Based on the ability of the Internet to deliver essentially ALL content that I am interested in, besides sports, I have decided to turn off cable. Turn off cable you say, that's crazy. And I did try it a couple years ago and had to turn Directv back on after going 6 days without it. My wife regularly reminds me of that when I attempt to change anything technical in our house. My biggest issue was sports. So while sports is hands down the biggest drawback to cutting the cord, so-to-speak, here is what I am doing.
I know from another friend that has done this that I will for sure need an HD antenna to get the free HD signal that comes from Lookout Mountain. I found Dean-the-Dishman on the internet and he did an awesome job of answering my questions so I hired him for $350 to install an antenna in our attic. Luckily our home builder had a coax cable that ran from the attic to the basement. Dean was very helpful in making all the connections and we now have two TV's with 37 free HD channels. Now of those 37 I am only interested in the main network signals but none the less I now have 37 free channels. With sports being my biggest drawback to being "uncabled", I get all the sports that come on all the networks, I am missing the games that are only broadcast on NFL and on ESPN. I do believe that at some point in the next few years, ESPN and the NFL Network will allow me to subscribe directly to their content, either on a monthly or per game basis OR that Hulu or Netflix will allow me to subscribe to it via their platform. So for the time being, I either need to get one of my friends to give me his username and password so I watch ESPN on Apple TV or I have to invite myself over to someones house if there is something big enough that I can't miss.
That brings me to the other content. When I have this conversation with friends I always get the same question, "So what are you going to do about DVR?" That is a very valid question. DVR's have literally changed the way we watch TV and I am guessing you to. So the first place to go is Hulu. For $8 a month you get every show from the first episode to the current episode for ABC, NBC, and Fox. Current episode plus one day from airing on cable. They have Hulu generated content as well as a few B movies. I deliver this content to my beautiful HD TV's via Apple TV but some smart TV's already have this ability and you don't need to buy an Apple TV. There are many other uses for Apple TV that really make it worth buying which I will get to in a second. With Hulu, you now have essentially a built in on demand DVR that has a few commercials for almost every network, minus CBS. CBS can be delivered via the iPhone or iPad application to your TV via Apple TV as well, so all the CBS shows are covered as well. You can even use your Apple computer to take over you TV via Apple TV too, so essentially any show that is on the internet, and just about all of them are, can be played as well.
So after Hulu at $8 a month, I have added Netflix. Netflix is $10 a month. This is where we get many of the movies that we watch as well as a number of shows that are 1 season behind what's on cable right now. Still I essentially watched ALL of "Breaking Bad" on Netflix along with Weeds and a few other series. Netflix of all the pieces we have would be easiest to get rid of but none-the-less, that's what I have in place now.
