Cord Cutting in Tulsa

[Ibanez]

So, like a pricier Tivo with a lower chance of the company sticking around?

The Tivo Bolt starts at $299 and goes to $399. Then of course there is the monthly 15 fee for using guide data with it.

The Roamio, if you can find it in stock is $199 but also has that $15 per month fee.

The Tivo mini, if you want to watch in other rooms are $149 each with a $5.99 per month fee tacked on.

The Tablo 4 tuner I bought on sale for $280 at Amazon and can use it with my existing Amazon Fire TV's or Rokus. You do need to attach a hard drive to it for recordings, but since I had a 2TB drive just lying around there was no extra cost for me there. There is a $4.99 per month fee if you want to get 2 weeks worth of guide data or you can pay a $150 lifetime fee. That fee is also your lifetime, not the device's which is different from Tivo's lifetime subscription which only covers the unit's lifetime.

If you want the lowest cost OTA DVR then the Channel Master DVR + is the way to go. For a single TV of course since they have no whole-home solution.

[sgrizzle]

To Roamio OTA (meant for cord cutters) is $50 for four tuners but has it's own hard drive unlike Tablo.
Lifetime service is $200, occasionally on sale for $100

So Tivo is $150-$250 total.

Tablo at $280 + $150 service + hard drive (say another $100) = $530

Yeah, the service is portable, but the company is like 2 years old and it costs more than double.

[Ibanez]

To Roamio OTA (meant for cord cutters) is $50 for four tuners but has it's own hard drive unlike Tablo.
Lifetime service is $200, occasionally on sale for $100

So Tivo is $150-$250 total.

Tablo at $280 + $150 service + hard drive (say another $100) = $530

Yeah, the service is portable, but the company is like 2 years old and it costs more than double.

That's assuming you are only going to watch content on 1 television. Between the wife, kids and myself we more often than not have 3 sets going at the same time.

[sgrizzle]

That's assuming you are only going to watch content on 1 television. Between the wife, kids and myself we more often than not have 3 sets going at the same time.

The Tivo Mini gives you a full box for $149, there is NO additional monthly fee

The Tivo Stream lets you watch via multiple phones/tablets, including from outside the house, for $129. Also no additional monthly fee.

Even if you bought both, you're still cheaper than the Tablo.

[swake]

The Tivo Mini gives you a full box for $149, there is NO additional monthly fee

The Tivo Stream lets you watch via multiple phones/tablets, including from outside the house, for $129. Also no additional monthly fee.

Even if you bought both, you're still cheaper than the Tablo.

Several months ago I left the disaster that is U-Verse and went back to Cox. I got a special locked in price for two years with 100mb internet and in order to lower the cost per month even more to something more reasonable instead of paying Cox's DVR fee and box rental fees I got a refurbished Roamio for I think $99 with a year commitment to Tivo and got two Tivo Minis for $120 each. So I spent about $350 for the whole house with a $15 monthly fee. Saves me about $50 net a month with Cox with a better guide and better box functionality.

[Conan71]

Several months ago I left the disaster that is U-Verse and went back to Cox. I got a special locked in price for two years with 100mb internet and in order to lower the cost per month even more to something more reasonable instead of paying Cox's DVR fee and box rental fees I got a refurbished Roamio for I think $99 with a year commitment to Tivo and got two Tivo Minis for $120 each. So I spent about $350 for the whole house with a $15 monthly fee. Saves me about $50 net a month with Cox with a better guide and better box functionality.

What's your monthly rate with Cox?  I was assuming the $15/mo you mentioned was a Tivo subscription.  We are debating whether or not we really need a satellite or cable service, but high speed internet is a must.  We have DirecTV now and can only imagine what a disaster as time goes on under AT&T's ownership.

[Ibanez]

The Tivo Mini gives you a full box for $149, there is NO additional monthly fee

The Tivo Stream lets you watch via multiple phones/tablets, including from outside the house, for $129. Also no additional monthly fee.

Even if you bought both, you're still cheaper than the Tablo.

For a Tivo setup I would need a Roamio at $199 and 2 Tivo Minis at $149 for a total of $497 on hardware. I would then have to pay $14.99 per month for the service which comes to $179.88 for a year.

So in total a Tivo solution would cost me $676.88 for the first year and $179 each year after.

The 4 tuner Tablo cost me $280 and since I already had Amazon Fire TV's on the televisions in the house that it would need to stream to I have no other hardware cost. I do have to pay $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for the guide service.

So in total the Tablo solution cost me $329.99 for the first year and $49.99 each year after.

Year 1 cost savings = $346.89
Year 2 + cost savings = $129.93

[sgrizzle]

For a Tivo setup I would need a Roamio at $199 and 2 Tivo Minis at $149 for a total of $497 on hardware. I would then have to pay $14.99 per month for the service which comes to $179.88 for a year.

So in total a Tivo solution would cost me $676.88 for the first year and $179 each year after.

The 4 tuner Tablo cost me $280 and since I already had Amazon Fire TV's on the televisions in the house that it would need to stream to I have no other hardware cost. I do have to pay $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for the guide service.

