Because we still have cable, we can get the local channels on the television; but I can also get the channels on my iPad by going to the station online, @Diane Lane . When the weather is bad, I am able to pick up the live feed from the station, and also they have a place where people write in and tell them what iss happening in their neighborhood at that moment. Sometimes, they are much faster to let us know when there is a tornado on the ground and where it is at than just listening to the weatherman at the station. Even if you watch the weather on your television, you might want to check out watching the channels on your tablet as well and see if you can also get advanced information . Even when the electricity goes out here, we can usually still get online; but that is because I have the LTE on the iPhone with a hotspot.
Most all of our local news stations have websites and weather apps that I have on my tablet.. Edit: Go to the Amazon app store, on the Kindle, and load the "Weather Bug App"..You can add many locations after it is uploaded..(free)
I do have a weather app on my tablet. It's not a top of the line tablet, though, so I'm limited with what I can do on it. I get most of my news and also weather on Twitter, but if the power goes out, I have nothing, since all of my methods of communication and information are power based. I don't have a cell phone, but hopefully at some point, that will change. I got the cable company to cut the bill, but they screwed me over by jacking it up to almost $200 this month, because I called them 1 day after my agreement expired, so they charged me not only the higher rate, but for one or two of the receivers, on top of that. After this month, it should go down. Hopefully at some point, i'll be able to get at least 1 roku and 1 antenna. What I'm most concerned about is local weather (which even the Houston stations rarely cover, since we're like their red-headed step-child), and that would usually come on either Twitter or Facebook.
I am in the process of checking for a different cable/internet provider, or maybe dropping cable completely. When our bill came this month, they had raised it up a whopping $30 ! Yesterday, I looked though the other options for different companies; but I think we may try just dropping cable altogether and just keep Internet. I don't watch televiion; but Bobby enjoys several programs that come on the local channels, and Robin said we can pick those up with an antenna. The main channel that he watches on television is Fox News. He has the app for that on his iPad; so he is going to see if it works on there to watch the news live, and if it does, then we should be able to just shut off the cable entirely. I noticed that quite a few people who posted in this forum have said that they "cut the cable", and I would like to know how you watch live news, and what channels you get it on ? We do not watch many of the iTunes movies because they all cost; but we do watch some of the free Amazon Prime movies, and occasionally rent one as well. I have been thinking that if I can find a good deal on the Fire TV or Fire Stick; we might add that, because it has different channels than we have with the Apple TV . I think that we can maybe add both to the television, or if not, we can use just one and change it if we need to do so.
My New Year's resolution is going to be to drop all the useless expenses every month. So many things I pay for that I don't use. I have been paying $24.99 a month for OnStar since I bought my car in 2012. I've never used it. I'm not even sure what I get for that, I'm thinking towing is part of it but I've forgotten. AAA has cheaper tow service anyway. Have been thinking a long time about canceling my 200 channels, I never watch TV anymore. And the cheaper packages are just not that much cheaper and they really cut out many channels and not worth it. It's either all or nothing. Maybe if I'm lucky they'll offer me their special intro deal for a year like they did once before.
Apart from streaming, I am also on the 4-DVD plan with Netflix. Since my DVD player quit working a while back, I have been playing the DVDs through my iMac and using another monitor to display them, since the iMac can use up to three monitors. However, I have found that my iMac is not nearly as forgiving of dirt and scratches as my DVD player was. When it rejects a DVD, I can get it to play be cleaning the DVD with screen cleaner and a soft screen cloth. Lately, I've been cleaning them before even trying them. I think that's a good idea because all of that crap might have been the reason my DVD player quit working to begin with. As long as I clean them first, I don't have any problems unless the DVD is visibly cracked or badly scratched, as sometimes happens.
Well.......I am FURIOUS again ! ! Comcast just re-did my cable/internet before Christmas, and for December and January, it was back down to just under $100; but here we go with the new February bill, and they raised it back up by $30 AGAIN ! ! I called them this afternoon, ranted and raved (nicely, of course ), and they said that they could take off the phone service (I didn't want phone service anyway), and it would go back down to $88 again; but when they connected me to the lady who was supposed to disconnect the phone (which was never connected to begin with), she said that there was a contract, and I would have to pay $230 if I disconnect that stupid phone ! ! So......another afternoon on the Internet, browsing through the options. Here is what I found. If we get one of the antennas (and @Bobby Cole installs it) then we can pick up at least 8 local channels, and never have to pay to watch those again. We can get most of the weather and news on those channels when it is important to watch those. We will still need Internet; and I am in the process of checking to see if we should keep Comcast for that, or go with one of the other providers and get a cheaper introductory rate from them. I finally asked to speak with the manager today, and she said he was "in a meeting" and would call me back. So far, he hasn't. That is okay, since it is giving me time to do my research. Also, @Ruby Begonia , I checked into the Hulu+ with no commercials. It is $12 per month, as opposed to $8 per month with commercials; so I added that back into the mix. Bobby is going to peruse the available antennas on Amazon, and we will order whichever one that he wants to install. Once we see how that works, and what channels we can get using that, we should know whether we can then just cut off that cable TV and not give Comcast any more money .
