As I type this, the Comcast rep is pulling away from my house with one of my two DVRs. My homeowners association actually gives me free basic cable.... I downgraded my package.
I'm 100% in support of you cutting the cord. You should do it... and you will not regret it.
A few months ago I had two Comcast DVR's with EVERY Premium channel. My bill was outrageous. We moved into streaming video slowly... but at this point, it's literally all we watch. I almost NEVER watch live television anymore. I watch Saturday Night Live... that's it. And if I had Hulu Plus, it wouldn't matter.
FYI, I bought a ROku 3 over the Apple TV. I read a lot of reviews and decided it was the way to go. I have Netflix, Amazon Prime... also I enabled HBO Go using my grandmother's Time Warner account information (side note: I would have kept paying comcast for HBO, but realized they prevent HBO Go on a Roku... so I told them I was no longer paying them until they resolved this). Also, "PLEX" is amazing. I set up a Plex media server on my computer where I can dump all sorts of shows, movies, etc. Then I can access all of this content on the Roku. The awesome thing is that PLEX downloads thumbnails, descriptions, actors/actresses, genre information via imdb... so when you access Plex on your roku, it presents all your content in a wonderful netflixy interface.
As for the NBA, I have NBA LEague Pass Broadband set up on my Roku. It's fantastic. I prefer it the experience watching League Pass on cable, because cable often gave me limited choices for HD and limited choices for if I saw home/away. League Pass Broadband (on the roku) seems to always stream in HD... and I always have a choice of watching the Boston broadcast.
The other beautiful thing about the Roku, btw... is an "all-in-one" search. If you search "Jim Carrey", for example... it will list all of his movies. Then if you go down to "Dumb and Dumber", it will show you all your options for streaming the movie. So if it's available on Netflix or Amazon Prime or HBO GO (presuming you have access to those), it will show you them. Sometimes there's even content on Roku free channels like Crackle. And if it's available to rent (for like $2.99) it will show you those services as well (like VUDU). It's a killer feature that makes websites like "canistreamit.com" irrelevant.
Zero regrets. Highly recommend the Roku 3. Your idea of getting an antenna for local stations is a fine one indeed. These days digital antennas will give you HD local channels. Personally, we almost never turn on our cable box. Part of the issue is just how inconvenient it is to find content via Comcast "On Demand" when compared to services like Netflix. It's a massive headache... an endless maze of slow-responding text menus. Comcast now has the X1 platform which does indeed look promising ( http://www.comcast.com/x1 ) ... but it's not available in my area yet. It allows you to access shows/content in a more "netflixy" way. But it's almost too late now... streaming video services are awesome and significantly cheaper. You will NOt miss cable.
Larbird,
I've been thinking about league pass broadband on the roku but thought I wouldn't be able to watch the c's because of local black out restrictions. I'm in New England, do you know if it will work?
That's a really good question. I'm actually not sure. I live in Seattle. We have no team to black out here. I wonder if LP Broadband really knows or cares where your "home" is. I assumed it was only blacking out nationally televised games on ESPN and stuff.
Thanks LB33
Anyone?
I can confirm that you cannot watch local games with league pass. Anywhere that gets csnne you cannot see Celtics games on league pass.
It's pretty stupid and that's the only reason I still pay for cable because I watch every game.