I hate Comcast. I loathe the idea of dealing with them and giving them any more money than I have to. That said…I’m frugal - my wife says cheap - I think fiscally conservative.
The reality is, cable internet is expensive. I will say that my internet service has been nearly perfect for the 15+ (cough) years I’ve had Comcast internet. I look around at other options and it doesn’t seem worth changing. Because I’m a loyal customer (or insanely stupid) they offered me TV service for pretty much the same damn price as I was paying for internet and my SlingTV stop gap. So I’m able to get the same programs, not dealing with SlingTV quirkiness, on-demand, etc…of course still using Tablo as a DVR for now.
I often described the fact that cord cutting isn’t ncessarily going to work for those that just have to have cable-only content… (or in your case whatever SlingTV gave you, given they are an expensive option). No harm. Cord cutting is still very viable for those that do not need (or can live without) expensive subscription content.
Before I cut the cord, I had already started subscribing to Netflix and Acorn.tv, and I have Amazon Prime. Those were offering me content I largely wasn’t getting from cable anyway.
I was perhaps in a minority, but I never had a cable DVR (the additional monthly charge stuck in my craw on principle). I had free on-demand content, but that was somewhat limited to what the cable company chose to offer. Some popular shows became available after several days, some less popular shows were never available on-demand.
I already had a very large broadcast antenna in the attic from pre-cable days (I resisted cable charges for a long time) and I have the luxury of all antenna cable runs coming to a common MDF (main distribution frame) with a distribution amplifier in the attic, so I was able to install Tablo in a room that had a dedicated antenna drop and Ethernet connection to my router and test it prior to cutting the cord.
What has surprised me since installing Tablo and cutting the cord is that being able to easily identify and record content I’m interested in regardless of date/time of broadcast is:
It’s wonderful to feel zero urge to head home just because a favorite show is about to air- it will be there when I get home.
Bonus- I can easily skip commercials. By the way, I love the way the Roku app uses thumbnails to quickly move through variable length commercials. For me it seems more efficient than the Android App +30/-20 jump buttons
I splurged on a 5TB drive. The sweet thing is that this ridiculous amount of storage lets me build a library of shows like Big Bang Theory (101 episodes recorded in 5 months) and Barney Miller (156 episodes recorded) that I can watch and re-watch some time in the future without having to scrub my disk. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the ability to ‘keep x episodes’. I have no desire to save hundreds of episodes of Jeopardy, Tonight Show, evening news,etc so I’m not currently recording them- but I’d record them if I could keep just a handful and automatically clean the old episodes.
This is the big surprise- I find I’m watching quite a bit less Netflix/Amazon/Acorn. I’m catching more broadcast programming I like but was missing because it wasn’t on at a convenient time relative to my (rare) free time. This includes current shows and also some old stuff.
Downsides- there are some current shows my wife and I miss, though it’s only a handful. Top Chef. Rizzoli and Isles (though we’re now collecting previous seasons that are on broadcast TV). Dr. Who (again, collecting old seasons on PBS and watching others on Netflix/Amazon/Acorn). None has been significant enough to justify Sling or other services that would erode the cost savings.
This will depend on your location. In the Chicago area, Rizzoli and Isles is being shown in syndication on WPWR 50-1. Go into Tablo->TV Shows->All, look for an icon for Rizzoli and Isles to see if it is being aired OTA in your area. That is one of the great things about Tablo - it is really easy to find shows airing in reruns that you didn’t even know were available OTA.
About how long after a new episode aires, is it shown on these networks? Incidentally, I’m in the Milwaukee area. Seems Turner Networks are not open to streaming services, i.e. TNT, TBS… etc.
