Why is it so difficult to cut the Cable?

[Ugadata]

From Yahoo News

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/In-the-Living-Room-Hooked-on-nytimes-185019863.html?x=0&mod=pf-family-home

[quote]It is a fantasy shared by many Americans: dropping cable television and its fat monthly bills and turning instead to the wide-open frontier of Internet video.

Some are finding that the reality is not that simple.[/quote]

[captain_video]

I would never cut off my primary TV provider simply because the other methods of receiving TV are either unacceptable or inconvenient, except for OTA.  I record 99% of everything I watch, with the exception of live sports programming.  Last time I checked, when you watch a show on Hulu or other online service, the shows still contain commercials and don’t provide a method to fast forward past them.  With my HTPC and Tivos, I can skip past the commercials, which reduces the time I spend in front of the TV by about 18-20 minutes for every 1-hour program.  I watch a lot of TV so having the ability to cut my viewing time by almost a third is a no-brainer for me.

Watching a show on anything smaller than a 35-40″ HDTV is no longer enjoyable for me.  I’ll admit it, I’m spoiled.  I got into HDTV for the whole home theater experience, including topnotch surround sound.  The idea of watching TV on a smart phone or tablet is completely repugnant.  The younger generation sees this as being cool and like the convenience of it all.  My tastes are a little more stringent.  I don’t just watch TV, I get immersed in the experience.  If you can’t get the maximum enjoyment out of it then you’re just wasting your time in front of the boob tube.  My wife still doesn’t understand the difference it makes to me.  All she sees is just TV.

I’ll confess I use Bittorrent sites to acquire a couple of shows from Showtime and a few other channels that I don’t subscribe to.  I’m about to drop HBO, which costs me an absurd $22.99 per month from Verizon, so I’ll probably start getting those shows from BT sites as well.  HBO only has a couple of good series each season, and only on Sunday nights.  I get far more movies per month from NetFlix at a much lower cost, including HBO and Showtime series on Blu-Ray.  I rarely bother with standard DVDs anymore.

I haven’t warmed up to any of the online streaming services yet, mostly because the picture quality and audio I’ve experienced isn’t yet comparable to what I can get on FIOS or Blu-Ray.  Again, I’m just picky about what I watch and listen to.  Call me an elitist or a snob if you must.  I just know what I like.

[robinhoody]

I can understand the ease of cable and watching your shows, I’m younger and I do fall right into the age range that the article is talking about.  I have cut the cable, and I dont miss cable one bit, it may be because I grew up with it? 
  The people interviewed for this article are either A really stupid or B didnt do thier research very well.  A 40 year old engineer and he didnt consider a HTPC? or using an OTA tuner?  and secondly the college kids gather around a tiny laptop to watch hulu?  for one why dont they just ota TV to watch the office?  problem solved.  and if they have a decent laptop they could just get an ota tuner and dvr the office.  To me it almost seems like yahoo is trying to give “cutting the cable” a bad reputation.  I’ll admit its not for everyone but its really not that difficult to do with a little research and a little work anyone if determined can have a super nice set up and never have to pay for cable again.  For the sports side of things they lacked to say that you can purchase an xbox later this year for full streaming ESPN.  I’ll stop my rant now :p

[Ugadata]

After posting this, I realized there are about 3 articles today covering this subject in one form or another.

Although I have thrown cable out in the past,  I’m not sure I could do it again.  There are too many “cable” only shows I watch. 

Granted I could download the shows within in days after they are broadcast, wait until they show up on Hulu or other streaming venue (that’s presume they show up at all), or again wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray (some waits will be longer than others).  I currently prefer the timeliness of recording and viewing these shows on my schedule.  Downloading shows through bittorrent , to me, is similar to using a P2P network for downloading, At Your Own Risk.  Certainly, I’ve done it when I’ve missed certain episodes of a show, but I try not to if I can help it.

I’ve watch a number of shows through Hulu and the commercials are very short compared to commercial TV, but your not going to get the immersive experience.  Not to mention if you need to go to the networks website to view, it leaves much to be desired in most cases (I’m being nice)

[autoboy]

My opinion:

Hulu quality is terrible.  Yeah.  It is really that bad and blow it up to 65″ and it is worse.  I don’t mind the commercials because there are only a few of them, but OMG it looks bad.

Netflix streaming is great.  I catch up on a lot of shows on Netflix, the ones available in HD look as good as the Cable broadcast, and I can watch them all in a row.  It is perfect for watch a whole season of a show at once, but their selection doesn’t include a lot of shows I watch.

Netflix movie rental is a big part of my TV experience.  I like quality, so I like to rent seasons of shows on BD or DVD and watch them at my convenience.  Shows on HBO eventually make it to BD and I can wait.  I’m waiting to see the Pacific when it comes out on BD.  I also wanted for Life on BD because the Discovery Channel is too compressed to appreciate the quality of the cinematography.  I don’t think I am alone in waiting for Life either…I ended up buying the whole set.  The problem with Netflix for most consumers is that you have to watch what they give you.  You have 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 movies at a time, and often times that’s a whole season of a show so you don’t get to watch anything but that.

