So my cable bill is about $210 a month for about 1/3 of centurylink's line up, home phone, and a 40/10mb connection; the phone and internet alone is $70 so i want to try to gut my cable to get it down to at least $100-$130 a month not including the cost for roku/chromecast/firestick. Now for somone like me and my brother who dont really watch TV; this isnt much of a big deal.
Now here is the problem: My Parents and my sister: my sister is less of an issue because most of her stuff is on netflix as is but there is a few shows that play on TV. My parents are the main issue here and as they pay for the cable bill I have to apease them first and foremost; my dad watches outdoors channels, fishing channels, and car channels and most of them i can show him to cast it off his tablet onto a chrome cast from the website for the TV. my mother on the other hand watches a lot of the shows off ABC and USA and has demanded news channels be available: this is my problem, as many of the shows are hell bound (contract?) to be only on the network and im lost for ideas.
I will have roughly $400(i may or maynot have more up to $600) to pay for this conversion process and i guess at this time i will need to move away from Centurylinks prorietary (and shitty at that) all in one router modem combo to support this move so the break down for what i need is this:
-Dedicated modem that supports ADSL2+ -Dedicated router with firewall and parental controls (OR if you know of a good all in one that is also a viable option if meets criteria above) -List what devices i will need/might need/might want -Services i should look at; Netflix is all but garanteed at this point -BONUS: if you can find me a box that can run RCA yellow/red/white ill be greatly apreciative b/c i wont have to hump this 300lb projection TV anywhere and still use it
I will update the list on shows/movies i need to have when i am able to pin down people for them to list them off
So I guess in my opinion if your parents want to watch cable and pay for cable then leave it be if you can't find substitutes on official streaming channels.
I also have CenturyLink and and hoping to move away from them soon but have an option for you. I don't recall finding any high end routers with nice features that support ADSL2+ or ADSLv or whatever. I currently set up my centurylink router/modem into bridge mode to act as a passthrough to my Asus AC66U router. However I will point out this has been an absolute pain as CenturyLink then thinks there is a line issue with the conversion and throttle my bandwidth as now the Asus router is the one that verifies their service. I may end up resetting the centurylink router to actually do the NATing, DNS,DHCP role and use the asus router as the bridge device to pass wifi to. Let me know if you have any questions on how to do this and what centurylink modem/router you have.
Me, wife and dau. Cable was 150. Switched to Roku and just cable internet. Cable co. started bandwith limit BS. Swithced to DSL for 30 bucks a month. May buy an HD Antenna for a hundred bucks. With money saved in first year built three gaming rigs (cheap ones). Their lucky I put food on the table:) Also switched phone plan to 10 bucks a month per person. Later bought car and car payment is 200 a month and we have more money at end of week. I remember being a kid and thrilled to have a B/W tv with rabbit ears.
The idea behind the build is when he moves he can expand the system with a NAS with Plex/MythTV that can Stream to the Rokus.
Chromecast are cool for a single person set up but can be a pain when multiple people are using it. And Rokus can use a universal remote (great for the non tech savvy).
Totally agree rokus are rad and my 2nd choice for people to use. Either way it'll be great. My way saves a little bit of money which can put him closer to a nas for Plex.
Both of our ideas work just have slightly different approaches. :)
If you go the Roku route I highly recommend getting a higher end roku like the Roku 3 and using the HDMI to RCA converter so that it runs a bit faster. I just bought my Dad a Roku SE and it is definitely slow. The 80$ is worth it.