Cutting the cable

Posted on May 9, 2012 by scott

I’ve been thinking about my chosen TV entertainment scheme and how it matches up to what I might be getting by just subscribing to cable. Here’s a table that I made up to help me.

	AppleTV+Netflix Instant Watch	Cable
Watch my six favorite TV shows	Yes	Yes
Commercial-free	Yes	No
Watch any time	Yes	Yes with DVR option
Streaming radio stations	“Hundreds”	“Over 40″
Easy remote/onscreen interface	Yes	No
New-release movie rentals	Yes	Yes most packages
Back catalog movies	Yes	No
Catch up on previous seasons of TV shows	Yes	No
Idle channel surfing	Not really	Yes
A la carte purchasing of current TV shows	Yes	No
Podcasts	Yes	No
Project iPhone/iPad to TV	Yes	No
Youtube	Yes	No
Pro sports option	Yes, but no NFL	Yes
Shortcomings never tempt you to piracy	No	No
Free updates with new features	Yes	No
Eliminates need for disc rentals	Pretty much	Not really

Note that I really place high value on things like commercial-free viewing, a la carte purchasing and integration with iOS devices. And I don’t place a lot of value on things like channel surfing or pro sports. Your mileage may vary quite a bit.

The cherry on top is that, depending on movie rentals, specific cable packages and other factors, I estimate that going my route saves me 50% or more over cable.

More on Apple TV

Posted on April 7, 2011 by scott

I’ve written about Apple TV before, but I think it’s a subject that bears revisiting. There’s a lot of people who could get a huge bang for their buck with this unit, just like I’m doing.

Do you have an HD television?

Do you have a home WiFi network?

Do you have a Netflix subscription?

Do you have one or more iOS devices such as an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad?

Do you have a computer with iTunes on it?

If you’re answering yes to these questions, go immediately to your local Apple retail store and get Apple TV. Here’s a few scenarios describing how I use mine.

Netflix Instant Watch. If you’re still fishing red DVD envelopes out of your mailbox every few days, wake up! With your DVD-in-the-mail subscription you also get unlimited streaming. There’s thousands of movies and television shows for you to choose from. And while the selection isn’t everything you could possibly want, it’s plenty large enough to be worthwhile. In fact, I find it so worthwhile that I opted for a streaming-only subscription to Netflix. No more DVDs for me. What do I do when I want a just-released blockbuster that isn’t available to stream on Netflix? Read on.

Have you seen the latest viral Youtube video? Of course you have. But wouldn’t it be nice to watch it on TV so you could enjoy it with your friends and family? Definitely. Apple TV does Youtube. (Incidentally, the Honey Badger is my animal spirit guide.)

Supposing I’m going to hang in the kitchen, cooking or doing dishes, and I want some music? I can reach into my pocket, pull out my iPhone, fire up my favorite music and AirPlay it right to my TV and out it comes through my surround sound speakers. If a clunker comes up on random? I can use the phone to skip it. Or pause it or whatever. And if my phone rings? The music fades out for me to hear it, then comes back up once I’m done talking. Remote music through the entertainment center speakers is a thing that also works with my iPad and with my computer. I think the phone is just handier.

Netflix streaming and YouTube are fine and dandy, but what do you do on a Friday night when you really want to see that hot movie just released for home video? In a bygone era, you’d have to drive to Blockbuster (hope you get there early and remember to return it on time). More recently, you could (if you had the foresight to do so) put it on your Netflix DVD queue and hope it arrives on time. I suppose some people just go to a Redbox machine or something. Me, I rent from iTunes. Yeah, it’s like $3-$4. But it works beautifully, I don’t have to leave my couch, there’s nothing to return and no late fees.

Remember when home WiFi was a new thing? And laptops didn’t all come with WiFi radios inside them? I remember having to convince people that the addition of WiFi into their homes would make their laptop so much more useful. I feel the same way now about Apple TV. It makes things like your Netflix subscription and your iOS devices much cooler than before. And for only a Benjamin!

Some will want to point out that Apple’s not the only game in town. Roku and Google TV and others are in this market as well. I don’t think any of them have gotten it just right, though. Apple’s is the solution I recommend.

Apple TV

Posted on October 1, 2010 by scott

“…at $99, you don’t have to fully understand what it does. It has the Apple brand, so there must be something cool about it, right? It plays TV shows, movies, and slideshows? Well, that sounds good. Netflix too? Wow, nice. And it’s only $99? What the hell, I’ll give it a try.” – Macworld

So I got my Apple TV a couple of days ago. Is it as great as I thought it would be? Pretty much! I have a slick way to do Netflix streaming on my TV and also to get iTunes movie and television show rentals into the TV. All I had to do was buy an HDMI cable and plug ‘er in.

There was some tedium involved in entering my iTunes and my Netflix account information by clicking on onscreen letters via the remote, but after that: dead simple.

