How many people here have cut the cable on TV?

[test]

Havn't had cable for almost 5 years now. Download all my shows and movies and stored on drives. 761 movies to date and still going.

 

[DJCowboy]

I work for a cable company so I get my cable and internet for a very good rate!

I still love Netflix too so I watch that quite often

 

[squallumz]

i dropped cable a couple years ago or so. dont miss it one bit. i plugged in the antenna for the olympics but thats about it.

my girl, however, has had a harder time adjusting to life without tv. but shes doing a lot better now. ive been bumming netflix off my mom for a little while, but its not that great of a service. a lot of shitty filler.

 

[DR. B]

I have cable, even though I barely watch it, I have it. Even when i do watch tv i watch espn, lol of all channels. I love that I can afford these luxuries. I hate people who say, "theres never anything on cable, blah blah blah, oh I save me $100 bucks, blah blah blah." the problem isn't cable or it's services, it's you. you just have a shitty job and can't afford these type of things.

 

[smoothieluv]

I have basic cable but only because I've was able to get internet + basic cable bundled together for about 50% of what they were charging for internet alone. I only get like 22 channels & half of them are home shopping, religious, or duplicate public broadcast channels. For some reason I get PBS for two different markets and they are almost always playing the exact same thing.

I don't watch much television anyway.

Cutting the cord is rough for sports fans. I get my espn fix through my xbox which is really just a repackaged version of espn3 (or whatever they're calling it these days). But they do stream some pro games on it. It sucks that if I want to see monday night football I have to find a friend with cable who will let me come over or head to a sports bar or something. NBA is rough too because although I can stream quite a few games through the espn xbox app the best games tend to come on TNT.

For the tv shows that arent available for streaming I either try to find a friend to watch it with each week or have my brother dvr it for me & burn me a DVD from time to time.

I'm a big fan of media streamers & media programs such as xbmc & plex. I ripped all of the dvd's that i own to my hard drive just so I could have a cool "video jukebox." I rarely watch a movie more than twice! haha

 

[bobjustbob]

Back in the 90's I was down on my luck renting a room. No TV. I went that way for 9 months listening to the radio and reading newspapers. I got a deal on a TV. Took it home and hooked up the ears. I was watching Wacky World of Baseball and fell asleep. Woke up to home videos of kids falling on their ass and guys getting hit in the balls. I thought it was 2 in the morning and this was the shit that they put on. Wrong. It was 8:30 prime time. I shut that shit off and didn't turn it on again for another 3 months.

Had cable till 4 years ago and just cut that shit off. I've got some ears for a little TV in my bedroom and that's it. 50 bucks from my cable company per month and they want me to pay another $15 to get a package to get the horse racing channel. Fuck you. Every other cable company gives it for free with a basic package. I can watch live streaming from any track website. Dish has racing on basic but I can't have it where I live. Oh, well. The less TV I watch the better.

 

[Bobe99]

There is nothing on TV now do to well too many people downloading movies and shows .

Well when this happance less people watch TV and less money thus to make money they have to have cheap programs and this why TV is the way it is.

It people to blame not networks.

 

[Rey C.]

There is nothing on TV now do to well too many people downloading movies and shows .

Well when this happance less people watch TV and less money thus to make money they have to have cheap programs and this why TV is the way it is.

It people to blame not networks.

I agree with you that there's not as much "good TV" as there used to be. But I think one big reason is the high production costs for the free over-air-networks as they try to compete with the likes of HBO, Starz and even AMC. Other than Lost a few years ago, there really haven't been that many hit, scripted TV shows on network compared to what's been on HBO (The Sopranos, The Wire, Rome, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, etc.), Starz (Boss) or AMC (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Hell on Wheels, etc.). Scripted shows do tend to cost a lot of money to produce. And the returns aren't so certain, I guess. Other than those tired crime/cop shows that have been on forever, what else do they really have? Anything fresh or original? :dunno: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC have gotten lazy and cheap. They'd rather produce goofy reality TV shows and talent competitions than spend the money and take the chance on well written, scripted shows. Plus, the cable channels can get away with nudity and violence that the networks can't. So I guess they do kind of have one hand tied behind their backs. But I still think they're lazy. Except for the occasional bad language, there's no reason that CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox couldn't have had Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Hell on Wheels or Boss. But they'd rather recycle a bunch of cheap to produce, no talent necessary, reality TV crap or some lame talent show.