Bit Torrent.  I’ve tried it on a few shows like Lost early on.  The quality wasn’t great, it was hit or miss on 5.1 surround, and it was really time consuming trying to find a good rip.  I’d rather spend my time watching for TV than searching for TV.  I still use it on occasion when something goes wrong with my system and I miss an episode of the Bachelor.  The wife hates it when that happens.  She thinks it is only her shows that sometimes miss, but it happens fairly often for one reason or another.

Cable.  The quality is very good when compared to a lot of streaming.  You get the news, sports, and other shows that never end up on DVD or streaming.  I record a LOT of shows I never watch and I have a large library of casual shows recorded and ready to watch at any time.  I can’t live without cable, but I also can’t believe how much I pay for basic HD service.  It is ridiculous.

[jbachman2]

I have forgotten that I was watching a show on Hulu vs off of my DVR, but netflix non-HD streaming is almost painful to watch, IMO.  Sadly, I’ll be tied to Directv until there is an alternative to NFL Sunday Ticket.  I’ve thought of getting a slingbox but don’t want to deal with the hassles if something goes wrong at the source location.

[Mike Garcen]

did you hear that you can now buy the Sunday Ticket for online access only (but for the same cost)? Only downside of course being that those online games are *not* in HD…but hey, it’s moving in the right direction at least

[jbachman2]

No I hadn’t heard that.  I’d been getting the internet access add-on for a few years because it was “free” with the Superfan upgrade which gave you the games in HD.  I would just let my friend in LA use the internet part so he could watch the Seahawks games. 

I’ll have to check into the internet portion this year since HD is now part of the base package.

[Mike Garcen]

Here’s a link: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2010/08/directv-to-offer-nfl-sunday-ticket-to-non-subscribers-via-the-internet/1

It’s still $350 though. ouch!

[jennyfur]

I agree with the complaints on quality of internet video. I absolutely hate watching Hulu on my 50″ HDTV, but compared to paying $100 a month for the same priveledge from the cable company I’m willing to suck it up and deal for the very few shows I’d bother watching. Netflix streaming actually is decent so the only gripe there is content/choices.

I cut the cord awhile ago (3 years? I don’t even remember anymore) and haven’t looked back. My biggest loss (besides HGTV) is live sports. This year, I couldn’t stand it anymore and bought a subscription to MLB.tv which has helped fill the gap along with ESPN3, both of which I can access through my xbox 360 using PlayOn. Using PlayOn through an extender is a painful experience that I now avoid. Soon enough the xbox will do ESPN3 natively and I won’t need PlayOn for that anymore. I wish I had a PS3 so I could say the same for MLB.tv.

This article perplexes me as well since it completely avoids OTA. Why on earth those roommates would gather around a laptop is beyond me… at the very least, use some sort of video out to your TV! They wouldn’t even need to venture into tuners and OTA or anything else to do that. To me, this article just proves that people are ignorant of their options when cutting the cord, not that they aren’t willing to do it. I have a friend who doesn’t have cable because she can’t afford it, yet she didn’t have the slightest clue about OTA until I explained it to her. Once there are more informed people I think there may be more willing to take the leap.

[Anonymous]

The only reason cutting the cord is hard is because there’s no sports service like Hulu Plus.  That happens and the cord is cut even if its $20 or $30.  BTW,  The HD on Hulu Plus is actually really nice unless you’re comparing it to FiOS.  I’ve literally looked at all my series I record from FiOS to see if I can get them in equal or greater quality elsewhere, and it simply comes down to sports.  I’m surprised ESPN and Fox haven’t gone this route.  They could make more money on their own just streaming their channels in HD.  I would bite. 

[Crim]

I don’t watch any cable TV (live or recorded) due to alternate methods. Then again I don’t care about sports or anything like that.

I still watch the latest shows and all that.

The only ones in the house that do watch cable TV are my mother and my sister. They like stuff like VH1….

Now, what I take away from articles like this is that MUCH of America wants to ditch the crappy service that Cable Co’s offer. If Hulu got thier stuff together I’m sure they could make a very compelling service that many would jump on.

[jbachman2]

Netflix, NFL Sunday Ticket online and MLB.TV online would total out to $650.00 a year.  OTA and Hulu basic are free so I could drop Directv and save about $800 a year.  Interesting, I’ll take it up with the commitee…

[Mike Garcen]

i thought the sports issue would kill me when i cut the cord (well, i still have basic cable), but thanks to ESPN3 i’ve pretty much been able to manage. Quality is definitely not as good as HD, but it’s still pretty solid.

[jennyfur]

[quote=”shadymg”]
i thought the sports issue would kill me when i cut the cord (well, i still have basic cable), but thanks to ESPN3 i’ve pretty much been able to manage. Quality is definitely not as good as HD, but it’s still pretty solid.
[/quote]

Same here with a subscription to MLB.tv (which gives me more than I could have watched on cable anyway since my team is out of market)

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