[Anonymous]

I would buy from Amazon. Installing this stuff isn't difficult.

[Anonymous]

No need to have anybody hook you up. Besides, Best Buy will probably try to sell you $100 monster cables.

Here's a link to the tivo products.

http://www.tivo.com/products/home/index.html

[Anonymous]

Check out monoprice.com for cables and other accessories. Their prices can't be beat and the products are all good quality. The in-wall 3D HDMI cables we bought from them work great.

[Anonymous]

1) HD antenna for local channels (Terk)
2) Roku HD box with annual Amazon Prime channel subscription ($80/whole year - you get free shipping on all purchases too). Dont forget an HD cord.