Are you ready for the transition? If you are currently using cable, you shouldn’t be affected, but you may want to read about how we canceled our cable service and now receive free digital broadcast TV.
If you have already purchased a digital converter box or are using a newer HDTV with a built in tuner to receive free digital broadcasts, you should be in good shape.
If you are still using rabbit ears or a roof mounted antenna to receive traditional (analog) TV, here are some suggestions…
Apply for one or more $40 government coupons. The good news is that there is no longer a waiting list and the Commerce Department has recently reported that they expect to have enough funds to provide vouchers until July 31st. If you don’t have a HDTV, you will need one for each TV in your house. There is a limit of two coupons.
In the meantime, if you have a broadband connection, you can watch many shows for free over the Internet. For a detailed list of shows, check out of ShowFinder tool.
Netflix streaming movies will soon be available on Tivo and Xbox Experience. Previously, Netflix’s Instant Watch content could only be viewed on a computer or using a $99 set top box called a Roku. Since Roku, Tivo and Xbox will pull all the content off of a standard broadband connection, cable TV service is not required.
We’ve been using Netflix’s Instant Watch service since it first launched in 2007. At first the content was very minimal - mostly pretty unknown “straight to video” movies. This has changed quite a bit in the last year. Netflix has recently partnered with the STARZ movie channel and now offers more than 12,000 shows and movies which can all be watched for free.
Here’s a video demo of the Xbox Netflix interface:
Any downsides to Netflix Instant Watch? A good amount of brand new first run movies are not on it yet, so you may have to wait a day or two to get those in the mail on DVD. The fast forward and rewind controls are slightly clunky, although they do work pretty well once you get used to them. Also it appears that only the new Tivos (Series III and HD) and latest Xbox (Xbox Experience) will support Netflix.
In case you haven’t heard of it, Roku is a small $99 set top box that lets Netflix subscribers watch over 12,000 on demand shows and movies for free. We bought ours shortly after we canceled cable and have been really pleased with it. Here’s why…
1. It’s like having a free on demand cable box without having to pay for cable: If you are already a Netflix subscriber, all shows and movies on Roku (approximately 12,000) are free. If you aren’t, you can sign up for a $8.99/month unlimited Netflix plan. So for less than the cost of basic cable, we get unlimited instant rentals each month.
2. Much cheaper than Itunes. We recently got hooked on the show Heroes and watched the entire first season (23 episodes) on our Roku for free. If we bought the season on Itunes, it would have cost $64.99.
3. No commercials: Unlike Hulu.com, there are no commercials - even on the TV shows. So you can watch your favorite one hour TV shows in about 42 minutes.
4. Easy to use interface. The remote only has a few buttons and the graphic interface shows a picture of each DVD on the TV screen. So simple that our three year old can find his favorite shows and play them on his own.
5. Great for kids. Since titles are added from a master account on our computer, the only shows and movies on the Roku are one’s we have personally reviewed and think are appropriate for our kids to watch. And if we make a mistake or change our mind, we can easily update the queue remotely at any time.
Any downside? Sure, when we first got our Roku, there was a limited selection of current movies. This has gotten much better, mostly due to their recent partnership with the STARZ movie channel. Since most brand new releases still take a while to appear on Roku, we still watch a lot of movies the old fashioned way (DVD) using our Netflix subscription. But since our membership includes 3 DVDs at a time as well as unlimited Roku movies, we almost always have something good to watch on TV.
When we first plugged in our digital converter box and started using free digital TV, we were surprised to see that our reception was actually better than our old digital cable signal. We’ve since learned that this is very common since free digital broadcast signals are often less compressed than digital cable signals.
Here are some sample screenshots to give you an idea of the quality (keep in mind that tv screenshots look a little fuzzy on computer monitors, but notice that there is no static or wavy lines)…
All screenshots were taken using a Zenith DTT900 which we picked up for $19 at Circuit City (after using the $40 coupon we received).
After learning PHP this week, I just created a Showfinder Tool which lets you search for and watch your favorite shows online. You can search for an individual show or browse different categories (HBO shows, kids shows, classic shows, etc.)
The tool currently lists shows on Hulu, Netflix and Itunes as well as a number of different network and cable channel web sites. Once you find the show you want to watch, just click on ‘view’ to jump directly to the site.
To access the tool, click on the following button…
p.s. Since this is the first version of the tool, I would be very interested in any feedback you might have about it. Thanks!
We recently canceled cable TV service and use free digital broadcast TV. The deciding factor was we can still watch our favorite cable shows (even the ones on HBO and Showtime) without spending additional money. Here’s how you can too…
I. Watch your favorite shows for free using the Internet
One of our favorite sites is Hulu.com, a site which lets you legally watch hundreds of shows and movies for free. It is owned by NBC and Universal, but also features shows from other networks (Fox, Comedy Central, SciFi Channel, WB, etc.). Here are some of our favorites…
- The Daily Show
- The Colbert Report
- BattleStar Galactica
- The Office
- House
- 30 Rock
- The Simpsons
- Family Guy
If you can’t find a show on Hulu.com, it may be available directly from the network or cable channel site. For example…
ABC has full length episodes of most popular shows (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, etc.)
Just read a great post by Seth Godin called Hungry, which explains how marketers are great at teaching well-fed consumers to want to eat more than they need. He mentions canceling cable as a prime example. Cable TV used to fill a unique need. Twenty years ago, it was the only way to get first run movies and was an exciting alternative to the content available on the three networks. Cable was introduced at a reasonable price and it’s adoption soared.
Things have changed. We now have free digital broadcast tv, DVDs, Hulu.com, Netflix and fixed price set top boxes like Roku. In spite of this competition, cable prices have only gone up. Yet it’s still hard for most of us to make the phone call and cancel cable TV. Why? Because we still want our snack despite being full.
