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I have an old laptop connected to my HDTV via HDMI with a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo to control it from the couch. I watch a lot of content through websites of the networks that provide full episodes right from their website. This is also a good way to get HULU since you don't need a Hulu Plus subscription to watch a lot of content on their website.
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$40/month - internet access only. I/we get more "tv-like" stuff than we can possibly watch. Raised two kids on saturday-morning-only cartoons ... they are now in their 20s and thank us for that.
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We have recently kicked our cable addiction. We kept the internet and phone though. Net savings of about $62 a month. My 10yr daughter took it the hardest.. So hard that explaining to her that we wanted to cut cable to save on money somehow twisted in her mind that we were suddenly poor and selling off all our possessions.. (kids have no concept of budget so are funny like that)
Basically, we took a look at what do we watch, what shows do we really care about.. What we found is nearly all of them can be found in streaming format.. Fortunately we tend to DVR the important shows and with our busy schedule would take a single day or 2 and just go on a marathon to catch up.. With the likes of Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. New episodes took a while to become available.. So why not just wait until the season is over, all episodes eventually are available, and we just go on a marathon.
Additionally, I pointed out to my daughter that other than those property hunter reality shows o n HGTV, she only watches Disney and Nick shows.. Often then same 5 episodes over and over and over again no less.. We setup a profile for her on Netflix, and all of her shows were there. Problem solved.
The kick in the pants is, our regional cable provider knows this is exactly the trend.. So as long as you have their full internet/phone/tv bundle they give you high speed for cheap but have a 250-300GB per month data cap.. Cut the TV service, internet goes up like $9 and your cap is lowered to 200GB. I have a dedicated home theatre PC that I built from old parts and ebay bits. Was a respectable media machine ala 2008 but it still does the job.
So far the data cap hasn't been an issue, but we'll see what the summer brings. Depending on what your looking for, an Xbox, Roku, Amazon TV, Chromecast, etc.. all viable solutions if you want to commit to internet streaming. Even for keeping up on sports, the internet packages can still bring you savings long term. I'm considering a tuner card for DVR recording over-the-air tv.
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Hey, don't think anything of it. I pay $280. Of course I have all the premium channels, phone service, high(er) speed internet service, and I'm out in the boonies with the best cable company I've ever seen, Metrocast. Anything goes wrong, and you get a tech at the door practically before you hang up the phone.
I agree that the commercials are too much, so I don't watch entertainment programming other than my premium movie channels. Otherwise, I put on a 24 hour news program while interacting with my computer really entertains me. If there's 6 minutes of commercials on my new channel, what do I care? I'm not hanging on what happens next like I am with an entertainment program.
I've got a project going now to create a movie library. You can get video capture hardware that, although it doesn't do HD, it is very, very good anyway, and better than recording with VHS. I'm up to about 200 movies in my collection now, and am heading for 1000. If I want to see "The Shining" or "The Sting" or maybe the original, 3hr+ "Spartacus" with Kirk Douglas (If you saw the recent movie of Mr. Peabody & Sherman, did you catch that the Spartacus character looked exactly like Kirk Douglas?) I can do it whenever I like. I have an entertainment center in my car that does DVD, and having 1000 movies along on vacation or any time I expect to have extra time parked and waiting, I can pass it a whole lot better than sitting in the car and doing Sudoku. I'm scheduled to record about 46 more movies in the next 2 weeks, all movies I've seen and enjoyed, and this I think is the "long suit" of cable. It enables movies at $0.50 each for a blank double-sided DVD instead of $2.50 (used) to $20 or more for a retail acquisition. OK, those are HD, but that's not something I'm going to be able to discern on a portable player or my 7" Kenwood DNX9140.
Cable's "worth it" depending on how you use it. I also know tons and tons of current events that I don't think I could keep up on any other way than to let the 24 hour news channel blather in the background.
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I went through exactly the same thing (and back - sort of). Ditched the cable completely (except for internet of course). That was great for about 5 years, watching the occasional Netflix or Amazon Prime movie, but really found myself missing sports and local news. So when I recently moved into my new place I made the tough decision to get TV again, but only the most basic channel package they offered. Now I can watch football and news on the major networks (FOX, CBS, etc but no ESPN for me). The great thing about being away from it for so long is that I have absolutely NO desire to watch all the other crap shows anymore. Kinda like quitting drinking for a long time and then reverting back to only having the occasional glass of wine with dinner. It's a good balance 
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I just trimmed my package back to basic - was tired of paying for commercials and propaganda. Funny thing is - the only thing I miss is HBO and may look at getting that with HBO Go via internet.
I'm still paying 40 for basic and 40 for 2 set top boxes ... in other words still paying about 90 with taxes every month and let's face it - there really isn't much value still. Always found it odd that we have to pay to watch commercials ...
The age of pushing content is coming to an end, we've been spoiled by the internet where we can pull what we want (for now.....)
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I cannot agree more. I would like to see TV stations streaming their content over the internet. Unfortunately, that will not happen with the changes the FCC is making with the internet. Also, cable companies pay the TV stations to broadcast on their service. At least, for now, we can still get TV service from the airwaves.
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I live just south of the border in Mx & rely on over the air broadcasts from the US and the internet for my TV (limited) watching.
Digital broadcast TV is actually higher resolution than cable these days, but I rarely watch anything except the occasional news or sports event.
