Life without cable

[Back]

My cable company is charging me $150 a month for internet and an HD box with HBO and everything else which includes On Demand.

My PS3 has all the On Demand stuff through the Sony store or Netflix. The internet connection through the computer has more.

I am about to cancel my HD box and just rent through my PS3 and or Netflix.

Movie rental at $5 average for 30 days is $150 and I don’t watch a movie every day. Figure I can save major bones ditching the cable and keeping the internet.

Anyone already doing this?

Clips of Daily show are on Comedy Cental and Youtube anyway. The same with Fallon and SNL on NBC.com

PS. I pay less monthly for health insurance!

[Tordane]

Man I wish I could break my ties. My cable company, "Knology", is completely raping me. I pay 180(it was 200+ until I called recently) for Cable, Internet, and Phone and I don't even get HD. I so wish there was competition, looking at Comcast's rates makes me cry compared to my current provider. Not to mention better internet speeds.

[Back]

This is how I see it...

I can get the content I want via the internet on my comp and through my PS3 so what do I need cable tv for? My current cable company has great download speeds but upload is suck.

Time to dump cable and get a wicked fast internet connect because everything on cable < as what you can get for yourself on the internet anyway.

[diethx]

Man I wish I could break my ties. My cable company, "Knology", is completely raping me. I pay 180(it was 200+ until I called recently) for Cable, Internet, and Phone and I don't even get HD. I so wish there was competition, looking at Comcast's rates makes me cry compared to my current provider. Not to mention better internet speeds.

Wow, that's pretty retarded. I'm sorry you're being raped.

We have Comcast and we pay ~$113/mo for internet and tv, and the tv includes HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, like 600 channels including all the HD ones, free DVR and a free box for the bedroom.

[phantasm]

I pay $30/mo for internet $7.99 for nextflix, and $9.99 for hulu plus. I have more TV shows than I have time.

[Back]

The major networks still broadcast free so the HD converter is def worth looking into as well.

[Drew]

I pay for internet and usenet, you can download whatever you want to watch.

[pabstblueribbon]

The major networks still broadcast free so the HD converter is def worth looking into as well.

I was going to say.. don't you live in a major metropolitan area?

Get an HD antennae. Get the big networks for casual TV viewing. Download any special series you want to see. Le done.

Or get a cheapo package with DishTv with whom I'm very happy with personally.

[Kuyuk]

Never paid for cable since I've lived in my own place ~ 8 yrs.

[Drew]

I was going to say.. don't you live in a major metropolitan area?

Get an HD antennae. Get the big networks for casual TV viewing. Download any special series you want to see. Le done.

Or get a cheapo package with DishTv with whom I'm very happy with personally.

You can also buy a cheap TV tuner for your computer (I paid 20 bucks) and use windows media center as a Tivo for OTA.

[FriendlyHealer]

I pay $40.36 for dish network and $39.95 for 6 MB internet. I had everything through my cable company but they stopped the "package" that I had and wanted to charge me a lot more so I cancelled.

With Dish I have HD & DVR with an extra box. (3 tvs total)

[pabstblueribbon]

I pay $40.36 for dish network and $39.95 for 6 MB internet. I had everything through my cable company but they stopped the "package" that I had and wanted to charge me a lot more so I cancelled.

With Dish I have HD & DVR with an extra box. (3 tvs total)

And there you go.

[awol0509]

We just dumped our cable a little over a year ago. We currently have a Wii, Xbox360 and PS3, all of which will stream Netflix instantly. Our Macbooks will also allow to xbox to access it where we can watch any downloaded movies and such.

We are thinking of getting apple tv or whatever that new thing is, also. There are many different ways to watch what you're used to. For sports, we hook up the Macbook to the tv and go on htdhe.net.

Any TV show you want to watch practically is available next day on hulu, or same night for downloading. We are saving $1600 a year by not having our HD cable with DVR etc etc.

Needless to say, I don't miss cable at all.

[diethx]

$7.99 for nextflix

I stream Netflix for free!!!!

[Back]

Is anyone using an upgraded internet connection? My basic has downloads near 10mbps and uploads close to 1mbps. Comcast has a plan for $139/month with 50mbps d/l and 10mbps u/l.

All my movie rental watching via PS3 and on my laptop is no problem at the basic plan. What I am wondering is how much more performance does one get out of on line game play at the higher subscriptions. Anyone?

I already plan to test the highest rate then scale down and see what is optimal both in performance and my budget... just wondering if anyone has been down this road and has any input.

[Drew]

All my movie rental watching via PS3 and on my laptop is no problem at the basic plan. What I am wondering is how much more performance does one get out of on line game play at the higher subscriptions. Anyone?



Unless the faster connection has a faster ping your gameplay experience will be the exact same (the ping will be the same).

[phantasm]

Is anyone using an upgraded internet connection? My basic has downloads near 10mbps and uploads close to 1mbps. Comcast has a plan for $139/month with 50mbps d/l and 10mbps u/l.

All my movie rental watching via PS3 and on my laptop is no problem at the basic plan. What I am wondering is how much more performance does one get out of on line game play at the higher subscriptions. Anyone?

I already plan to test the highest rate then scale down and see what is optimal both in performance and my budget... just wondering if anyone has been down this road and has any input.

A netflix stream is 2.2mbps, 280k/sec ... your basic internet can handle that no problem.

Buying more bandwidth won't improve gaming lag.

Recommend you hold at the cheapest price you can get and spend your money on something better.


On a side note, I hope the internet is still the same after the upcoming cable profit wars. They are now in the same position as landline phone companies 10 years ago. I expect to see cable TV prices plummet and internet prices soar. Over the next 10 years DSL / 4G will become a more attractive option over cable internet.

[Back]

Thanks guys. I might still try it for at least one month with a different provider to see if the gameplay is any better... because I swear playing Black Ops on Verizon Fios at 18mbps/4mbps dl/ul is better than RCN Basic internet 10/1 dl/ul even with all the port forwarding.

[phantasm]

Yah the speed of light is pretty damn fast which reduces latency

[Mogonis]

I pay for internet and usenet, you can download whatever you want to watch.
+1

[Bobmuhthol]

Yah the speed of light is pretty damn fast which reduces latency

I know you are probably joking but I just wanted to confirm that you don't actually believe that FiOS is faster than cable right?

[Asile]

Just chiming in as another who ditched cable TV a little over 2 years ago...and it's going to have to be free for us to ever go back. Hubby built a computer to serve as a media center, so we stream or download practically everything that's not available on the major networks (or do without, which I've been mostly ok with; I do miss Monday Night Football and missed being able to see some of the events during the last Winter Olympics).

We've had a few times when we've had access to cable, like when we've gone on vacation, and every time we flip through the channels we realize that we're honestly missing NOTHING, thanks to it all eventually coming out on DVD or being available for streaming somewhere.

The closest we're now going to come to "paying" for TV--other than our Netflix subscription--is making a contribution to PBS, for as much as we watch it and stream videos from the websites (PBSKids.org (http://www.pbskids.org) and PBSKidsGo.org (http://www.pbskidsgo.org) are awesome if you've got kids under 12 or so).