Cutting the cable .....

[Tim Boger]

The wife and I finally made it happen .... we've cancelled our Cable TV service from Time Warner Cable, still have our internet connection with them though.

Figure to save around $125 a month, we bought a new Smart TV and are now learning how to continue enjoying the programs we've become fond of.

It took us over an hour to get past their "Retention" dept. and call it quits .... I'm thinking we spoke with the Philippines, India and Wisconsin.

I would appreciate suggestions on how to get current national news and tips regarding Netflix, Hulu-plus and Amazon Prime.

Thanks,
Tim

[Pat Barry]

Good luck with that. Be curious to hear an update from you in 6 months. Do you watch much in the way of sports? That would be a deal breaker for me.

[Tim Boger]

We do enjoy an occasional NFL game .... she more than I. Don't really care if we were to watch it a week or two after the event date.

Yep ... time will tell.

[Art Mann]

We cut off cable TV over a year ago and haven't missed it at all. We are now mostly watching Netflix, Youtube and Vudu for entertainment. We occasionally rent movies at the Redbox kiosks. I can receive all the broadcast networks by way of antenna but the offerings are so pathetic that I seldom tune them in.

[David Weaver]

I cut it off 10 years ago. There are times when I can't see a game because its on ESPN or something, but I usually get over that in 15 seconds, and do something more useful with my time.

And with small kids, we're better off without it. Pretty much every study says it makes kids dumber and less able to focus, anyway.

[Myk Rian]

We just left our Daughters' home in Colorado to fly home today. She has Roku, and I couldn't find anything to watch without having to pay for it.
They TRY to get regular programming over the I-net. A real cluster bomb if you ask me.
Pat got it right. ^^^^^^

[Andrew Fleck]

Count me as another who has cut off cable over a year ago. We don't miss it one bit. We have a Roku and can watch all sorts of shows. We subscribe to Netflix and watch that through the Roku.

No real tips regarding Netflix. It depends on what you like to watch. My wife and I tend to find a series and watch those. Lately we have been on a British kick. Oh, and I haven't seen a commercial in over a year except for the short ones that preclude a Youtube video.

[Jim Matthews]

If you've got an XBox Live account you can stream all kinds of video.
It's how we watched the NHL Gamecenter all season.

There are lots of inexpensive BluRay players that will allow you to join Netflix and stream.
It will require that you have an Ethernet connection to your router.

This time of year, we're forced to reconnect to Charter cable's service in order
to watch the NBC coverage of the Playoffs. After two weeks of broadcast TV
I can honestly say that Netflix is better, for all it's limitations.

* NO COMMERCIALS *

* Content that I can't find anywhere else *

* Cheaper, and on demand *

You can also cancel whenever you like, without penalties.

http://techchannel.radioshack.com/st...ayer-2052.html

[David Weaver]

We just left our Daughters' home in Colorado to fly home today. She has Roku, and I couldn't find anything to watch without having to pay for it.
They TRY to get regular programming over the I-net. A real cluster bomb if you ask me.
Pat got it right. ^^^^^^

I can't imagine trying to pay attention to watch regular programming any longer, anyway. I have zero desire to let it take up space in my brain, the exception being...doc martin.

But I don't always see it (it's free on PBS), I'll see the episodes when they become free on amazon prime, or I won't at all. It won't make a difference.

The idea, to me, of someone asking me to give them $125 a month is just trash. If I got a TV bill for that much and just handed it over with nothing in return of permanent value, i'd have the same response mike rowe did when he talked about his adventure on a sheep farm.."how did I get here? how did I arrive at a place where I'm willing to spend the money on nothing?"

At $125, they're getting me to pay them to do something that wastes my time (with the commercials, schedule switching, etc). I got out 10 or 12 years ago when expanded basic went, over a 3 year period, from 29 a month to 49 a month. It was an instant improvement in my life not to follow all of that garbage around.

Really guys, you won't have any convulsions, ticks, shivers or anything like that. You will instead entertain yourself with something stimulating and focused.