So in total the Tablo solution cost me $329.99 for the first year and $49.99 each year after.

Year 1 cost savings = $346.89
Year 2 + cost savings = $129.93

The Tivo Roamio will stream to Amazon FireTVs as well. And lifetime service is $200 so a Tivo solution year 1 for you would be $398, year 2 and 3 would be $0. Slightly less if you did a Roamio OTA plus a Stream ($378 total)

Year 1: Tivo $378-398, Tablo $330 (only because you had the additional hard drive, otherwise roughly $430)
Year 2. Tivo $0 Tablo $50
Year 3. Tivo $0 Tablo $50

[Ibanez]

The Tivo Roamio will stream to Amazon FireTVs as well. And lifetime service is $200 so a Tivo solution year 1 for you would be $398, year 2 and 3 would be $0. Slightly less if you did a Roamio OTA plus a Stream ($378 total)

Year 1: Tivo $378-398, Tablo $330 (only because you had the additional hard drive, otherwise roughly $430)
Year 2. Tivo $0 Tablo $50
Year 3. Tivo $0 Tablo $50

The Tivo app only streams recorded content hosted on the Tivo Roamio/Bolt, not live TV.

[Conan71]

Sounds too confusing to me.  I think we will just sell our TVs and go ride our bikes.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Okay, so to do a cord cutting you still need a high speed internet connection, then you need equipment for each TV, then you need DVR's of some type, and a subscription for those, and a subscription for a channel guide, and a Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Amazon Prime, and if you are a sports person you need something else to provide not only local, but national sports.

If you are truly cord cutting, then you need to go to over the air broadcast, and not receive anything from Cox/AT&T UVERSE/DirecTV/Dish, or any internet connection through them.

[AquaMan]

That's what I do. It is a brutal withdrawal from our television based society but in the long run makes you feel better about yourself when you walk/run/bike the neighborhood and realize....everyone has their sets on while the real world is transpiring right outside their doors.

I use Netflix via a ROKU and a well rated RCA antenna in my attic. Limited programming for sure but I grew up with three commercial channels and PBS so its not foreign to me. I think I have about 45 channels and much of it is religious, Spanish and commercial. That's enough to keep me entertained. However, I truly miss football games which are increasingly on pay channels. Imagine. You watch sub par sports analysis punctuated by hours of advertising and you pay extra to do so. ESPN spider cam games are really cool though. Since there are no replays and play by play its more like actually being there.

Do I miss DVR? Hardly. It seems to me to be a modern way of avoiding commercial advertising. Just get up and go get another beer. And the libraries of movies and games are likely seldom accessed later. Has some value but not enough to justify the complexity and expense.

My motives for this Spartan life are mostly economic. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars a month for what should be free since they use my airwaves and bombard me with car ads, pharmaceutical ads and crappy low brow entertainment. I already pay too much to At&t for family phone plans and high speed internet (that's irritating enough since communication used to be simple and effective at $50 month). Its like paying a $20 door charge to visit hundreds of retailers who want to sell you boats, appliances and cars. Wait...that's the whole philosophy behind the EXPO isn't it? Oh, well.

[Ibanez]

Okay, so to do a cord cutting you still need a high speed internet connection, then you need equipment for each TV, then you need DVR's of some type, and a subscription for those, and a subscription for a channel guide, and a Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Amazon Prime, and if you are a sports person you need something else to provide not only local, but national sports.

If you are truly cord cutting, then you need to go to over the air broadcast, and not receive anything from Cox/AT&T UVERSE/DirecTV/Dish, or any internet connection through them.

I would be perfectly fine with that solution. Save for the high speed Internet connection as I need that for working from home.

The wife and kids have far more televisions needs than I do. I can be entertained with the OTA channels, I find myself watching MeTV for the old shows more than anything.

[AquaMan]

We currently enjoy Comet tv (8-2) and retro (8-3), then 23-2 for period sit-coms and drama. OTA and PBS offer fine programming. Of course we still get the local channels with their local crime and weather reporting so we're not totally out of the loop. I don't miss the 300 channels at all. Total tv budget is about $8 per month.

Our internet ($50/month) is still through U-verse and at&t is not happy about it either. I could buy a luxury car for what we pay them per month for cell service. Phones and tv used to take a small amount of consumer budgets. Somehow they have convinced the public that they need to be considered as important as utilities and carve out larger and larger chunks of household budgets. The pendulum will swing back.

[Conan71]

We currently enjoy Comet tv (8-2) and retro (8-3), then 23-2 for period sit-coms and drama. OTA and PBS offer fine programming. Of course we still get the local channels with their local crime and weather reporting so we're not totally out of the loop. I don't miss the 300 channels at all. Total tv budget is about $8 per month.

Our internet ($50/month) is still through U-verse and at&t is not happy about it either. I could buy a luxury car for what we pay them per month for cell service. Phones and tv used to take a small amount of consumer budgets. Somehow they have convinced the public that they need to be considered as important as utilities and carve out larger and larger chunks of household budgets. The pendulum will swing back.

Interesting point: We don't get PBS on DirecTV.  Not sure what the issue was, but it's no longer there.