I wouldn't mind paying for individual subscriptions to AMC or HBO and certain other premium channels. I now have a way to get live feeds of Bloomberg and CNBC. I seldom watch over-air networks, but if I wanted to, I could use a digital antenna to do that - maybe some occasional PBS. Most/many of the handful of scripted shows that I still give a crap about I could get from Hulu, iTunes or Netflix. So far, the only thing that I haven't found a good, reliable way to get is F1. And I have to have my Formula One! But Bernie seems to have any kind of funny F1 broadcasts pretty well locked down.

There's still a rumor going round that Apple might buy TiVo. But I wish Apple (or somebody) would buy Lionsgate, Time Warner or some other big content company. Apple could write a check for Time Warner tomorrow morning, and even with a necessary premium, still have at least $50 billion left in the bank! Do it! Do it! Do it! Now that would shake some monkeys out of the tree! :banger:

 

[Rey C.]

Revamped Boxee TV packs cloud-based DVR action

It's been nearly two years to the day since we first discussed the Boxee set-top box that launched way back in 2010 after a lot of hype and fanfare.

As you may recall, the device didn't exactly catch on in the hyper-competitve market. Nevertheless, Boxee is back with a new device packing a wealth of new features. Dubbed Boxee TV, the set-top box is slated to launch on November 1 for a sweet $99.

The Boxee TV is focused more on live TV streaming and recording than its predecessor. Indeed, the Boxee TV offers dual tuners capable of viewing unencrypted basic cable channels and over the air HD broadcasts. The box also allows users to record programs over the air or from basic cable to a cloud-based DVR.

Interestingly, the device lacks internal storage, instead relying on an online DVR service with unlimited space for just $15 per month. Personally, the only time I would think a cloud-based DVR would pose an issue is when your Internet connection is too slow for decent streaming or out altogether.

Otherwise, it's nice to know you can record any and every program you want - and not have to worry about deleting shows or movies to make space for new content. In addition to playing recorded programs back on your TV or computer, there are apps that allow users to stream Boxee content on a tablet or smartphone.

 

[Rey C.]

Sony’s PlayStation Vue Aims To Cut Cable Using PS4, PS3, iPad

Here is what can be expected when PlayStation Vue becomes available.

CBS – At launch, PlayStation Vue will offer the live linear signal from CBS Television Network’s owned-and-operated TV stations in select leading markets in addition to on-demand prime-time programming.
Discovery Communications – Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science, OWN: [NOBABE]Oprah Winfrey[/NOBABE] Network, Discovery Family Channel and 11 more brands.
Fox – Fox Networks Group’s portfolio of national entertainment programming services, including – FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD. Additionally FOX Sports’ national and regional programming services – FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, BTN, Fox’s regional sports networks, including YES Network and Prime Ticket. The agreement also covers Fox’s owned and operated television stations.
NBCUniversal – All local offerings from NBC, Telemundo and regional sports networks as well as Bravo, CNBC, E!, NBCSN, Oxygen, Sprout, Syfy, USA Network and more.
Scripps Networks Interactive – HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network and Cooking Channel.
Viacom – BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Palladia, Spike, VH1 and more.

This is the first stand-alone package that I've seen where I can get the shows/networks that I do watch... all 2 of them: CNBC and NBCSports for my F1. :nanner:

Between this and the Roku, DirecTV, your days are numbered in my house! Just need to see how much this runs... and whether or not I can use either a Roku or AppleTV to port it to the big screen. I'd rather not have to buy a Sony PlayStation just for this (I have no interest in games), but we'll do what we have to do to get DirecTV the hell outta here!

 

[MustBeGood]

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Finally and a great idea. But rather see Senator John McCain try to push a la carte cable through Congress

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-mccain-pushes-a-la-567663

However it is sports that drives up cable prices. Every time one network outbids another for the TV rights the end results is the consumer if you watch any sports competition or not ends up getting the bill.

 

[Supafly]

I watch over antenna digital TV, but it isn't free. In Germanyy, there is a flat tv tax everybody has to pay. Only few are excepted.

In addition, streaming.

 

[BusterLoads]

Hulu+ + Netflix = No need for cable.... and right now I don't even pay for either streaming service... go me.