cutting the cable

Discussion in 'New Roundtable' started by martin, Jun 14, 2011.

  1. martin

    martin Banned Forever

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    because i am impossibly classy, i dont watch an enormous amount of tv. so i was wondering if the 100 a month i was paying for cable was really worth it. i watch like 4 tv shows, plus sports. i watch mythbusters and dr house, and mad men, when it is on. and that is it. so i was wondering if i could get by without cable.

    i canceled cable, and set up my windows 7 pc with the windows media center to stream to my xbox 360. i put a usb over the air tuner on my pc. so i get tons of full HD broadcast channels, all the networks and ton of weird local channels. and so i stream that through my xbox 360 with full dvr control. like i watch the football games on fox on sunday with tivo-like functionality, in HD, for free.

    the 360 streams espn and netflix. and my PC records DR house. and i steal mythbusters and mad med from the internet and stream them through my 360 as well. so things are good. one problem, i cant watch the mets. SNY carries all the mets games, and i thought maybe i could buy MLB.tv, and then i would pretty much be paying just for exactly what i want, for like 20 a month instead of 90. but damnit the mets are blacked out on mlb.tv locally. bull****!

    another issue. the 360 is great but it is hot as an oven and noisy as hell, plus i need a gold xbox live account to use streaming netflix. i have solved that problem by getting rid of the 360 for a roku box, which is tiny and cool. it also has a way to watch espn and espn 360.

    so now my total monthy tv content cost is 8$ for netflix, and i watch everything, with no bulky cable boxen. i can also watch hulu through the roku, which is hooked up through hdmi to my HDTV, and works with wireless-N.

    in the future i feel like we should be able to buy channels instead of bulk service. nobody needs 1200 channels.

    and as of now i feel like we are very close to being able to ditch cable entirely, and get all our content from the net. the roku was 97 dollars, basically the same as my cable used to cost. so now all i pay for is high speed internet and netflix. i guess i could get hulu plus for another 9 if i wanted.

    conclusion, you dont really need cable tv. you shouldnt be watching all those reality shows on bravo, you should be reading books and chatting here so you can be as smart as red.
     
  2. martin

    martin Banned Forever

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    also of note is that i have utorrent set up with feeds to automatically download my shows, mythbusters, dr house and the ultimate fighter, so they show up in the file i share with my steaming box automatically. that way i can watch my shows without commercials and deprive those shows of revenue.
     
  3. fanatic

    fanatic Habitual Line Stepper

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    Do you still use the USB over air tuner or strictly the Roku? Does the Roku have a built in wireless card?
     
  4. martin

    martin Banned Forever

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    (i am drunk now but i will do my best)

    yes, the roku has a built in wireless card.

    for OTA live broadcasts i can still watch them on my big PC monitor, or stream them to my xbox, which i am getting rid of, in my effort to be a minimalist. not sure if i can stream live OTA through the roku via HDMI to the TV, will figure that out later.
     
  5. Cajun Sensation

    Cajun Sensation I'm kind of a big deal Staff Member

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    You use capitalization more when you are drunk.

    Carry on.
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    You must chastise me as well. Since I upgraded to big screen/DirecTV/AppleTV streaming from the Mac, my unread book stack became three stacks. But the newness of it is starting to wear off, and that is good. I'm beginning to make time to read instead of scheming about my next A/V tech acquisition.
     
  7. KyleK

    KyleK Who, me? Staff Member

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    The only thing we pay for is Netflix. We get cable for free here at the apt and free wireless internet. With no grass to mow and no maintenance to do of any sort, I kinda like this apt living!
     
  8. LaSalleAve

    LaSalleAve when in doubt, mumble

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    I dig apartments too, it's nice not having to mow, or fix anything.
     
  9. tirk

    tirk im the lyrical jessie james

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    Easy now.



    Will I still be able to get real housewives if I do this?
     
  10. KyleK

    KyleK Who, me? Staff Member

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    With Lisa working for AT&T, we could have a land line with every feature they offer for free. We had it in Wichita Falls and never used it. We didn't even bother getting it here. All four of us have cell phones.
     

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