How I cut the cable cord by replacing 5 old cabled TVs cheaply

If you enjoy sports and our entertainment news stations such as CNN and Fox News then I don’t have the answer except for a local sports bar or an Internet cellphone, laptop or computer. Sling TV is good for ESPN but at $20 a month you don’t get anything near what Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu offer in other TV shows and movie entertainment options. We will talk about antennas for local TV stations in my next blog entry which may be the solution you need.

In 2015, I finally convinced my wife that LED TVs were relatively cheap and we should purchase one. Moreover, with Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku, I was thinking about how we could cut the cable cord. I was looking and studying hard as I learned about streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and we already had and were experienced with streaming Netflix. Even at today’s prices, getting a 48 inch or greater size LED TV along with a $40 Fire TV Stick or Roku Streaming stick at $45 was out of our price range. Then I came across the 48 inch TCL TV at Costco with Roku built-in for $400 (now $330). Who the hell is TCL, I asked? After a lot of research, I found that they provide parts to many of the big name TV makers and decided to put together their own TV product to market in the U.S. thus cutting out the middleman. They are offering these TVs cheap to establish themselves as a player to be ranked against the (probably former) big boys (i.e., Samsung, Sony, and Sharp).

Step 1

Even with this great price I was not willing to roll the dice on a TCL TV until I talked with a knowledgeable Costco TV guru. He explained that TCL TVs were not coming back broken and that I could purchase a Square Trade warranty for a mere $30. I was skeptical until he informed me that Square Trade is for real and that they will come to my house to fix the TV if anything goes wrong with it during the 2 year Costco Concierge plus 3 year extended warranty period. I was sold and brought the TCL TV home. I felt that getting 5 years of 48-inch TV viewing entertainment was worth $430 and I hope the TV will last a lot longer. Plus getting to recycle the TV box right away, not needing it to ship for possible warranty repair, with an in home warranty is cool.

Step 2

I moved the 30 pound 720p Visio TV up to my office and recycled the 120 pound 20 year old analog CRT my mom had given me. I hooked the cable up to that TV’s digital tuner directly and took back both the digital cable box in the living room and digital box that was hooked up to the office analog TV. Cost thus far $440 with taxes, cost saving thus far $9.00 a month. My wife was skeptical as it would take 47 months to recover the cost of the TCL Roku TV if we kept cable. However, that was not my overall goal.

I hooked up the 48-inch TCL in the living Room and became amazed. At first, I hated the simple remote as it has no channel or last viewed buttons but if you stream multiple services as I do now it is OK. It is kind of awkward for cable but you get used to scrolling through the channels. My one recommendation to TCL is to add ‘Last’ and ‘Hulu’ buttons. The remote comes with Netflix, Amazon, Rdio and Vudu buttons.

Step 3

I knew that making my wife part with her $13 a month cable DVR and 50-inch 160 pound plasma TV was going to be difficult. I analyzed all the options and the only thing I could come up with was another 48” TCL Roku TV. My first step was purchasing Amazon Prime for $99, which I sold her on for the FREE 2-day shipping they offer. We have three stepdaughters and she likes to buy and ship them things from time to time. Plus, I admit, I’m an Amazon addict as I love the deals and discounts they offer with free shipping to my door.

Once all the streaming options kicked in on the TCL Roku TV she rather enjoyed Amazon streaming on our living room TV but she still opted for her 50-inch cable DVR recorded programs in the bedroom. The very old bedroom DVD player was incapable of streaming Amazon and only offered Netflix from their instant queue on that old plasma TV.

Therefore, streaming Netflix and Amazon had not baited the hook and I was not sure where to turn. After a few months with this setup I finally concluded that my only alternative was to give away our awesome $1400 fifty-inch, 160-pound plasma TV and mount a 48-inch 27-pound TCL LED Roku TV in the bedroom. I watched for a deal at Costco and jumped on a $50 rebate for another 48-inch TCL Roku TV making the cost $350. I have not calculated the energy savings but TCL says running their TVs only cost $17 a year which I’m sure is major advantage over the 50” old energy hungry plasma TV.

After another 3-year Square Trade warranty and taxes I was out another $400 and I had to give away the 50-inch 160-pound plasma TV to my young neighbors. However, in my defense, that plasma TV was over 10 years old, I got free moving help as my neighbor wanted the TV for his garage, and non-HD pictures from cable were being cut off 360 degrees making watching anything annoying. In addition we are planning to move in the next year or two and I did not want to pay movers to properly handle that 160-pound plasma TV properly. I thought about just leaving it behind but I can imagine people buying the house demanding it be removed.

To keep my wife happy I opted to purchase Hulu for local TV shows. This replaced her $13 a month DVR for $12 and gave her many more options from which to choose. She now had Netflix, Amazon Prime and with the addition of Hulu I hoped that would be enough for her in the evenings.

Step 4

Now I had a dilemma as to what hardware to put where in order to break the cable cord and maximize all our entertainment options and keep my wife happy. Buying more TCL TVs was not going to solve the problem nor would she permit that understandably. It was not going to be easy, for example, I enjoyed CNBC on the bathroom TV in the mornings to see what the stock market was doing. In the basement, I did not want to do without cable TV as I treadmill for an hour each day. In my attic office, I did not want to be without mindless background noise with the occasional TV infotainment broadcast to view when I needed a break from working on the computer and paperwork. Here is what I came up with:

1. I moved the Play Station 3 from the TV room to the attic office so we could stream everything to the old 720p Visio digital TV. We have a small house and my dining room was too small for physical games, so I wanted to try the office with the PS3.
2. The bathroom already had a Samsung DVD player capable of streaming that worked OK. I someday want to replace this TV but that can wait until we move.
3. The bedroom was good to go with the new TCL streaming Roku TV and old DVD player to keep my wife happy with the ability to play the occasional DVD.
4. The basement 120 pound treadmill analog TV will have to wait. We have accumulated a lot of VCR tapes and DVDs that TV can play so I can make due.

As crazy as it sounds, I was still not ready to cut the cable cord as I had an office working dilemma. Many years ago a distant friend of mine had an upholstery business. One thing I found interesting was he had a TV on all day while he worked. I asked him if that was distracting and he said, “yes, when I want it to be, when I need a break.” I did not understand at the time but I did later writing my 900 page book. It is great to have mindless stuff on a TV while you work to occasionally distract you. Streaming video with no commercials is too engaging so I needed a local TV antenna.