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Some thoughts on shutting down "cable"...
Jan. 23rd, 2014 05:13 pmLooking at the family budget, one of the prime targets for trimming is (and has been, for some time) the monthly bill from what might generically be called "the cable company" (although technically, our "cable" comes in via a dish).
Of the supposedly mind-numbing number of channels provided, all but a few dozen appear to be designed to sell me something. Of the rest, most concern themselves with the delivery of religious messages or programs for children. The premium channels show the same crap movies over and over again, replacing old crap movies with new crap movies.
Back a few years ago, I seem to recall the broadcast industry telling everyone who would listen about how they were being dragged by the government, kicking and screaming, to go over to completely digital broadcasting. When that happened, what used to come into one's house for "free" (okay, you needed a television and an antenna) now required an equipment upgrade and a digital antenna (if you were within range of the signal, which fell far short of where analog signals could go).
Or preferably a "cable" box.
At this point, I'll spare you, as I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Instead, permit me to make some observations about our (roughly) week of viewing television over the Internet (which in our neck of the woods, ironically, is delivered via a coaxial cable).
Our go-to service for broadcast television is Aereo. The service is not available everywhere, but it is in Houston. I found it takes a little time to get used to the service.
For one thing, it does not appear to be possible to channel surf, because it takes about 20 seconds to switch channels (exit the channel you're watching, switch channels, and start watching the new channel). Second, the service "pauses" at the end of each program, so if you want to watch two shows that are broadcast back-to-back, you go through pretty much the same procedure.
There are also some performance issues. Some appear to be the fault of the service (as when there was an outage during a recent awards show), while others probably have to do with sharing a cable with umpteen other users (it's pretty much impossible to watch any kind of media being streamed from without at around 7 pm).
The good news is that the service is cheap when compared to "cable," and with the plan we selected ($12 per month), we can record up to two shows at a time and keep something like 60 or 80 hours of programming stored on a "virtual" DVR. By taking the time to set up a recording schedule, I believe it's possible to free oneself from the tyranny of having to watch one's favorite shows at the times they are broadcast.
Given the state of this technology, if I was a cable exec, I'd think hard about reinventing my industry.
Cheers...
Of the supposedly mind-numbing number of channels provided, all but a few dozen appear to be designed to sell me something. Of the rest, most concern themselves with the delivery of religious messages or programs for children. The premium channels show the same crap movies over and over again, replacing old crap movies with new crap movies.
Back a few years ago, I seem to recall the broadcast industry telling everyone who would listen about how they were being dragged by the government, kicking and screaming, to go over to completely digital broadcasting. When that happened, what used to come into one's house for "free" (okay, you needed a television and an antenna) now required an equipment upgrade and a digital antenna (if you were within range of the signal, which fell far short of where analog signals could go).
Or preferably a "cable" box.
At this point, I'll spare you, as I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Instead, permit me to make some observations about our (roughly) week of viewing television over the Internet (which in our neck of the woods, ironically, is delivered via a coaxial cable).
Our go-to service for broadcast television is Aereo. The service is not available everywhere, but it is in Houston. I found it takes a little time to get used to the service.
For one thing, it does not appear to be possible to channel surf, because it takes about 20 seconds to switch channels (exit the channel you're watching, switch channels, and start watching the new channel). Second, the service "pauses" at the end of each program, so if you want to watch two shows that are broadcast back-to-back, you go through pretty much the same procedure.
There are also some performance issues. Some appear to be the fault of the service (as when there was an outage during a recent awards show), while others probably have to do with sharing a cable with umpteen other users (it's pretty much impossible to watch any kind of media being streamed from without at around 7 pm).
The good news is that the service is cheap when compared to "cable," and with the plan we selected ($12 per month), we can record up to two shows at a time and keep something like 60 or 80 hours of programming stored on a "virtual" DVR. By taking the time to set up a recording schedule, I believe it's possible to free oneself from the tyranny of having to watch one's favorite shows at the times they are broadcast.
Given the state of this technology, if I was a cable exec, I'd think hard about reinventing my industry.
Cheers...
