There are some times that Lauren and I disagree about what to watch on TV. Occasionally, I’ll be watching baseball and she’ll want to watch The Real Housewives of Orange County. Other times, I’ll be watching baseball and she’ll want to watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Our TV Situation and Problem
We have a TV in our living room and another, smaller TV in the second bedroom where Lauren usually does her work. We discussed getting another cable box but declined for two reasons:
- While it’s something that would help occasionally, it really wouldn’t be put to use that often. Most of the time we agree on what to watch, but it would make more fewer remote control arguments.
- We didn’t like the $14 monthly price tag. Heck, we barely like the $80 he spend on cable (including DVR) and Internet per month, so we had no desire to increase that.
How We Replaced A Cable Box
We got a Roku awhile back for free, and while we used it originally to watch MLB.TV, netflix, and a few other services, when we got married, we got a nice new TV with Internet capabilities, so we didn’t need it anymore. Well, suddenly, we had a perfect reason to use it. We hooked up the Roku to our second TV and suddenly we had access to watch baseball on a second TV. Of course, Lauren was ecstatic that she would get the big TV and I would have to watch my baseball games in the other room, but I was having none of that. There is a Roku app that lets you stream most Time Warner Cable channel right to your TV, using your TWC Internet connection. That means that Lauren can watch her housewives shows in the other room while I watch my baseball on the big TV. Problem solved!
Split Time Warner Cable With Neighbors With a Roku
This has a few nice applications. We used it to avoid paying $14/month for another cable box (and a family with several TVs can save a lot with a couple of Rokus), but you can take this a step further. If your neighbors live close enough (works best in apartments), they can connect their Roku to your wifi and stream TV for free. Maybe you can charge 1/3 of the cost of cable for the service. Everyone wins!
Downside to Streaming TV on a Roku
There are not many downsides to streaming, but the one limitation I found is that you can’t record a show using the Roku. This isn’t an issue for us since the only time we use it is when we both want to watch live TV, but if you want to stream recorded shows, you can check our Chromecast and play some shows straight from your browser (which Time Warner Cable offer on their website) to your TV.
That’s a creative way to save more money! I don’t have Roku but I’ve used AppleTV for 7 years instead of cable (I know, its extreme!).
When there’s a solid, legal workaround for watching local sports without having cable, I’ll cut the cord.
I’ll gnaw it off with my bare teeth if need be.
But not until sports are available.
@No Waste, I agree, but we are getting closer. most networks are now streaming online. ESPN and ABC stream their sports, you just need someone’s login credentials that has cable.
Actually, the only channel we don’t have a workaround for is Bravo, so for now we are keeping cable.
That is awesome. Are you able to get ESPN? Losing ESPN is the only reason why we haven’t dropped cable.
@Sean @ One Smart Dollar, it can play ESPN, but keep in mind that we still have cable, we just don’t have a 2nd box.
I think the best application would be having neighbors share cable and significantly reducing costs (and streaming is enough because sports is the main concern).
I watch other shows too! I also kick you off when I want to watch the real housewives of Beverly Hills or New York ;)
@Lpacks, I would never…
I went to look into buying a Roku but I thought I would only be able to watch Netflix on it so I passed (I currently watch Netflix on the Wii in my living room) but I will go look into it again since you said we can use the TWC app on it. One thing I did want to tell you though is I used this company called BillCutterz to lower my TWC bill and they were awesome! They got my bill way down from where it was and the girl I spoke with was so nice.