Cutting cable's cord isn't easy

First in a series. I discovered a great way to waste a summer Saturday morning. Yesterday, I made the first steps to giving up cable -- OK, IPTV in my case -- and, whoa, it didn't go well. I planned to go completely cable-free, adopting over-the-air HD broadcasts and online streaming from Amazon, Hulu Plus and Netflix. But moving to TiVo and antenna started painfully.

More people are making the same move. Since 2008, 1 million US households cut cable's cord and switched to over-the-air broadcasts and online streaming, says Convergence Consultancy Group, which expects the number to reach 2 million by year's end. That's a small percentage of households, but it will double the number this year gained in the previous two.

My raging AT&T U-verse bill precipitated my interest in cutting the cord. In just one month, my bill shot up by nearly $50 to $180. That's too rich for my budget. While I wasn't paying attention, a promotion for free HBO/Cinemax and another reducing the cost of Internet service expired. To my surprise, canceling the premium channels only would knock $25 off the bill.

I've been a U-verse customer since February 2008. The service is exceptionally good in terms of HD quality, channel selection, DVR (record 4 channels simultaneously) and program guide. Microsoft's MediaRoom powers U-verse, and the user experience is fabulous. I would (and have) recommend the service to everyone.

I simply can't afford U-verse Internet and TV how AT&T has the services tiered the way I need them. I'm on what's called the U200 plan with HD -- the latter AT&T charges an extra $10 a month more for, an outrageous usage tax. Cutting the TV service to local channels still puts the price above $100, because of Internet service. AT&T advertises cheaper bundles -- as low as $64 and $69, but at 3Mbps or 6Mbps Internet, respectively. I have 24Mbps, which now costs about $65 a month before taxes and other fees. I need the Net speed more than TV.

TiVo and antenna looked like a good compromise. I could get the network channels over the air, record and pause live TV and access Amazon, Hulu and Netflix to supplement what I'd miss from basic cable channels -- even some premium stuff (Starz) from Netflix. All three services are available on TiVo; Hulu is a recent addition. Starting with presumed $70 a month for Internet service after taxes and other fees the breakdown is this: $7.99 a month for Hulu Plus, $7.99 for Netflix and $19.99 TiVo subscription fee (which is even more outrageous usage tax than U-verse's HD fee). The total is around $100 a month -- or about what I'd pay AT&T for 24Mbps Internet service and most basic lineup, for local channels.

TiVo Premiere costs $99.99 as does the Clearstream Micron XG antenna, which figures into first-year costs. Best scenario, if keeping fastest Internet and lowering service to another plan (other than basic) would put my monthly U-Verse costs at $130 or more. So that would be minimum $1,560 a year. OTA/streaming plus cost of TiVo and antenna would be $1,460 for the first year, when adjusting for taxes. Gasp -- that's not a heck of a lot of savings while giving up quite a bit of program options. U-verse's MediaRoom DVR is superior to TiVo in several ways, like recording up to four shows simultaneously compared to two.

However, my upfront costs are lower, because TiVo loaned a Premiere, as did Antennas Direct the Micron XG. I can't keep them forever, of course, but the loaners allow me to take risks trying out something that might not practically work -- so that you don't have to. Well, kind of. Antennas will be more or less effective depending on variables specific to location -- placement, relationship to broadcast towers, interference and other factors.

Something else: AT&T now caps Internet usage at 250GB a month. As the family increases the amount of streaming, there is increased risk of going over the cap and having usage throttled. That would be unacceptable. As I expressed earlier, Internet matters more than video content.

Out of the Box and Over the Air

I found setting up the TiVo and Micron XG to be straightforward. I could have swapped the connections with the U-verse box but used the television inputs for Apple TV, which I'm giving up as part of my "Going Google" experiment. TiVo Premiere took its sweet time starting up, and from there began a process that needlessly wasted hours of my Saturday morning.

I started by scanning for channels, a process which found 23 (to my absolute shock at that many) about 30 percent way through scanning; the remaining 70 percent took more than a half-hour more to complete.

