Roku Delivers

Well it has been quite some time since I've posted on this blog.  Likely a couple years.

I am just writing to update my strategy.  I have recently (1 week ago) purchased a Roku 2 XS.  This little device is awesome.  Due to my living in a wifi crowded apartment building I decided to purchase the XS model to get the built in ethernet jack.  This will remove the wifi interference that can plague a device like this.  Unfortunately the roku does not come with 5GHz band wifi.

So far, I really like what this box has done for me.  I am able to watch feeds of BBC, Al Jazeera, CNBC Europe, Bloomberg to name a few as well HBO Go (requires hbo subscription on a participating cable system of which I have access to) and Netflix.

Now the device processes more slowly when compared to the Playstation 3 that I've been using to stream Netflix but the power consumption of the Roku is in the 2.5 watts per hour range.  The playstation runs 80 or more.  So although not a ton of savings, it will add up over time mitigating the cost of buying the 2nd unit for a similar function.

But this small complaint is definitely overcome by the ability to find and add all sorts of channels that I previously was unaware of.

To me, any cable cutting move that still wants to watch programming should include a Roku box.

After 10 Months and the Cablevision vs. Fox Dispute

Well its been almost 10 months now since we threw out Cablevision and their $180 a month bill. We still pay them for internet to the tune of $50 a month plus tax and fees. So they're not totally out of our life.

And what a good life it's been. Sure I miss things. I miss my Formula 1 but we have gone to the meet up groups along the way or found it in some hotels etc. Sure I miss the Yankee game every night, but I still get at least a game a week on My9 in NY. And I've been through this before when they first left channel 11 for MSG and cable was not even an option where I grew up. Radio is just fine for me. And now, I can watch video of the games on my Droid.

Netflix. Netflix is funny. We still have disc number 2 that they sent. We haven't even watched it. We just use the streaming. I do have to return it and bring on something else, but still. Streaming Netflix is really all we need. Combine that with a $30 antenna from radio shack and I'm getting 39 channels over the air. Almost all of them in HD.

And now this brings me to the Cablevision vs Fox dispute that has so many in this area upset and missing the NLCS and also the Giants yesterday. We had my father inlaw and brother inlaw over yesterday to watch the end of the game after we all went out for lunch. See, we don't pay ANYTHING for TV service each month and we were able to watch the game. We live a good 30+ miles out of the city and still have good reception in HD.

So to anyone looking for Cablevision vs Fox, you do not need to pay anyone anything. Get your antenna and hook it up. You won't care any more if Cablevision and Fox ever settle this dispute. And it might even lead you to explore other options than paying for you TV service. Or at least paying for a lot of service you don't want.

Good Luck Everyone.

Three More Weeks

Its been three weeks since my last post.

I have survived the limits of what I care about in the football season without cable or OTA TV.

I have not yet gone to get an antenna for OTA as I am not convinced it will matter given my location. It is still a plan I have but so far the $50 or so have remained in my pocket.

It has been so long since we have cut cable that I have to think about it to realize we do not have it. We are now about a week past the one month mark and as sad as this may sound I believe we're watching just as much TV as we were before. Only now we're watching commercial free and entire series runs in a matter of days. As mentioned in previous postings, for us its the British TV that we've been watching a lot of.

So as the weeks march on, we're thrilled to have given up our cable addiction. We still haven't conquered the TV addiction though as we've only substituted one source for another. The real benefits come from the $60 cost now vs $180 then, give or take.

The next Oh I miss cable moment will come in approximately two more months when the Formula 1 season starts up. But I still do not see cable as valuable enough to pay for an entire month for approximately 5 hours a month of programming. Even the start of the baseball season does not worry me as I have been forced before to listen to games instead of watch when George moved the Yanks to MSG from channel 11 and we lived in an area we could not get cable.

What this mostly means is that the changes in behavior I was hoping for have not come. But we have proven that we can live without cable completely and we do not have to pay large amounts of money for a service we used only because it was easy.

Break the bonds, Cut the Cable Cord.

New Year, No Cable TV

So we came through the new year celebrations without cable. I was streaming the feed from Times Square at www.timessquarenyc.org in one window while at the same time playing World of Warcraft in another. I was surprised at how well the online video feed held up with only a small crash about 1153pm that came back in just a few minutes and in time to see the ball come down.

The only other "I am missing something" moment came on Sunday with the last week of football. I wish I could have seen the Jets game, but it is what it is and I followed it until half time on my phone with box score updates.

So now we're more than 2 weeks into this and it is becoming a bit of a habit. We have shows we want to watch from Netflix. We have suffered from some of our listings going offline. We have found new things to watch instead. And best of all, I've found things I never knew existed as in Hotel Babylon which I'm enjoying so far although only just finishing season 2.

