People who "cut the cord"- Do you regret it?

[AznAnarchy99]

People's cable bills are insane. I just watch all my shows online and catch sports at a bar or friends house.

 

[squarecut1]

I guess it is a matter of supply and demand. Most of us lead boring mundane lives and we want to sit in front of that box even if there isn't anything very interesting. I know people who say there is nothing worth watching on cable and yet they still have it.

 

[watdahel]

We've created three settings:
"Good" - The default setting with good picture quality and lowest data use per hour (about 0.3 GBytes/hour)
"Better" - Better picture quality and medium data use per hour (about 0.7 GBytes/hour)
"Best" - Best picture quality and highest date use per hour (generally about 1.0 GBytes/hour - or up to 2.3 GBytes/hour when streaming HD content).

Netflix should provide more granular settings on the video quality than what they currently provide. The "Best" setting could be further divided. I know I can't watch HD fulltime without maxing out my data cap and the next step down looks mediocre. I want something in the middle. It appears Netflix feeds you data based on your internet speed as well. I get 5Mbit down speed internet. When I set Netflix to "Best" HD the video data rate hits 3Mbit/s. When set to "Better" it only hits 1Mbit/s. Maybe Roku should have a setting to limit bandwidth so it is system-wide.

 

[MrColin]

I have never in my adult life had cable TV. I used to have a TV for watching VHS tapes but I threw it out in 2006.

Whenever I get exposed to the toxic sludge of mainstream TV I am horrified to see how much further down the shitter our culture has gone. Ridiculousness?! Are you fucking kidding me?

You can do a great deal to increase your own happiness with the time and money you waste on that crap.

Cut it! CUT NOW!

http://youtu.be/oHHvqncASrI

 

[John Connor]

Comcrap has been pissing me of with the outages here. I called and complained asking for a credit to the account and the person said, "unfortunately we can't give you a credit but we can give you HBO or Showtime free for a month." I said fine just give us the fucking HBO.

Ready to go DirectTV and Centurylink.

 

[squarecut1]

Whenever I get exposed to the toxic sludge of mainstream TV I am horrified to see how much further down the shitter our culture has gone.

You could not be more right. The degradation of the American culture is on full display in all its ugliness on the mainstream TV

 

[Balzac04]

You could not be more right. The degradation of the American culture is on full display in all its ugliness on the mainstream TV

I feel the same way...but my wife enjoys watching that crap.

 

[DesiPower]

I have cable TV companies, I wish I never had to deal with them again. Unfortunately, they are they only people who provide fast and reliable internet in my area.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Most of us lead boring mundane lives and we want to sit in front of that box even if there isn't anything very interesting.

Fun fact! Your life would be less boring and mundane if you turned the TV off and went outside instead.

 

[squarecut1]

Fun fact! Your life would be less boring and mundane if you turned the TV off and went outside instead.

You are absolutely right. I do not watch much tv at all (can't stand most of it) and am very selective in what I do watch.

Depending on the time and other responsibilities, it is not always possible to go out when you want, but I do have other interests. Reading, volunteer work etc ...which are far more rewarding.

 

[Tweak155]

Just got 25mbit internet for $20/mo which is supposed to double to 50mbit with no cost increase soon.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Just got 25mbit internet for $20/mo which is supposed to double to 50mbit with no cost increase soon.

Of course it will. Of course that is all dependent on the content providers you wish to use paying to be allowed to send stuff to you at those speeds. Because it is not fair to let those greedy content providers use up all the bandwidth you pay for (at least with out paying your ISP for the privilege). Because other people might want to use that bandwidth you are paying for to get content from companies that are willing to pay extra.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Comcast internet - split the cable tap for free local OTA HD channels that they can't block due to the modem (or get a HD Digital Antenna). Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, Plex. You can always subscribe to NFL over VPN for $100/year but local games are always broadcast for free (as well as what seems like any other sports).

TV has turned to crap and I rarely flip to it (Sundays I do, my favorite shows like family guy come on). Any other time I flip over the usual stations are playing another reality show which I show zero interest in. I panicked to find the remote one night after cosmos went off because they cut to American idol or whatever the crap it is.

