As the price of Cable service goes up and up and much of what is paid for often is never watched, many look to cut the Cable / Satellite TV Cord.
Luckily in 2016 there are many options to cut the TV cord and keep watching your favorite shows.
Keep in mind there is always a degree of technicality when setting up a cord cutter setup.
Somethings are easier than others.
First thing I always suggest to any cord cutter is getting a over-the-air TV antenna.
Even if you go with other cord-cutter options having free live TV shows from the major broadcast such as FOX, CBS, NBC, PBS and many more is a good quick go to that any one will understand.
Setting up a over-the-air antenna is easy and depending on your location and antenna you may get 40-50 channels or more.
Before I cut the cable cord a few years ago I bought a over-the-air antenna and was amazed that half the channels I was paying for was broadcast for free.
Best of all since 2009 all the channels are digital HD broadcast.
Free over-the-air TV channels is a quick cheap easy fix that most any cord-cutter should have, in my opinion.
Read Here For More On Over-The-Air TV Antennas
But what about your favorite shows on non-broadcasted channels?
Popular options are Hulu and Netflix among others but the best in my opinion is KODI.
What Is KODI?
Kodi is a free media center that can run on most any type of hardware from a PC/Mac to a smartphone.
Kodi uses what are called add-ons that can stream any TV show or movie you can think of.
Keep in mind Kodi is not for everyone. Some find it easy while other struggle to understand it.
The best way to describe Kodi is itself is just a Open Source Media Player that can play any type of video format and allows streaming over the internet or a home network.
Add-ons for Kodi are much like apps for a smartphone. There are thousands of them which can do most anything you can think of. The most popular add-ons for Kodi are the Video add-ons which stream TV shows and movies from the internet.
Kodi and its add-ons are all free and created by like-minded individuals who do it for fun.
There is a lot of good about Kodi but it has no money behind it. For that reason many expect more than they should.
For example to stream a TV show from popular add-ons such a 1Channel a server list will be displayed showing all the possible connections.
Depending on how many users there are the servers can become filled up and start to reject connections.
To solve this a server will need to be found that is not full. This means moving down a list and picking another server form the hundred or so shown until a good one is found. On a busy day 3-5 servers often need to be tried before finding a good one, which takes 2-3 minutes.
Many don’t understand this and think there is a problem since they get an error when they click a server.
For this reason unless you have some technical experience using a paid service such as Hulu / Netflix may be better.
The bottom line is I suggest everyone give Kodi a chance since it is free and does work great once it is understood.
Read Here For a Guide To Kodi.
If Kodi is not for you than streaming from paid services such as Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Instant Video would be best.
Most often when it comes to the popular online paid streaming services is what they have available.
If one service is cheaper than the other it wont matter unless they have your favorite shows.
Here is a breakdown of each.
Amazon Instant Video
This is often the first place many go to since it is free with an Amazon Prime account which many have.
Even if you dont have an account they will give you a 30 day free trial.
Link to Amazon
Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
For a full subscription to Amazon Instant Video it is $99 dollars a year. Which also give other Amazon benefits such as two day shipping and access to their streaming music service.
Netflix
Plans on Netflix start at 7.99 a month.
They have tons of content both movies an TV shows. Most experts have made guess that the Netflix library is twice the size of Amazon video library or Hulu, but Amazon is making strides to catch up.
https://www.netflix.com
Hulu
Hulu is most known for having TV show content.
Hulu’s library is smaller since it is more geared toward TV shows than both movies and TV shows like Netflix.
Plans on Hulu start at 7.99 but with commercials.
The commercials wouldn’t be bad except they often play the same one over and over which can become annoying.
A commercial free version of Hulu can be had for 11.99 a month called Hulu Plus.
Hulu offers a one week free trial which can be found here.
http://www.hulu.com
Summary
Cutting the cable TV cord doesn’t have to be confusing and is a great money saver.
Picking the right options the fits your skills and setup is the key.
If you are good with technology I would definitely suggest Kodi.
If you want a simple choice than the popular paid streaming sites would be a better option.
Often two online streaming sites are used since one doesn’t usually have all the TV shows and movies most watch.
Even if two streaming TV sites are used it still is much cheaper than cable and all On-Demand.
Cutting the cable TV cord doesn’t have to be confusing and is a great money saver.
Picking the right options the fits your skills and setup is the key.
If you are good with technology I would definitely suggest Kodi.
If you want a simple choice than the popular paid streaming sites would be a better option.
Often two online streaming sites are used since one doesn’t usually have all the TV shows and movies most watch.
Even if two streaming TV sites are used it still is much cheaper than cable and all On-Demand.