My On Demand Future

If I didn't get it for free through my building, I wouldn't have cable. It's too much of a hassle when I can just watch everything online or stream it via Netflix.

Is bandwidth usage concerns the only thing keeping premium cable stations from streaming content like networks?

It seems that nowadays with the ability to hook a nice LCD up as your computer monitor that we are not too far away from Bill Gates' dream of having the PC serve as the central entertainment device in our households.

I myself do not have cable; I'm never home and network shows in recent years have not been enticing enough to not want to do as Devin says, watch in one sitting on DVD or catch it online.

I have been toying with moving my desktop into my living room and dropping even the 11 channels I have. Netflix is the only reason I turn on my TV nowadays anyway. If I move the desktop I could skip getting a Roku and possibly begin to learn more about Hulu.

Excellent read, Dev. I disagree about physical media when it comes to movies though. There's just something about owning something I can hold. CD's are beginning to drive me nuts as I do download them directly to my computer and then rarely carry them with me since my phone Bluetooths to the deck in my car.

Perhaps I should view movies in the same way as space occupiers.

Sooooo.....not to be the guy with the shady idea's and what not....but...

I'm assuming for work you'll still be keeping internet access (obviously). If that internet is from your cable provider, the internet feed is the same as the basic cable feed. A simple splitter means you don't have to miss Anderson Cooper.

My tv hasn't been hooked up in years and while I enjoy watching Current or Music Choice at my mother's. Those aren't exactly integral channels.

All TV sucks.

This might be true in some places but it certainly can't be taken for granted anymore. When I had Time Warner, which lasted up through January of this year, they had deleted almost all the traditional "basic" channels from their unscrambled analog and digital cable (clear QAM) basic tiers, including but not limited to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and so on. Other cable companies I've dealt with have put a blocker on my line when I canceled TV service in favor of "internet only", so I got nothing at all but internet.

It's not the usage that's the problem. It's that there isn't enough bandwidth to stream and the internet can be somewhat unreliable. Internet connections drop out a lot more than HDTV.

Most connections are barely fast enough to stream one HD show, let alone a whole channel roster.

Nice Advocate- I'm already there with you. With Netflix and Hulu we already scaled back to basic cable, and this month we're cutting it out completely. It just isn't worth it- we just don't watch enough tv shows regularly to keep it- preferring to watch them at our leisure on Hulu or when it hits dvd.

One thing anyone looking into doing this might want to check out is Playon. I tried the beta and it worked perfectly, which was great when every episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia was on Hulu, because we watched all those bastards on my tv. It's not a bad deal for 40 bucks.

That just took me to one of your own articles, you sneaky self-shill you!

hahaha whoops, fixed it. (You should come out Wednesday anyway...)

I pay $75.88 a month, and I work nights. That means I sleep through primetime 5-6 nights a week. The only upside is I catch alot of movies on HBO I might never get around to seeing otherwise. I really need to dump cable as well, but it seems like a utility anymore. Water, electricity, cable.

And how much does Devin spend at the bar a month? Just kidding.

People will never go completely on demand. Having to think and choose carefully what you want to watch is counter to just chilling out and flipping the channels.

I haven't had any service since Direct TV a few years ago, but I was happy with it. I saw enough oddball things on IFC and Sundance Channel and the other random movie stations to justify it.

I would have ordered Verizon TV with my DSL, but their channel selection is a total joke (No IFC or Sundance)

Devil's Advocate: How much longer for this to be a major trend as PCs pop up in more homes and the population catches on? I'm considering cancelling cable myself to save money (especially due to my DVD collection). And then how much longer till they start to charge more for internet access, or stop having free viewings of these shows on the legal sites, or start including more than just "short commercial interruptions"? It's nice now (and good for short-term lack of funds), but only b/c we're a minority at the moment and the business model hasn't switched/combined. Will cable on the TV just turn into cable on the PC (and possibly piped back to the larger TV for some)? Or is this generation too hung up on watching their shows on the big screen TVs to bother?

TV on DVD is still my preferred method (I can't shake the collector mentality), as long as I can stay spoiler free till release. But it's hard to be patient when I know that the latest free ep is up online somewhere and I'm all caught up.

I have my room set up in such a way that I can hook my laptop up to my TV and just use it as a second monitor. This is SOOOOOOO much easier than trying to find a device to stream Hulu, Boxee, CBS and ABC.com to it, and it works great for...other video formats as well. If you can find a good setup, it can ease a lot of hassle.

I haven't had cable TV for about 2 years now. Until about 6 months ago, I missed it. Now I have Netflix and Playon, which in total is still far cheaper than the cost of basic cable for a single month.

They might be getting a new customer for this alone.

I still run across too many interesting docs on stuff like the History Channel and National Geographic to totally cut the cord.

