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Thinking of getting rid of premium channels...

M

manlymatt83

Lifer
We had a promotion going until this month, and now our premium channels are going to cost $60+ total for Starz/HBO/Cinemax/Encore. To be honest, the movies on these channels suck. I don't watch any of the series, and I do have a netflix subscription... and the movies on netflix are almost better than the movies on the premium channels.

Has anyone else gotten Netflix and used that as an excuse to get rid of the premium channels?
 
Yes. Netflix has a ton of streaming now as well as discs. Get yourself a Roku or PS3 if you don't already have something for streaming in your living room.

I'm almost ready to drop my cable completely since I almost never watch live TV with commercials any more. It would be cheaper to buy TV episodes off of Amazon for a few shows and wait for DVD / blu-ray / streaming for the rest.
 
DaveSimmons said:
Yes. Netflix has a ton of streaming now as well as discs. Get yourself a Roku or PS3 if you don't already have something for streaming in your living room.

I'm almost ready to drop my cable completely since I almost never watch live TV with commercials any more. It would be cheaper to buy TV episodes off of Amazon for a few shows and wait for DVD / blu-ray / streaming for the rest.
Click to expand...

I've thought about getting a Roku but more and more have been thinking of going the mac mini route. Then I can at least watch youtube, surf the web, etc. No?
 
Dropped cable almost a month ago. OTA antenna for local channels and a PS3 for movie watching/streaming + internet.
 
between netflix instant and streaming hulu, I've only found myself wanting HBO/Showtime on premier nights of the few shows that I watch (and I'll typically just end up watching all of them at once at my parents house while doing laundry later in the week, but it means I have to avoid overhearing conversations at work to avoid spoilers)
 
manlymatt83 said:
I've thought about getting a Roku but more and more have been thinking of going the mac mini route. Then I can at least watch youtube, surf the web, etc. No?
Click to expand...

Mac Mini is a great little box, I have an older one for testing our Mac software at work. It would be the perfect playback device if it included a blu-ray drive (curse you Steve Jobs).

It's 10 times the cost of a Roku, but if you drop all cable and use Hulu.com streaming instead you could pay for it in less than a year.
 
My employer just decided to give all employees the premium channels for free. I still haven't watched them.

I dislike cableco converter boxes.
 
manlymatt83 said:
We had a promotion going until this month, and now our premium channels are going to cost $60+ total for Starz/HBO/Cinemax/Encore. To be honest, the movies on these channels suck. I don't watch any of the series, and I do have a netflix subscription... and the movies on netflix are almost better than the movies on the premium channels.

Has anyone else gotten Netflix and used that as an excuse to get rid of the premium channels?
Click to expand...
Do it. :thumbsup:
 
Right now Hulu and Netflix can't replace cable, but they can pretty much replace premium channels. The only issue is that new programming won't be able to be on DVD (for Netflix) for like a year after it airs. However, if you can live without the latest episode of Entourage, you're be fine.

Oh, and while I'm not really all that in favor of Hulu+ right now, it does have the Criterion Collection on it. That'd be the only reason why I would pay the fee for it.
 
The only reason to have premium channels is the original programming, not the movies. But at the prices they charge, I can wait for DVDs.

manlymatt83 said:
I've thought about getting a Roku but more and more have been thinking of going the mac mini route. Then I can at least watch youtube, surf the web, etc. No?
Click to expand...

Mac Mini is approximately 10 times more expensive than a Roku box, but in the same price ballpark you could get an Apple TV 2 and put XBMC on it. It won't let you surf the web (laptop?), but it'll do anything else.

I have a hard time justifying spending $500+ on a HTPC, but when the Minis are updated I'm going to get one to use as my desktop PC, and use my current Mini as an HTPC. I have 2 Apple TV 2s right now.
 
I've dropped everything but the basic package with HD from Time Warner.

If I could get reliable OTA I would think more about dropping cable. I can't put up an outdoor antenna here (HOA), and I only get half the local channels with a indoor antenna.
 
Tried Netflix, in two months I watched one movie. Most of what I wanted could not instantly watched on my TV. Cancelled Netflix.
 
Unless you watch the stuff actually produced by Showtime/HBO I really see no reason to keep the premiums in 2011. There are so many alternatives that it really makes no sense to me to pay for them. I turned them off a few months ago for that exact reason. As I told the woman at DTV trying to talk me into keeping them I could not recall the last time I watched anything on HBO/Showtime/Skinemax since the last episode of The Sopranos.
 
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