they should really look at installing boxee (boxee.tv) on their PC so they can even watch hulu, CBS, etc on the tv easily.

Probably works great as long as you don't care about any live sports. And it kind of looks like she might wear the pants in that family, I don't think he had much of a say in it.

@rtmccormick: Yup. Live sports are the only reason I still have cable.

@rtmccormick: Where are you watching your live sports? Or what are you watching?

All of the major ones I care about are on broadcast channels so I don't see how that would be an issue at all.

@bovinekid: When I was a kid I worked summers at boy scout camps. We had no TV and every morning I would read the sports pages. I was very fond of how well they used to describe the highlights of the games. It was better than watching. That seems to be a lost art these days. The articles are shorter and it seems that they must have a list of 30 synonyms the writers reuse constantly.

@bovinekid:

I dont watch sports, but can't you pay some leagues (like the NFL or MLB) to watch live games off their sites?

If I was living by myself, that would be the quickest way for me to dave $52 a month from Comcast.

50 HD channels? Where do they live? I live in Austin TX and I barely get 10 channels and only 5 of those are HD.

I've been trying to do something similar with my household, but no one is budging. I had a HD cable box, worthless. My cable service is lousy. So I ditched the box, plugged the cable into the back of the TV and bought some rabbit ears. I get HD over the air like this couple and its fine for me. It's what I wanted anyhow.

I was grandfathered into a great Blockbuster online plan, 3 at a time, unlimited returns for the old price, and use that instead of the movie channels. In my case that saves a good amount a month, and we get what movies we want.

But the family has to have their news and hgtv and classic movie channel. So 4 channels is all they watch and are paying 60+ a month for 2 cable boxes and service. sigh...

The only thing I'd miss is TNT, which is the only non-broadcast station we get on basic cable (13 channels) for $17/mo.

It's the next-closest thing to just going with an antenna, and I rarely miss the other 50+ channels for the extra $40. Most of it is crap, but you don't realize this until it's gone ("Why the hell was I watching Celebrity Fit Club again?")

Nice article and all but those are some lucky people in my mind. Like most cost cutting measures your mileage may vary depending on where you live and what point you were at before.

I don't have a existing roof top antenna. I played with a couple of set top ones and they were worthless. Even when I could get channels to come in I couldn't get the HD feed. So good for them on that bit of luck.

I was also thrilled to find out when I cut my television cable it resulted in my internet cable going up $10 a month (with no service upgrade) so my savings were already cut into just by cutting the TV.

I was just doing this math myself and came to the exact same conclusion - paying $100-150 per month for internet and cable is a complete rip-off. A much better alternative is an antenna (~30 HD channels for free - only 10 are in English and not 24x7 weather, but that's still good), 3 Mbps DSL ($30), Netflix ($15), and Hulu and broadcaster's websites for everything else. Total cost, ~$45 / month for a much more flexible and mostly on-demand entertainment package.

50 HD Ch's??? $600 for a pc with tuner and Bluray? Numbers don't add up there.

@pmcpa2:
Ok, Just looked at Cnet's article. When you click on the link for the pc they list, it's more like $900. Numbers still don't add up. And 50 HD Ch's turn into 40 BS Stations, and maybe 10 network ones if you live in a major market.

@socalrob: My boyfriend and I are the same.

I only had internet to begin with but they offered me a killer deal for digital cable + HBO for only about $50 on top of what I was already paying.

I cancelled the HBO because I have Netflix, but I really can't cancel the digicable because the only channels we watch really are Discovery, Science, Military, History, and BBC America. None of those are available over the air :-/

@bovinekid:

There are plenty of places that offer live sporting events (NHL, NBA, NFL, etc) usually they stream in international channels from abroad to get around the legalities, since these leagues already have contracts in place prohibiting them from broadcasting anywhere but their current partners....works for me, and don't have to keep cable just for sports...
Granted there is a price...but usually $15 per year or so, so a great money saver!