I'm ready to cut out my AT&T Uverse too, I pay $155 a month and have had similar conversations with them as you have had with Comcast. I've spent hours on the phone with them and this is the best deal I got. I've had them for almost 13 yrs and I've used that as a bargaining tool. I hardly watch TV or use my home phone, only thing I really need is the internet. I have ADT security and I don't know if It comes through my phone line. I only watch 2 channels anyway. CBS and TBS and just for The Big Bang Theory. The reruns on tbs put me to sleep. I pay for the 200 channels though because if you go down all you get is NOTHING and it's not much cheaper. Have you tried crying, Yvonne when you talk to them? It has worked for me a few times.
I don't think that they care about people crying anymore, @Chrissy Page . Or maybe, I just do not have the right crying technique. However, when I talk to them next time, I am going to point out that I am a 71 year old senior citizen, and that they are taking advantage of that fact. I am going to threaten to call the Attorney General's office, my television stations, and put it all on Facebook . They will get the picture that my story about Comcast lying to a poor old lady is going to be ALL OVER the Internet ! ! If they can't come up with something that seems better for Internet, then I am just going to haul the boxes back in to them, and take my business elsewhere. Once we know that the antenna works fine, the cable is going.....period !
I played the crying card not too long ago. Once when I went to my son's for more than a month someone at AT&T said I can put a hold on my services. I did that after asking if it would cost anything etc. they said no. When I came back and got the hold taken off, next bill I get is for $280! I was shocked and told the person that they lied to me, etc and then started crying saying Ill have to call my daughter and ask for the money because I just live on widows benefits etc. and if they take this amt out of my acct it will bounce. The person connected me with someone higher up and I got the charge taken off. I kept repeating that they lied and deceived me, which was true. I'm sure what your planning will work, they don't like that.
We cut our cord years ago, and I can promise you that there is life after cable, and if you can reach local channels with an antenna, so much the better. We can't, but some networks offer their content streaming for a low monthly rate. My wife likes NBC, I think it is, so she subscribes to NBC and watches it on her computer. I get pretty much everything I need through my Roku.
You might be able to reach more stations with a more powerful antenna, @Ken Anderson . There is a website called www.antennapoint.com , and if you put in your address or zip code, it will show how many stations you can connect with. The antenna that I am leaning toward is $30, and picks up stations within 80 miles of us. When I checked the website, it showed at least 8 stations that we can receive. I have a hotspot on my cellphone, and I think that we can just connect with that , at least for the iPads. I think that we can also connect the Apple TV to the hotspot, and if we can do that, then we can just eliminate having to subscribe to Comcast or any other cable/internet provider. So far, I can't see a way to watch Fox News without the cable subscription; and that is the news channel that Bobby watches all of the time.
OANN (aka OAN) is on Roku. They are the family owned News station that reports unbiased news. Here is an example. I watched last night to see if NBC would report it and they said nothing. http://www.oann.com/former-republic...ta-on-personal-email-accounts-house-democrat/
The same thing happened to me, @Yvonne Smith. It was November 24th, when I called ATT again and tried to get my bill down. After much discussion, they cut it and I was satisfied with the amount, yet when I went to pay the bill this month, it was $30 higher again. That's why I got a new modem/router. They 'value' me as a customer so much that despite being unable to lower my bill (even though we agreed on a lower price for a year), they increased my internet speed (to half what my friend has across the country for less money), and in doing so, found that my (then) current router wouldn't be able to handle that speed, so had to replace it. I didn't bother to argue about the higher speed or new router/modem, because I figured I might need it when I cut their television services and stream my content. Are y'all only hooking an antenna up to one TV, or are you talking about a whole-house antenna? In the past when I cut cable, I had 2 antennas, one on each of 2 televisions, and just used the other to watch DVDs and stream from Netflix, since it was a smart TV back then. Now it's too old, and is incompatible for streaming on YouTube, Amazon and most if not all of the others, so it's basically just a TV. I'm planning to get one or two Rokus when I can afford it, but I'm undecided yet about whether I want to try to buy updated antennas, keep the lowest TV plan so I'll have local channels, or how else I will be obtaining programming.