It has long been my SOP to embrace what's new just after the early adopters. The George Foreman Grill. Digital Photography. Cell Phones. Not rich enough to pay top dollar for all the new tech (STAR-TAC!) and not patient enough to wait another year for the prices to really drop.
That, and honestly, to try to be efficient with a dollar where I can - especially now - in Michigan's economy. So since the time I first heard about Media Centers, and since I have a Mac Mini and since I hate spending $120 a month for cable television and channels like The Hallmark Movie, O!, The Food Network and several hundred other channels of content which are ridiculously irrelevant to me, I figured all those people disconnecting their cable and getting their TV from the Internet must have something going for them; either they're incredibly cheap, tech-headed nerds, and/or all the above.
Well, that train pulled into Royal Oak, MI, and I am on board!
May I segue for a moment and indicate this drives my wife absolutely bonkers? It does. Am I concerned? Not really. Did I mention the $1200 a year savings? I am not concerned...
Back to me getting on the train. It started with the development, er, ahh building, of an HDTV antennae made from coat hangers:
which now hangs in my attic. With this I was able to disconnect a cable box from the kitchen TV and run a coax line from the attic to that TV...the 720p broadcast picture is equal to, if not better than what I was getting through AT&T U-Verse. It was only a matter of time before the whole cable system went away.
This decision isn't without contemplation. There's much to take into account especially when you have little ones in the house who require a steady stream of PBS programming, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (Believe me...The Cat in the Hat does, in fact, Know a lot About That). Where will all the programming come from? How will programs be accessed on demand? How? How? HOW?
Enter the Internets.
Pretty much every ounce of content you might want to watch is available on-line. Either free at the networks .com site (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX), or for a smallish fee via iTunes, Sony's Playstation Store, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and many more...and even then, programs like BOXEE work to aggregate content from across the web and deliver to your TV. It's really just a matter of finding it and bringing it in.
Which is what I'm doing now.
The Mac Mini has been relocated to near the TV, a mini-DVI to HDMI cord has been plugged into the receiver and runs out to the TV to give me all I need. Except live sports.
Live sports (unless on a network) is out of my life, at least at home. No FSN Detroit, no ESPN, no Big Ten, no Versus, no joke. I look at it this way, it gives me reason to get together with friends at their homes and/or bars where live sports are aplenty. Which I will be doing New Year's Day for the bowl games.
So, the good folk at the UPS store took my two cable boxes, one with a DVR, and are sending them back to AT&T. I've boosted my internet connection from 3 Mbps to 12 mbps allowing for better/faster downloading of programs. I receive HDTV free, over the air via my homemade antennae. My kids have all their favorite programs via PBSkids.org, I get to spend time with friends to watch sports.
All in all, the price of change is worth it. I'll keep you all posted, from time to time, as to how it goes.
Whoa! As your wife, I would like to clarify for the lovely, dedicated readers what it is that "drives my wife [me] absolutely bonkers".
ReplyDeleteThis cable to cable-free transformation is made out to be a one-act drama. Um, not quite.
Not wasting $1200 at the feet of "CableVision"'s ridiculous empire? Hell yes. I am with you.
Back on topic…
The "bonkers" is not derived from this change. It's from the half-dozen plus OTHER audio-visual equipment changes that occurred prior to this. Perhaps we can kindly refer to them as the "beta period"? Every month the remote control (a delightful universal one that was a techie gift from me to you) operated differently. Let us throw in two toddlers clamoring for PBS or what not. Constant AV influx is not an exhilarating test mode opportunity at that moment. Oh, let us not forget that any TV operating on my watch is child-prompted. I could live without a TV. So...maybe the story needs to a slight re-edit?
(But, as your biggest fan, I will pause and heap kudos on the research, effort, dedication and labor you did do. Dammit, you deserve it. But, dammit, get your story straight, my dear man.)
xoxo.
The Wife
P.S. Any typos incurred are to blame on the 2yo pulling the Lincoln Log canister I use to prevent carpal tunnel out from under the wireless mouse & mousepad as I type this “from my desk” AKA the floor.