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I just finished watching the 90 minute season premier of Heroes.
But not on TV. In fact, I don't have a TV at all.
I don't have cable or satellite TV service, either, just a high-speed internet connection and an iMac computer.
And instead of 34 minutes of commercials, I suffered through 5 minutes, broken into 30 second blocks. And I rewound the show a couple times, just to see a cool scene a second time; if I want to watch it again, no problem--and this time, no commercials. Oh, and there's nothing stored on my harddrive.
I watched the entire episode in full screen 720p resolution, Dolby Surround.
Now, I started this out of necessity. I'm away from home, on temporary duty, so my TV is back in Alaska, and I'm trying to save money, so the only thing I picked up from Time Warner is a $12 per month, 15 Mbps connection. I have absolutely no problem watching a tv show the day after it airs, and services like Hulu.com are free.
So, why does anyone still subscribe to basic cable? Why watch the standard model of television anymore?
When I get back home, I'm tempted to cancel my cable service altogether.
I guess if TV killed the radio, then the internet has killed TV.
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I haven't had cable at home since...2003?4? Mostly because there was nothing I wanted to watch.
I have an Olevia 32" widescreen TV, but it's for console gaming. I used it as a TV/monitor while I was living in military barracks. Nothing like a 32" monitor for browsing the net.
Any more I buy DVDs of the shows I like, or just watch downloaded videos.
So yeah, ditch the subscription. Maybe then the broadcast companies will start to realize they need to evolve to survive.
I haven't had cable at home since...2003?4? Mostly because there was nothing I wanted to watch.
I have an Olevia 32" widescreen TV, but it's for console gaming. I used it as a TV/monitor while I was living in military barracks. Nothing like a 32" monitor for browsing the net.
Any more I buy DVDs of the shows I like, or just watch downloaded videos.
So yeah, ditch the subscription. Maybe then the broadcast companies will start to realize they need to evolve to survive.
Console gaming and Guitar Hero, to be exact! Make sure you tell the WHOLE truth! ~grins~
When it looked like hours were going to be cut around this time last year, I took a hard look at finances and realized that the Internet was far more important than TV. So it went, and my entertainment needs are filled by Hulu and Netflix's Instant Play. Everything else the iTunes store has been more than happy to supply.
Do I miss Cable TV? Only a couple of channels. You would think that we could pick n' choose our cable packages nowadays, and if I could do that, I might consider it.
Oh, and I cancled my DirecTV a few months ago and I have not missed it... much. I have so many DVDs that all I do now is plop one in and watch it.
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Actually its like how internet killed telephones...if every one joins the company that provides free phonecalls to every one else who joins the company it will end paid telephone networks. If they dont join then you can expect to pay heavy costs for calling them.
Hasnt happened yet and I watch free to air TV anyway. A to phones, I'm offended when people feel the need to call me.
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Actually its like how internet killed telephones...if every one joins the company that provides free phonecalls to every one else who joins the company it will end paid telephone networks. If they dont join then you can expect to pay heavy costs for calling them.
Hasnt happened yet and I watch free to air TV anyway. A to phones, I'm offended when people feel the need to call me.
If only everyone I know had a google number...
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Well, I do have a TV now, but it's connected via DVI-to-HDMI to my computer.
I still only watch TV through free services like Hulu.com [rant](which has recently started making you re-watch commercials when you rewind---very annoying, especially that ultra-annoying Sprint 4G commercial with the three skiers stuck in a lift (and, no, according to the ITU, no-one in the world has true 4G, nor are any infrastructures capable of true 4G--but this is like trying to explain to someone 7 years ago that 420i was not HD)][/rant]
Anyway, if cable subscriptions significantly drop, I'd expect to see a couple things happen. First, no more unlimited cable internet. Instead, you'll be charged based on usage (now most people pay for a cap on data exchange rate, not data exchange total). Second, all subscription packages will significantly increase. The smart thing would be to work out a model capitalizing on the move of programing to the internet. But the cable companies, all two of them, seem unwilling to think creatively--it' simply a lot easier to raise the rates, and it's worked for years already.
Cable Subscriptions Dwindling
This might explain why Time Warner called me out of the blue this week to say they missed me as a customer. I haven't had Time Warner for almost 5 years, though I was with Comcast until a year ago. Why they'd just now see if I wanted to come back into the fold was a mystery to me until I read this.
I likewise only have my TV because it was a small, cheap 8-inch screen freely given to me for the express purpose of playing SNES on. And with emulators I don't even use that much anymore. (The console's pretty old, too. Doesn't work as well as it used to.)
I no longer have cable, and what little TV I watch - which pretty much these days is just NCIS - I watch online. I'm not as interested in new console gaming as I am the retro stuff, so my TV goes almost completely unusued. I wouldn't be surprised if one day I happen to feel like killing a bit of time on Mario or something and suddenly discover my TV no longer functions.
Before you totally cut the cord, consider this.
Hulu is going to start charging soon.
