We cut the cord a few months ago and here are some tips that might help some people.
#1 - before you cut the cord change your number with DTV or your current provider, especially if you have DTV. Get a free google voice number and change that to your service number. They will haunt you like a overly attached girlfriend after a bad breakup. I got calls for months asking me over and over why I canceled my service. Save yourself the headache and dump in the garbage.
#2 - find a family member that will share their login info for cable tv. This will make streaming much easier.
Here is my ranking of streaming devices:
#1 - Channel Master Antenna DVR. For the price of two months of direct tv, you can buy a DVR that you can hook up a hard drive to. You get a two week on screen program guide, a better picture than satellite, and all the functionality of recording that you had with the other systems. This will only work for you major channels (channel 2, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox). There are like 55 other channels, but they all suck. There are two tuners and will only work in one room, so there is some downside, but you can adjust pretty quick. You can also pause and rewind live tv which is great.
#2 - Apple TV. It doesn't have the volume of channels that you have with ROKU, but the ones that are there work good. Add in HBO for $15 a month and get access to some great shows. The biggest downside is the remote is absolutely awful. I am using a gen 1.
#3 - ROKU. lots and lots of channels. I am using a gen 2 for this and a lot of channels have problems streaming. The cool thing with these streaming devices is you can log in with someone else's cable codes and watch things like ESPN (except with someone's comcast login because they block it because they suck). I was really surprised to see the ACC app in Roku and really found that PAC12 dropped the ball on this one.
#4 - laptop - really got used to watching shows on my laptop. Lots of shows stream for free with a few ads and others you can login to an online portal and watch online.
#5 - everything else, tablets are hit and miss getting content to load properly. I have a android tablet, and ipad and a fire and all are mediocre. The chromecast is interesting as it has channels that others don't like Food network, but it still kinda sucks.
Once you cut the cord, you will probably never go back. There is just so many channels that are garbage, that it doesn't make sense to keep paying. Live sports will take a hit that I haven't truly worked around, but between the PAC12 network on my laptop and bronco games over the antenna, I have been pretty happy.
The new Apple remote with Siri is very good.
I am also doing a free trial with Sling TV. So far it works good and you get ESPN and ESPN2. They added SEC this season maybe they add the Pac?