50 HD channels?

I wager:
4 networks
41 music channels
5 weather channels

@DrStarkweather: Probably. I can get the few NFL games I care about over the air from the local network affiliates, but I'm more of a college sports fan, and you really need cable for that. You can generally do the internet pay thing with your school's sports, but if you wanted to watch other games, which I do sometimes, you'd be out of luck.

@tande04:
tande04, meet the digital television transition happening in February. DTV transition, meet tande04. You guys should spend a little time together, a little meet and greet maybe.

I'd be down with ditching my cable if it weren't for live sports, too much mlb and college bb is on cable... I don't feel like going to a bar every time a game I want to watch isn't on a network broadcast.

@pmcpa2: While the HD channels seems a bit of a stroke of luck, $600 for a blu-ray pc and a tuner is well within reason.

Look on newegg. Blu-ray BURNERS are only $250.

@JBlair42081: Agreed, boxee means not missing cable.

read a damn book?

I just get all my movies/tv seasons from the library. My library is a pretty shady place, but it is part of a loan system so I can still get all the new releases. Plus if you go to redbox.com and sign up the texts, you get a free movie rental every Monday.

@CuriousO: Seconded. I live in Austin as well and there's only a handful of HD channels. Worse yet, even with an indoor antenna (I can't install anything extravagant, living in an apartment) the HD channels I'd get were prone to interruption and MPEG artifacting. When the signal got really bad it would actually lock up my TV, making me power-cycle it at the outlet.

Sorry, but my internet and cable with a HD DVR adds up to $110, or about $4/day. As expenses go, it's not so terrible.

@danep:
Need a land line for dsl, since I just use my cell, a phone line (w/ no long distance) + 3 Mbps DSL would cost $60, whereas my cable internet is $40. Plus, no cable/satellite = no live sports on espn, tbs, fsn, etc.

Maybe they are using an OTA tuner, not just a regular antenna. That would be over 50 channels for free, crappy ones, but free ones.

We've lived without Sat/Cable for about 6 years, I'll happily trade no ESPN for no Nickelodeon/Disney/Cartoon network. We combine an OTR antenna with an HD Tivo and the Netflix On-Demand service. More TV than I have time to watch!

Total monthly cost <$30

@rtmccormick: and I suppose you'd have no problem if it looked like HE made the decision? Jeez, welcome to the 21st century. Couples can work all kinds of ways now.

Trying to watch a live sporting event on a pc internet feed is ridiculous at best. I pay a total of about $120 a month (average - more during baseball season, less off-season) for a sat package and MLB extra innings. I get almost every game that is played, every day in high def. Instead, I buy good used cars in cash and don't have car payments. That is a good way to save. New cars are horrendously overpriced and you pay double with a car loan. I paid $6000 for a 2000 A4 Quattro that runs like a top - no car payment = glorious live sports in HD instaed of squinting at a pc monitor or watching a degraded pic fed via the net.

my dish network HD package is about $35 a month, not contract. seems like a lot of work to save $13 month, not counting the computer.

also, agreed, $600 computer seems pretty useless when all tvs (not monitors) come with tuner and you can get a PS2 for $400.

@concordia:

I kinda miss cable but, our apartment complex only allows U-Verse. I had U-Verse before and had nothing but problems. I guess I'm stuck with 10 channels.

Oops meant to add...

I travel for a living and only need a couple of hours of satellite in a hotel room to remind me why this s**t isn't worth $80 p/month.

How many 3 day old "breaking news" stories still airing 3 on all the cable news networks can you watch?

@rtmccormick: Or, have a nice break from life and go get a beer at the local bar where they pay for the cable, and you pay for liquid joy.

@The Name's Ash78, Housewares:

I don't get it either. Perhaps they are confusing DTV with HDTV?

And I wager (that they are confusing the two and):
5 major networks (including PBS)
15 public info channels
25 music channels
5 weather channels

@rtmccormick: I must of missed the memo where the FCC bared live sports from being shown part of the digital transition.

How does that have anything to do with what live sports are available over the air?

I'm so glad that worked for them in Oakland...

