I'm thinking I might be making this decision before too long. $55 is a lot of money for a bunch of channels I really don't watch. And everyone in the family pretty much catches stuff off the internet. I'm looking into Apple TV or something along those lines.
Anyone dumped Dish/Direct/Cable for AppleTV or something similar?
- Thread starter Jon
- Start date
Nah. I've now got 2 Xbox 360s, one for the TV room, one for the bedroom. Lately all I've been watching is stuff I download and Netflix, but there are a few cable shows I watch. The wife loves HGTV, and I doubt I can find any of that on BT.
I looked at Apple TV, Roku, all sorts of networked media center things, and in the end the Xbox won. You get high def video, Netflix and it plays games.
I looked at Apple TV, Roku, all sorts of networked media center things, and in the end the Xbox won. You get high def video, Netflix and it plays games.
Jon, when I moved this past summer I pondered the same thing. There are a few shows that we watch weekly on TV, CSI's, etc...
I know that you can buy a season for $xx. I probably would of spent $300? a year on 5 or so series from iTunes, which is alot cheaper than spending $1000 a year on Cable (I have FiOS).
I chickened out. I love flipping around and watching DIY Network and the news, etc... We have HBO, but only for Big Love (yeah, I said it
).
Now with Boxee you can do a lot more with Apple TV.
This still might be an option down the road for us, I see it improving alot in the future.
I know that you can buy a season for $xx. I probably would of spent $300? a year on 5 or so series from iTunes, which is alot cheaper than spending $1000 a year on Cable (I have FiOS).
I chickened out. I love flipping around and watching DIY Network and the news, etc... We have HBO, but only for Big Love (yeah, I said it
).Now with Boxee you can do a lot more with Apple TV.
This still might be an option down the road for us, I see it improving alot in the future.
I have had DISH for over 8 years and thinking about dumping them for DirectTV (for better content and cheaper) or Comcast (for faster net). I think DISH has jumped the shark with me and their price increases.
AppleTV is the favorite at this point since every other bloody thing in the house is an Apple product, seemingly anyway. And you can use the iPhone as a remote for it. And they now have 'Rescue Me' in HD. I don't even have FX in HD with Dish Network. And there's tons more stuff I can get in HD on AppleTV than I can on Dish. Plus movie rentals in HD for $5.99. I did have Netflix for a while when I had my own place and it was cool. That's definitely on the list if I don't get AppleTV.
Dish Network's price increases and not knowing where channels are going to wind up (packages wise) are driving me away from that service. The price doesn't justify the half dozen or so channels I watch regularly, and I'm watching less sports than ever (the only real reason I would keep Dish).
Dish Network's price increases and not knowing where channels are going to wind up (packages wise) are driving me away from that service. The price doesn't justify the half dozen or so channels I watch regularly, and I'm watching less sports than ever (the only real reason I would keep Dish).
$6 movie rentals? $3 for a TV show? That's just way too high. And AppleTV can't play Netflix? That really sucks.
I dumped RCN cable for netflix on my xbox360. I really dont mind it at all.
I get my news fix from HLN 133 , which is the only thing I missed not having cable.
When baseball season finally comes around, I might be singing a different tune.
I get my news fix from HLN 133 , which is the only thing I missed not having cable.
When baseball season finally comes around, I might be singing a different tune.
I've been pondering it. I need to buy a Roku box and see if it will fill enough of our TV needs.
Yep, dumped cable about a year ago. Bought a Series 3 TiVo and get all my local with an antenna. Also subscribed to Netflix, so have DVD's and Blu-rays coming in the mail, plus have their Roku box for internet streaming (also in the TiVo). Frankly, we're on content overload here...since we pick what interests us, rather than being thrown the garbage from several hundred content providers (cable channels). Our philosophy was to try it to see if we liked it, figuring we could always go back to cable...found that we're much more liking this new method of getting content.
I get locals with the Digital antenna, and they come in pretty good. I may just use the digital signal for locals, and download all the stuff I watch on the cable networks on Apple TV. If the Early Termination Fee isn't too bad for Dish, I may cancel sooner than later, even though I'm under contract.
This latest fiasco with the Turbo HD packages has got me soured on a service that I liked and even defended for a long time.
This latest fiasco with the Turbo HD packages has got me soured on a service that I liked and even defended for a long time.
I'm testing out PlayOn. It lets you watch Hulu, CBS, CNN, ESPN, Netflix and some other stuff on Xbox 360 and PS3. So far it's working very well.
We almost never watch movies, but we do DVR some TV shows. Nothing I'd pay $2 for on Amazon. I'm actually considering dumping cable and getting Dish and DSL to save a few bucks.
Update on PlayOn: They have published their plugin API and a bunch of people have created plugins to pick up all sorts of video from the net. The site "playonplugins.com" has a bunch of them. You can get stuff like Adult Swim, HGTV, ABC, Comedy Central, PBS, The Onion and even porn on it now, in addition to Netflix, Hulu, CNN, ESPN and all the stuff PlayOn ships with. This is looking like a very promising piece of software. 14 day free trial, $40 to buy it.
Well I like college football and the NFL too much to give up my live action. Apple TV looks good and I considered it and thought about canceling my cable during the off season, but like MM found that I like watching DIY, HGTV and many other stations from time to time. I just don't think I'd be happy with just an Apple TV.
Right now my high speed internet comes via my cable service. I don't have Dish or Direct and for the most part have been happy with my cable service for my HD channels. They don't have nearly as many, I think we are up to like 35 now. I just wish they would allow me to get just the HD channels and then an add on solution like Apple would be great. However, Suddenlink isn't going to do that because they couldn't steal all that extra money from me for channels I never watch!
Right now my high speed internet comes via my cable service. I don't have Dish or Direct and for the most part have been happy with my cable service for my HD channels. They don't have nearly as many, I think we are up to like 35 now. I just wish they would allow me to get just the HD channels and then an add on solution like Apple would be great. However, Suddenlink isn't going to do that because they couldn't steal all that extra money from me for channels I never watch!
That's actually what I've got with DISH. HD Only with Locals. I could downgrade to a lower HD package, But even with the higher package I'm not getting all the channels I could be like FX, BBC America, BET, stuff like that, so I'm missing a lot of shows I used to watch when I had cable. Those shows are available on Apple TV. My Discovery Channel shows are also available there. What I could do is wait until my contract is up with Dish while buying an Apple TV and see what it's like. If it's plausible, then I'll do it. I barely watch sports anymore. And what I do follow I can get on the iPhone with Baseball.