 

[akahoovy]

Don't regret it. Like MrColins above, I've never had an adult cable bill. The last time I had cable in my residence was in a college apartment. I had Netflix DVDs, then Netflix streaming, and now Amazon Prime streaming and back to Netflix DVDs. The DVD selection is still a huge library of movies you can't see online. Plus I like that there's no buffering/connection issues. My internet is decent most days, it's a 25/10MB connection with Comcast.

For what it's worth, Netflix where I'm at in Dallas was consistently crappy with delivering content, lots of drops in quality frequently, but Amazon Prime has looked much better nearly all the time.

 

[Engineer]

I haven't done it yet but I'm getting damn close. TW and their constant rate hikes can suck a _ ick!

I have never seen a company throw wave after wave after wave of new fees. Internet going to Windstream first and then the TV cutting next.

 

[NutBucket]

My kids(s) will grow up cordless too! I anticipate a lot of complaining but we'll see.

 

[MrColin]

Don't regret it. Like MrColins above, I've never had an adult cable bill. The last time I had cable in my residence was in a college apartment. I had Netflix DVDs, then Netflix streaming, and now Amazon Prime streaming and back to Netflix DVDs. The DVD selection is still a huge library of movies you can't see online. Plus I like that there's no buffering/connection issues. My internet is decent most days, it's a 25/10MB connection with Comcast.

For what it's worth, Netflix where I'm at in Dallas was consistently crappy with delivering content, lots of drops in quality frequently, but Amazon Prime has looked much better nearly all the time.

I must have forgotten to untick the box for the free trial of Amazon Prime last time I ordered from them. I didn't realize until I saw the email thanking me for the cash, so far I like it ok, plenty of good stuff to watch there.

It tickles me that you called me MrColins, it reminds me of some old ladies I used to help, long story.

 

[Kaido]

People's cable bills are insane. I just watch all my shows online and catch sports at a bar or friends house.

I love TV & all, but I have friends who are paying between $250 to $400 a month just on their bundle (especially with sports via satellite). Man, that's a car payment! But hey, different strokes for different folks. I just upgraded to 4 steams on Netflix on impulse (bumped me from $7.99/mo to $11.99/mo) so that I wouldn't have to walk in the other room to turn off Netflix on my TV. #firstworldproblems :biggrin:

 

[DaveSimmons]

I guess it is a matter of supply and demand. Most of us lead boring mundane lives and we want to sit in front of that box even if there isn't anything very interesting. I know people who say there is nothing worth watching on cable and yet they still have it.

But you can do that with Netflix instead of paying $100+ a month for cable.

I cut the cable 3 years ago and haven't missed it. If there's some show I "need" to see before Netflix gets it on disc or streaming then I buy the episodes from Amazon. Paying for Netflix + doing that for a couple of shows is still ~$1,000/year cheaper than cable.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

cutting the cord is a strange term for me since I grew up without cable lol. i have fios right now and there's a ton of crappy channels on there.

 

[Tech_Greek]

At the rate I was going I would have had to spend $230/month basically for just TV and slow internet. That's nearly 3k a year! Insane!

I grew up with Direct TV and always had it on but never watched it really, don't miss it one bit.

 

[mvbighead]

It'd be great if I could get something like USA/TNT/ESPN and maybe a cooking channel for $20-$30 a month. Instead it is a $100/month for mostly a bunch of crap I don't watch. Football is the only thing I really got DirecTV for, but that is $399 a year so a bit outrageous. It is truly nice to be able to watch every game on DVR and skip commercials and catch up to live in the 4th quarter.

Oh well, a few more months and maybe one more football season and it is likely to all go by by.

 

[poofyhairguy]

It'd be great if I could get something like USA/TNT/ESPN and maybe a cooking channel for $20-$30 a month. Instead it is a $100/month for mostly a bunch of crap I don't watch.

If we ever get a la carte, unless it is enforced by a judge or something, you can expect the five or whatever channels you watch to still cost $100. They aren't going to make LESS money.

 

[squarecut1]

Yes you are not paying for 200 channels that you get. You are paying for espn

 

[poofyhairguy]

Fun Onion Article that fits:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nations-cable-companies-announce-theyre-just-going,36254/