I've mentioned before that since the kiddo moved out to go to college we have reduced our COX Cable services. We now do the 'No Surprises Bundle' of HD Cable with DVR, High Speed Internet and telephone. I think its about $125.

We are considering cutting that down even more, but wondered if anyone else is using alternatives to cable. Sure, we could just stop the services and "live without it" but that will not meet our needs. We basically only watch local channels for entertainment and get our news online. We don't need a phone line (except for the alarm system) and we must have Internet.

I've unplugged our TV's from COX and tried a digital antenna and it picked up the stations very nicely. The problem is we really need a DVR.

I've considered cutting cox down to just high speed Internet (about $60/month). Putting digital antennas on all the TV's and then installing EyeTV on my 27" iMac. That would allow me to DVR all local over the air stations. We would then continue our NetFlix and Hulu+ subscriptions for movies and most TV series and stream them to our TV of choice via our PS3.

The EyeTV would not only let us record shows that are not available on Hulu+, but also makes it easy to load those recorded shows to our Laptops, iPad, Smart Phone, or iTouch devices and take the shows with us to the gym etc.

The initial investment for 4 antennas and the EyeTV would be $222

The monthly cost would go from $125 to about $75. It would take 5 months to recoup my investment and I would save $600/year.

Thoughts? Anyone done anything similar?