My situation is backwards. Ive been with cable internet for the past few years and about 6 months ago I got a call from a rep who told me that since I hadnt asked for an upgrade in the last few years and that Id been loyally paying my internet bill on time, that I was eligible for the first 120 channels of cable tv for the no added charge. So now I pay 60 bucks for 12mbps internet and 120 cable channels. Im going to add HBO here in about a month to get Trueblood.
I know, right?!?! I told the guy to send me a comment card and Id get him a raise. Havent seen a card yet...
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Before you totally cut the cord, consider this.
$10 a month to access older episodes is pretty good, even if I also have to watch a few commercials.
Once Hulu moves to a standard 16-23 minutes of commercials an hour... no. At that point I'll be back to buying the TV programs I really like from iTunes or Amazon.
I'd be willing to pay a lot more than $10/month to watch the same programs commercial-free. I'm the viewer who only watches some four or five shows a week, and I tend to watch all of them at once simply because I'm usually busy when the show airs.
If I used TiVo, I could watch the shows as recorded and without commercials. If I used a DVR, I could easily FF through the commercials.
Using Hulu, I have to watch the commercials, but they're usually single commercials and less than 30 seconds. When 2 1/2 hours of TV turns into 4 because of Sham Wow and the All New LeBaron, I'm out.
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Before you totally cut the cord, consider this.
Hulu is going to start charging soon.
My situation is backwards. Ive been with cable internet for the past few years and about 6 months ago I got a call from a rep who told me that since I hadnt asked for an upgrade in the last few years and that Id been loyally paying my internet bill on time, that I was eligible for the first 120 channels of cable tv for the no added charge. So now I pay 60 bucks for 12mbps internet and 120 cable channels. Im going to add HBO here in about a month to get Trueblood.
I know, right?!?! I told the guy to send me a comment card and Id get him a raise. Havent seen a card yet...
Get a Projector to bigscreen your Youtube downloads...
I have seriously toned down on the amount of TV shows that I keep up with, currently is; V, Flash Forward, Smallville, Merlin and Sargate Universe.
I could probably live without Smallville, Merlin & SGU, but I am absolutely Hooked on V & Flash Forward. Thank goodness for Netflix. I'll be starting an account with them this month. Can't wait to catch on shows I haven't seen in a very long tiome and give some others I've never watched a chance.
I cut my service to HBO a few months ago. Is there a way I can still catch True Blood's upcoming new season? Will Netflix carry it?
I have seriously toned down on the amount of TV shows that I keep up with, currently is; V, Flash Forward, Smallville, Merlin and Sargate Universe.
I could probably live without Smallville, Merlin & SGU, but I am absolutely Hooked on V & Flash Forward. Thank goodness for Netflix. I'll be starting an account with them this month. Can't wait to catch on shows I haven't seen in a very long tiome and give some others I've never watched a chance.
Merlin surprised me by how good it is. When I first saw the previews for it I thought it was either going to be campy(like Hercules and Xena) or a sickening "90210" type show because of the young cast. I was glad to find out it was neither.
Television... it needs more cowbell.
I cut my service to HBO a few months ago. Is there a way I can still catch True Blood's upcoming new season? Will Netflix carry it?
They've got the first season, but it's VERY hard to get, I think they'll have the second season as well. I'm thinking of just buying the series and calling it a day.
They've got the first season, but it's VERY hard to get, I think they'll have the second season as well. I'm thinking of just buying the series and calling it a day.
Ah, True Blood. It's amazing how much better the writer of the TV series is than the writer of the books it's (loosely) based on. I made the mistake of buying the first few books in a combo block...
They've got the first season, but it's VERY hard to get, I think they'll have the second season as well. I'm thinking of just buying the series and calling it a day.Ah, True Blood. It's amazing how much better the writer of the TV series is than the writer of the books it's (loosely) based on. I made the mistake of buying the first few books in a combo block...
I'm sorry, friend. The books are really, really bad. I only have ONE friend who will admit to reading them- and she aims for my shins whenever I critique the books. She finds the tv series too reliant on gore.
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So since I work in the cable TV industry I am curious about what people do to replace TV. Between websites and Ondemand content I expect in the next few years TV will be making major changes. I would think it would be sooner but some seem ignorant of the options at this time. I expect a gradual change as people become more aware of other options for entertainment.
Why is it that some compaines won't accept prepaid debit cards? I tried to start my netflix account with one today and they won't allow it. Heck, they don't even allow the use of one to buy a gift subscription. I'm going to have to look into getting a reloadable card.
Why is it that some compaines won't accept prepaid debit cards?
A lot of places, taking a debit account number automatically sets up an auto-pay system; prepaid cards don't allow this, or can't be guaranteed to have the funds (or have a bank backing them that will cover the overdraft if the account is empty/lacking) and therefore the company considers the card not worth the effort.
A normal debit card, should the account not have sufficient funds available, will have the overdraft paid by the bank itself - so that the company still gets their money, even if you don't have it available for them - and the bank then turns and puts the overdraft penalties on you for making them pay money out of their pocket to cover your expenses.