Add all this to the fact that Cablevision has removed the Food Network and we would have been hurting in our normal watching pattern anyway as Food used to be a large part of our viewing habits.

So the 2 week update is I am thrilled I have done this and wish I had done it before.

The Few Channels Are Gone

We are now without even a single incoming tv signal. The few channels that were bleeding through are now all off line. This has proven a little harder than I had planned on as we do not have a news show or the network coverage we have had almost all our lives. As always though we're getting through it and I have seen things via Netflix that I had never seen or in some cases even heard of before.

This week I even found Hotel Babylon available for streaming. This is huge to me as I've been a fan of the book and the entire Babylon series of books since I first found Air Babylon one day in Melbourne. Sadly though the first season is currently not available to play even though I have it in my queue. It says a couple of days so I am hopeful it comes soon as I'd like to watch the series from the beginning.

So for the first week without cable TV we survived. It has been different but not nearly as difficult as I would have thought. I am left with that "Why didn't we do this earlier" feeling. This will definitely be a lifestyle choice for us that I will not be in a hurry to undo.

First Long Weekend Without Cable

The Christmas long weekend just ended and was our first without cable TV.

We used Netflix a lot during this time watching all the streaming content of Dead Like Me which I was shocked to find did not include every episode of the seasons put up for streaming. For example Season 2 went from episode 1 to episode 6 saying 2-5 were only available on DVD. Really defeats the purpose of having it on streaming. Sure I know you want me to buy more than the one disc out at a time package, but streaming should include all of the episodes put up or not put them up.

This brings us to the next downside of Netflix streaming program. The content that is up there, won't always stay up there. They take content down and a lot of our instant queue will no longer be available after January 1. Sure this allows us access hopefully to new content, but I'm rather disappointed that the selection is being trimmed. If I am going to have to buy the content to be able to watch it whenever I want, I might as well do that and save the Netflix fees. Of course this is not going to be my course of action yet as this cable cutting is about cutting costs, but its something down the road that may happen.

As for not having 300+ channels of TV, I think we survived quite well.

Unintended Consequences of Cutting Cable TV

As I just wrote below today is our first full day without cable TV and already we are seeing some unintended consequences to our action.

There are no more commercials coming because we are watching DVDs and BlueRays and Netflix. I like this. No more feeling hungry in the evening when I'm watching TV and seeing commercials for a Whopper. I have to admit, I love the Whopper but for obvious reasons no longer eat them. This however doesn't stop me from craving them when I see it on TV. Well no more.

Another thing we didn't count on is the elimination of the clock in the bedroom from the DVR. We both were late getting out of bed this morning because we had no idea what time it was. Time for plan B and using a cell phone on a docking station.

And lastly, we expect the power bill to go down. The DVR was always an item we did not unplug or switch the power strip off in case we had something set to record. This is no longer the case as the PS3 gets power cut. No need for a DVR when you watch TV on demand only from Netflix. Same thing goes for the home phone charging stations. They are no longer needed and have been removed from the household power grid.

The Cable is Cut

So it is today that we woke up to day one without cable TV.

What had been an on going discussion is finally in action and I'm wondering how it will effect life. Will I really miss TV? Will not seeing Formula 1 devastate me? Will basic TV continue to flow even if we're not asking for it? Will Netflix cover the gaps?

These were all questions we had along the way. Of course, we knew we weren't the first ones to do this. For years I've known people without cable TV. But for me it always felt like a necessity and I'd keep paying huge amounts month after month after the bundle package price came and went.

No more! This had to stop. So after spending the evening at a friend's house who has no cable TV and relies on Netflix and also the internet we got to talking. This lead us to the call to the cable company yesterday to eliminate the pay TV and the home phone line. Funniest part was the front line customer service from the cable company. They argued with us about "what are you going to do?" and "You need to have cable." instead of coming up with a plan that would keep us as customers. But for truth in advertising, there wasn't anything they could have done. We wanted to cut our costs drastically. So off the TV signal went but they said the phone would take longer to disappear.

Well I am here to say we both survived the night. I played some WoW and she, wait for it, read a book.

Come this morning when I got out of bed and powered on the strip controlling our router and television I decided to see if any signal was coming through. Sure enough, there are a couple over the air stations to pick up and they don't cost us anything. Huge win here for us.

We did subscribe to Netflix as two of our closest friends without cable TV have done that and I went out and bought a Playstation 3 to stream it to the TV and also because Gran Turismo 5 is coming out in 2010 finally. So I wanted that anyway and now it'll double as helping get Netflix to the TV.

So we cut a $180 cable bill to $50 to continue to get the internet only and $9 for Netflix. That savings will pay for the hardware investment of the PS3 by the end of March. I am excited about this. She is too since I've told her the monthly savings are hers to do what she wants with.