Digital Trends - Latest Comments in Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

KC — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:39:50 -0000

actually yes you do. You just need to use a vpn such as www.acevpn.com I pay 5 bucks a month and I use it to get all the british shows that you normally can't watch overseas from their network channels. British people use the same thing to watch hulu so I know it works. In your case you would get both :)

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

Debra — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:15:50 -0000

I haven't read everyone's comment, but there are a few things that I would like to point about the ease of watching programs online. First of all, you don't have to type in the URL every time you want to see a program; just bookmark the address. If you don't want to look for all of the sites that are online, there is a list created by a buy named Mike Panic (just search his name and add tv list) that has a pretty comprehensive list of legitimate content sources. Also, now Hulu has a desktop application that doesn't require you to launch the browser and has a pretty slick looking user interface. The author commented that online content will not take advantage of 1080p, that is generally true, but there are NO channels that provide content in that aspect ratio. The best you will get is 720p or 1080i; 1080p is for blu-ray watching. If you want DVR features, add a TV tuner to your computer. They usually come with some software that has this feature (and a remote control); even better if you have a PC that has Windows Media Center, because it works pretty smoothly. In our house we initially used a 5 year-old Dell with huge fans that were about as loud as our Xbox 360. We wanted something that would fit in our media cabinet in the living room and less noisy, decided upon buying a refurbished HP Slimeline (that had a TV tuner and Media Center) for $300. For our bedroom I bought a refurbished Dell Studio Hybrid for $250 (it's small and makes for very little noise). The extras we did were to buy a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse for the HP for $50 (the Dell came with its own), and an antenna rotator for $50. We don't spend a great deal of time using the keyboard, so it usually is tucked away in the end table. The mouse gets the most use while going through the list of sites. We use Netflix watch DVDs and online movies/TV programs. We still had the old aerial antenna on the roof, and connected to it by re-using coaxial cable that was connected the DISH antenna (this saved a lot of time and effort, because that meant coaxial connections were already in every room that we wanted to watch TV). One other expense we had was $20 for a set amplified rabbit ears that we connected to the TV tuner in the HP. We did this because sometimes we wanted to watch one program on TV while another was being recorded. We live in area where all the broadcasting towers are not close to each other. So the antenna orientation for what's currently on TV wouldn't always pull in the channel that we wanted to record. Our DISH bill used to be $115 per month, so after approximately 6 months we had recouped our costs. We changed our DSL service to the next higher level for $5 per month, and pay $15 monthly for Netflix (this includes the tax). We cut the cord in April 2008, and have saved a little over $1700 (this amount minus the original costs). I watch MORE TV now than with subscription TV, because there are more options to choose from. I am a sports junkie, and find all of the games that I want to see online also. Many times the quality is not on par with regular TV, but it is free. I am not against paying for content, but like many people, I only want to pay for what I will use. I know many online providers want to start charging, and I am not against it, but I will only pay for certain sites. The problem that will face many online content providers is that there are tons of bootleg sites that stream, and it will be harder for them to charge ridiculous amounts of money like ti cable/satellite. The other problem they will have is getting people to pay for programs on free channels, i.e., CBS, NBC, etc., when DVRs in PCs are becoming an inexpensive add-on. That's just my point of view, and I am sure things will change in the upcoming months that will probably makes some of my points mute. I am just going to enjoy the freedom of selection for as long as I can.

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

Brad Stewart — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:22:59 -0000

Hello,

My name is Brad Stewart. I am a student at Northwestern University in the Medill School of Journalism. For my final project, I am reporting on cable, satellite, and online television. I was hoping to speak with anyone willing to share their exprience briefly about your experience canceling cable TV. If interested, please email me at bradstewart@u.northwestern.edu. It will only take ten to fifteen minutes of your time and will be extremely valuable for my story.

