Quitting Cable
 

So, we just hit the end of our bundled contract with Verizon that provides phone, TV, and internet and the monthly price jumped $20. So taking a look at how we actually watch TV I'm wondering if netflix streaming and Hulu plus might provide all the video entertainment we need at a fraction of the price.

Anyone here dump their cable yet?

How much are those per month? You won't be able to watch the Tour with them, but I suppose you could sign up for whatever online streaming is on offer for it.

I dumped cable for a dish, so I don't think that will help much. I had a bundle with Time Warner, and still have the phone and internet with them, but I'm thinking of cutting the land line since we each have a cell phone. And I like Direct TV service much better than Time Warner.

Have you thought about a digital aireal for the local channels?

No. I'm not ready to take that plunge just yet.

Have you checked how many TV stations you can pick up with a good old fashion roof antenna?

here's what it says about our house: There are no stations predicted to serve this location

How do you feel about torrents and EZTV?

My cable's been out for months and I haven't even noticed. True Blood starts up again in a couple of weeks, so I may try to get it fixed. But generally, I'm fine getting my minimal TV fix from Hulu or other internet sources - and mostly, just renting the DVDs or streaming the episodes from Netflix. In fact, I'd rather wait to be an entire season late and get to watch it all-at-once on DVD. I'm not good at keeping up with episodic TV week-to-week. I certainly don't watch enough to merit even using Tivo.


Basically, I don't watch a lot of TV, and I like it that way. For the few shows that are recommended to me by tons of people, I prefer them in big doses, even if late, rather than the typical drip most TV addicts live with. :p

I just call Cox and ask them if there are any promotions. Last one lowered my bill $20 a month for 6 months.

We came very close to dumping cable ourselves. What eventually stopped us was sports. Literally everything else that we watch regularly was available in some form or another by other means, some paid some free all of which would total less than we were paying for cable. But the major sports leagues continue to be expert at protecting their broadcasters' right to exclusivity. So even if I WANTED to pay for another means of seeing live Dodger games, I could not.

You give up a certain level of immediacy and timeliness by dropping cable, but in the age of DVRs that's not much of a sacrifice anymore.

So as long as the numbers add up and there aren't specific live broadcasts that you can't get live elsewhere that you really can't do without, there's very little reason to not drop cable.

Our TV needs are quite taken care of via the aerial we have oh, half a dozen PBS stations (we do live in Southern California but was enough in NM too)

Netflix streaming takes care of "I want a movie now" plus we get one DVD from them at a time, the turn-around is about three days tops, and then of course there is streaming for everything else

Cable is a joke, you pay allot for the few things you want and then watch crap because it is there - dump it!

For me, it is probably all or nothing. We lived without TV at all for about 4 years when we first moved to the Bay Area (only one channel came in by antenna, and poorly) and we were fine. Then we moved and decided to switch to cable internet from DSL and the TV initially came with it and by the time we had to pay for it, we wanted to keep it.

While about 70% of my TV watching could be replaced by a home theater setup with Hulu and the network web sites (Netflix doesn't actually take the place of anything I would otherwise watch on cable) frankly there is something to be said about not having to maintain a more complex home network situation, not having to go seek out everything I want to watch, and having the flexibility of wandering off to watching things I'd otherwise never learn about or just flip through.

If money were tight, it would be the first thing to go, but it isn't so I've kept it even though it really isn't worth the cost.

We haven't had cable/satellite for more than 6 months of the last 10 years (When satellite was new they pushed it by giving trial offers, cable did this too). At the end of every free period I had to ask myself: Is this really improving the quality of my life? Would I be a happier person if I had easy access to this and was paying for it? Answer: no.

Broadcast TV: It's free, largely HD, in a dozen different languages, and there are a ton of PBS stations showing BBC stuff.

Netflix streaming: Oh so many things to watch, at exactly the time you feel like it, for about $10/month. I'm slowly working my way through 30-rock.

Internets: Things like sidereel.com are good for all those HBO/Showtime/Etc shows if you have to have it now, albeit at a lower quality.

What GD said. We got rid of all but the most basic cable some time ago, and then our TV went on the fritz. We haven't gotten around to replacing it, but we got the itch to watch some Giants games, so I signed up for MLB.com video for a month, went to watch a game and got hit with an "Ah, you suck, your home market's blacked out; go watch the Nationals play the Royals" message.

So we ponder on and listen to the radio--or the MLB.com audio feed which gives better reception.

I wonder, if Chris went ahead and did this, how long it would take me to notice?

Not owning a TV set, I've been limited to online content for a few years now. I'm happier and more productive by a considerable measure since. Others mileage will vary, but if someone showed up at my door with a free 48 inch HDTV and full satellite service, I don't know if I'd accept.

Yeah, a 48 inch tv is waaay too small.

Okay for the bedroom

We dumped cable 3 months ago. Haven't missed it yet.

about 90 minutes into the process of dumping cable. the online chat/help was the first responder while I sat on hold, but they could only add services and not subtract them. Meanwhile finally got a live person at about the 50 minute mark. We reviewed the bundles, all of which are more expensive that what I have now though they include more features I don't care about. Finally settled on something, but the guy was having "system issues" so he got my cell number and said he'd call back.

I understand why they do this, but I still hate it.

Whenever I need to change services or stop service with cable I find it easier to just go to the local office. At least with Comcast that has always been pretty painless.

I have Verizon FiOS - so I want everything else, just not the TV - anyway, no call back so I'll try again tomorrow...