Time Warner raising rates again. Get this...

[shortylickens]

Not from Comcast. They'll just say "Bye." and never look back, and laugh at you when you come crawling back.

Umm, comcast DID call me back.
Buy by then I was settled into FIOS with NO inclination to switch back.
It was glorious.

 

[NutBucket]

Buy tickets to local sporting events.

Yep. That's the trade I made. I have a lot more fun that way and am much more productive at home.

 

[zerocool84]

Buy tickets to local sporting events.

Tickets to sports are expensive as hell, one game and you're waaaaaaaaaaaaay over the price of cable for a couple months.

Sports is the only draw on cable tv. Yes there are streaming sites but the quality is pretty bad. Low resolution on flash player... and who wants to watch it on laptop anyway

Exactly, they are all low quality. I didn't buy an HDTV to have low quality 480p sports.

 

[NutBucket]

For what sport? Take away Lakers and Clippers and tickets are cheap.

 

[shortylickens]

Football aint cheap. Its not cheap to attend.

DirecTV has all the sports, (I think) but you are paying too much for relatively crappy service.

If you can give up some sports then damn near anything else is a viable alternative. I love my FIOS and I dont even really like television that much.
its just the convenience of lots of good stuff in HD for a reasonable price.

 

[NutBucket]

Football is on network TV most of the time. Good enough.

 

[Jeff7]

Buy tickets to local sporting events.

Tickets to sports are expensive as hell, one game and you're waaaaaaaaaaaaay over the price of cable for a couple months.

Local sporting events.
$10/ticket for a local baseball stadium.


Local football.....
Same price.



I guess you'd add something if you buy food and such there, but still not "way over the price of cable for a couple months."
But I also don't eat much, especially when it's overpriced.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

you could completely build a BADASS HTPC, for like 300 bucks..


I7 barebones kit+ram+storage

and you have something capable of ANYTHING out there.. MUCH MORE powerful than any HTPC/streaming box

nix is free...and the best... for this application.

How are you doing this for $300? I7 costs >$250. How does one barebones with I7+RAM+storage for $300? What are you smoking?

 

[destrekor]

Local sporting events.
$10/ticket for a local baseball stadium.


Local football.....
Same price.



I guess you'd add something if you buy food and such there, but still not "way over the price of cable for a couple months."
But I also don't eat much, especially when it's overpriced.

Well, I think his complaint was "local" for him is Professional.

Local for me would work for this argument, because I have minor-league clubs (AAA baseball and ECHL hockey - both tied to Detroit's teams).

The argument, however, is really a moot point.

So, no sports on TV for you? No big deal - just go watch your local teams and who they are playing. Well... what if I cannot stand those teams, or, gasp, dare to watch other sports or like to watch multiple games, including away games of said local team?

It's not a valid response to "no sports after cable cutting." It may work for some, but in no way will it suffice for a majority of sports fans. Getting generic sports entertainment does not match getting the exact sporting event you wanted to watch.

If you are the type that just turns on sports for mindless entertainment and doesn't care what team and/or what sport - congrats, you may be in the minority that sees this compromise work out in the end for them.

 

[TXHokie]

Windows media center. It's free with Windows 7.

Worked great for me. It isn't rocket science, just make sure you have a computer that uses heatsink for CPU and graphics card, less moving parts to break. I haven't touched my MCE HTPC for 3 yrs and it's still rocking. I bought two of those HDHomerun Dual so can record and watch 4 OTA channels at once+Netflix. The money I saved bought me a new bigger screen TV and lots of beer. It's also a repository for family pictures, videos, ripped movies collection, and my music collection, you know those media you never even look at again if you dump it on your laptop.
Now I have an Xbox in my bedroom and have access to all that content as well - and the whole computer is backed up online. I can pause a recording in living room and then pick up where I left off in the bedroom. DirecTV and TW can suck it. All I really need is a good internet connection.

 

[OlafSicky]

Cancel it

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Sports

Main reason why I have cable.

Sports, the reason cable is so high for everyone. It should all be moved to an exclusive package like HBO/Shotime etc

 

[Jeff7]

Well, I think his complaint was "local" for him is Professional.

Local for me would work for this argument, because I have minor-league clubs (AAA baseball and ECHL hockey - both tied to Detroit's teams).

The argument, however, is really a moot point.

So, no sports on TV for you? No big deal - just go watch your local teams and who they are playing. Well... what if I cannot stand those teams, or, gasp, dare to watch other sports or like to watch multiple games, including away games of said local team?

It's not a valid response to "no sports after cable cutting." It may work for some, but in no way will it suffice for a majority of sports fans. Getting generic sports entertainment does not match getting the exact sporting event you wanted to watch.

If you are the type that just turns on sports for mindless entertainment and doesn't care what team and/or what sport - congrats, you may be in the minority that sees this compromise work out in the end for them.

I guess that's the problem though: The ones providing the sports programming know that they have an audience that is...."devoted," let's put it that way.
They're going to wring as much money out of that audience as they possibly can.



But, I'm certainly in the "sports don't do anything for me" camp. It's a bunch of rich guys playing with a ball.