This post was a project I worked on last year, but I'm posting because I think it's still relevant. Bear with me, it's a little long.
The Premise
When we had cable TV, it was easy to flip channels to watch whatever was on. But since the introductory price expired and our service cost doubled, I became pretty motivated to find another solution. For what it's worth, the TV portion cost about $70/month, $840/year!
After a fair amount of internet research, I realized there was no cookie-cutter way to cut cable TV, since everyone's TV tastes are different, and every house is different. On top of that, no single streaming service is the be-all, end-all. That said, I will share what I wanted to watch, and how I got there, including which services I used, what hardware was purchased, how it all works together (i.e. software) and some lessons learned.
Kid Shows, and Whatever We Can Watch When the Kid is Asleep
Knowing what you want to watch helps you choose services, and in part, hardware. So what did my family primarily watch? Here's what it broke down to:
- PBS shows: Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger, Dinosaur Train
- Reality TV shows (lots of Bravo)
- Live sports: NFL (49ers first, playoffs, Super Bowl,) NBA (Warriors, playoffs,) Olympics
- Broadcast TV shows
One bit of info is that we already had Amazon Prime, which came with the Amazon Fire Phone that we bought during the inventory clearing Fire-sale. That prompted me to see what shows were included. The list is now re-ordered by potential difficulty.
Live sports / Broadcast TV shows : NFL (49ers first, playoffs, Super Bowl,) NBA (Warriors, playoffs,) Olympics, The Blacklist, The Voice, some random other shows.
Getting live sports was the biggest obstacle for me not cutting cable in the past. Well, costs drove me to find another solution... I'm lucky(?) enough to live in the market where the woeful Niners play, so that means I only really needed the over-the-air broadcast. Same goes for playoffs and the Super Bowl, which are national. The other consideration is that I have multiple TVs on different floors with potentially questionable reception. Why did I lump in broadcast TV? Because the same solution applies to both.
NBA basketball gets broadcast more for the big games and the playoffs. Cutting cable means I won't be getting Warriors games on the regular, since they have an agreement with Comcast Sportsnet, and I can't get them often without cable or another option.
Olympics: Despite the politics, I'm a junkie whenever they roll around. NBC is ok, but the past few have plenty of streaming options. But at very least, I have to have NBC working. Rio 2016 worked.
Reality TV shows (lots of Bravo)
Doh. Not so many options here... Given that Comcast owns NBC and Bravo, our option was Hulu. That said, the kiddo doesn't watch Bravo, so it's ok if we watch it on a PC.
PBS shows: Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger, Dinosaur Train
Amazon Prime included! Huzzah! On demand, HD, no commercials! Alternatively, the PBS Kids Android app has fewer episodes for free, on rotation. So, all I need is something that plays Amazon Prime. That should be easy...
Problem Solving!
This is what I already had set up.
- Living Room TV
- Wireless N dual-band 4 port router (behaving as an access point)
- PS3 or XBox 360 (connected via ethernet to the switch)
- Bedroom TV
- Desktop PC attached to the TV
- Cable modem and Wireless N dual-band main router with 4 port switch
- Amazon Fire TV stick
- Handy dandy ethernet wired home!
- Comcast cable, ~ 30Mbps download speed.
Low Hanging Fruit
PBS shows via Amazon Prime app on XBox 360. Done! Hulu on the desktop PC (i.e. no fee) in the bedroom. Done! Same with PS3. Done!
Not So Low Hanging Fruit
This took a while to figure out, getting OTA broadcasts to both TVs. I tried this before with a cheap, flat antenna. It failed. Why?
So I went looking. Antennaweb! I found out most OTA broadcast towers were within 50 miles, but not all were within 25 miles, therefore, I needed an amplified antenna. There are different reviews but I ended up going with the Winegard Flatwave Amped Antenna. Simple to setup because I knew from Antennaweb that I need the antenna to get signals from the North/South direction. 20 minutes of holding the antenna in different locations and I got all that I needed. Bonus: broadcast TV signals are in HD! I only paid for standard broadcasts when I had cable. Everything is so much clearer. Wifey said, "hey, now I can see the football!" *cry*
Now, getting that OTA signal to both the TVs led me to ... the HDHomeRun Extend. This little piece of hardware has 2 HD tuners to support 2 TVs, encodes the signal for network capability, and has a neat little Kodi add-on and Android app!
