Is it possible to get rid of Cable TV nowadays?

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Just wondering if it's possible, since I'm seeing all these online streaming sites like Amazon On Demand and such. I have comcast and the prices are horrible, and I'm looking at some things like the streaming video boxesand wondering if anyone has gotten rid of their cable and just kept their internet, and how they like it? I don't know too much about this stuff, but from what it looks like, I can spend less than a couple month's worth of cable fees and connect my TV to the internet to get all the goodies. Am I right in that?

[peter~SPARTA~]

I dont own TV for last 3 years and watch everything on line. I had netflix at very beginning and was not happy from selection they have. Later i use free hulu and netcast. I subscribe hulu but there was not much difference from free version.

Biggest drawback, is you will not have live tv and local news cable is giving to you.Depend of area you should be able to receive 10-20 tv stations from the air . At list couple of them HDTV. Second bad thing is , this box use apps to connect to websites like hulu , where you will have to buy another subscription. Hulu does not have all content (also limit numbers of devices you can use on one subscription), so you will end up buying more services.

So you have to calculate how much is going to cost you to keep your internet with sufficient bandwidth and download limit plus all the fees you have to pay for extra services from streaming sites.

 

Or you can go to the dark side and pay just for net.

[Sphinx]

I have not owned a TV subscription since 2006. Its a waist of money as far as I'm concerned. The only shows I watch are discovery channel and history channel anyways. You can watch nearly EVERYTHING that comes out on TV online anyways. Only downfall is that its not RIGHT when it comes out. Most of the networks have their shows uploaded online to watch for free. Mainstream news channels are nothing but government propaganda anyways, on record. I get my news from talk radio and that's free. The cable providers out here have a monopoly and I refuse to pay them for shit that I can get for free. When I built my new computer, I used my old parts to put together a cheap desktop that sits next to my TV in the living room. Its tied into my home network and I have a 1tb hdd in it. I have about 250 movies stored on the hdd and can watch any of them I want on my big screen in a click of a button. Plus navigate the web from my couch and stream anything online.

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

I have a mix at the moment.

 

I still have Brighthouse cable TV with HD recorder box. Also I have a HTPC connected to the same 5.1 DD THX sound system and to the same HDTV.

 

At the end, my conclusion is: it depends what you watch on TV.

 

Thru internet you are not going to have true HDTV and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. I do watch only HDTV and I like the digital soound.

 

Thru internet you are not going to have "all of the channel listing". As example, my g/f likes to watch a lot of culinary shows on Food ch and Bravo, plus other kind of chickflix stuff. Many of those shows are not online.

 

Thru internet your shows are not in "real time". Depending on the online service you may have to wait beween 1 or 2 days up to a full week before they show what was aired today.

 

As buttom line, I would say, before you take any decisiion, check if what you like is online, how muchh it would cost if you have to subscribe access fees and finally balance if what you are not going to have balance what you are going to save on money adn then you have your own answer

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

I honestly don't watch a lot of TV. My family likes the Science Channel, History (sometimes, used to be only channel I'd watch), lifetime (uck), nickelodeon and nick jr., disney channel and the three national networks, and that's about it.

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

There is another way.

 

You can share a cable TV connection with someone else.

 

What you need is:

 

1 - A program called ORB Classic at http://corp.orb.com/

 

2 - An HTPC with TV Tuner card connected to a Cable service

 

3 - A good Internet connection to support the HTCP bradcasting. it should be at least 1 Mb upload, higher is better.

 

ORB 2.0 is a very powerful media share software, totally free. What it does is sharing on internet all of the media you have on a Server, included TV if present.

 

Clients can connect to the ORB online portal, login and watch whatever media they want, TV included.

 

This means, you have 4 friends, you decide to share a TV contract, you will share the price by 4 and you will use the TV thru internet, broadcasted from the single media server.

 

I am using ORB 2.0 since a couple of years now and i find it amazing.

 

There are some limits:

 

1 - TV broadcasting quality is good, not excellent - it depends alot from the internet service, the better the service, the better the signal you get

 

2 - Broadcasting quality can deterioriate depending how many ppl connect to the server at the same time - again a matter of Internet quality and traffic. I would not try to connect simultaneously in more than 3 or 4 at the time.

 

3 - You will be limited to the standard 99 Analog channels, No digital and no channells above #99. However, I think it would be a more than sufficent solution.

 

Other stuff

 

ORB 2.0 can be used as a VCR, meaning while it is broadcasting any kind of content, you can have the software recording a show. Only one recording at the time limit. It can be a good solution tho, in case you want to watch something and you know there will be other ppl connected. You can just record it and watch it later on.

 

As I said, I use this service till quite a while, I have 106 movies on my Server I do broadcast and I can access TV from my office.. when I close the door and looks like i m working hard

 

Also, I can fully acces ORB 2.0 features from my smartphone and either program recordings or just watch TV or movies on demand on my phone