Why is it that some compaines won't accept prepaid debit cards?A lot of places, taking a debit account number automatically sets up an auto-pay system; prepaid cards don't allow this, or can't be guaranteed to have the funds (or have a bank backing them that will cover the overdraft if the account is empty/lacking) and therefore the company considers the card not worth the effort.
Funny how I just tried my card with blockbuster.com and it works there. Why would netflix do this? They don't trust their customers to end their service or update their payment method? That isn't very good customer relations.
Want to talk about piss poor netflix customer service...
my friends mom tried to buy her brother a netflix subscription for xmas. she has debit and credit cards (i can't remember which she used...) he gets on to activate it and because HE didn't have one to put in for when the YEAR subscription ended.. they wouldn't let him use it.
EDIT: When she called netflix to ask wtf.. they said that since he didn't have one and couldn't/wouldn't be a viable future customer they didn't think he was worth the time and effort. Seriously. That's what the cat on the phone said.
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CNN spot on the Return of the King-like ending of Cable TV...
What everyone in the video neglects to mention is that the internet is the way around cable boxes and subscriptions: we all know what I'm talking about. TPB, et al. is how expatriots and lonely ranchers in Montana keep up with the Starks and Tullys...
I donated my TV back in 2009. Haven't had TV cable since 2008. Had Cable internet though still.
No point to own a TV anymore...just a large monitor for the computer.
Everything I watch is just a stream now in one form or another.
Some of us don't have sufficient internets. Some entire first world countries don't have sufficient internets.
I'm part of an odd-ball group in the US... a family that never got cable TV when I was a child. As a result I never became addicted to hundreds of channels with meaningless shows. I ended up getting my fill in college freshman year, when I came to the realization that the vast majority of a weekly lineup was repeats... of the pervious day. This struck me as slightly batty, especially when nothing I really cared about was in the basic cable package.
I think this is where the cable companies are slowly killing themselves on the TV end. The whole concept of packages is toast and has been supplanted by the micro-transaction. Paying for exactly the content you want, when you want it, on the device you want.
Take HBO shows. The only way to get HBO is to have a Cable subscription, then pay more to add HBO as a premium channel, and finally also pay for Internet I'm using anyways. I end up paying twice for a pipe with junk I don't particularly care for. Why? 40 to 60 dollars a month just for one channel, and likely only one or two shows? Thank you no, I'd rather spend that on Paizo products thank you much, which I can get "on demand" and aren't transitory thank you much :P
I'm also not a "target" demographic because my tastes in TV shows is so far outside the "American" norm I'd totally wreak the Nielsen system (which would be unnecessary in an On-Demand world, see YouTube views as example). The way Cable companies operate with packaged subscriptions doesn't work for me at all. In fact I'd find it highly unlikely that they'd ever carry the content I want.
There are still a few shows I keep up with on tv, but mostly the reason I still have cable is sports. I watch football(both kinds), and hockey regularly. Hulu and netflix dont help with that. I do find some benefit in actually tv because sometimes it helps to have something there waiting for you (especially with the advent of tivo and dvr) instead of having to think of what to watch on hulu or netflix. I dont know about others but I often have netflix paralysis where I cant think of what to look for to watch for a significant amount of time before settling on something.
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OK, so I'm in Florida for the next month for business, staying in a very nice hotel on the beach. The cold weather of the last week is a sad and distant memory and I'm, generally speaking, having a great time. There's a nice TV in the room, and I brought my ATV, PS4 and my MBA. I can't use the ATV because it doesn't have a web interface for me to accept the T&C of the hotel wifi, and I don't feel like doing any of the workarounds. It ultimately doesn't matter because I subscribe to Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, so all my favorite TV shows and movies are available in the cloud, and my MBA views these sites just fine, as does my PS4 (thanks to a web interface which allows me to easily accept that goofy T&C).
So...my PS4 connects to Hulu Plus via the exact same wifi as my MBA, but using a specific Hulu interface...
Through the Hulu app, I discovered this morning, I can't watch any programs labeled 'web only', but with a little work I could watch those 'web only' shows using the PS4 web app (and forcing Adobe Flash, which does require accessing the FreeBSD Orbis OS with a bash--but it can be done).
What drives me nuts is that the Hulu app and the PS4 web app and my MBA are using the exact same internet connection.
In fact, as far as I know, there's no other way to enjoy Hulu programming except through an internet connection. So other than an original legal document (contract) that specified the web as a platform and subsequent contracts that included applications, what's the real difference?
We live in an area where there is no Broadband internet. The people across the street just got hooked up to Uverse but from everything I have heard, when you have a problem with your phone you lose everything. Maybe they will get cable across the street in my lifetime but I am not counting on it. For now, we are using a Verizon Jetpack and that is not a means to get rid of anything. Until Cable can be provided EVERYWHERE TV in all its forms will be here for a little while longer.
The only thing I miss is sports.
Same here. And with the winter Olympics starting next month and our local hockey team hosting the Memorial Cup this year I'm thinking I will get cable again - IF I can avoid any kind of contract. Unlikely I know but there is always hope!