Table of Contents

Cut The Cord

One family's adventures in cutting the cord. How we abandoned Verizon FiOS TV in favor of OTA, streaming and other content from the internet.

Where We Were

In the beginning we had Verizon FiOS Business Internet 25/25 with 5 static IPs ($105/mo), residential FiOS TV (multi-room DVR, 3 STBs) and phone ($150/mo). When our “double play” contract expired we never renewed and over time the price started creeping up. Eventually we ported our phone number to Walmart's Straight Talk service for a flat $20/mo. and dropped telephone service from our FiOS lineup. Over time, not being bundled forced our FiOS TV price tag to creep up to $175/mo. because we were no longer bundled. After paying way to much for much too long I phoned Verizon to get better pricing. There options were to bundle services I didn't want (phone, TV & internet) in order to get a better price. After them doing the math on the phone, each time they realized, “my price would go up but I would be getting three services instead of one”. They realized the error of their ways each time when I reminded them I already had phone and internet service and didn't want duplicates.

After much research and forcing myself to avoid FiOS TV as an option for my personal consumption, I started work on my family. My wife didn't want to be “the family without cable” and our daughter needed her Disney fix. Through a combination of online streaming services, STB replacements and a Plex Media Server we were finally able to cut the cord to the tune of $150/mo savings. Here is how we did it…

The Journey

It started with a smoking Woot! deal on a Roku… or four. I bought the first Roku, starting playing with it and decided to buy three more. Even though I had no content compiled; I saw the potential and took this as the opportunity to make the first step.

The streaming “channels” available in the Roku store were plentiful but seemed mainly geared towards tech geeks and not your typical family viewer. I did stumble upon the Plex channel and after more research I realized this would be the key to getting the family on-board. I installed Linux on a spare computer and Plex was slightly more than an apt-get install away. Once I moved my existing content to the server, testing it out and realizing it was quite capable, I set out on streamlining the content acquisition phase.

In-House Content

There are plenty of guides on the internet which do a great job explaining the how-to process of setting up the tools and the various shades of legally gray content sources. For the purposes of this story, I'll just name a few here to set you in the right direction:

I tinkered with the tools listed above simply for science. The entirety of my content was ripped from DVD using HandBrake in the format appropriate for streaming from Plex to Roku players. This line comes in handy: 

HandBrakeCLI -i /path/to/origina/Big.Buck.Bunny.avi -e x264 -q 20.0 -a 1,1 -E faac,copy:ac3 -B 160,160 -6 dpl2,auto -R Auto,Auto -D 0.0,0.0 -f mp4 -Y 720 --loose-anamorphic -m -x cabac=0:ref=2:me=umh:bframes=0:weightp=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0:subme=6 -o /path/to/converted/Big.Buck.Bunny.mkv

Family Introductions

Introducing the family to the Roku and streaming content from the Plex server was easy. We buy a DVD, I rip it and load it into the media server then the family can watch it on any TV in the house on the Roku Plex app. Rinse and repeat. Before long I was hearing, “Hey, can you put so-and-so movie or show on the Plex?” With the help of tools listed above one could fulfill the same requests with movies/shows one didn't own but that would be a legal gray area at best. Us, we'll stick to the buy/rip/watch workflow.

What Was Missing

While the tools listed above can get you just about any content you could ever want and on a schedule, I still had two hurdles to overcome since I wanted to keep it legit… Disney Channel content for our daughter and my wife watching the news in the mornings while getting ready for work.

Tapping into our existing cable run throughout the house and doing a channel scan solved the morning news problem. We get about 80 channels and they are way more clear than Verizon FiOS TV ever thought about being. OTA for the win!

Finally, my daughter's Disney desires. For now, we've gone with Dish Network's Sling TV streaming service and it works pretty well. The show guide is off by a couple of hours but that is no show-stopper. The kiddo can watch it in her room through the Roku Streaming Stick in her TV monitor and life is good.

What We Have Today

Today we have OTA providing the best picture we've ever had for our local news and broadcast shows. We use our Plex Media Server to provide our content library from ripped DVDs, home movies, music, etc. Sling TV fills the Disney gap and we put about $150/mo. back in our pockets compared to the bad 'ol days.

Resources

Considerations

Hardware

Software

Services

Information

Cost Examples

Subscription Services

Hardware Costs

Optional Costs

Visuals