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MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

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Owen Densmore

MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

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This was on Randy Burge's Google + stream:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/02/special-series-cutting-the-cord-to-cable-tv052.html

Basically a series about getting rid of Cable/Satellite TV:

With rising cable and satellite bills, thrifty Americans pinched by the recession have considered cutting the cord to cable. The savings can be enormous, even if the tech know-how can be daunting when creating your new cable-free TV-watching environment. So MediaShift has decided to devote a week of editorial to cord-cutting, with our in-depth guide, first-person accounts, and even a defense of cable TV. And we want to hear from you about your experience -- whether you like cable or loathe it. Sharing your setup and your situation as a cord-cutter might help others take the plunge. Here are all the stories in our special series.

Our monthly is $80+ and HUGELY under utilized. We never use live TV, we always TiVo. The closest to current content (i.e. recorded w/in 24 hrs) is watching is ESPN's Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. We also watch a recent show, The Chew, a sorta foodie reality TV, but generally a day or so late. And football games during the season.

The majority of the rest TV we watch is internet media downloads, then uploaded to the TiVo via pyTiVo, which has the advantage of serving avi, mp4, ... to the TiVo. Mainly older TV series like Boston Legal, Star Treck (TNG & DS9), and so on.

The main problem we have, therefore, is just a few current shows, football games, and one-offs like the Academy Awards and a few golf tournaments.

So: how do YOU handle getting off cable? My guess everyone has one "must have" that simply isn't on the internet one way or another.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Owen Densmore

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Administrator

One thing I forgot earlier is that most "cable cutters" apparently have local broadcast sources so use an antenna for them.

This may not be possible in Santa Fe which, according to the link in the article (zip to TV station map), can only get Albuquerque .. which likely doesn't work for most sites.

An other cable cutter technique is using cable for internet which comes with the minimum TV plan .. I think the FCC requires such a plan for emergency purposes.

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote:

We gave up on TV about 8 years ago. Haven't looked back. Of course I care very little for sports and only miss it for big political moments like state of the union or presidential debates.

I have noticed that my tolerance for advertisements is very low and watching TV at the in-laws house can be very mesmerizing as every ad is new to me…

--joshua

On Feb 24, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

This was on Randy Burge's Google + stream:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/02/special-series-cutting-the-cord-to-cable-tv052.html

Basically a series about getting rid of Cable/Satellite TV:
With rising cable and satellite bills, thrifty Americans pinched by the recession have considered cutting the cord to cable. The savings can be enormous, even if the tech know-how can be daunting when creating your new cable-free TV-watching environment. So MediaShift has decided to devote a week of editorial to cord-cutting, with our in-depth guide, first-person accounts, and even a defense of cable TV. And we want to hear from you about your experience -- whether you like cable or loathe it. Sharing your setup and your situation as a cord-cutter might help others take the plunge. Here are all the stories in our special series.

Our monthly is $80+ and HUGELY under utilized. We never use live TV, we always TiVo. The closest to current content (i.e. recorded w/in 24 hrs) is watching is ESPN's Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. We also watch a recent show, The Chew, a sorta foodie reality TV, but generally a day or so late. And football games during the season.

The majority of the rest TV we watch is internet media downloads, then uploaded to the TiVo via pyTiVo, which has the advantage of serving avi, mp4, ... to the TiVo. Mainly older TV series like Boston Legal, Star Treck (TNG & DS9), and so on.

The main problem we have, therefore, is just a few current shows, football games, and one-offs like the Academy Awards and a few golf tournaments.

So: how do YOU handle getting off cable? My guess everyone has one "must have" that simply isn't on the internet one way or another.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Douglas Roberts-2

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Likewise, we gave up on cable/satellite TV several years ago. I built a Linux-based home entertainment center; 100 percent of our news and entertainment comes off the web and gets sent through an 800 Watt Denon amp attached to some pretty good speakers and a 46 inch Samsung flat screen. I even cancelled my Netflix DVD subscription and am using the streaming only option. Occasionally we will stick a blu ray disk in to the player, if it's a movie with good special effects.

