Tuesday, September 15, 2009

My Alternative to Cable...

I'm going to make this short and sweet.

I don't have cable TV.

I've never had cable TV.

I don't want cable TV.

I've seen several families on Facebook recently ruminate over whether or not to cancel their cable to save money. CANCEL it. You will survive. When I have been in hotel rooms that have cable, it does nothing (for me) except confirm that I don't need it.

OK, I will admit that I do have an extensive DVD library, but mostly because my favorite shows are off the air (M*A*S*H, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friends, Wings, to name a few...) And I like British movies and old classics. But I also have this:
Ah... my wonderful ROKU player.

$100 bought through Netflix. My Netflix plan is $8.99/month. That's right....$8.99. That is the one-at-a-time unlimited plan which allows for unlimited Instant Viewing.

The Roku player sits on my TV, is connected only wirelessly to my router, and streams the Instant Viewing movies and TV shows straight to my TV, so I don't have to watch them on the computer monitor. I LOVE IT.

Yesterday I was browsing the Instant Viewing movies and TV shows on Netflix and saw that Season 5 of Grey's Anatomy was going to be released today. And--YAY! It is available for Instant Viewing. So I can have a Grey's marathon instantly on my bedroom TV. Love it!! (I missed most of last season...)

Yes, a lot of the movies and TV shows available for Instant Viewing are older and perhaps more obscure with a few exceptions (think the $1 theater in Provo, BYU people...) But I have discovered some fantastic documentaries this way, including Stolen and the one about Dominick Dunne that I recently blogged (and raved) about.

My point? Cable is not the end-all-be-all. There are alternatives. I really like this one!

4 comments:

Karen said...

We don't have cable either. But we do have sattelite TV. Jason couldn't live without the sports, especially BYU football! =)

Sally said...

My parents didn't have cable growing up and I've never had it in my married life. I've never once missed it. Wait, we did have it in Taiwan because we couldn't get internet service without cable service. And my kids DID learn a lot of Chinese from the kids channels so maybe there is a benefit if you live in a foreign country and want your kids to pick up the language.

Kristie said...

Touche'! I realize that sometimes it is necessary and I know that you get a bigger variety of sports channels. I guess it is all about context, and when my students can name tons of TV characters, but can't even tell me what state or country they live in--in 4th grade--I see a twisting of values in many households.

Tricia said...

This is very cool Kristie. I'd heard boxes like this were in the works, but didn't know one was available yet.