Why do we still have to sit through commercials?

[SLAG]

We've dumped cable now for almost 2 years - haven't looked back
For sports:

Had a buddy hook me up with his NFL Sunday Ticket Login Info to watch on my PS3 / Phone / PC

My parents still pay for TV and I put a slingbox in their basement so any other local KC stuff I want I just flip on the slingbox - Have the slingbox app on my phone with HDMI out - its like a cable box in my pocket I only paid for once.

Netflix - Amazon / Vudu etc for anything else we want to watch

I know that shoe wont fit everyone but we've been pretty happy

[saphojunkie]

Originally Posted by SLAG

We've dumped cable now for almost 2 years - haven't looked back
For sports:

Had a buddy hook me up with his NFL Sunday Ticket Login Info to watch on my PS3 / Phone / PC

My parents still pay for TV and I put a slingbox in their basement so any other local KC stuff I want I just flip on the slingbox - Have the slingbox app on my phone with HDMI out - its like a cable box in my pocket I only paid for once.

Netflix - Amazon / Vudu etc for anything else we want to watch

I know that shoe wont fit everyone but we've been pretty happy

Sure, but you are still relying on the system. This entire idea is predicated on someone else paying for cable.

Another solution is to just go read a book. The REAL solution is to be able too bypass cable entirely. Hulu, netflix, and amazon are the future of television. In ten years there won't BE cable.

[007]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

Sure, but you are still relying on the system. This entire idea is predicated on someone else paying for cable.

Another solution is to just go read a book. The REAL solution is to be able too bypass cable entirely. Hulu, netflix, and amazon are the future of television. In ten years there won't BE cable.

My only problem with Hulu is that they still put commercials on everything. I can understand putting them on shows airing within the last year that are not available on DVD yet but past seasons shouldn't have commercials. The fact you have to pay the same amount for Hulu as you do for Netflix says a lot.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Guru

My only problem with Hulu is that they still put commercials on everything. I can understand putting them on shows airing within the last year that are not available on DVD yet but past seasons shouldn't have commercials. The fact you have to pay the same amount for Hulu as you do for Netflix says a lot.

Hulu is almost worse than TV these days... they used to have 2 or 3 thirty second commercials, but now it's ~3 commercials each break, and there are more breaks.

[007]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Hulu is almost worse than TV these days... they used to have 2 or 3 thirty second commercials, but now it's ~3 commercials each break, and there are more breaks.

We signed up for a free 2 month trial and I was sorely disappointed with how many commercials they run.

[kaplin42]

I didn't read this whole thread. But if you want to lower you Cable/Sat bills you can always go this route:

1. Cancel your Cable/Sat.
2. Invest in rabbit ears for your TV, I'm guessing ~$20. Free channels are still free, and everything is digital now.
3. Netflix steaming $8.99/Mo.
4. Amazon Prime ~$80/yr. (around the cost of Netflix per month)
5. Hulu is fail since they still have commercials, and you have to pay for it. Basicaly cable TV on the internet.
6. ???
7. Profit

Downside: You miss current shows as they air.

Upside: Watch what you want, when you want. That show that you love will be on Netflix soon, and you can watch the whole season at your pace, not once a week for 5 weeks, then a 2 month break, then 2 more episodes, then a 3 week break... No commercials. Save shit tons of money.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by kaplin42

I didn't read this whole thread. But if you want to lower you Cable/Sat bills you can always go this route:

1. Cancel your Cable/Sat.
2. Invest in rabbit ears for your TV, I'm guessing ~$20. Free channels are still free, and everything is digital now.
3. Netflix steaming $8.99/Mo.
4. Amazon Prime ~$80/yr. (around the cost of Netflix per month)
5. Hulu is fail since they still have commercials, and you have to pay for it. Basicaly cable TV on the internet.
6. ???
7. Profit

Downside: You miss current shows as they air.

Upside: Watch what you want, when you want. That show that you love will be on Netflix soon, and you can watch the whole season at your pace, not once a week for 5 weeks, then a 2 month break, then 2 more episodes, then a 3 week break... No commercials. Save shit tons of money.

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

[kaplin42]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

I really only watch football, and NFL at that. I have to pay for sunday ticket since I live in Los Angeles just to see the Chiefs.

However, with all the money one could save each month on cable bills, you could easily go to a sportsbar and watch the game. But it sounds like you like all sports, so that might not be as cost effective to you.

