What do you get the cable company executive who has everything?

This is from woot, but I thought it was good, so I thought I would share with you folks.

Buying a Roku Player for a cable company exec: (note: woot has them for $50 refurbished right now, during there woot off)

Let’s see, here… oh, this one’s for me! “To Dad, From Rachel, Eric, and Brody.” What could it be? Is this what you guys camped on Black Friday for? Hmm, can’t wait to see what it is! Let me open it here…

Are you serious? A Roku XD 1080p Streaming Player?
How dare you?

Don’t you know what this thing does? It streams movies and TV shows from Netflix and Hulu Plus direct to your TV. In HD, even. Do I need to say it again? Netflix! Hulu Plus! I don’t even allow anyone to speak the names of those bastards in this house, much less actually watch them. And here you are bringing this, this filth into my house. On Christmas.

Do you want me to be unemployed, kids? Do you want Daddy to be out of a job because people keep paying for Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions instead of giving their money to Cablecastcom? What happens if everyone decides to stop paying exorbitant prices for cable channels they never watch? What happens when companies like Daddy’s are forced to give consumers what they want at reasonable prices? What then, kids?

After everything Cablecastcom has given this family – our five homes, all the exotic vacations, Daddy’s collection of restored vintage submarines – this Roku XD 1080p Streaming Player is like a gift-wrapped dagger in my heart.

You kids should all be ashamed of yourselves. I just hope this is the last Christmas the Roku XD player will ruin around here.

The Beginning of Fall

Fall is a great time of year. The trees are changing, its acceptable to wear a sweat shirt, football, end of racing season, and the most important thing (for this blog) is new TV shows!!!

We have watched all of the shows we would normally watch when we wanted to watch them. Example is the other day, we wanted to see Big Bang Theory however we were out somewhere while it was on regular TV. No problem for us, the next day we just flipped on the computer, went to cbs.com and watched the episode online. It functioned as designed. Another victory for the No Cable Residence.

So far I can say that I'm happy that we have removed cable. I have found somewhere that streams all my sports that I watch, that was a biggy for me. The wife is very happy as well. Instead of watching crappy shows just to pass the time she spends her TV moments watching things that she actually enjoys.

If you are thinking, its only $100 per month, remember, that's $1200 a year, and in 20 years, you will have spent $24,000 dollars on cable. You can buy a new car with that kind of cash.

Until next time:

Logitech Revue

If you didn't know Logitech is cutting the price of there Google TV device from $300 to $100 with free ground shipping to the USA.  I must say, with rumors milling that Honeycomb is coming, I might just pick up this nice little gem. 

Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

I mean, spending $300 dollars on it is crazy, but $100, much more reasonable.

PS: I suggest getting it directly from Logitech (www.logitech.com).  They make good products, no need to give Best Buy the extra $$.

Until next time,

keep it secret, keep it safe.

Another Way to Save $$ and a Quick Update

Another way to Save $$ :
I found this neat article on live hacker which explains how you can save $$ by reducing your electric bill.  I think the Batman approach would be neat, just because.

Check it out here.


A quick update:

Things are still going better than expected.  We are waiting until the end of August to drop the DVD part of Netflix.  Then we will have a review on Redbox :) 

The one annoying thing that I found is no one records sports so I can watch them later.  A great example of this is the Formula 1 races.  When I had the DVR from Comcrapy I would just record the Race (adding a hour for overtime) and start watching it a hour late.  This would enable me to fast forward through the commercials.  Thinking about this more, couldn't it be possible to record a live stream from Ustream or something of that nature?  Anyone tried this?  The difficulty would be ensuring you get a good feed, which is my new favorite game.

Overall I can say that I have met my goal so far.  I have been able to watch everything that I've wanted to.  My next goal is to set it up so I can watch it whenever I want. 

Needless to say, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Netflix Price Increase

Wow, so far in this blog I've been raving about Netflix, but things are about to change.  We currently subscribe to their "unlimited + 1 DVD" plan which is currently $10. They are restructuring their pricing by splitting up streaming and disk by mail.  So now instead of 1 plan they switched me to 2, which puts us at $16 per month.  That's an increase of $72 per year, I sigh at them for doing this.

