Getting rid of Cable/Satellite

[Hoofbite]

I was setting up some cable the other day and just said screw it after the price just got too ridiculous. Couple hours of TV per week isn't worth 100 per month.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

I was setting up some cable the other day and just said screw it after the price just got too ridiculous. Couple hours of TV per week isn't worth 100 per month.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. I literally just paid $160 this past month for TV and Internet. That's just silly. I could drop that by about $100 if I could get by without the TV portion.

 

[theogt]

No reason you couldn't get the close to the same quality. You can set torrents to auto download most tv shows and even have them converted automatically to show up as recorded tv in windows media center. You can also use Hulu, Youtube and many other services to stream most of what is on tv in good to HD quality. This can all be integrated into a front end like media center. As for games, if your internet provider allows ESPN 3, then that's a great source that streams good enough for a tv. You can also check out justintv, which not only streams games in HD, but is usually doing out of market games. Check out sites like thegreenbutton, Hack7mc and even avsforum and they can show you how to integrate it all. Sounds like you've already looked at some of these sites.

I still have cable because others in the home won't let it go, but I'm pretty much ready to cut the cord. I use 4 OTA tuners, 1 QAM and 1 HD-PVR to record cable in HD. I have torrents automatically downloading and converting tv shows, races and sports to Recorded TV. I have Hulu and Boxee integrated into media center, and I use a program called macrotube to get Youtube HD and other streaming services into media center as well. Combine that with Netflix streaming and I rip all movies to another big HDD. Its all reachable to media center, but I hope to see it even more integrated. This is the future of TV, and like it already and never miss anything I don't want to. NFL games are mostly on networks, so OTA and/or QAM picks them up in better than cable or satellite quality anyway. If you don't have NFL Network, they have a $40 service that streams all preseason games in HD. I imagine Sunday Ticket will do the same at some point.

Sounds like a lot of trouble to save $100 per month.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

Sounds like a lot of trouble to save $100 per month.

It's actually pretty easy once you get the initial setup out of the way. To me, saving $1200+ a year is worth a little setting up and an occasional torrent download.

 

[rantanamo]

Sounds like a lot of trouble to save $100 per month.

Its not as bad as it sounds. Easily the greatest myth of HTPC. Just did a new HTPC build this past Monday evening. Just setting up a couple of plugins each day, and its all setup right now. The initial setup is really easy. Basically just physical install of tuners and really easy media center setup. The other programs are simply going to Hack7mc and the greenbutton for links, and just basic installs.

 

[jubal]

I'd say go for it, and if it doesn't work out, there will be several different companies more than happy to give you a great rate to pick up their service again.

The alternative is to get the setup working bit by bit, then try to live with it. Maybe turn your cable/sat package down to the minimum so you won't miss anything, but still have it in case there is something live you can't find on the net or OTA.

I cut Dish back to the minimum,and the only thing I miss is USA network and NFL channel.I can watch my fav. shows on the PC. I have been looking at hooking the PC to my HD tv but don't know what that would entail.
Thanks to this thread I have some good ideas now.