I primarily rely on RSS feeds for the nightly news and bittorrents for any TV shows I can't live without.
Instead of Roku or similar I use an $80 Android TV box [^]. You can find similar on eBay or Amazon, but at a higher price.
The advantage of the Android box is that it is basically a tablet that uses your TV as the screen. You can use any Android app, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, torrent & podcast clients, Skype, etc. You can use an app on your Android phone as a remote control or a wireless mouse/keyboard.
I use a combination of RSS feeds[^] and podcast subscriptions to automate the downloading of my selection of audio and video entertainment. Almost painless once the feeds are setup!
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I ditched cable 14 years ago & still loving it. I’ve used Hulu & Netflix forever; more recently started purchasing movies & tv on Xbox video. I’ve gotten into the habit of getting into a show on Netflix then purchasing the season on Xbox. Don’t forget about Crackle also!
Cable is dead and they know it. Providers just don’t want to give it up. The latest stupid trend is to allow streaming IF you already have a cable subscription. (checkout HBO Go)
A probable game changer is Aereo . They’re current fighting “the broadcasters” in Supreme Court. Their setup is the install antennas in all major cities, then DVR/stream whatever you ask them to. They’ve got my $$$ if they can get a setup local to me.
- great coders make code look easy
- When humans are doing things computers could be doing instead, the computers get together late at night and laugh at us. - ¿Neal Ford?
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I've never had cable just OTA channels, but when I was a child I always wanted to have cable, now that I've grown up i'm glad I never had it, and probably I never will.
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We went this route several years ago. We still use Comcast for internet because the only other option is old school DSL. I haven't done the math in a while but we cut ~$50 / month from the Comcast bill by not having cable.
The biggest minus for me has been sports. ESPN's streaming app requires you to log in with your cable account. (same for many other streaming apps. e.g. NBC's streamed olympic coverage required a cable subscription) If the game's not on a broadcast channel and I just can't miss it I wind up sneaking down to the local pub (OK so that has it's pros but I miss a lot of games). On the other hand the handful of times a year I'm in a hotel for business and I turn on ESPN it's just a bunch of talk or some non-sport like poker which reinforces the decision to live with out it.
Depending on where you live you may be able to pick up most over the air (OTA) channels.
I hooked an over the air digital antenna (paddle type) up to an existing cable outlet in an upstairs bedroom then added signal boosters between the various other outlets and the tv tuners. This means I get the same full suite of OTA channels on the computer in the basement man cave as I do on the TV in the family room on the main floor. So anything on broadcast TV is not a problem. Also most broadcast TV shows wind up on Netflix/Amazon streaming once they are a year old.
AMC shows: Either stay a season behind and stream from Netflix or buy at ~$30 per season (in SD) Amazon/iTunes and stream starting the next day.
HBO shows: You're a season behind and either need DVD rental or have to buy ~$30 per season (in SD) Amazon/iTunes (i've heard rumors that old episodes are coming to Amazon Prime)
Hulu: The free account is blocked from most set top boxes even ones running a "full-fledged" web server so to get that to your TV you need to connect a regular computer
There are apps for Hulu Plus but we don't subscribe so I can't really comment.
To wind this rambling up we have pretty much swapped out ~$600 / year to comcast for $96/ year to Netflix and another $100 to $150 per year in tv purchases & movie rentals from Amazon/iTunes so it's definitely cheaper.
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I have antenna to get the local stations. Some come in well, others, including the local TV station do not. There are TV antennas available on the internet, including Amazon, and Radio Shack. Check them out. Besides, the airwaves (in the US) are free. Just a one time charge for the antenna, you can set it up, then start watching TV.
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I yanked my Direct TV and home phone together about 2 years ago. I got tired of the HD, DVR, and additional TV fees. In the old days one cable provided signal to every TV in the house for about $39.00?. Now I only have internet service via cable. I have netTALK(VOIP) for $29/year and free call in US and Canada(Bye AT&T  ). I have a dual TV tuner card installed in my Windows 7 PC. I use the Windows Media Center to record shows with a RCA antenna I got from Walmart. 
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I am first in the door every day to look for problems and try and resolve them before the agents start.
Well, this morning I see a couple of problems no big deal, it happens, however, when I go to find why a process failed I found a BIG problem.
We are still trying to recoup three hours later.
I did prove our disaster recovery works as was designed (restored a backup from offsite).
This is what I get for being bored yesterday.
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Corporal Agarn wrote: This is what I get for being bored yesterday.
Why, what did you do yesterday in your boredom that caused the problem today?
Marc
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He did nothing. That's the point.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Rage wrote: He did nothing. That's the point.
Seems like somebody "got it", though I agree it was a bit tenuous. The point being, when we're bored, we usually do something that we shouldn't, like rewriting the memory allocation routines in the operating system's kernel (or something like that.)
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: rewriting the memory allocation routines in the operating system's kernel
I laughed out loud, literally. 
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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I do tend to try an tweak things when I am bored so the first thing that came to mind is "What did I do?". Actually it was not me, although the person the tracker says did it takes responsibility but says they do not know how it happened.
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Is that before or after you write your own version of printf?
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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NOTICE: Once you get on WinZip's emailing list you're on that thing for life.
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Oddly I haven't heard from PKzip in ages.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Personally, I prefer WinRar. It zips the files up much tighter and gives a smaller size. Also, easier to use.
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