I’ve had satellite or cable television pretty much my entire adult life. I was an early adopter of Tivo back in 2000 and I’ve happily used the service ever since.
Thing is, I don’t need either one any more. Yesterday I canceled my DirecTV satellite service and my TiVO DVR subscription.
Earlier this year, I had scaled back my satellite package as far as they would let me — a “family pack” that isn’t advertised but comes as close to “basic cable” as you can get. The only reason I kept the satellite at all was for local news and weather.
Then, I started a Netflix subscription and was lucky enough to be among the first to receive the Wii disk for streaming. I loaded up my queue with a crapload of television series I’d never seen and went to town.
I was watching almost no regular television… turned out I almost never bothered to watch the local news or weather I’d kept my dish to access. I told myself I’d drop the dish as soon as the D-Link Boxee box became available later this year.
Then, one fateful day not long ago… well, last week, actually… I saw the Acer AspireRevo computer
I snatched it up, added a wireless keyboard and mouse, hooked it up to my HDTV, and just today upgraded the RAM from 1GB to 4GB. The Revo’s stability and speed was adequate before, but with the added RAM there’s a noticeable performance improvement. I also hooked up a half-terabyte external drive I had on hand for media storage. Full screen full HD, and it looks gorgeous. I’m watching the latest episode of “Fringe” as I write this and it’s stunning!
Not having to pay for DirecTV and TiVO will offset the cost of the Revo, memory and peripherals in less than six months. After that, apart from the Netflix subscription ($10.00 per month), all my multimedia entertainment will be essentially free!
Here’s my software setup:
- Netflix (running as a Google Chrome app) for older movies and TV shows.
- Hulu (running as a Google Chrome app) for current TV shows delivered via subscription.
- Miro (desktop app) for online video via subscription and locally saved video files.
- VLC (desktop app) for Shoutcast streaming video channels (strange, random, fun stuff..!),locally saved files and video conversion.
- Comedy Central (running as a Google Chrome app) for Daily Show, Colbert Report, South Park and so on.
- YouTube (running as a Google Chrome app) for, y’know, Trolololololcats and stuff.
- Antenna (Adobe Air app) for global streaming radio, including several local stations.
- Pandora (running as an Adobe Air app) for personalized streaming music channels
- iTunes for music and audio podcasts.
Ironically, I’m not using the Boxee desktop app — it’s an extra link in the chain that tends to make Hulu and Netflix streams choppy.
The Revo is very quiet and is very energy efficient — it’s Energy Star compliant and uses far less electricity than the satellite and TiVO boxes. With the external drive and the installation of Dropbox for file sync, Carbonite for online offsite backup and LogMeIn Hamachi providing a virtual private network, the Revo is also my primary file server!
I’m pretty excited to eliminate the expense and package-based, bloated content delivery of satellite television in exchange for the control and flexibility of getting my entertainment from the web. What about you? Would you take the plunge and cut the cord? Have you already done so? Let me know your experience and your system set up in the comments!
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Hey Matt!
I gave up cable about a year ago and I rely on 3 ways to get my entertainment:
1) Netflix streaming thru my Xbox 360.
2) Vuze which is a Mac program that allows me to search for on line videos and stream them from my computer thru my Xbox 360 to my TV.
3) And finally I got a mini-DV adapter from Amazon fro $6 and hooked my iMac right into my HDTV thru an 25′ HDMI cable to run my HDTV as a second monitor and I watch Hulu this way. This allows true 1080P images. With my wireless keyboard and mouse this works great.
Glad to see people are moving away from cable and satalite, they just suck away too much money and force us to get channels I would never watch!
~Chris
Sounds very cool Chris. But a 25′ HDMI cable! That must have been one of the most costly items in the whole shebang. Those things are ridiculously expensive.
But still cheaper than cable!
Actually it was I believe $10 on Amazon.com. Just make sure you look for the thicker gauge. And if you go much more then 25 ft you will need a signel booster.
HDMI cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HDMVFW/ref=oss_product
Never buy HDMI cables from Best Buy or other video stores. The cables are where they make their most profit!
Apparently! Average price for those cables in the stores is around $20.00 for six feet! Lesson learned.
What’s your download usage per month?
I’ve cut the umbilical of terrestrial TV, but have yet to set up a proper system attached to our entertainment unit. We still have a video player hooked up LOL! Have started downloading and watching some shows on my computer, but plan to set up a sraight net-to-HD TV system soon.
I’m not sure what my download usage is… it’s not metered (cable broadband Internet.) I did tweak my system to get the most out of Windows XP’s network capabilities, and I’m using the OpenDNS DNS rather than the cable company’s (again, slightly faster.) I’ve read that the Revo runs even better on Windows 7, but that’s a pretty expensive upgrade that I may not do for some time, if at all.
If you’re planning on setting up a nettop box for your TV, you should look into the Revo for sure. The one I got (linked in my post) is actually “last year’s model.” The newer ones come with more ram and a wireless keyboard and mouse included but are, naturally, correspondingly more expensive.
Either way, I’m having a blast with this system. I actually did a Snoopy happy dance in my living room after I canceled DirecTV the other day. It’s a good feeling!
It would be great to be able to do this…however at my brand new house i can not get even DSL, let alone cable. I have been reduced to getting an air card to power my entire house. So catching up on lost episodes (due to the move from one house to another ((it took an extra 4 months for this to happen)) )
will never happen.
I’m sure you’ll be able to eventually catch up on “Lost” — no reason it will never happen! Buck up!
Do the telecoms plan on extending cable or DSL service to your area soon? When I first moved to my current residence in 2001 there was no broadband service, but upon contacting them I learned it was planned in the following six months. They actually did it faster than that. Have you checked?
We have a 68″ Panasonic Viera that we hooked up to my hubby’s computer and watch internet television on because where are in a black spot for television signals. We used to use cable when we lived in another area, but we noticed our usage go down dramatically over time until it we saw no use in it at all. We have a few free-to-air HD stations (TV and digital radio) in our area, but ever since a storm last year, the signal is gone 90% of the time, so internet options are our only resort. That being said, my husband and I play lots of World of Warcraft whenever he comes back from work, meaning that we able spend a few hours each week watching television shows.
Conclusion: Why subscribe to something you don’t watch? It is a waste of money, coin that you can use to pay for other things. Also, if the watching of the show doesn’t add to your experiences, than it also worth dumping from the playlist, something I have done quite a few times of late.
Precisely! I find that sitting down in front of the television is now something that I plan for, rather than just turning it on while I’m eating or chilling out or whatever. End result: less time being idle.