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****Sharing this post that we had on FB as it is a common question we receive weekly****
I took my father-in-law back to Virginia after this past Christmas and spent the night at his house. He has cable. I flipped through about 140 channels and ended up watching the football game on national television. I asked him how many channels he actually watched and he named off 6 channels. The best part of listening to him was the fact that I watch the same shows and don’t have cable.
We cut the cord about 8 years ago (before most streaming started) and at first I was opposed to it. Wait, no more ESPN, NASCAR, and Discovery? What I did not realize was I spending a lot of money, and watching mostly national broadcasts. Now days, it is much easier to cut the cord, because of all the streaming available. So, are you tired of paying the cable company and satellite all that money? Here is how you do it.
First “cutting the cable” only applies to the TV portion of the cable company. You will still need the internet portion of the cable company. Also don’t be surprised if you under a package deal that the internet portion goes up some.
Once you take the plunge, you will need a Hi Def Antenna. Also you will need to make sure your televisions do have a digital tuner built in. If you’re still hanging onto televisions that do not have a digital tuner, you can buy a digital tuner box to make it work. I like the boxes made by Chanel Master. They also have a DVR unit which we will get into later. The type of antenna you choose will have an impact on the amount of channels you receive. I like the outdoor or attic antenna. This will give you the best possibility for the most channels. Remember like most electronics you buy now days, you get what you pay for. If it is really cheap, there is a reason that it is.
The next step is streaming. The most popular ways are with a smart TV, an Apple TV device, Roku, Amazon Fire and several others. There is also a computer connected to the TV. Apps such as Netflix and Hulu can deliver the cable shows that you like to watch. Vudu, Netflix, Crackle can be used for
watching movies. You can Google and find many more. For the more computer savvy person, hooking a computer to the Television is the ultimate streamer. You can watch any TV show, any movie, and any live sporting event on the internet for free. You just have to know how to surf the web and be cautious of downloading stuff. I do recommend having a dedicated computer for this. You don’t need anything to fancy. I use a laptop with an HDMI output and have a good antivirus program running all the time. I am a Chicago Bears fan and can watch every game on Sunday for free as well as any other football gave or any sport broadcast for that matter. NASCAR, F1, and soccer you name it. Also when you stream there really is no need to have a DVR. Everything is on the net. We never watched True Blood on Sunday when it was on. Sundays are a busy evening for us. We would catch the episode at some point on the net. Same goes for broadcast television. After it is shown on TV, you can rematch them on the net. Sony has just announced a TV streaming service of their own, so the options are growing.
So this is how you do it. It is going to be awkward at first, but in the long run you should save money and have even more than what you have now.