A blogger over at ZDNet realized that he could cancel part of his cable, order his shows on iTunes, watch movies on Netflix and save $300 a year.
- Last week I came to the realization that with Netflix and iTunes, I would be able to cut out the $50 portion of my cable TV bill and ditch the 80 or so channels I never watch, including 3 shopping channels, 3 sports channels, 6 family channels, numerous foreign language channels, and one Lifetime Channel for Women that my fiance tortures me with. Farewell Melissa Gilbert, Rachael Ray, and Paula Deen! You are thus banished from my home!
I’m currently interested in about 6 shows, all of which it turns out I can get on iTunes. Plus, Netflix handles all of my movie needs. If I’m generous with my iTunes figures, it adds up to about $300 in purchases each year, versus the $600 I pay for all of the “variety” that Comcast provides me. The old model of just piping junk into my home simply doesn’t make sense to me anymore.
Even though it makes sense, it seems like a hard sell for most people. It may not sound practical to you right now, but paying for your shows individually may be the way of the future. People want
la carte media, and with the way cable prices are rising, it may be more cost effective for a lot of users. Are you listening Comcast? DirecTV? NFL? —MEGHANN MARCO
The Comcast Cancer: Is Web 2.0 the Cure? [ZDNet]
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Don’t forget about the public library as an option for your movies. I go to Netflix, shop through the new releases or browse a handy section like Academy Award winners, find what I want, then go online to the library and order it to be delivered to my local branch. Some things they didn’t have, they bought at our request. In Dallas, you can have 5 dvd’s and 5 vcr tapes at a time, and probably 5 in cd’s also. They have books on tape/cd also if you have a long commute.
The quality of the Xbox itself is excellent (an unmodded Xbox makes a very good DVD player). The quality of video playback on a TV is entirely dependent on the quality of the file itself. Even 320×200 or 352×240 video looks as good as VHS ever did, if encoded well. 512×384 is virtually indistinguishable from full DVD resolution.
I can’t speak to the HD issue, as I don’t have an HDTV, but I doubt the original Xbox’s processor is fast enough to decode full 1080i HD in real-time. 720p would probably be fine, though.
OK, I read the first page of posts, and I dread reading the other 3. I just want to know what type of internet you are using for your itunes? You have to pay one of the monopolies for that , so is that included in the $300 a year?
I currently have comcast 6m service, and had started digital package, which they just opened up a slew of digital channels and dropped my cost cuz I told them I was leaving.
I am still leaving…. leaving cable for over the air DTV/HDTV, and cable internet for ATT DSL and phone. The move, while getting slower internet (bummer), wil save me about $80 a month. I will stream/ dl content not available over the air from the internet.
bye comcast… see you when i determine that DSL speed sucks….
I think a great option for those who are wondering how to get files from a PC to the TV is to use a PS3. Remember that the PS3′s browser now supports flash video on sites like hulu, and you can install your own OS on a PS3 without any hardware modding, and still switch back to the native OS for games. Basically the PS3 turns into a media center PC (sans tuner) with full blu-ray support AND HDMI out.