06 April 2011

** the back story…
Tax day is fast approaching, so reducing the size of the bills and payments to enter into the computer pile is indeed necessary. Maybe it is only when a person enters month after month of the cable bill all at once does the magnitude of the cost become painfully apparent.

I spend how much money for the privilege of watching TV? Holy *@$#*!

Well, I also get my Internet service through my cable provider. Back in the proverbial day, they would not sell Internet service without a bundled cable package. I just assumed that was still the case. So I never made the phone call to find out – or rather I never got dollar-slapped enough by the cost of it all to make the call. Until yesterday.

** marathons…
I can definitely get sucked into a day-long marathon – Law and Order, Bones, House, Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs, and even Star Trek (Voyager, Enterprise, TNG – doesn’t matter which series). I say something like “I’ll just finish watching this one” which turns into “Oh, I haven’t seen this one yet, I’ll watch one more” followed by “This one is really funny, I have to watch it”.

TV is hypnotizing. I’m sure someone has done the research – something about brain waves and alpha state and some such.

Even more troubling, since my line of work involves people actually getting up off the sofa, doing something, and interacting with other people, I should at least do the same thing myself!

Well, I was enjoying a marathon of Dead Like Me on the SciFi (now called SyFy) Channel the other weekend, and I wondered aloud “I bet I can find this series on the Internet somewhere.”

** enter Hulu…
Sure enough, it is on Hulu – and for free! Well gee. You mean I can watch a show whenever I want? How convenient!

Then it clicked. Like an all-too-obvious epiphany. I don’t need cable TV if I can watch shows at my convenience on the Internet. Woah.

** the Roku…
The path to the tipping point is nearly complete.

1. my cable bill is high – and I don’t have fancy PVRs in multiple rooms, no HD package (no HDTV – mine has a tube), no premium channels, no video on demand, no pay per view, just no-frills cable
2. I finally realized how high it is
3. Things I want to watch can come from the Internet

The final ingredient is a little, inexpensive box called the Roku whose only job is to stream audio and video from the Internet.

I have been experimenting with “Home Theater PC Systems” (HTPC’s) for years, having built a tunerless MythTV box out of an old 700MHz AMD K7 I had in the basement. It has been a great media machine for playing videos from my home network (and old video games from Atari 2600 and NES eras), but it has numerous loud fans and requires periodic software updates, which means it is one more computer system for me to maintain and back up.

Having a single quiet 6-Watt machine (the Roku) with a good video card instead of a loud whirring 150-Watt computer system (the MythTV system) with a no-longer-supported video card seems like a smart idea. I haven’t bought one yet, but I know there is an SDK (software development kit) for it, and since I know how to write software, I could write some apps for the Roku to suite my needs.

** the call…
I called the customer service line for my cable provider, and actually received prompt professional service. I did, however, need to convince the service rep that I really did want to eliminate my cable subscription, only keeping my Internet service. “Well, sir, what kind of programming to you usually enjoy?” “Well, sir, can we interest you in a bundle that includes home phone service?” “Well, sir, I do have a special non-advertised cable package that will cut $35 from your cable bill.” “Well, sir, having to buy an over-the-air digital tuner for each TV in your household will be expensive.” “Well, sir, I see you are adamant about cancelling your cable service.”

** Day One…
This morning, the service truck came, a guy climbed the pole in my back yard and made some kind of two-minute wiring change, and my cable service is no more.

It is pretty exciting actually. I have been listening to my favorite Milwaukee new-rock radio station, FM 102.1 (WLUM) on my six-year-old literally found-in-the-trash laptop (now running Linux) piped through my 30-year-old Technics home stereo and 10″ speaker cabinets that I refinished (stereo and speakers from St Vinnies for about $4 total eight years ago). Ahh, modern technology!

Want to read more: see the entire No More Cable TV series.