Experiences with dropping cable for streaming?

[Born2bwire]

I'm moving to the United States soon and for the past few years I haven't had TV (which by the way makes me better than you). So when I get to the States I was thinking that I would probably be happy with continuing to forgo cable and try the streaming services. Thing is, we don't have that kind of thing out here and the last time I was in the States streaming was just starting. Plus, since I am not physically in the States I can't sample the streaming nor can I even check out the details of the services (Netflix just keeps me on a page saying "Sorry you're not an American.").

So I was wondering what people's experiences were with dropping cable and going with streaming services like Hulu+ and Netflix. The recent thread about the Roku boxes sparked my interest. Do you find the line ups to be limited? What about the quality of the streaming (particularly the HD)? Are there a lot of HD streams or is mainly DVD quality? And how has this affected your bandwidth (apparently the Uni is giving me subsidized Comcast broadband which means dealing with their bandwidth caps)?

 

[piasabird]

Maybe some of these services are available on different servers. It might be because in Europe they may be using a different video format??? I know in asia they may have different video sources like:
www.dramafever.com (Korean Dramas)
www.crunchroll.com (Spell) Mostly Anime
There are probably a lot of other sources. I was surprised how much of a film business there is in places like Korea. A lot of it is available in sub titles. Not for everyone. I like the Historical films about korea. 20 bc to present.

Have not tried Netflix.

 

[Born2bwire]

Maybe some of these services are available on different servers. It might be because in Europe they may be using a different video format??? I know in asia they may have different video sources like:
www.dramafever.com (Korean Dramas)
www.crunchroll.com (Spell) Mostly Anime
There are probably a lot of other sources. I was surprised how much of a film business there is in places like Korea. A lot of it is available in sub titles. Not for everyone. I like the Historical films about korea. 20 bc to present.

If there are any services here, I'm not interested in them since I'm leaving for the US. I'm more interested in the performance and so forth of the American services.

 

[sm625]

I have been without cable tv for 9 years now. I did have basic cable a few years but only because it was free with my internet. I never watched it. I cant stand television commercials and will simply avoid tv unless the commercials have been removed.

 

[wirednuts]

i miss discovery and the like.. but for those series that i want to watch i just torrent them. i dont like to but im not paying $60 a month to use only 10% of the service. i cant wait until cable tv is either ousted or dramatically reduced in price. (remember when cabletv was $20 a month in the 80's? you got like 40 channels and there were NO commercials?)

but for me, i mostly watch sports on tv. and now that the nba and mlb has reduced their streaming prices its really a no brainer. the only part that sucks is if you want to watch your favorite teams you better not live in the blackout zones (i just moved out of state so im good!)

overall though, everyone i setup a HTPC for doesnt hold onto their cable service long. its sad because we finally got networked tv cablecard tuners and its almost too late.....

 

[olds]

I have been without cable tv for 9 years now. I did have basic cable a few years but only because it was free with my internet. I never watched it. I cant stand television commercials and will simply avoid tv unless the commercials have been removed.

FF on DVR, FTW.

 

[ponyo]

FF on DVR, FTW.

Zero commercials on free Hulu with AppleTV, FTW. No need to FF at all unless you want to.

For the OP, get $99 AppleTV2 and jailbreak it. Install XBMC and you'll have all the free streaming content you need from XBMC plugins. Start reading about XBMC if you're not familiar.