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The cord is cut

cord reconnected

I cut the cord six years ago 30th September 2004 to be precise and I reconnected the 30th September 2010. Unintended coincidence. The reason why I'm back on cable is due to the paucity of high speed broadband alternatives. Six years ago I decided to rely on eyeTV, iTunes, Netflix DVDs and OTA TV. At that time my 3Mbs DSL was adequate. I later bought an Akimbo box for more esoteric stuff. Remember them? I finally ended up with OTA TV, a TiVo HD (records OTA TV), a Roku box and eyeTV. I stopped using iTunes downloads in favour of Amazon On Demand on the TiVo - slightly cheaper and already transcoded and connected to the TV.

Then, last year, I decided with all the streaming content I was receiving on my TiVo HD, TiVo Premier, Roku and occasional iTunes, I really needed a better broadband experience, so I dropped my 3Mbps DSL for Clear's 6Mbps at half the price. After ten months of battling that experience I reluctantly returned to 15Mbps+ cable and was up-sold the TV and phone service package.

I'm still saving money during the promotional period but the cable cord is once again attached. We'll see how long I keep the TV package once the promotion is over - and it also looks like UVerse preparing to dig up the street . . . . in any case I think an ATV might be on the cards for Black Friday!

And yes I don't have the wife or babysitter issues - but I do have the visiting parents issue - and they can't cope with the Harmony either - go figure.
 
I would love to do this but most of the best shows are on cable, namely HBO and Showtime. Just to name a few (current and past) The Sopranos, Entourage, The Wire, Rome, Carnival, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Californication, Dexter, The Tudors, and The Pacific. Most of this stuff is way better than what's on network TV. And there's also the talk shows, documentaries, and movies. I don't rent movies and very rarely go to the movies. I prefer to wait until movies come to HBO and Showtime, which I already pay for.

Sports is an even bigger issue for me.

So cable is still worth it to me but I certainly understand why people would be taking advantage of these other things.

-PN
 
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Paulyboy said:
I would love to do this but most of the best shows are on cable, namely HBO and Showtime. Just to name a few (current and past) The Sopranos, Entourage, The Wire, Rome, Carnival, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Californication, Dexter, The Tudors, and The Pacific. Most of this stuff is way better than what's on network TV. And there's also the talk shows, documentaries, and movies. I don't rent movies and very rarely go to the movies. I prefer to wait until movies come to HBO and Showtime, which I already pay me.

Sports is an even bigger issue for me.

So cable is still worth it to me but I certainly understand why people would be taking advantage of these other things.

-PN
Click to expand...

+1 to all of that
 
I cut the cord about 3 months ago and I don't plan on going back!

Big sports fan but I hated paying $150 for cable and internet. Just got my internet knocked down to $15 buck (plus tax). AT&T DSL... I know... I know... DSL sucks but its cheap and that's all I need right now.

I use my iPad as my content player for now. It can play huluplus and netflixs. I did jailbreak my iPad for TV out, which was perfect to display all my favorite shows.

We don't watch a ton of tv and my son only likes to watch music videos so the ATV takes care of him.

The time is now. Cut the cord and don't look back.
 
The only thing I really watch on TV is sports and could completely live without cable. But until I can watch all the major sports live in full HD I'm stuck with cable.
 
We just cut the cord too! Bye bye to DTV and $110/mo. So far we have:

ATV2 with Netflix
Samsung TV that has Amazon on Demand, Pandora. Unfortunately does not have Hulu as a widget.

Thats it so far. We are researching Roku to see if that will fill some more gaps.

Any other ideas to look at?
 
So i've been playing with the Roku/Apple TV combination for a few days now without cable. Overall, i'm extremely pleased.

I'm playing with the Plex media server/Plex iOS app combination right now and i'm really impressed - plug-in access is working just fine (I get full Hulu on my iPhone).

What really has me excited is this - the Plex app appears to be using the standard video player...so Airplay *might* work.

If that's the case, it's the whole enchilada. This is going to be an exciting week with 4.2 rumored for the 24th.
 
Never had a cord, and never missed it.

richpjr said:
The only thing I really watch on TV is sports and could completely live without cable. But until I can watch all the major sports live in full HD I'm stuck with cable.
Click to expand...

I've never had cable. Not even one day in my life. When traveling I'll watch it at the hotel, and then the only thing I like is MythBusters, The Science Channel and some sports.

At home all I really need is iTunes to buy an occasional TV show, and the internet to watch an occasional sports broadcast. No way is cable worth what you pay for it. Much better to get outside and enjoy life.
 
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Congrats! Welcome to the club. Enjoy the extra money every month for the rest of your life. :)

I have a PS3 and ATV 2G in the main living room and an ATV 2G in the master bedroom. The PS3 is for games, Blu Rays from Netflix, and MLB or Hulu Plus if I decide to go that route. The Apple TV is for everything else including my own stuff streamed locally plus content streamed from iTunes and Netflix. I use it regularly for podcasts, photos, slideshows, youtube, mobileme, my iTunes music library, watching my 720p/30 HD home videos, and even watching college courses at some of the country's top universities with iTunes U. In fact, I'm learning about developing iPhone applications right now with iTunes U.

I then have an OTA antenna and EyeTV for recording season passes of popular network TV shows and of course I can just watch them live right on the TV itself through the antenna.

I'm saving at least $90 a month myself since cutting off our Directv bill and loving my setup. That's near $1200 a year. :eek:
 
We cut the cord in April. Here is my setup.

OTA digital antenna in the attic
Apple TV 2.0
Roku
Samsung Bluray
Magnavox 500GB OTA DVR
 
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