Tuesday 2 December 2014

Cable Surgery


It has been one year since that eventful moment when we cut our cable TV for good.  Driven by relentless increases in costs and motivated by the consistent whine of "nothing to watch" we adopted Netflix first and were sold!  We most often went to Netflix for our evening viewing anyway and were thrilled to be able to choose the genre and feed our minds as well as our hearts.  But this is not an advertisement for Netflix!  It is more the story of how two seniors survived cutting the tie that binds to American Idol, The Voice and the News (any channel).   Because neither of us are crazy sports fanatics and the half of this equation that has some sport interest can get his soccer or wrestling fix online, we really didn't miss the LITTLE SCREEN draw!


At that time, we went out and spent $99 on an Apple TV to connect ourselves up to the internet.  We did not have a Smart TV (afraid of any appliance that could think better than me!).  It was pretty much plug and play!  Since then we have purchased a Smart TV - guess I felt that since I retired I could keep an eye on it and have some time to sharpen my own wits!  Works well for Netflix and YouTube etc.  However, word of warning to the un-geeks out there - you can't connect the Sony Smart TV (and perhaps others) to your computer screen through Wifi if you don't have Windows 8 (missing WiDi!!).  Until we upgrade we are still constrained to connect via a special cable from my laptop to the TV to watch shows outside of Netflix.  It is amazing really - how easy it is to stay up to date on most of the shows I enjoyed with cable - CBC, CTV, etc - all have them available for a short time after their cable debut and, for some, ongoing without end!  So we gained a bigger screen but did not yet succeed with a touch of the button - but - we will upgrade someday!!

Sadly for Canadians everywhere, our American neighbours have many more options!  Amazon Prime provides free streaming!  Hulu - similar!  (I hear Amazon might make this available in Canada.) Others are aiming to introduce new internet TV access which will - wait for it - be paid for by the commercials rather than the end user!  Doesn't that sound just like what we had before Cable TV wowed us with all that variety and great screen definition?  Of course, then they plied us with more and more and more commercials anyways!  Seems to me that is like - double dipping!  So, I say bring it on and let me be in the drivers seat - I can stand a few commercials for the ability to choose my viewing pleasures!



And a few links to help you decide - maybe!

http://www.alternet.org/media/get-rid-your-cable-tv-package-now-0?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/surviving_the_networked_home/

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier! I thought I would do the same. You are going to laugh when I tell you that I have no idea how to work our television. I haven't watched in years. We had someone out to set up our cable a couple years back and he was trying to explain to me which remote did what and I told him to just leave it and they would figure it out. I knew I wasn't going to remember it. I know the kids use Netflix and our Amazon Prime and I think we have cable too. But that's about all I know. I'll watch a movie with everyone now and then and who knows, I may go back to watching again someday...I see snippets here and there...but it seems like there is never enough time and honestly I don't miss it, although people think I am nuts. :)

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    1. Too funny! My remote and I have an understanding - I won't toss it under the couch if it doesn't freeze up and stop working! When my children were very young we lived in a rural area without reception including no aerial - ah the good old days. My kids spent most of their young days without TV or even movies until VHS surfaced. They are all avid readers! The new gizmos frustrate me more than I would like to admit. Soon I will be calling my grandchildren to help me!

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  2. Thanks for posting on the blog. I've learned a great deal of cord-cutting from it.

    I'm now in the process of doing this. Will use my old tube TV to watch movies that I have plenty of, and will stream on my other, HDTV. Now am hoping to find a budget internet connection as I am on a fixed income. Will likely give up a landline as I will be using my cell phone anyway.

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    1. A little creativity and some frugal research will get you there! Landline versus cell phone is certainly up for discussion in our house right now. Let me know how that goes for you. I am still on the fence.

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