This makes this little penny saver upset.  However in doing the math we are still saving money by avoiding cable, just not as much.

We have came up with a couple plans for this:
A) Drop the DVD plan and rent from red box if we can't stream it,
B) Get rid of Netflix and go to Hulu Plus, and rent from Red Box

Any thoughts on Red box? Never used it but I have heard good things.

Other things I've considered :
C) See if Netflix has a really cheap dvd only plan with limits, looks like they don't,  lame...  The annoying thing is they provide one limited plan and it includes both limited streaming and limited DVDs. It also has a crap load of restrictions.  To sum it up, totally not worth it.  If Netflix was more customer centric they would introduce limited DVD only packages for people like me (lots of streaming and a couple DVDs per month).

All in all, it seems like a half cooked plan for desperate grasp at making numbers. I already seen people start to drop Netflix, I'm sure i'll see more. Please also keep in mind this does take affect until September 1st so don't move just yet :)

Here is the link to the Netflix blog, not much more information than I've provided except a super lame excuse.

What is everyone else's plan of action?

PS: Netflix is still great, and a great alternate from cable (and a lot cheaper), just wish they thought about current customers before they did such drastic things. That is all...

No Problem

Its weird, I thought I would have ran into all these issues trying to find things to watch but I haven't.   Im not complaining.  I think what I am slowly realizing that not having cable is great.  We have found our selfs not watching crappy tv, but watching things we actually enjoy via Netflix or streaming over the networks website.  We have not tried Hulu yet, but to be honest it seems that both Netflix and Hulu would be to much entertainment.  We hardly have the time to watch what we have now.

What is your flavor, Hulu or Netflix?

The choice is your.

Going Quite Well So Far

A couple days in and all is well.  Its funny, the only thing I miss about my cable was the clock that it provided right under my TV.  I used it while playing video games to make sure I didn't play late into the night. hahaha. 

Netflix instant is awesome. I love how much stuff you can watch.  Streaming at 6 MBPS works just fine, which is funny because the Comcast guy said I would need at least 12 MBPS to watch Netflix.  According to the Netflix you only need a minimum of .5 MBPS but they recommend 1.5 MBPS.  Since its just my wife and I that shouldn't be an issue. 

I watched many hours of Top Gear UK last night, and It was great.  I love that show.  To all you gear heads out there, give it a look see.  You can watch it on: Netflix, Comcast On Demand (boo), and do a Google search, there is a website that streams it.

 We haven't tried HuluPlus yet but I'll let you know when we do.

Ground Zero

So I've decided today is the day to get rid of Cable. In today's society there is really no need for such a old technology. The internet has everything you need.  

My goal is simple, do not lose any entertainment and save a crap load of money.

This blog is going to demonstrate how you can go without having cable and still watch all your favorite shows. We will post information that will help you avoid the hefty cost of having cable.

My Current Setup
* Comcast cable $75 per month
** 1 DVR
** 1 extra receiver (that isn't a DVR)
** The sports package (mostly for the SPEED channel)
** Digital Starter package
* Netflix $10 per month
* Comcast Internet (12 MBPS) $53

Total cost = $138 per month or $1656 per year

My families Current TV interests
* The Killing
* The Walking Dead
* Dexter
* Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives
* Auto Racing
* College Football
* Law and Order
* The X Files
* The Real World
* ETC...

My Current Plan
* Remove Comcast Cable -$75
* Add Hulu Plus +$8
* Configure Boxee Box on a Desktop
* Change to 6 MBPS internet through Comcast -$53 +$53 (Funny thing here is Comcast charges more if you don't go with a package).

The reason I went with Comcast cable is because I don't get anything bigger than 2MBPS DSL though AT&T, not fast enough.

New monthly bill : $71 or $852 per year (a savings of $804/year)

So that is it, my plan is in place. I will hopefully post at least once per week to demonstrate how well/not well its going. Then maybe you can do what I'm doing, and save your family some money.

Until next time.