Thanks,

Brad Stewart
Medill 2013

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

Jason — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:12:34 -0000

I have been cable free for a few months now......and I don't miss it. In fact, it has sparked a new interest for me: compiling the best media center a home could have. i still have a few hurdles to jump, but I have made alot of progress and the following is for those who need some ideas:

First, i started out with my Desktop. Before this whole endeavor, I moved my barely used desktop into my bedroom. For reasons that I do not care to explain, I ended up hooking the PC in there to the 17'' monitor instead of in my living room that houses a 50'' plasma. This desktop is a pretty solid PC. good graphics card, proc, but more importantly, a 1TB hard drive. About a little over a year ago, I decided to put all my digital media that I have obtained on this hard drive. So, while we are in bed, we can have access to every television show and movie that I have on that computer using WMC for windows 7. Honestly, although it lacks some of the bells and whistles that it could have via plug ins, my biggest turn off for this program is the fact that audio syncing seems to be off at times. currently, I am checking out a number of other programs out there, but currently I am still on the hunt for the right one.

Forget the Keyboard and mouse! Although I do still have a wireless keyboard an mouse stowed away for when I actually want to treat my media center as the computer it was naturally put together as, I solved my problem by heading over to ebay and purchasing a cheap $10 USB remote control. It has more buttons than you will ever need which integrate with WMC exceptionally well.

Of course, my bedroom is not the only room in the house, and is certainly not the place I do most of my TV/Movie watching. In my living room, I have an Xbox 360 that is hooked up to my prized 50'' plasma TV.

There are a few ways that you can watch digital media on the xbox. I first tried the whole syncing the xbox media center to my desktop's media center. I was not a fan of this for very long, as I found that Xbox media center was very particular on which files it decided to be compatible with.

I solved this first by simply using the video library function under "My Xbox". After setting up my media hard drive as a shared drive on my desktop in the bedroom, I was able to browse and watch the videos on my xbox remotely. This worked quite well, and I was able to get some of the files to play that I was unable to do with the media center function.

I went even further my installing TVersity on my desktop. Tversity makes it a little easier for those who are not especially savvy with setting up shared folders in windows. With little configuration, it allows your xbox to see your media with ease, as well as gives you a few more bells and whistles like being able to watch youtube and hulu videos. TVersity also claims that videos will be encoded so that they will be compatible with xbox playback.

Either method, video playback quick and quality has not suffered a bit as long as you don't have your home networked bogged down by downloading or other bandwidth intensive activities.

All in all, I have said good bye to cable and I never plan on going back.

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

buddy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:39:54 -0000

great read! quote:"You might expect me to proclaim how we all watch less TV now and have time to ride bikes and put solar panels on the roof and help orphaned children.". good stuff! :-)

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

kirk — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:52:53 -0000

This its great

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

techprincess — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:01:33 -0000

Great story! I just started using Boxee and LOVE it. I may even cut my cable as you've suggested! Scary... but sounds like it may be worth it!

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

allan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:29:45 -0000

nice story...problemo for canucksters....we don`t have these options such as hulu

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

Greg Mombert — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:54:27 -0000

The only reason I keep my cable subscription is for live sporting events, that's the only thing i can't get over the web. Other than that i have little use for cable and I'm definitely going to drop it during the summer.

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

TechFreak — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:42:35 -0000

And the truth of the article? Why pay for Comcast when you can combine Hulu, Boxee and BitTorrent (which was not mentioned, I wonder why? haha).

Love the story. Another thing wort pointing out is that if you DO decide to spend a little money, you can add Netflix to your setup and either stream the movies over the net, or just play them on the HTPC DVD drive. There really is no need for Cable anymore. Now if they can just find a good device to replace the keyboard and mouse. The logitech Dinovo that was mentioned looks good, but does it really work?

Also, once the PS3 adds Hulu support again, you should be good. Or doesn't Tversity add Hulu and all the others too? That would make the PS3 the best alternative.

Re: Cancel Cable and Save with Free Internet TV

DingBat — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:12:57 -0000

I dig it. Personally, I have been living on the Comcast limited basic cable package which is about $10/month and Comcast cable internet for $52/month. By having both services I get a $10 discount, so the cable is essentially free. We use internet programing for everything else. Most people are unaware that cable packages like this exist; the cable companies don't really advertise them. All you have to do is ask, it is amazing to see what phone/internet/cable companies (even the big bad ones) will do the earn/keep your business.

Another note, if you are in the market for a new internet/cable service provider, don't just go straight to the company. Check out the deals through stores like Radio Shack and Best Buy, self installs (especially for internet) are sometimes easy enough, and you can get perks like gift cards or free installation.