Connect the antenna coax cable to the HDHR Extend, connect the HDHR Extend to the router. 2 minutes.
Install Kodi on the desktop, HDHR add-on into Kodi. 5 minutes.
Oh, another bonus! Official Bravo Kodi add-on too? In HD? Better than standard def cable TV again!
In summary, because of the PC, the bedroom TV is done! Live sports, check. Amazon Prime Video via browser, check. Kodi, Bravo, free ad-supported Hulu, check. On to the living room!
The hard work is done - Living room TV
I bought the Google Nexus Player (NP) and a micro-USB to ethernet dongle. Initially, I didn't have the dongle but then there was some buffering and latency due to using wifi (wireless N), so I cut that part out by having the connection hard-wired. Once the NP updated to Android 6, it was simple to install Kodi from the Google Play Store and all the same add-ons as in the other room. I also installed Twitch, Crackle, and PBS Kids, etc.
I also had a PS3 hooked up, and wanted to get live TV on it as well, so I setup a DLNA client to the HDHR server to access TV channels following HDHR's simple online instructions. Then I downloaded the Amazon Prime video app to get all of those PBS shows as well. Boom! Done!
Back to the bedroom
So I thought I was done with the bedroom TV using the PC. Well, turns out the PC isn't quite as simple as having a remote, like the PS3 or Nexus Player. So we got a Fire TV stick on sale during the holidays. Once we plugged it in, I was able to sideload Kodi, install HDHR and all the usual stuff (again) and that works. On top of that, we get all the handy PBS Kids shows as part of Amazon Prime anyway. That was easy and now we have a more normal TV remote for the bedroom with a TV-like GUI instead of a more cumbersome mouse-situation. Plus, the Fire TV turns on instantly and uses less power than the PC.
Cost Breakdown
So, ultimately, my first year's savings is ~$500. From then on, it's $800+.
Here it is:
| One time costs | Cost | # of TVs | Total cost |
| Indoor antenna | $61.00 | 1 | $61.00 |
| HDHR Extend | $139.00 | 1 | $139.00 |
| Amazon Firestick | $25 | 1 | $25.00 |
| Nexus Player | $40 | 1 | $40.00 |
| Smays micro USB ethernet | $15 | 1 | $15.00 |
| Sony PS3 remote | $25 | 1 | $25.00 |
| Hardware total | $305.00 |
| Recurring | Cord cut | Cable |
| Sling TV | $70.99 | |
| Amazon | $8.25 | $8.25 |
| Hulu | ||
| Crunchyroll | ||
| NFL game pass | ||
| PIA VPN | $2.42 | |
| Netflix | ||
| Monthly | $10.67 | $79.24 |
| Yearly | $128.00 | $950.88 |
| Hardware | $305.00 | |
| Savings before hardware | $822.88 | |
| Savings after hardware | $517.88 |
Hardware alternatives
I realize hardware changes quickly and so there are many other systems that are available, as well as ones that are no longer available, like the Nexus Player. If I had to set up all up now (as of 3/May/2016) I'd probably go with an Amazon Fire TV 2nd gen and a Fire TV stick. Both run Amazon Prime, duh, and both can get Kodi sideloaded. The 2nd gen Fire TV box is really strong hardware for about half the price of the Nvidia Shield TV box. If you really hate being locked in to Amazon though, the Shield TV is probably the best hardware out there. Both offer support for 4K TV, so it's more future-proof than my current setup.
That's it! Happy streaming!
If you have interest, here are links to the stuff I bought. (Amazon affiliate links)
If you have interest, here are links to the stuff I bought. (Amazon affiliate links)
Winegard FlatWave Amped FL5500A Amplified Digital Indoor HD TV Antenna (OTA / High-VHF / UHF / Ultra-Thin / Black and White - Reversible / USB Power Supply) - 50 Mile Long Range
SiliconDust HDHomeRun DUAL High Definition Digital TV Tuner HDHR3-US (Black) (2013 Model)
Amazon Fire TV Stick
Amazon Fire TV
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