Cut the Chord - How to live without cable

Upon moving to Denver we decided to do all we could to save money.   In that quest we did several things.   We decided to rent instead of buy, a savings of $750 a month.    We're cutting back on driving, walking and biking as much as possible.   We moved to a cheaper area of the country.    The decision that caused the most debate and sleepless nights though, was to go without cable.

We were spending $105 a month on cable and internet.   That seemed like a huge expense for a bunch of channels we never watched.   We did need internet, mostly so the mom-ster could do work from home.    I started to think about all the options available for TV on the internet and wondered, could I just use my computer as a TV?    Here's what I came up with.    About 50% of the shows that I watch are available on hulu, the rest are available on Netflix at the end of their season or for purchase from Itunes.    Netflix also has an enormous library of programing available on demand.   $42.95 for cable internet + $8.95 for Netflix = 51.90, a savings of $53.10 a month which to me is pretty significant.

Now, some people may be turned off to this option because they think they have to watch TV on their computer screen.   However, it's pretty easy to hoookup your computer to your tv, especially if you have a laptop.    The easiest option is to hook up an HDMI cable or VGA (monitor) cable to the back of your flat screen.   I don't have a flat screen so I hook an S Video cable from my computer to my 13 year old tv.   It doesn't work for internet viewing or word processing because the text is hard to read on an non-hdtv.   However, video's look great.

So what are your options for programming with a computer based TV?

1. Hulu, network TV sites like CBS, ABC, Comedy Central all offer streaming video of pretty decent quality.
2. Sites like YouTube or Funny or Die have original content not even available on normal TV networks, the quality (both picture and content) varies widely.
3. Pirate feeds of commercial programming.   Do a search for any of your favorite TV shows and you'll find hundreds of sites that offer streaming feeds of these shows.   They are obviously very illegal and prone to viruses, but they're an option if you're adventurous.   You can also download illegal copies of shows and movies from peer to peer programs and newsgroups.   I don't recommend or condone either action.   Because of liability and the propensity of these sites to harbor viruses.
4. As stated above pay services like Netflix and Hulu Plus offer large libraries of on demand programing for a much lower fee than cable.

The downside is if you're a sports fan this may not be the solution for you.   Though there are several options available to watch sports.   For instance, MLB offers a subscription service that allows you to watch either an individual team, or any game over a computer feed.    If you're primarily interested in one sport for the year this could be a more viable option than cable, which requires a basic subscription along with another subscription for things like NFL ticket.

So far I'm very happy to go without cable.   I'm obviously watching less tv, but I'm still able to watch all that I want.   I also find that watching TV is more of a planned event now, rather than the constant flipping through channels and concluding there was nothing to watch that I used to engage in.