Thinking of cancelling our cable.../What to do now..?

[JDI007]

So my parent's and I are thinking of canceling our basic cable..because our cable company just took away half of our channels without telling us! and when we called to ask what's up with that they said oh you need digital boxes for all your tv's each one costing $100. This isn't fair because we subscribe to basic cable, which doesn't have anything on of interest..so it's not worth it for us to pay $400 just so we can continue watching basic cable crap.

What I want to know is what can we do...we have basic televisions without internet connections (no smart tv's) just regular tv's we have 3 thinking of getting another one.

I know there are streaming devices(roku, etc) that we could buy and then subscribe to streaming services(netflix etc)...but again we'd have to buy one box for every tv in the house..which kind of sucks..

Also, my mom can't live without her weather channel, and I need my daily news.. :/
...so we don't just want to watch movies/tv shows we want other stuff too. I also feel like my parent's might have some trouble navigating apps ...they're ESL. Of course I could teach them but it's easier for them when you just have one button to browse through the channels.

I don't suppose there's any one item we can buy that'll hook up with all our tv's in the house, and let us watch programs like news, weather channel etc..? Does anyone know of anything like that..


Any ideas on what we can do..?


(I know there's also the satellite option, but my dad's cheap so..I don't think it's something he'd consider)

[Ciel]

If you are in a house, which tv is closest to the window with unobstructed sky? You might be able to use a flat-pad antenna for that TV and keep using your remote for that TV. You probably can get CHCH but Weather Network is not an over the air channel-you'd have to use the Internet for website updates. CBC, Global and TVO plus the Crossroads channel in Burlington are your most likely channels that you will get. And probably one of two CTV stations and City.

Besides, Mondays to Fridays from 6am to about supper hour, CHCH has that top banner showing the weather temperature forecast and symbols for sunshine/rain etc. Pity that same banner is not shown on weekends.

BTW, the April issue of the Bay Observer mentioned that CHCH's parent company has a deal with Bloomburg to provide business news bites plus a prime time program soon on CHCH.

Head over to the Tech deals tabs on SC-there are about two threads on options other than cable.

Hope all of you are library fans-you are probably going to get DVDs from the library to fill in primetime viewing hours like I did in Feb. when the library is closed (my Internet access now).

[Natalka]

I'm not in your city, but saw your question yesterday and have been trying to find it since then!

I don't know much about the devices, but had come across this article on them with reviews from a very trusted site and lots of info on them - perhaps some work on multiple tvs.
It might also be US-based, so you might have to check on CDN availability, but I thought it might help.

http://www.cnet.com/news/chromecast-...hould-you-buy/

[Ciel]

@A007 - I don't know if you get one of the Brabant News community papers (Stoney Creek News or Hamilton Mountain News) but the flyer bundle had a flyer from TheSource.ca. There are are two antennas on 20% sale-the larger white indoor one and the black outdoor one (not the online only items). http://www.thesource.ca/estore/Searc...Wave&pagenum=0

The flyer specials are good until March 25 so you can look online about the two antennas to see if the outdoor one might be better than the indoor one (it'll have suction cups to affix the pad to the window glass and about 4 ft of cord).

http://www.winegard.com/flatwave

[Ciel]

Have to add that while the flat antenna is a solution for now, when the over the air signals change, there will be a need for a newer antenna. Hope that helps you!

[Redneck Charger]

Could you not set up the main tv on dish or cable? and others on the HD antennas?

[JDI007]

Thanks for the suggestion, I never thought about using an antenna..all I can think about is how much trouble it might be..channels going iffy every now and then(at least that's what I hear) but it's still a possible solution, I will bring it up with my parent's and since it is cheap, it might be something we can try. / thank you!

[JDI007]

I just checked out this website called tvfool.com and if you put in your address it shows you the channels you can get through your antenna? is this correct? so when I put in my address...I'm not seeing a lot of channels, there's mostly just a few news channels and that's it, there are a couple others but it says on the site that they are hard to get and require extreme measures to try and pick them up..
/but nevertheless I will still mention this option to my parent's if they will be interested.
/I will read into this a little more too!

[Ciel]

http://www.thestar.com/business/2015...t-quality.html

Wait and see if the CRTC releases a decision this week on cable channel unbundling. Then find out what options you have with your cable provider.

[Ciel]

Maybe tomorrow? http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/whatsnew.htm

[Ciel]

Sigh, CRTC, why not implement pick and pay channels and cheap cable before the summer?

Have to wait one year for cheap basic cable or until December for pick and pay.
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=953129
@A007 , see if you can get a price discount from your cable supplier due to the loss of channels. Or go cold-turkey without cable until the Dec or March offerings are available. At least the Weather Network has information online.

Or maybe that flatpad antenna is looking good? CHCH weather on weekdays might have to do it for your mother.

[JDI007]

We have Rogers in our area and today I noticed they cut even more of our basic cable channels..so we're left with like 10.
when I spoke to them about it before they said that people don't even have satellites anymore, not even digital boxes(from their cable companies) nobody has those, they're even hard to get, when I spoke with Rogers they said they didn't have much left of the boxes either, and they said that most people stream online.
I talked to my dad and he said that a few of his co-workers do the same, online streaming through a box(roku etc) and they also have subscriptions to Netflix or whichever..so we might go that route..if that's what he wants.
I'm gonna try to purchase a Roku just to see what's available on it and what's free and if we(my parent's) want more options then we can do the Netflix subscription as well, just try it to see if this is something that'll work with them.
As far as I know Roku should have apps for weather, news etc. that come free.
I just wasn't sure they wanted to do it this way because for them it might be a little complicated, but we'll see how it goes.

/ I like the idea of the pick and pay channels! that would be perfect! I will mention this news to my dad, I wish it was available now too but when it will be we'll be interested to know more about it, I will definitely contact our cable company when it does become available.
My friend who lives in Calgary she says that they have a service like this through the company Telus, they pick which channels they want and pay for them and that's it. I wish we had Telus! in our area.

[FallenPixels]

We are by the lake, with an antenna we get

CBC
CHCH
TVO
CTV
OMNI
Global (two diff feeds)
Crossroads
a French channel

For news, we pick up a Barrie feed and CHCH

We have 17 stations total, can check when I get home

The new cable packages will come into effect next year, and actually slims down the channels in the basic package so you get less then pay for channels on top if you want them (and would still need new digital boxes)

[Ciel]

The French station could be TFO (the French TVO) or the French CBC Toronto station. Lucky!
Do you get CTV on 9-1 and also around 40-1? We also get Global on two channels (6-1 and 41-1?) OMNI is very hard to ever see for more than a few seconds up here on the escarpment.

Besides Crossroads, we also get two other Christian channels, unless they are affliated with Crossroads as well.

You must have CITY as well (31-1 on our flatpad antenna).

[JDI007]

So we just tried the roku thing..bought it today, tested it out..not happy with it at all...big probelm #1 no weather apps or news apps from Canada...why!! sell it in Canada then? yes you get movies etc..but no weather/news in Canada even after calling CS the guy said ooh go to the Weather4US app and there's Toronto/Calgary available..um no there isn't! I just checked..hence the name even weather for "US" it's all US apps..
horrible CS and at the end they wanted my email? for what? so they can keep in their records for additional support if I needed it, I don't think so..I refused to give it to them and hung up.
But the roku..my parent's did not like, we will try the antenna..just to see what we can pick up.
Any tips on what to look for when purchasing one...?

/If that doesn't work I guess we'll have no choice but to get that digital box from rogers :/