Really my plan depends on your viewing habbits, if you must have ESPN all day everyday, or you can't stand missing the latest episode of what ever show, then probably not for you.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

Sports is the only tricky part about cutting cable. I cut cable about 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it, outside of live sports. In my experience the last few years, NFL has been the easiest to find good online streams. Followed by hockey(especially playoffs). College football is tough to find online, but most of the popular games are on OTA stations or ESPN, which there's always a stream for. Baseball is tough, outside of the most popular teams.

All movies/TV though, is very easily found after cutting cable. From multiple sources. Every TV show or available movie I ever want to watch is available for streaming in 720p 1-2 days after airing. I've never had an issue watching anything I want, with no need to even download anything to my hard drives.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Sports is the only tricky part about cutting cable. I cut cable about 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it, outside of live sports. In my experience the last few years, NFL has been the easiest to find good online streams. Followed by hockey(especially playoffs). College football is tough to find online, but most of the popular games are on OTA stations or ESPN, which there's always a stream for. Baseball is tough, outside of the most popular teams.

All movies/TV though, is very easily found after cutting cable. From multiple sources. Every TV show or available movie I ever want to watch is available for streaming in 720p 1-2 days after airing. I've never had an issue watching anything I want, with no need to even download anything to my hard drives.

I respect your position but honestly it seems like a lot of work to save a hundred bucks a month.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by vailpass

I respect your position but honestly it seems like a lot of work to save a hundred bucks a month.

I'm not sure what you mean by a lot of work? It doesn't require any work at all. I simply launch a sports plugin and see if there's an existing stream for the game I want to watch. It will either be there or it won't. There's no work required in the process other than a few remote clicks. The unreliability of whether it will be there is the only concern.

And doing the math, I'm saving just over $850 per year, compared to when I had cable. I've found lots of other things to spend that amount on, that have turned out to be much better than television...

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Sports is the only tricky part about cutting cable. I cut cable about 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it, outside of live sports. In my experience the last few years, NFL has been the easiest to find good online streams. Followed by hockey(especially playoffs). College football is tough to find online, but most of the popular games are on OTA stations or ESPN, which there's always a stream for. Baseball is tough, outside of the most popular teams.

All movies/TV though, is very easily found after cutting cable. From multiple sources. Every TV show or available movie I ever want to watch is available for streaming in 720p 1-2 days after airing. I've never had an issue watching anything I want, with no need to even download anything to my hard drives.

I'm surprised the NFL has been the easiest, but I didn't know about firstrow (or is it frontrow...) a few years ago and I know a couple of sites have moved outside of the US since I relied on the online streams. A lot of the NFL streams I used a few years ago would get whacked by halftime, so I'd end up spending $25+ at Buffalo Wild Wings (since then, I've cut way back on sports bars, which practically pays for cable during football and CBB season).

On one hand, I've gone without it before and could cope. OTOH, I love all of the choices... being able to watch one of 20 CFB games on TV or up to 4 on ESPN3, getting college hockey games, CBB, etc. I hardly watch anything else on TV, so it's nice to pretty much always have a game on when I'm home or have several options on a Saturday afternoon and avoid a lot of commercials.

Like I've said before, between saving money not going to sports bars and all of the choices in glorious HD, I think it's mostly worth it... but, there are definitely annoyances (commercials, raising rates by as much as 10% at a time, and oh yeah.. I don't have ABC through TWC at the moment ), and simply being able to get espn3 without paying for ESPN would be the perfect solution and save some money.

[007]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Sports are curiously being forgotten.... I know I can get NHL GameCenter on my ps3, but they don't show the playoffs and several games are blacked out. I can get Sunday Ticket, but I assume Chiefs games would be blacked out, and I don't know if they show the playoffs. There are online streams, which I used for a couple of years, but they aren't reliable (especially the NFL, since they're pretty aggressive about getting them taken down).

Watching pretty much every game I want to see >>>> online streaming

If I could pay $200 for NHL GameCenter (and get the playoffs), $10-15/month for the basic channels in HD, and get espn3 separate from cable, I could pay $20/month just for espn3 and still come in way under what I'm paying now for all the crap I could do without.

I love how they just assume everyone has access to all those sports channels when the playoffs start. Blackout rules need to be blacked out.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Guru

I love how they just assume everyone has access to all those sports channels when the playoffs start. Blackout rules need to be blacked out.

To be fair, they did relax them quite a bit this year.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/ey...or-2012-season

[007]

Originally Posted by DaFace

To be fair, they did relax them quite a bit this year.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/ey...or-2012-season

Doesn't help those of us that don't have espn though, which was more my point. Drives me nuts how all sports seem to be moving to cable now.