Once the scan finished, I was ready to experience over-the-air HD broadcasts. I began clicking through channels, where at each and everyone TiVo displayed message about acquiring a signal but found none for any. The Micron XG comes with a powered amplifier, which I attached, hoping for something. I got nothing.

TiVo has a utility for detecting channel strength. Testing produced green for a handful of channels (green is good) and yellow or red for a half dozen more. I was flummoxed to get picture and sound in the test utility but not from the main channel guide.

Before messing around with the antenna, I decided to go the software update route first, and this is done from Settings/Network & Phone. I have the TiVo hardwired to a router (no wireless setup), and the set-top DVR needed every inkling of bandwidth to apply updates, media encryption keys and God knows what else (something I later learned after calling tech support).

Telling Tech Support

I couldn't have guessed the consequences of starting the update process. TiVo later locked me out of some settings and Video on Demand pending the software update, which the device indicated would take place at 2 a.m.! Going online to TiVo support, I learned that repeating the update steps a couple more times and using thumbs up/thumbs down keys to restart the device would force the software update.

TiVo restarted, updated and ready to use -- or so I thought. Since there was no live programming to watch, at least I could stream. Clicking "Video on Demand" gave the pleasant TiVo chime but did nothing else. Second click produced the unfriendly TiVo wonk. So I decided to check Settings, but they were locked out. I could only access Watch Live TV (which I couldn't) or Find Shows (which there weren't any). I manually restarted by unplugging TiVo, hoping this would resolve the problems. It didn't, although I discovered that going from the Video on Demand lockout to Watch Live TV allowed access to Settings again. It was time call TiVo tech support.

I waited for about 10 minutes on hold before getting a friendly and helpful tech. I explained my troubles, and he had me check the software version, which was current following my recent manual update. He seemed perplexed by the Video on Demand lockout and asked if it also affected "Showcase", the sixth menu item. I didn't have the option. That's when he explained TiVo downloads lots of small updates for several hours before it's really ready to use. So I went back to Settings/Network & Phone and connected to the TiVo service to get them.

I then told the tech about my TV reception problem, and he asked about signal strength, which I hadn't noted for any channel during the test. So I went back to the signal strength utility where I got a warning message that the feature wasn't available while TiVo downloaded updates. That effectively ended the tech support call.

AT&T's Shocking Offer

Since TiVo Premiere wouldn't be available for hours, I decided to call U-verse billing. I wanted to hear someone explain the reasons why my bill suddenly jumped and to cancel HBO/Cinemax, which I had been happy to take for free but was unwilling to pay for. I didn't fuss, nor give any indication that I planned to soon cancel U-verse. So I was surprised when the billing guy proactively said that my account was eligible for several promotions.

He could upgrade my account to U300, which comes with some premium channels, including Starz, for free. I could keep U300 indefinitely. He also could give free HD for a year. There was no Internet discount available, but somehow this little piece of promotion magic would reduce the bill to around $130 a month before taxes. I accepted, and he threw in HBO/Cinemax free for three months. That would put my next 12 months bill somewhere close to $1,680, or $220 more than first-year costs for OTA and streaming when including cost of TiVo Premiere and Clearstream antenna. However, since I would keep Hulu Plus and Netflix, that adds about another $190 to cable's cost that would otherwise be absorbed by OTA/streaming.

AT&T bills ahead. I have five days to decide whether or not to cancel U-verse for the next billing cycle.

Meanwhile back in TiVo land, hours of time produced enough updates for some action. I got Video on Demand up and running. Setting up Hulu Plus and Netflix was easy enough. Each has an activation page that generates a code that the user inputs at a setup screen on TiVo. It was a fast and easy process.

I'll write more about the streaming experience in the future, but I found that Hulu and Netflix load surprisingly slowly. I'm used to Apple TV, Google TV and U-verse, which are snappy by comparison.

As for the antenna, a new channel scan -- the first after adding the amplifier -- found 18, none with enough signal strength to produce picture or sound. Antenna troubleshooting will be topic of a future post (if not more).

My OTA/streaming adventure begins. Do you have a cutting-the-cord story to share? Please do so in comments -- or, better, email joe at betanews dot com.