Cord Cutting is Sending Me to the Poor House

My cord cutting experience began in late summer of this year, when I discovered (and bought) my first Tablo. In less than five months, I have spent over $3,045 in my cord cutting efforts, as the world of OTA and it’s ancillary features, benefits, products and devices exploded in front of me.

I had the benefit of knowing nothing of the OTA world and therefore entered it with no pre-conceived notions and no bias. Some might say an AirTV player is a “piece of junk”, for example, whereas I saw it as a beautiful and exciting android box with DVR abilities. Stream + by some company called Channel Master? SURE, I’ll take one!

Having not bought into any ecosystem, I didn’t care if it was Amazon, android, Roku or what. Didn’t matter, as long as it had good features and excellent benefits. My Tablo started it all, from that I got the incentive to buy an antenna, install it on the roof and things unraveled from there.

Each new discovery was pretty much covered in these forums, as I revealed what was (to me) some new and exciting thing, each time I stumbled upon one - many of which, came from people (and topic discussions) in these forums. This is the path that Tablo set me onto, and how it snowballed:

Tablo Dual Lite $155

External HD for Tablo $72

Anthop 400BV Outdoor Antenna $142

Cable, Pole, Mounts, Brackets & equipment for Rooftop Install $70

HD Homerun, ACEPC AK1 Mini PC (for Plex Server), External HD - $355

Air TV Player $86

Two-Tuner OTA upgrade for Air TV $30

External HD for Air TV Player $75

Channel Master Stream + $109

External HD for Stream + $70

Nvidia Shield - $153

Amazon Recast $308

External HD for Recast $72

Harmony 650 Universal Remote $43

Harmony Ultimate One Univeral Remote $121 … 1,258

Mediasonic Homeworx STB180 $36

Caavo System / HDMI Switcher $110.00

Sharp 58" Roku TV (for guest house) 550

Antop UFO 360 Antenna $93 (for guest house)

Cable, Pole, Mounts, Brackets & equipment for Rooftop Install (for guest house) $50

Amazon Fire Stick 4K $55

Xbox One S 1TB

Roku Premiere $43

Cordcutters News Coffee Cup $17

Ota2GO! $2.99

Coke Zero 1.79

Total: $3045.78

What I find most interesting so far, is that I haven’t found anything I dislike. No buyer’s remorse on any single item on this ridiculous list. After all this, Tablo still stands at the forefront and center, as my default device and has become my measuring stick against which I compare all other discoveries and products.

A new year begins soon and I’m hoping to have gotten most of this out of my system. Either that, or it’s back to cable, where I can relax in the relatively low cost of $225 per month, what I was spending before cutting the cord (Just Kidding!).

*** Forgot Xbox One S, added to list and edited numbers to reflect it.

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An interesting odyssey. You could expand this into an essay and submit it to a journal for publication.

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You only charged off 1 coke during this time??

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I threw the Coke in there because I’d bought along with all the gear & accessories at Home Depot, to install Antop antenna on the roof. I’ve had a few since.

Didn’t you forget the tablo life time subscription and the sales tax?

I think it took over 4 years to reach your goal. I have multiple tablos but by passed some of your DVR systems. But I went with powerline and beefed up router - which is now old technology. And I don’t think replacing my 8 year old TV with a newer model should be counted.

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Hey wait! You forgot ota2GO for $2.99. I’m offended to be a rounding error :smiley: lol!!!

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Right. I forgot the Tablo Subscription costs and those of various streaming services I’ve picked up to augment my OTA offerings. Like you, I didn’t include my Toshiba Fire Edition TV, as it was a replacement for a bedroom system I’d had before cord-cutting. I did however, include the Sharp Roku TV, as it’s purchase was specifically spawned from the project of setting up an OTA system in a guest house (HD Homerun, Antop antenna install, and more).

There are probably a few other things I’ve neglected, but at least all the highlights are covered. Funny you mention powerline because I’ve been thinking about that and have begun some research into it.

Ouch! Just added and recomputed total. Good call, it’s one of the nicest pieces of software I own.

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lol!! Thanks for the add :smiley:

My powerline adapters are old now but still early AV1 standard. They have worked great and never given me any problems.

AV2 is the current standard and is much faster. Mine cross circuits and can maintain 190Mbps.

But if you have a grouping of toys in a single location you just run them into a switch and then into the powerline adapter. I have multiple tablos, hdhomerun, Rokus, etc all run into a switch-to-powerline.

They also have more expensive powerlines that support not only wired but also WiFI 802.11ac. Thus you also have an WiFi extender.

But during setup I would pick a plug close to a PC and wire the PC into powerline. It’s hard to determine if the powerline is working/setup using a headless device like tablo. Once setup you can move the powerline to any plug you like.

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Can you be my OTA dad for Christmas. All I want for Christmas is an Antop for attic install!

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Christmas is another thing that’s sending me to the poor house. Ironically, it’s OTA-associated gifts that I’ve been buying up since summer.

Perhaps a Patreon account would help? Or a GoFundMe? :gift:

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removed to prevent me wasting my time!!!

Might be difficult trying to dredge up sympathy for an incorrigible digital hoarder :joy:

Reminds me of Rev Jim on Taxi who had 22 TVs in his room so as not to miss a show and watch everything at the same time.

You don’t need 22 Tv’s. Just one or two large TVs and unlimited PiP capabilities.

And if you re-gift the cord cutting solutions you didn’t like to friends who could really use them, cost may not be the issue.

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Jim Ignatowski is one of my favorite fictional (TV) characters.

@ben1

Interesting… I think you should start a blog, and in each episode detail each experience.

What fun !

Chas

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Many of the “discoveries” along the way have become presents for friends. The Nvidia shield, for example. My 12-year old got the AirTV box in her room and she LOVES it.