[Chuck Wintle]

if its possible to stream jeopardy thru the internet then I would cancel my cable as well and revert to Roku or just an ordinary antenna. What I am concerned abut now is the loss of net neutrality and the advantage it will give to the big players.

[David Weaver]

I'd bet you can get jeopardy for free with a $10 antenna.

[Pat Barry]

I can't imagine trying to pay attention to watch regular programming any longer, anyway. I have zero desire to let it take up space in my brain, the exception being...doc martin.

But I don't always see it (it's free on PBS), I'll see the episodes when they become free on amazon prime, or I won't at all. It won't make a difference.

The idea, to me, of someone asking me to give them $125 a month is just trash. If I got a TV bill for that much and just handed it over with nothing in return of permanent value, i'd have the same response mike rowe did when he talked about his adventure on a sheep farm.."how did I get here? how did I arrive at a place where I'm willing to spend the money on nothing?"

At $125, they're getting me to pay them to do something that wastes my time (with the commercials, schedule switching, etc). I got out 10 or 12 years ago when expanded basic went, over a 3 year period, from 29 a month to 49 a month. It was an instant improvement in my life not to follow all of that garbage around.

Really guys, you won't have any convulsions, ticks, shivers or anything like that. You will instead entertain yourself with something stimulating and focused.

I respect your commitment to your decision. How does your family feel about that? As you know, Amazon prime is a very expensive TV service on its own, with very limited options. You can be sure their price will rise as the viewership increases -its the modern way.

[David Weaver]

Well, prime isn't really that (expensive) compared to anything. We got prime without knowing anything about there being streaming videos, so we weren't paying $79 for anything video related, they're just there.

My wife watches TV less than I do, and the kids are given very limited TV. My daughter would rather watch something specific from prime the 45 minutes a day or so that she's allowed to watch a video for quiet time.

It's not hard to watch my daughter (4) and son (1) and see that their brain activity is stifled as soon as they're watching TV. We obviously don't show TV to a 1 year old, but he will sometimes try to watch it when I'm watching something - but what I watch (golf, pbs) doesn't have enough noise and distraction for him to pay attention to it. Even at 1, if there's something with music and lots of noise, he get sucked into it and his brain shuts off.

I watched a rash of documentaries when I first got prime and found free video on it (and I say free because it used to be $79 without video, but it's obviously not free if all you're getting it for is the video), but got over that fairly quickly. I doubt I'll have prime after this year, but it isn't hard to go out to youtube and find content if you really want to watch something. Might not be exactly what you wanted to watch, but there's plenty of interesting topic material on youtube.

At any rate, my wife is a busy body and values groups of people over TV (clubs, spending time with friends, etc), and thus my daughter goes along with that now, too. My parents allowed me to watch unlimited TV, and I have a short attention span. Because of it? I don't know. I know when I turn the TV off, I do things that are much more satisfying, and it only takes 5 minutes or so of an activity to get over the hurdle of laziness and realize that I'm a lot happier doing than watching.

Look around on google and check out brain scans of watching TV vs. doing various activities, and search for discussions regarding TV and dealing with reality and its effect on attention spans, especially for young viewers.

(now saying all of this, when I was 12 and probably watching 5 hours of TV a day - unless I had a baseball game or something (i grew up rural, so TV was the easy option if you were bored) - I would've thought I just couldn't survive without TV).

I suppose we'll find out the internet has a similar effect, but it's difficult to get an objective view on it, because it's a handy medium for collecting data on people and piping advertisements. Nobody footing the bill is really going to want to encourage you to unplug everything and do something more stimulating.

[glenn bradley]

I think you will find a method that works for you. I banned network/cable TV from the house 20-odd years ago. I did watch movies and shows that I specifically acquire through rental, streaming or whatever. Currently I do not have a TV in the house (and haven't for a number of years) but, I do plan on getting another in the near future as LOML enjoys watching some things now and again. To me a television is like a cell phone; convenient if used properly but, intrusive if not controlled.

[Sean Troy]

We got rid of Satellite and installed: http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT751-Dur...terior+antenna We live in a town on the smaller side yet get 21 channels local. Netflix and Hulu Plus cost 16.00 a month and no one in the family misses all those channels we used to get on satellite.