Having HD televisions and a couple of HD antennas has worked wonders for me. Watching HD over the air looks better than HD over DirectTV or cable. And it's free (well, after you pay $50 to $60 for a decent grounded HD antenna).

I missed cable a little bit at first too, but I figured most of the shows I currently watch are on network tv. The few shows I watch on FX, Showtime, and HBO I either watch on Hulu/Joost or wait to buy the DVD sets. And if I want to watch a sporting event that's not on network tv, I go to a bar or to a friend's house.

The only thing I miss now is being lazy and watching marathons of horrible (but addicting) reality shows on VH1 and MTV over the weekends. It's probably a good thing I'm not spending my time doing that anymore.

Funnily enough, reading Devin's article gave me a big nostalgia storm.

Getting Showtime, MTV and (yes damn you) Nickelodeon was a huge deal for me when I was a wee lad. Just the idea that you could watch an entire movie with all the dirty parts intact and no commercials made it seem like this adult thing.

Showtime introduced me to such classics as Starcrash, Hanger 18 and other classics of the cinema.

Having said all that, I have not had cable for 12 years. I can download most shows off the Internet. BSG I could download via iTunes and now Amazon. I love having the freedom of just randomly starting up an old episode of Star Trek whenever I want. And again (so far) no shitty commericals

Cut the cord man. You won't miss it. I haven't turned on the TV in my house for 2 years now. These days, you can find just about any TV show you want to watch online either legally or through torrents. With PC connections on TVs, it's really a no brainer to toss the cable box and put a laptop in its place. That is, unless you like to channel surf and watch American Idol.

Related topic: What are some Chewer's feelings about downloading the Divx versions of the TV shows right after they air? I would never watch a bootlegged movie but I have no big quallms about watching an avi of Lost after it airs. Isn't it kind of like borrowing a tape of last night's broadcast?

Pretty much 100% agree. It's all heading to the interweb.

Use your HDTV as a second monitor, from your laptop. Put the browser on the HDTV, go fullscreen. Oh and choose the highest rez of course.

I cut out cable about 2 years ago when I started to live on my own. It was a great decision that I pretty much never regret. The only channels I'm ever interested in watching are Discovery, Food Network, and G4. I can live without those and paying outrageous bills for 3 channels.

You won't regret the decision, Devin.

They also have TVs that are coming out soon that have built in widgets for streaming Netflix and Hulu to your TV.

Good article. University led me to similar thoughts, at times.

I'm locked into a 2 year price guarantee with Time Warner, but even so I'm nearly ready to eat the cancellation fee and cut the cord. Not that AT&T is much better (hello govt spying with immunity!), but going back to them for DSL + phone is sounding better all the time. Especially since I was without phone and Internet nearly all weekend because of Time Warner's AWESOME reliability.

With two little kids and very little leisure time, we just don't watch much TV. I'm ready.

Streaming video is too unreliable, and downloads take too long right now. Once I can get a faster broadband connection, my satellite service is headed for the chopping block.

I was about to drop my cable, but after some haggling, they offered to give me the (standard) cable channels I've always gotten for half the price (which was already pretty low) - and they threw in 6 months of HBO for free. Done and done!

They are seriously desperate to keep customers, and now more than ever, they will totally cut deals to keep them from leaving.

Yeah, I get a little frustrated when the audio isn't in sync, or despite loading the next segment (seemingly) during the short commercial interruptions , still freezing/skipping on occasion. Almost as annoying as watching with commercials on cable at times. I'm looking forward to the kinks getting ironed out, and getting a long enough cable from my PC to my TV.

I'd also like to drop my land phone (same service as my cable and internet), but hesitate b/c I don't want to change my cell plan (requires another contract extension) and increase my minutes (rob Peter to pay Paul).

The loss of cable sports is probably the only thing stopping me. If NCAA.com would stream all college hoops and football they way they have for the Tournament...

More fuel for the fire?

We cut back a lot of channels, and between our internet and cable, we're still paying $130 a month. Since we get basic cable through our apartment complex anyway, we're seriously thinking about springing one month's cable bill on a Tivo unit and just paying the $12.95 a month for their service. We'd be saving about $100 a month, and while I'll miss some of the niche channels we'd be losing, most of the stuff we DVR now is on basic cable anyway.

I prefer sitting on a leather couch and watching TV on my 50-inch plasma with surround sound, rather than at a table in my office in a straight back chair. To each his own.

Ya know, when these sites start keeping more than 1-3 weeks of eps on hand (CW?) or make their proprietary video players more reliable (ABC?), I'll consider cancelling my cable. It's even worse when the start pulling newer eps and hosting older reruns instead, or skipping eps (Hulu having ep 11, 13, and 14, but no 12, etc). Having the freedom of watching the eps online is supposed to make things easier, but if I have to make sure I watch the new eps ASAP for fear of them getting yanked, then my schedule is still forced.

