Honestly think about. Is there any real reason to keep cable TV anymore? With things like Hulu, YouTube, TV.com, iTunes, and the like I just don’t see a reason to keep Comcast or any other cable line coming into the house. I do realize that cable modem is faster that DSL and that perhaps you could get a discount on cable TV as a package but that would be the only benefit. What is the point if all I watch is recorded network TV programs (Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Scrubs, etc.)?
PC Magazine had a great article on building your own personal Living-Room Media Center PC (or Home Theater PC) that includes the introduction of a cable line and recording of live TV on a fat hard drive. I mean perhaps you could build a machine that could be more intuitive than TiVo or Comcast’s (suck) DVR if you had some mad programming skills (or perhaps someone has already thought of that). But what I am suggesting is completly cutting loose from the cable company and allowing your machine to stream content from any number of sites/programs. And hell why stop there? Why not play online games, music, Blu-Ray movies, update Twitter all from the comforts of your own living room. You can’t tell me there isn’t some MMORPG gamer out there right now thinking about how he can get WoW on his 42″ LCD.
Let’s say I spend anywhere from $80 – $100 a month for cable. If you built a machine like the one in the PC Mag article for about $1200 you could break even in just over a year. Then guess what! You are your own tech support. No more waiting on the cable company tech to get to your house between the hours of 7am and 5pm. Of course that has its own cons but if can’t troubleshoot your own machine maybe you shouldn’t be building one in the first place. Google “Build Media Center PC” and you can see how many people have done it before.
Just some food for thought and trying to open up a conversation with my tech savvy friends. (Disclaimer: If you are my wife and you are reading this please understand I am not going to go out a spend $1200 to build a computer and get rid of our cable TV…this is just discussion)
What about … sports, The Soup, Jeopardy!, Jon & Kate Plus 8, Giada/Ina/Alton/Tyler Florence, and channel surfing?!
@hakeber I agree that watching sports is difficult but we go all the TECH home games and what other sports do you actually watch. The Soup clips can be found on eonline.com and full episodes on iTunes. Jeopardy? Are you 50 years old? J&K+8 you can watch full episodes online. Food Network that is tough one.
J&K+8? *cringe*
The biggest problem I see with streaming internet video is Quality. Yeah they all claim to be HD, but good luck getting 5.1(or better) audio out of a web stream. I can tolerate some *cough* downloaded material, but if I really like a movie or show, I’d rather have the full experience. Granted, you’re not missing much watching HIMYM in Stereo versus Surround, but for something like 24 or Heroes, you’re not going to be fully immersed. *shrug* I only spend $120/month on Cable TV (With HD) and Internet ( I have “Digital Basic” service).
Food Network and Travel Channel. That’s it.
@mingaling We watch those networks religiously as well.
As your lovely wife says, sports. Granted, you go to all the Tech games which is the sports you would want to see but what about away games?
You’ll end up at a bar watching the game thereby proving you actually do ‘need’ cable… at least at some capacity.
I think we’re getting there though. One day it will be all onDemand style content. Just pick what you want to watch when you want to watch it.
I think part of it, is having it spoon-fed to us; I have my Xbox 360 set up to stream from my PC and from Netflix. I have access to tons of shows on Netflix, and I can download most of them to my PC; thereby giving me seemingly limitless access to TV programs, yet I don’t use it. I watched all of Dr Who that way, but nothing else. Maybe I am just a slave to my tivo, but I find myself watching random shit on HGTV when I could be watching episodes of 30 rock. It really boggles my mind now that I think about it.
I have been without cable for 2 and a half years. My Wife and I download about 9 shows total a week using Bittorrent. Sports is the only drawback but I often listen on the radio and watch the stats on NFL.com or ESPN.com.
I canceled my cable. I watch my shows online or Netflix Streaming or on DVD. I prefer to watch on my schedule, not theirs.
This has to be the best tv show ever…
You’ve done A amazing job with your blog my friend. I am most definitely digging it and will be coming by again real soon.
You are right on the money with this post, keep up the good work!