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Mary2014 ... we cut the cord over a year ago. We had DirecTV and the cost was escalating. We had dropped our package to as bare-bones as possible and had only two receivers, one of which "had" to be HD at an extra cost of $10/month - the TV is 15 years old, and HD then and now are two different things. The Sports Fee went up to $8+/month. When we dropped DirecTV our monthly bill was almost $140. Oh but we had 200 channels in our package! Big deal ... we watched maybe 20 of them - not interested in sports nor shopping nor kids' networks.
We bought a medium-sized inexpensive TCL Roku TV and a Roku Express device for our older family room TV to make it "smart" (connection is the red, white, yellow AV cords). Once both TVs were streaming we dropped DirecTV immediately, and did not wait to try out the Roku experience first. Ripped the bandaid off. We realized there would be huge differences in how to watch TV, DirecTV v. Roku ... using app based streaming is definitely different, but so worth it.
We have Comcast/Xfinity and have their modem. No problems with Roku and Comcast connecting.
We tried an OTA antenna for local channels, but we only got two and it was really inconvenient. After researching Sling, Hulu Live, and YoutubeTV we chose the latter. It does cost us $55/month, but we have all the local channels and most of the cable channels we like to watch. We share our Netflix ($12/month) with our daughter and she shares her Hulu ($15/month) with us. (She streams with an Amazon Firestick.)
Inconveniences are minor. We do miss the back-n-forth we could easily do between channels. The older TV needs its remote for power and volume while the Roku Express remote is used for apps and scrolling.
The one piece of advice I can give: if you have any trouble setting up a Roku TV or device and google for a website, be very careful which site you choose. We almost got scammed for $30 for technical help. We honestly thought we were talking to Roku, but we weren't, and red flags went up when he started asking for our credit card number in order to send us an activation code. Real Roku help and any activation code is free.
It took over 7 hours (see my other post), but I finally have Roku on my living room TV. I decided to unhook TV from Comcast cable and moved it into my bedroom to work on the set up. I hooked it up to my indoor antenna (which only works in my bedroom). Took me a while to figure out the Samsung remote so I could scan for local channels and get it set up to view local channels. Once that was done I needed to connect the TV to my internet connection. After I got that far along I carefully read and followed the Roku instructions. What should have been simple turned out to be anything but! I got hung up on a screen after entering the internet connection and the password. It took me quite a while to realize the screen was frozen and my only option was to disconnect the Roku AND remove the batteries from the remote and start from the beginning.
It looked like I was home free when I finally got to the screen that provided a code so I could go on line and activate the Roku. WARNING - do not google the web site to get to the Roku link to enter your code! There are several scam sites that are not Roku and when you enter your code it comes back as invalid and to call a customer service number to resolve the issue. I did this twice once from my computer and once from my cell phone. I disconnected the calls when I got a bad feeling about them.
I finally on the third attempt entered the www.go.roku.com address directly in the web address block and got to the real site to enter the code. That finally allowed me to finish the setup.
For the moment I am going to use the TV in my bedroom. I have 3 more days before I have to cancel Comcast cable. It will give me a chance to use Roku and also be able to access local TV stations on this TV.
The next big decision when I call Comcast is do I want to not only cancel cable, but, also consider changing my internet speed from Performance Pro to Performance. Not sure how much of a difference it will make as to how easy it is to stream a program.
I think the slowest speed Comcast offers is 25mbps which is more than adequate for two streaming devices.
Performance is 100mbps in my area - so I should be fine. Tomorrow I will spend the day attempting to contact Comcast by phone to cancel cable, return the set top box and remote and change my internet to Performance. Fingers crossed that it will be easier than what I went thru today.
There are other numerous threads on this very topic, but I am happy to add some info. I have two Roku sticks and use them to get YouTube TV streaming. If you get a newer tv you don’t even need the Roku sticks to get a streaming service. There are free channels on the Roku but we almost never use them. We also have Amazon Prime and have recently added Netflix. We tried a couple other streaming services and like the YouTube TV the best. We have antennas but no longer use them, either, because YouTube TV added our local network affiliates including PBS.
We save hundreds over the cost of cable each year, now. Picture is as good as cable, pretty much flawless. Took a bit of adjustment, but we like it much better. Would never go back to cable. Streaming is great. You can try a month of HBO or Hulu, or Netflix, etc., easily, then cancel. Cable will be a technology of the past within a few short years, imho.
Performance is 100mbps in my area - so I should be fine. Tomorrow I will spend the day attempting to contact Comcast by phone to cancel cable, return the set top box and remote and change my internet to Performance. Fingers crossed that it will be easier than what I went thru today.
Are you keeping their rental router? I bought an Arris 7400 on Amazon for under $100 and the installer tech said it was better than theirs.
Are you keeping their rental router? I bought an Arris 7400 on Amazon for under $100 and the installer tech said it was better than theirs.
Good point - if someone is paying $8-10 a month to rent a cable modem buying a compatible one outright will save money after a year.
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