We Cut The Cord!
Last week, my wife and I took the leap and cancelled the video service portion of our FiOs service. We had many reasons for doing this, the main reason being to cut our monthly costs. We are planning on relying on Netflix, Hulu, various network websites, over the air tv, and iTunes for our entertainment needs. In our living room we have an Apple TV, Xbox 360, iMac, internet connected Blu-ray player, and a crappy antenna all connected to our TV. So far it has been an adventure, I’d like to take a minute to briefly share a few thoughts on our experience so far.
One of the biggest hassles has been figuring out what programming is available where, when it is available, and for how long it is available. Luckily I had a handy list of the programs that we had set up to record on our DVR. I went though this list and searched Netflix, Hulu, various network websites, and iTunes to see where our favorite shows were available. Of the 25 shows I researched, 23 are available on iTunes, 15 are available on the airing network’s site, Hulu has an unpredictable jumble of random episodes for some shows, clips for others, and nothing at all for a few. Netflix had no current seasons of these shows available but 13 of the shows do have past seasons available. Looks like using the iMac on the big screen tv will likely be the most useful viewing tool, or air playing from the iPad to the Apple TV in some cases.
So, this has been a learning process for us so far. The biggest thing we miss is the simplicity of turning on the DVR and selecting from a list of recorded shows. I would love to see something like this, even if it would just have links to the website you could watch the show. This may be a fun project for me if I can’t find anything to accomplish this. I have plenty more to write about this experience so look for more posts coming soon with some tips for others looking to cut the cord.
