Cut the cable

Wal-Mart offers another deal for cord cutters.

Grab a bowl of popcorn and start streaming free movies with Vudu Movies on Us.

Wal-Mart on Tuesday introduced the highdefinition streaming service offering thousands of older premium movies and TV shows that air with limited commercials. There’s no subscription or membership fee and adding credit card information is not required.

Sign up at Vudu.com with an email address or log in with your Walmart account information to watch flicks like “School of Rock,” “True Grit,” “Mad Max,” “Star Trek” and episodes of “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story.” Users can rent or purchase new releases, too.

The move positions the world’s largest retailer to compete with other on-demand services and especially Yahoo View, which carries Hulu.com’s free movies and five of the latest TV episodes from ABC, NBC and FOX.

These free, cloud-based services are part of the everexpanding options of streaming content that are tempting consumers to cut cable and satellite cords.

I broke up with my cable company in January, saving my household a whopping $1,200 a year. I don’t regret the decision, but I have spent the last 10 months on a quest for a comparable replacement for my Comcast basic-cable lineup.

I’ve found it with Playstation Vue.

The app-based service (you can use it without an expensive Sony console) offers four channel lineups that vary by ZIP code. HBO, Showtime and sport packages can be added for extra coin.

Vue’s 60-channel Access package is $40 and includes ESPN, CNN, Discovery, Fox, NBC, MSNBC, Bravo, and, perhaps most importantly at the moment, FS1, which has been carrying postseason baseball.

I opted for the mid-tier 90-channel Core package for $45 a month. The 100-channel Elite package is $55. Now, the new Ultra lineup includes HBO and Showtime for $75 a month. Try it for free for a week.

Best part: There are no contracts, fees or equipment rentals and the service beams to every HDTV in the house with a supported streaming device.

The live TV service streams on the free Vue app on Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire media devices, and on computers, iOS and Android devices. Vue also streams on PlayStation 3 and 4 consoles, which have built-in DVRs. A strong case can be made for buying a console (prices start at $149) to

tape shows and movies, since your current provider is likely charging monthly rental fees for equipment.

In addition to the usual cable channels, I’m watching high-def channels I never got with my basic Comcast lineup, such as FreeForm, National Geographic Channel, IFC, Turner Classic Movies and ID (Investigation Discovery).

Life in the cord-cutting universe is not perfect.

I learned it’s best not to cheap out on the streaming device, thanks to the devoted community at Reddit.com/r/vue.

Our buffet of six services includes subscriptions to Netflix, MLB.TV and Amazon Instant Video, along with free HDTV tuned in with an antenna.

And while surveying multiple apps and remotes to decide what to watch is not unlike hunting for truffles, we’re still saving more than $650 a year without cable, and I don’t have to deal with Comcast anymore.