After hemming and hawing about it for months, and generally grumbling about the cost of cable TV, an article by Marketwatch prompted me to really think about the amount of value I get from TV. I watch sports generally twice or three times a year and otherwise watch very little time sensitive material. After seeing what I could do with the Chromecast I got earlier this week, I'm finally cutting the cord.
As a technology person, I'm really a Luddite when it comes to basic home entertainment. My main TV is a 32" Samsung HDTV Tube Television (one of the last Tube TV's made). I already had an older Roku player as well as a Samsung BluRay player with Smart capabilities. My home network has been disassembled for years (I had two RJ-45 Ethernet jacks run next to the TV area), my switch isn't properly configured to run and apparently my USB -> Serial converter isn't supported on Windows 8 (wife's laptop). As a stop-gap, I ran a longer (30' or so) Cat6 cable to my Wireless access point in the next room to the Roku until I have a chance to rewire everything in the next couple days.
I already have Amazon Prime and Netflix, I went ahead and grabbed Hulu as well. Right now my youngest son is watching Team Umizoomi on Amazon Prime and honestly, it looked better than it ever did on TV. For the real test, we'll have to see how well the wife and kids handle the new remotes.
The problem for me cutting the cord is that my wife and I have several shows that on premium cable that we are invested in. Things like Dexter, Game of Thrones, etc. aren't available on a timely basis without maintaining the premium channel subscription. I am considering, however, giving up some of the cable boxes.
ReplyDeleteCurrently I have two dual tuner Tivo units and two older standard def Tivo units with single tuners hooked to cable boxes. I'd be interested in getting rid of the two regular definition Tivo units, and their associated cable boxes. That leaves me 4 tuners that I could potentially, with the right setup, access from any TV in the house.
Aereo could potentially contribute to the solution as well.
Honestly I already have some of those in Amazon. Pay $24 for a season or $50+ per month. I get it that you are invested. I'm not nearly as much. If HBO would allow a digital subscription I would probably do that. There are always other ways to get the media of course.
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