|
rcjordan
|
 |
« on: February 21, 2009, 11:33:30 AM » |
|
With the collapse of civilization at hand, I'm seeing a lot of posts about dumping cable (content only I guess, not the cable broadband). Almost all of the cost-cutting plans use Hulu. I don't trust Hulu as 'stable' yet. I suspect it is in the use-FREE-to-acquire-marketshare mode and will pull the switcheroo in a year or so or go belly-up. Anyone here know someone who's recompiling their cable consumption? Or is this just New Age Survivalism? http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/02/19/how-i-cut-my-television-bill-in-half/ |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
arms
|
|
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2009, 02:38:40 PM » |
|
i dumped cable for bittorrent a long time ago. downloading is not illegal here (yet) and there are no commercials. i can watch tv when and where i want. i can watch a full season at a time or last nights episodes. i can no longer stand watching tv on tv. xvid players are cheap and i've recently found the xbox 360 is a quite capable media player, i can even stream video from my linux pc with ushare. most people my age around here do the same or pirate american sattelite - which also isn't illegal in canada as the us satellite providers don't have a presence in canada. why would i pay 60+ /month for ad ridden content that even with tivo i don't have much control over and forced (crap) canadian content? our beloved crtc choses what networks are appropriate for canadians to watch, and then only if they also have a canadian version with shitty "canadian content".
when they can provide me with digital content i can watch on any machine as many times as i want i will watch their stupid commercials.
also, i don't encourage anyone to download copyrighted material if it is illegal in their country.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
perkiset
|
|
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2009, 04:05:29 PM » |
|
The race to the bottom is going to cause problems, as they eventually get to a place that they have to actually earn money. I am really curious to see where all of this goes.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
It is now believed, that after having lived in one compound with 3 wives and never leaving the house for 5 years, Bin Laden called the U.S. Navy Seals himself.
|
|
|
|
nutballs
|
|
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2009, 06:00:15 PM » |
|
for the time being though, its free. and you could always sign back up for cable if need be right?
i might do this...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
I could eat a bowl of Alphabet Soup and shit a better argument than that.
|
|
|
|
rcjordan
|
|
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2009, 09:24:36 PM » |
|
>xbox
I'm glad you mentioned that. Yeah, most of the people I know who are into home media management are using an xbox as the server.
I quit watching tv about 10 years ago and have never been much of a music consumer, so I have no personal need for much in the way of home media, but my wife still likes a few programs. I'm not going to spend any time going through convoluted paths to get an alternate source. That said, it's obvious that cable will only be able to sustain its current price levels and/or bundled distribution system for a few more years. In perhaps only 2 or 3 years serving up the latest episode of Monk will be passive tech, as easy as flipping through the channels . These 'early defectors' interest me, but it's also déjà vu having watched the tubes consume print publications.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
arms
|
|
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2009, 03:26:40 PM » |
|
im just starting to look into the whole htpc / media server stuf and there's some pretty cool options.
now i mostly use my xbox 360 but before it was a divx/xvid capable dvd player.
now they have some cool divx players with hard drives, networking drives, hd support, that play a wide range of media codecs from xvid to wmv and h.264. check out tvix, mvix, & modix.
there is mythtv (+mythbuntu), basically the open source tivo.
boxee (which was just asked by hulu to stop serving their content) and xbmc (boxee is a fork of xbmc) which are media server / htpc whatever software. boxee even handles youtube and other sites i think (hulu untill recently). there are some other windows only ones that transcode and stream to the xbox 360.
lots of options that make cable look like a poor choice.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
perkiset
|
|
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2009, 03:27:35 PM » |
|
Just read a hack that floats boxee through my AppleTV. Bummer they halted hulu cause that was a pretty dyno combination...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
It is now believed, that after having lived in one compound with 3 wives and never leaving the house for 5 years, Bin Laden called the U.S. Navy Seals himself.
|
|
|
|
vsloathe
|
|
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2009, 07:46:40 PM » |
|
Yeah I got the wife an XBOX 360 for Christmas with a Netflix subscription (re-upped, we used to subscribe before). There are tons of "on demand" titles that you can play through the Netflix app for XBOX.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
hai
|
|
|
|
rcjordan
|
|
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2009, 11:57:17 AM » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
perkiset
|
|
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2009, 03:40:45 PM » |
|
The media's on you pal. It's the cost of being prescient  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
It is now believed, that after having lived in one compound with 3 wives and never leaving the house for 5 years, Bin Laden called the U.S. Navy Seals himself.
|
|
|
|
rcjordan
|
|
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2009, 08:19:50 PM » |
|
>media's on you
Some of us once found that the print reporters were using our public threads for "idea starters" for their articles. The sumbitches were swiping our stuff and not even giving us the slightest hat-tip. (Some were caught outright plagiarizing.) So, a group of us huddled in a private forum and decided to see if we could direct them toward issues we felt were important but overlooked or were being trampled by fanboys. I'm proud to say it worked like a charm.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
perkiset
|
|
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2009, 08:24:08 PM » |
|
 I'd expect no less my friend. Well done 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
It is now believed, that after having lived in one compound with 3 wives and never leaving the house for 5 years, Bin Laden called the U.S. Navy Seals himself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
vsloathe
|
|
« Reply #13 on: March 03, 2009, 02:00:48 PM » |
|
And I'd bet they come out with an xbox360 interface like netflix did. I certainly hope they do, I don't want another set top box cluttering up my stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
hai
|
|
|
|
nop_90
|
|
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2009, 07:40:19 PM » |
|
Cable is just too expensive.
I have used this argument before countless times.
How come a pirated DVD costs like $2 when a real copy costs like $20. The price of the $2 also includes payoff to the police etc.
Maybe if DVD companies would sell real copy for like $3 and spend the money they are using to fight piracy to lower cost, people would not pirate.
Even when it comes to "shows". Much cheaper to buy a pirated set for the entire season with the commercials removed for like $10, then to watch on TV.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