--Doug

--
Doug Roberts
[hidden email]
[hidden email]

http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

One thing I forgot earlier is that most "cable cutters" apparently have local broadcast sources so use an antenna for them.

This may not be possible in Santa Fe which, according to the link in the article (zip to TV station map), can only get Albuquerque .. which likely doesn't work for most sites.

An other cable cutter technique is using cable for internet which comes with the minimum TV plan .. I think the FCC requires such a plan for emergency purposes.

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote:

We gave up on TV about 8 years ago. Haven't looked back. Of course I care very little for sports and only miss it for big political moments like state of the union or presidential debates.

I have noticed that my tolerance for advertisements is very low and watching TV at the in-laws house can be very mesmerizing as every ad is new to me…

--joshua

On Feb 24, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

This was on Randy Burge's Google + stream:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/02/special-series-cutting-the-cord-to-cable-tv052.html

Basically a series about getting rid of Cable/Satellite TV:
With rising cable and satellite bills, thrifty Americans pinched by the recession have considered cutting the cord to cable. The savings can be enormous, even if the tech know-how can be daunting when creating your new cable-free TV-watching environment. So MediaShift has decided to devote a week of editorial to cord-cutting, with our in-depth guide, first-person accounts, and even a defense of cable TV. And we want to hear from you about your experience -- whether you like cable or loathe it. Sharing your setup and your situation as a cord-cutter might help others take the plunge. Here are all the stories in our special series.

Our monthly is $80+ and HUGELY under utilized. We never use live TV, we always TiVo. The closest to current content (i.e. recorded w/in 24 hrs) is watching is ESPN's Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. We also watch a recent show, The Chew, a sorta foodie reality TV, but generally a day or so late. And football games during the season.

The majority of the rest TV we watch is internet media downloads, then uploaded to the TiVo via pyTiVo, which has the advantage of serving avi, mp4, ... to the TiVo. Mainly older TV series like Boston Legal, Star Treck (TNG & DS9), and so on.

The main problem we have, therefore, is just a few current shows, football games, and one-offs like the Academy Awards and a few golf tournaments.

So: how do YOU handle getting off cable? My guess everyone has one "must have" that simply isn't on the internet one way or another.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Owen Densmore

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Administrator

So Doug .. what *are* your sources? You mention NetFlix streaming. I tried that with Lady and the Tramp and was amazed such a classic wasn't on NetFlix streaming. I found it on the net, downloaded, and watched with no problem.

But how about Jon Stewart or Colbert? Daily news, talk, or sports? Do you try over-the-air via an antenna? AFAIK, that doesn't work in Santa Fe, but not sure about Los Alamos.

How about Hulu etc, do you try any of them? Or even streaming from ABC, NBC .. etc? I noticed one of our favorites has a daily full copy of their show.

My bet is that most folks cutting the cord adapt a bit.

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:26 AM, Douglas Roberts <[hidden email]> wrote:

Likewise, we gave up on cable/satellite TV several years ago. I built a Linux-based home entertainment center; 100 percent of our news and entertainment comes off the web and gets sent through an 800 Watt Denon amp attached to some pretty good speakers and a 46 inch Samsung flat screen. I even cancelled my Netflix DVD subscription and am using the streaming only option. Occasionally we will stick a blu ray disk in to the player, if it's a movie with good special effects.

--Doug
--
Doug Roberts
[hidden email]
[hidden email]
http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:
One thing I forgot earlier is that most "cable cutters" apparently have local broadcast sources so use an antenna for them.

This may not be possible in Santa Fe which, according to the link in the article (zip to TV station map), can only get Albuquerque .. which likely doesn't work for most sites.

An other cable cutter technique is using cable for internet which comes with the minimum TV plan .. I think the FCC requires such a plan for emergency purposes.

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote:

We gave up on TV about 8 years ago. Haven't looked back. Of course I care very little for sports and only miss it for big political moments like state of the union or presidential debates.

