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10/13/09
10/13/09
10/13/09
10/07/09
10/07/09
10/07/09
10/07/09
Cable and satellite are expensive, but on top of that, you end up paying to watch commercials! I cannot deal with double-dipping of this variety. It's just as bad as going into a movie theater and being forced to watch a Coke commercial.
Commercials are fine for OTA broadcasts and I happily sit through them since they are the reason I am watching that program for free, but paying to have them piped into my house? No. Way.
10/07/09
Luckily, perhaps, I don't give a rat's ass about sports. And, there are far more movies I prefer to watch than TV shows.
10/08/09
I had been experimenting with torrents long before then, but it was around that point that it really dawned on me that television as we had known it throughout the 20th Century, was already rendered obsolete by 21st Century technology. I've never looked back.
Five years, a home made media server, several home made HTPCs, and the ability to stream content even to my cellphone later, and I have not paid a dime to the cable/satellite companies in years, yet get so much more convenience and flexibility than any of the cable/satellite companies or even the networks, ever dreamed of delivering to any of their customers. Features that cable/satellite companies are only now discussing about bringing to consumers "at some point in the future", I've had for years - all from my Harmony remote, all on my 50" screen in my living room.
Services like Hulu, Netflix and YouTube are only the icing on an already very sweet cake. And the TV shows those services do not usually offer, like programming from other English speaking markets like the UK, Canada, Australia, and even stuff from the Mediterranean markets like Spain, Italy and Portugal, plus stuff from Latin America (I'm multi-lingual), between torrents and newsgroups, there is simply not very much out there that I am interested in, that I cannot already get . . . quite a bit of it in low-bitrate HD no less.
I get to watch the best of the best programming in just about every language I speak, when and where it is most convenient for me to do so, with more features and greater ease and convenience all from the comfort of the living room, or bed room , or even on the daily commute via the 3G or WiFi connection on my mobile phone. Even with the glacially slow move online from the networks, the most the networks would possibly ever offer anyone, is a watered downed version of what we can already get now by doing without them altogether.
Ultimately as the transition online progresses, they'll eventually wind up charging punters what the cable/satellite companies are already charging people now - an arm and a leg to watch tons of commercials. Hulu is already talking about taking the very first baby steps down that path, even as you read this. All the while, the tech that makes it possible to negate cable/satellite altogether, will continue to get better adding more convenience and features at no cost. Convenience and features you are not likely to find from any of the online paid services.
Startups companies like Hulu, are the Comcasts, Direct TVs, and Time Warner Cables of the future. And in a few years they are going to charge just as much as those other services. One would think that if you are going to have to pay for a service, the least they could do is stay up to date with the latest, greatest tech. But sadly, that is not how business works. Companies traditionally search out the least common denominator, and that is what they deliver to their paying customers - and if you just happen to be missing out on a whole boatload of stuff that way, oh well, just ignore it and keep paying your monthly bill anyway . . . you know the monthly bill where all those PPVs that you never even heard of, keep magically appearing on every month.
TV as we have known it traditionally IS obsolete, and has been obsolete for a very long time now.
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
i think it comes down to "you don't miss what you can't watch"... and if you don't miss watching a favorite the first night it comes out, it will show up online or DVD eventually.... or re-runs at a friends house. granted i'm not a sports fan, so that eliminates my desire for live tv right there.
i only watch 4-5 hours of cable tv material a week. between netflix, adultswim.com and torrents, i'm well covered.
i would subscribe to cable if i could be offered 15 available 'regular level' channels of my choice for $20 bucks... as if 'ala carte' service would ever be offered. i keep asking every comcast every time they call me (every 3 weeks or so) ... till then, no thanks.
10/06/09
10/06/09
My wife and I dig sports, so we can never ditch the cable, but we have trained ourselves to use Hulu and Netflix more and more in preparation for the time when the switch comes and for a couple shows that conflict with the max 2 our dvr can do.
I just really wish ESPN, B10 Network, and the rest didn't exist as then we could all just use OTA, but unfortunately that isn't the case.
We do however switch providers about every year. Currently we are paying $98 total for 15mb internet, digital cable, dvr, and I think Encore (they have pretty good on demand).
10/06/09
I'm really hoping the FCC won't allow that massive a concentration of media in one company. Comcast already crapped all over cable. No need for it to take NBC down with it.
10/06/09
10/06/09
PlayOn streams Hulu and Netflix to both a 360 and a PS3. Yes, Netflix on a PS3.
The combination of standard local antenna (I have the advantage of being in a major city), PlayOn, Netflix, and accessing and streaming many "public domain" videos to the 360 or PS3 is sufficient for everything except when live sports is on cable. So I can't watch many regular season, out-of-market games on channels like ESPN and TNT. But I can walk down the street to the bar and do so. Otherwise, Comcast can eat it. (Well, they eat $34.99/mo from me for the broadband, of course.)
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09