What I need is a DVR. But that's just an added cost to my monthly cable bill.

I'd be happy if they just released half of a TV season on DVD in the spring (for half the price naturally), so I didn't have to wait till the fall (and possibly after the new season premiere) for the entire release. And no, I really don't want to buy the eps from itunes or amazon individually.

1. Get an HDTV if you don't already.
2. Get a Tivo HD. Pay the lifetime service fee. It's steep, but you'll recoup in a couple of months after you complete step 3.
3. Cancel your Cable/Dish. Give your phone a celebratory middle finger.
4. Hook antenna to Tivo. Enjoy HD recorded off the air, for free. Also, you can stream Netflix over Tivo if you don't have an Xbox.

Bonus: the Tivo interface is amazing. I had a series 2 Tivo hooked up to antenna for a couple of years. When I went to Dish, I thought their DVR was the worst thing ever. I was wrong. Time Warner's DVR is the worst.

I have step 1 completed. Just trying to convince my wife to go for the rest.

Because of travel, I'm relying more and more on torrents to get the latest shows, so even my DVR is becoming pretty redundant. Sites like eztv.it pretty much have the latest shows within the hour.

Just got a new HD TV, and got a ten dollar digital antenna and am now watching NBA basketball in glorious HD without a goddamn penny going to BrightHouse.

Any canadians know of a Huluesque source to watch from? I'm currently paying about $100 a month for cable and internet(Not even digital cable at the moment) and I'd love to explore some alternatives.

Out of the blue my cable jumped $5.00 this month. $81.04 total for digital cable, and HBO. This is the last month. Come July, cable is gone.

Devin may I recommend the PS3 browser for Hulu. I guess I just like going from blu-ray to digital downloads to Hulu all in one machine.

Honestly though, I do have a PC with tons of stuff that I stream to the PS3, makes life a lot easier. I even stream stuff to the iphone (not just music, but some documents as well). I also use it to stream TV to the phone as well (it was great to watch a Braves game live and then turn on TNT and keep up with the NBA playoffs).

I'd also recommend an OTA HD antenna, cause HD > Hulu 480p.

Surfthechannel.com

I won't say how, but you can easily download the shows (even in HD) and use a lot of devices to watch them on your tv (PS3, Xbox etc).

I gotta say though, hook up a PC/laptop to a TV and just go the channel's website and watch the show. For HBO, ummm my first method...

Devin (and others), how's the experiment going?

I just switched back to AT&T for phone and Internet, and will be canceling cable as soon as that stuff gets installed. Once I reactivated Netflix, I realized that between the size of my existing DVD queue and the ever-growing size of the Instant View queue, I'll never catch up to everything I want to watch anyway. Add PlayOn and the ability to also have Hulu on my Xbox 360, two little kids who demand much of my time anyway, and I don't think I'll even really use my antenna that much.

Still, I'm debating a new Tivo, just because they offered me a pretty great deal to upgrade from my old Series 1 unit. Wouldn't hurt to have the ability to DVR at least *some* stuff.

The bad news is that I tried a couple of old antennas, and my signal strength is pretty lousy. I may need to roof/attic mount something to get consistent reception. Ugh. I *really* don't want to crawl around my attic and attempt line drops in the wall.

I'm in the UK so that's pretty much all I do. I have a Popcorn Hour media box and then I download on the laptop and transfer over to the box. I get to watch in HD and in 5.1 on most shows, and I got to see a lot of stuff I would never had seen otherwise.

I will admit that UK TV is getting a lot better on catching up with US TV. Any fan's of 'Oz' or 'Homicide' will know what it was like trying to follow those shows on UK TV. It eventually got to the point where 'Oz' was being shown about 3 on Saturday mornings. It was bizarre, and that's on the occasions that they actually decided to show them.

Now though with stuff like 'Lost' and '24' we're only a week behind.

It's now at the point that a lot of people I know tend to download TV shows. It's not how they do all their TV watching, but it's so easy for most people to fire up a torrent site and go from there.

Of course, at least you don't have to pay for the privilege of owning a TV like we do here.

This is still why I satalite. My pc monitor is only 19in, and dragging my pc into the living room is just not for me. To each their own.

I don't drag anything anywhere. I keep a separate dedicated PC hooked up to my TV. You don't need much of a PC when all it has to do is stream online content.

Ok, you guys did it. I'm quitting next month. I'm moving things around and finding a way to hook my iMac into the TV for occasional watching. I went through this list of reasons:

1. I don't watch the same stuff Devin does, I like watching bullshit cartoons in my spare ti... oh, look at all the free bullshit animation on hulu. Oooo, look at Fearnet!!

2. I have a Blu-ray player, I can't watch low-res video... oh, right, I don't get hi-def TV anyway.

3. It's hard to move this desk downstairs to the... oh, I can lift it on my own. I don't even need to call anyone for help.

So here I go.