I have noticed that my tolerance for advertisements is very low and watching TV at the in-laws house can be very mesmerizing as every ad is new to me…

--joshua

On Feb 24, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:

This was on Randy Burge's Google + stream:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/02/special-series-cutting-the-cord-to-cable-tv052.html

Basically a series about getting rid of Cable/Satellite TV:
With rising cable and satellite bills, thrifty Americans pinched by the recession have considered cutting the cord to cable. The savings can be enormous, even if the tech know-how can be daunting when creating your new cable-free TV-watching environment. So MediaShift has decided to devote a week of editorial to cord-cutting, with our in-depth guide, first-person accounts, and even a defense of cable TV. And we want to hear from you about your experience -- whether you like cable or loathe it. Sharing your setup and your situation as a cord-cutter might help others take the plunge. Here are all the stories in our special series.

Our monthly is $80+ and HUGELY under utilized. We never use live TV, we always TiVo. The closest to current content (i.e. recorded w/in 24 hrs) is watching is ESPN's Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. We also watch a recent show, The Chew, a sorta foodie reality TV, but generally a day or so late. And football games during the season.

The majority of the rest TV we watch is internet media downloads, then uploaded to the TiVo via pyTiVo, which has the advantage of serving avi, mp4, ... to the TiVo. Mainly older TV series like Boston Legal, Star Treck (TNG & DS9), and so on.

The main problem we have, therefore, is just a few current shows, football games, and one-offs like the Academy Awards and a few golf tournaments.

So: how do YOU handle getting off cable? My guess everyone has one "must have" that simply isn't on the internet one way or another.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Roger Critchlow-2

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Owen --

The station finder at http://www.tvfool.com says that an address close to yours, picked off google maps, has line of sight to 27 TV broadcast transmitters, 20 of them digital stations which can have multiple channels multiplexed.

-- rec --

Owen Densmore

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Administrator

Nice! Thanks. So I definitely should play with this a bit.

Have you tried using just an antenna at your house?

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 8:17 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen --

The station finder at http://www.tvfool.com says that an address close to yours, picked off google maps, has line of sight to 27 TV broadcast transmitters, 20 of them digital stations which can have multiple channels multiplexed.

-- rec --

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Roger Critchlow-2

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Yes. I have a pair of passive rabbit ears hanging on the wall of the bedroom and the TV is getting 16-20 digital channels from 6-7 UHF transmitters, depending on orientation and deployment of the rabbit ears. The VHF channels, ABC, CBS, and the UNM station, aren't coming in. But that's a typical rabbit ear problem. I suspect I can build some dipoles on the ceiling pointed at Sandia Crest that will work better.

-- rec --

2012/2/25 Owen Densmore <[hidden email]>

Nice! Thanks. So I definitely should play with this a bit.

Have you tried using just an antenna at your house?

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 8:17 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen --

The station finder at http://www.tvfool.com says that an address close to yours, picked off google maps, has line of sight to 27 TV broadcast transmitters, 20 of them digital stations which can have multiple channels multiplexed.

-- rec --

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Robert J. Cordingley

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

We are very happy with our outdoor professionally installed antenna (AntennaCraft HBU33). Because of HOA requirements it is discreetly located on our 2 storey roof (zip 87507) and not visible from the street. We receive H/SDTV from all the major channels (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 19, 50) and some. We used to play a lot with orienting and positioning different amplified indoor bunny ears but thankfully no more and no more dropout either. I now think they were a waste of time but I'm sure performance will vary. BTW there are no such things as HDTV antennas just antennas good at receiving the carrier signals.

Robert C

On 2/25/12 12:04 PM, Roger Critchlow wrote:

Yes. I have a pair of passive rabbit ears hanging on the wall of the bedroom and the TV is getting 16-20 digital channels from 6-7 UHF transmitters, depending on orientation and deployment of the rabbit ears. The VHF channels, ABC, CBS, and the UNM station, aren't coming in. But that's a typical rabbit ear problem. I suspect I can build some dipoles on the ceiling pointed at Sandia Crest that will work better.