Of course it also plays music out of my computer’s iTunes library.

Overall, I’d have to give the Apple TV a thumb’s up.

Behold

Posted on September 3, 2010 by scott

The new idiot box. I even got an antenna, so I get 18 digital broadcast channels for free. Unfortunately, only a few seem worth watching.

I also ordered the new Apple TV. So between the antenna, Netflix streaming, iTunes rentals and the DVD player, I should be all set to thoroughly pollute my brain on a regular basis. I feel so modern.

I found myself watching some local news and it occurred to me that these anchors and reporters are probably famous enough to be chatted up every time they go outdoors–but I’ve never seen them before in my life. Also, commercials. I watched dozens. All new to me.

I’m not turning in my Luddite badge just yet, though. How many people still don’t have cable or satellite?

New developments in TV: Hulu Plus

Posted on August 2, 2010 by scott

You may already know that TV and I parted company a long time ago. I spent a period of several years without watching any at all. I didn’t have cable, satellite or an antenna.

During the last year, however, I began to watch some TV again thanks to Netflix Watch Instantly. I watched and enjoyed every episode of Lost, but beyond that it was a few episodes of No Reservations and Survivorman.

Here’s what I really want.

To choose my programs a la carte, without paying for a huge package of shit I don’t want
To be able to watch them whenever I want to
The ability to watch them on whatever device I want to watch them on (TV, iPad, iPhone, laptop, etc.)
Not to pay exorbitant sums of money for it

Netflix has been great so far. And sometimes I get content from iTunes. The latest move? I’m trying Hulu Plus. It’s costing me $10 to explore it. I’ll blog my opinion of it when I’ve spent some more time with it.

Television update

Posted on April 9, 2010 by scott

I haven’t truly watched television in years. Of course I have a television–for DVDs and video games. I just don’t have any television programming: no cable, satellite or antenna.

This is why the TV in the bar mesmerizes me; why I’ve never even seen one episode of your favorite show; why I have no idea who famous television actors are (I occasionally know their names because people talk about them, but I wouldn’t recognize them if I knocked them down in the street); why my answer to the question “have you seen that one commercial?” is always no.

Mostly, I’m good with this. There is, and always has been, quality television out there. And I realize that I miss out on it. But there’s also a lot of noise, clutter and garbage. And–even more to the point–it’s hard to keep them separate. It’s like having an entire grocery store in your kitchen and trying to eat only the fresh greens. Sooner or later you know you’ll be eating Cap’n Crunch out of a large tupperware bowl just as sure as you’ll eventually end up channel surfing with no other goal in mind than just to find whatever’s least awful.

Will television and I ever reconcile? I think so. I’ve always said that I’d reconsider the whole no TV thing if and when I could subscribe to channels or shows a la carte instead of paying a big fat bill for an ocean of content, most of which I do not want. And it has to be reasonably priced.

So far no one has hit a spot sweet enough on those criteria for me to budge.

However! I have been taking advantage of my Wii’s new ability to stream Netflix stuff to my television. There are moments when I’m enjoying an episode of No Reservations that I almost feel like I’m a regular TV watcher. Without commercials and without the temptation to channel flip.

Bonus: You can also watch Netflix streaming content on your iPad. And it’s coming “soon” to the iPhone/iPod Touch.

A pterodactyl, a cave man and an astronaut walk into a bar…

Posted on April 9, 2009 by scott

“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson

I think everyone recognizes that brick-and-mortar video rental stores are headed the way of the Dodo. But what many of us have moved to–mail-order DVD rentals via Netflix–is a similarly doomed business model, and will eventually be replaced by internet downloads.

Isn’t it weird that you can drive past a Blockbuster store on your way home, grab the Netflix envelope out of your mailbox, and then sit down to peruse what on-demand movies are available to download? It’s like seeing a pterodactyl, a cave man and an astronaut sitting down together for a beer. New stuff comes so fast that the old stuff doesn’t even have a chance to go away.

I want my goddamn flying car

Posted on February 25, 2009 by scott

It makes me mad that fishing DVDs out of the mailbox is still my best option for video entertainment.

I thought we’d all have flying cars by now!

Seriously, though. Where’s the video rental downloads? I mean, they’re there–they just aren’t any good yet. Both Apple and Netflix have online stores and even settop boxes to bring it all to your TV. The chief problem with these operations, however, is that the selection stinks. Netflix has over 70,000 DVDs in its mail-order library. I think their download library has less than 10,000. Apple has even fewer downloadable titles.

And the local brick-and-mortar video store isn’t a better option. Their selection is the worst of all. Not only do I have to drive there and back, by the time you factor in the inevitable late fees it’s also the most expensive.

Please let 2009 be the breakout year for downloadable movie rentals. What’s the holdup here?

scott d. feldstein

technologist, musician and teacher

Tag Archives: netflix