I'm finally dumping paid television
 

In an effort save money monthly, I've decided to dump cable. I don't watch sports and only have an analog TV, so there is no appeal to me for HD content and a million sports channels. I find that 90% of what I watch is on regular network TV anyway. I think I can count the # of cable-channel shows I watch on 1 hand.

I recently purchased a digital converter box ($20 with coupon) and I get an excellent picture. I'd say that in some cases, the picture quality is better than my cable company provides.

To make up for the loss of some content, I bought a Roku Netflix box. So I'm still shelling out $100 up front and $9/mo for Netflix. The box will pay for itself in about 3 months. Here's hoping Roku and Netflix add more content.

Also, I can plug my laptop into my TV and watch many videos in 480p from Hulu via S-video. The quality for The Daily Show and Colbert is actually substantially better than what I was getting from my cable company. In fact Hulu meets most of my Cable needs with Daily Show, Colbert, and Psych all being shows I'd miss without cable.

Anyone else getting rid of paid tv?

no. I am a man. I like to watch sporting events on the television set.

I need cable internet, it's cheaper with limited basic cable ($59 total for just cable internet, or $49 total for cable internet + limited basic cable ($9.99 for cable, $39.99 for internet)) Wouldn't make sense to get rid of it.

I don't blame ya - I hate tv. I only pay for broadcast service ($7.50 a month) and the only sport I love watching is MMA.

Just couldn't imagine paying the money required to have a bunch of shit channels. There are so many "weak" shows out there it's ridiculous but it makes sense since most of it appeals to the mainstream masses. Nothing wrong with that just not my thing.

I am going to get the digital box though so I can order UFC PPV events when I feel like it - It only costs an additional $6.00 a month to have the box so no big deal.

I have never and will never pay for TV. People at work think i'm crazy for not having cable and i'm missing out on a lot of good shows. If its something i wanna watch thats on cable, most of time i can find it on the internet for free :)

I have digital cable AND satellite. If there was another way to get even more channels I'd buy that too. I gotta have my fix. My idea of hell is a motel room with no cable and no air conditioning.

"Television - Teacher, mother, secret lover" - Homer Simpson

If this was 5-10 years ago, I'd say no way. But pretty much everything I need to see I can get online.

The shows I watch on cable include:

The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
South Park
Reno 911
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Psych
Burn Notice
Doctor Who
Torchwood
Eureka
Battlestar Galactica
Mythbusters

Plus, my wife watches a lot of Discovery, National Geographic, and Animal Planet.

The shows I watch on "Paid" TV include:

The Closer
Mad Men
In Plain Sight
The Shield
Nip/Tick
Rescue Me
Burn Notice
Army Wives
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern
Passport to Europe/China with Samantha Brown
Top Chef
Battlestar Galactica
Stargate: Atlantis
Re-runs of Friday the 13th the series
Locked Up Abroad
Greek
And of course next week I will be watching Olympic coverage on the NBC-owned cable stations.

So, yeah I think I'm getting my money's worth and will be hanging on to Satellite for awhile. But then again, if you can't afford it and need to cut costs, then it's understandable what the Original Poster is doing. I would have to say that Cable/Satellite is definitely a luxury item and not everyone needs it or can afford it.

I watch the cartoon network, cspan, and scifi. I could probably do without it. I mostly watch dvds or streaming stuff from netflix. I can watch cspan online. Plus comcast sucks in general. Over the air HD looks better.

I don't watch TV. Why bother? I have DVDs.

Welcome to what I discovered about 15 years ago. Cable TV was a good idea in theory but it's turned out to be just about the biggest waste of money I can think of.

I had my car serviced a couple weeks ago and got to check out the current basic cable in the lobby while waiting- I couldn't find a SINGLE thing to watch out of all the channels that were on it. Of course MTV wasn't showing music videos; I might pay for a channel that actually did show those 24/7 with no commercials. In fact most of the channels I flipped through this time were showing commercials, I'd be really pissed if I were paying for that. After a couple times around I settled on "The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody", which turned out not only to have an annoying laugh track but the video was processed in "FilmLook" which looks like shit! To top it off the Disney Channel's mouse-ears logo popped up and stayed there, so I gave up and read the newspaper.