-- rec --

2012/2/25 Owen Densmore <[hidden email]>

Nice! Thanks. So I definitely should play with this a bit.

Have you tried using just an antenna at your house?

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 8:17 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen --

The station finder at http://www.tvfool.com says that an address close to yours, picked off google maps, has line of sight to 27 TV broadcast transmitters, 20 of them digital stations which can have multiple channels multiplexed.

-- rec --

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Roger Critchlow-2

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Yes, indeed, that will work, too.

The true channel numbers, if you are trying to cut an antenna for the right frequency, are a complete muddle at this point. The digital channels all specify "channel numbers" in the broadcast stream which reflect their original "RF broadcast channel". The only DTV stations still broadcasting on their original channels are 7 and 13, every other station identifies as one channel but broadcasts on another channel at a different frequency. The TV tuners sort it all out.

-- rec --

2012/2/25 Robert J. Cordingley <[hidden email]>

We are very happy with our outdoor professionally installed antenna (AntennaCraft HBU33). Because of HOA requirements it is discreetly located on our 2 storey roof (zip 87507) and not visible from the street. We receive H/SDTV from all the major channels (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 19, 50) and some. We used to play a lot with orienting and positioning different amplified indoor bunny ears but thankfully no more and no more dropout either. I now think they were a waste of time but I'm sure performance will vary. BTW there are no such things as HDTV antennas just antennas good at receiving the carrier signals.

Robert C
On 2/25/12 12:04 PM, Roger Critchlow wrote:
Yes. I have a pair of passive rabbit ears hanging on the wall of the bedroom and the TV is getting 16-20 digital channels from 6-7 UHF transmitters, depending on orientation and deployment of the rabbit ears. The VHF channels, ABC, CBS, and the UNM station, aren't coming in. But that's a typical rabbit ear problem. I suspect I can build some dipoles on the ceiling pointed at Sandia Crest that will work better.

-- rec --

2012/2/25 Owen Densmore <[hidden email]>

Nice! Thanks. So I definitely should play with this a bit.

Have you tried using just an antenna at your house?

-- Owen

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 8:17 PM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen --

The station finder at http://www.tvfool.com says that an address close to yours, picked off google maps, has line of sight to 27 TV broadcast transmitters, 20 of them digital stations which can have multiple channels multiplexed.

-- rec --

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Owen Densmore

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

Administrator

In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley

Alas, Hulu has stopped helping cutting the chord:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/04/30/2048230/hulu-to-require-viewers-to-have-cable-subscriptions

Do any of us cable-cutters depend on Hulu in their TV ecology?

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Douglas Roberts-2

Re: MediaShift . Special Series: Cutting the Cord to Cable TV | PBS

An email exchange I've already had with Hulu support:

__________________________________

Them:

Hi Douglas,

Thanks for writing in. Nothing has changed for our service, so I wouldn't pay too much attention to any articles speculating otherwise. We are always working on improving our service for all users, so if we ever add any new features, we'll be sure to announce them on our website and blog ( http://blog.hulu.com ).

Again, thank you for writing. Please let me know if you have any other questions, or if there's anything else I can help you with.

Thanks,

Matthew

Hulu Support

-----

Me:

Thanks for writing back, Mathew. Just in case you hadn't, however, you should check out the results of the (free) market survey that has already been conducted on this potential mistake^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B bit of management brilliance:

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/04/30/2048230/hulu-to-require-viewers-to-have-cable-subscriptions

(Did the guy who thought this nugget up happen to have been a CEO at Netflix, previously? Same caliber of marketing brilliance, if it's not that same guy...)

--Doug

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 8:48 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

Alas, Hulu has stopped helping cutting the chord:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/04/30/2048230/hulu-to-require-viewers-to-have-cable-subscriptions

Do any of us cable-cutters depend on Hulu in their TV ecology?

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org