I'm not sure it'd be so great where I am, Lincoln, Nebraska. Antenna and rabbit ears only pick up the local stations, nothing from far away Kansas City or anything more than your basic networks, and PBS.

I mostly have cable for my computer. Every time I think about downgrading to basic, I get hooked on a show that isn't on basic. D'oh! At least I never got into the box needing channels like HBO and such. I've stuck with Blockbuster Online ever since I realized that, at the time, they were closer, and faster, than Netflix, and so have one of the nice plans with coupons that I can use for video games as well. (Try it out, either hate it and don't waste my money, like enough to play once...and am done, or then go hunting for the game somewhere cheap.)

I am glad for movie rentals, though. The urge to go to the theater (10 bucks plus goodies add up fast (I know, could skip them, but...it's part of the experience.), anyway, the urge to go to the theater goes away except for a few times a year.

@Elcheecho: The computer is being used as a DVR, which your PS3 isn't going to be doing (at least here in the USA). Of course, there are now stand-alone, subscription-free ATSC DVRs on the market for cheaper, I believe.

We tried this, but it wound up not working out. I like the Discovery line of channels too much to give them up. Mythbusters is awesome in HD. :)

I need my discovery fix. It's the only reason I still have cable.

@socalrob: I did the same thing. I was grandfathered into the blockbuster plan with unlimited in store exchanges and 2 at a time, it's great at the old price :)

I completely ditched cable though. Now I just use off-air channels and my 360 for Hulu (via playon, a little buggy with FF/RW though). I would definitely suggest Hulu as an alternative to cable. It has old movies and shows like AMC and some HGTV type shows also.

My Mom uses a HD antenna and she is perfectly happy without cable (of course she never had cable in her life so its not cutting back for her). And as someone who grew up without a t.v. in the house (and no I'm not 80, I'm in my 30s) its actually quite easy to live without t.v. and be happy. Me and Mr. Sam plan to cut out the t.v. when we have kids.

@LiquidGravity: Exactly. No way these people have 50 high-def channels. 50 digital channels, including a few high-def, maybe.

When I moved into a new apartment 3-4 years ago, I called the cable company to move my service over to my new place. Previously I had the off-the-books $15 a month plan that pretty much had only the local channels and one or two channels that nobody watches anyway.

The cable company wanted almost $100 to reconnect the cable since apparently the previous tenant had it disconnected for nonpayment. I told them that was ridiculous, paid the outstanding balance on the account and closed my account.

I've gotten by with Hulu and other free sites like that for the most part. Anything that wasn't free was available on iTunes and given how few shows I watch I usualy spend about 2-3 months worth of cable fees for a year's worth of shows.

Since they have a computer, they should use it to start streaming netflix movies. They could watch as many movies as their bandwidth connection would allow.

@tinmanx: Seriously, high-def Discovery and "NatGeo" are like high-def crack.

@rtmccormick: Are you expressing shock that women make decisions about how thier households run, and that many (evolved, confident) men welcome that?

Do you live in 1954?

@CuriousO:

So don't believe everything you read--however, in the Bay Area where they live there are over 65 *digital* channels available ([www.choisser.com]) but certainly not all are HD. Most if not all would need a high-gain outdoor antenna as well (the "rabbit-ear" antenna idea mostly sucks in all but the strongest-signal areas). Most consumers confuse and co-mingle "digital" with "HD" and we should save that discussion for a later time.

If you have internet access and a dvd player, then ditching cable is painless. I've been without cable/satellite for over 3 years and it's easy! Here's how I survived:

-My tv hookup picks up the basics {ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and random shop networks}. Most of my favorite shows are on these channels anyway. {yay FREE!}

-I watch all my premium channel shows, like Dexter and Trueblood, online FOR FREE.

-I have the cheapest subscription of Netflix {rent 2 movies a month 1 @ a time with on-demand access for $6}.

-Use my Erewards{FREE} member points to rent a free blockbuster movie every month.

@JBlair42081: except if their PC is running Windows, they can't. Only Ubuntu or OS X.