MTV? Dude, that's been crap for years now. It's all about MHD now. All they seem to show is concerts and music videos in HD and surround sound, love it!

Hey, I'm right there with you. Several months ago we dumped all the "upper channels" and only kept the local stuff (about 13 channels). I miss The Daily Show, Colbert and Battlestar Galactica, but the first two I can get great highlights online and the latter will be on DVD, so really no biggie. Sure beats paying about $600/year for them. I still get hours of enjoyment from the major networks and since I have a TiVo, there's always something to watch.

I've sold most my DVDs too except those I really love (down from 600 to about 75). Now I rent the latest releases weekly at RedBox ($1/rental) and I don't find myself really missing anything.

Put that savings into good use--put it into savings! :)

I'm with JuryDuty here.

There are shows I miss, but I can't justify the price. I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of my cable internet yet and go back to DSL, but I know I should...DSL is cheaper (and slower...that's why I still have cable internet) so it would save me even more money.

Cable is ludicrously expensive. I have Comcast and they were running a special where you get digital cable, digital phone, and Internet for 99.00 bucks per month. Well, that's not bad...I could drop my regular land line to offset the digital phone cost. But after a year it goes up to $150.00 per month. Screw that crap. Those services are NOT worth fifty bucks each, I don't care how clear the TV is and how great the digital phone service is and how fast Internet is.

I've been contemplating AT&T's bundle...all three services for $75.00. I realize that includes slower DSL and Dish Network, and I am leery about getting satellite, and Dish...I've heard bad things about them.

I have my coupons for the converter box and just need to get to the store and pick them up and drop Comcast. The only reason I haven't switched fully to AT&T is because a few years ago in Missouri they said they were going to allow AT&T to offer digital cable through the phone lines, but they would have to get it set up first. I've been waiting and waiting...now that would be the deal I want...all three services for $75.00 and to NOT use Dish Network. I have no idea where AT&T is on the project here in Kansas City...they refuse to tell me when I call to ask about it.

I pay $8 a month for cable here, but it's the super basic package. I get local channels, plus discovery and E! - but I also get the HD channels. I can watch the other shows I want like Colbert and Daily Show on Hulu - so this is a good option for me.

I've been on the limited basic for a couple years now ($15 a month) since I only watch network TV. It's been great on the wallet. I'm wanting to pick up the general 60 channel package for sports this fall but that would be a $30+ jump a month, needless to say I''m a little hesitant.

I watch sports, so that's the only thing that will keep me from dumping cable. Until there is some kind of online alternative I'll keep cable.

I did this kind of unintentionally last fall. I built a home theater PC that can record HDTV, but only from basic cable. So I have basic cable for all the network shows, and I get the few cable shows that I watch online at Amazon Unbox or iTunes. $13/month plus $30 each for 4 season passes is much better than the $60/month I was paying for DirecTV.

I considered dropping cable. Then I got hooked on Food Network HD.

Time Warner (NYC) has a solid lineup of channels on their digital system. I don't pay for any of the premium (HBO, Showtime, etc.) channels currently, but I have four channels (Turner Movie Classics, Sundance, IFC, Fox Movies) that all show uncut, commercial-free movies, almost always OAR.

Then there's BBC America (not get <i>Torchwood</i>????? - no way!), SciFi, Logo, the Discovery channels, CNN, etc.etc.etc., 40 channels of commercial-free music, and several free on-demand channels, including one that has dozens of commercial-free classic films each month.

Since the basic broadcast channels seem content to offer only a few hours of solid quality entertainment buried under a dung-heap of manipulated "reality" shows, cable is what mostly makes turning on the TV worth while.

Three words:

NFL. Sunday. Ticket.

I've been "cable/satellite-free" since December (OTA with my S3 TiVo) and I don't miss it at all.

If you get your internet from Comcast, they may have been blocking content- they recently got busted by the FCC for it, one of the few useful things that organization has done lately.

I have DSL, it's a huge improvement over dial-up, still isn't perfect but I'd never give Comcast my money.

If I ever was going to contemplate dumping pay tv, and that won't happen, I would seriously consider that Dish Turbo HD plan first - sounds like a pretty good deal.