Dropped Cable Today

[Accidental Retiree]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 What am I missing? Must investigate! I'm interested in the Da Vinci's Demons series.

Starz' original series "Outlander," based on Diana Gabaldon's bestselling novels, premiered in August and is currently on midseason hiatus.

Gabaldon published her first novel in 1991, so this author and her work have had many years to build up a fan base. The Starz series just added to all the excitement.

The first half of the series was set and filmed in Scotland, and Mr. Heughan's haunches figured prominently in Episode 7 of the first half of the season, in "The Wedding."

Of course, I like the books better (there are 8 of 'em, with a 9th in the works). I only watch this series for the breathtaking scenery and historical content.

If you want to get all caught up, Audrey, "dinna fash," you can catch the series this month. Starz will be starting to run the episodes in mid-December, and word has it that Starz will also be doing a marathon on Christmas Day.

Huh, yeah, like I'd get to do that.

It was supposed to start up again in January, but to much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the midseason break lasts until April.

See a brief, earlier ER discussion here, round about Post #15:

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ggs-73783.html

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accidental Retiree Starz' original series "Outlander," based on Diana Gabaldon's bestselling novels, premiered in August and is currently on midseason hiatus. Gabaldon published her first novel in 1991, so this author and her work have had many years to build up a fan base. The Starz series just added to all the excitement. The first half of the series was set and filmed in Scotland, and Mr. Heughan's haunches figured prominently in Episode 7 of the first half of the season, in "The Wedding." Of course, I like the books better (there are 8 of 'em, with a 9th in the works). I only watch this series for the breathtaking scenery and historical content. If you want to get all caught up, Audrey, "dinna fash," you can catch the series this month. Starz will be starting to run the episodes in mid-December, and word has it that Starz will also be doing a marathon on Christmas Day. Huh, yeah, like I'd get to do that. It was supposed to start up again in January, but to much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the midseason break lasts until April. See a brief, earlier ER discussion here, round about Post #15: http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ggs-73783.html

Well, I don't have cable…….

But thanks for the info. And I might have to check out the novels.

[bUU]

For some reason, there appears to be no deal yet set for DVD/BD rights to Outlander, to the consternation of my spouse.

[harley]

Probably because they are only half way through the first season. I'm sure it will come. And you're right, it's a guaranteed "appreciated" gift for DW when it comes out. She doesn't watch much TV, but she watched those few episodes multiple times when they were showing it.

[bUU]

From what I've read, the rights haven't even been sold yet. It is a major source of discussion on the Outlander fandom websites.

[GTFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra9777 You cannot directly port a landline phone number to Google Voice. You can port a mobile number, or you could do a two-step process, which is well-documented on the web. My advice would be to ditch the old landline number. We had one for 35 years, and the vast majority of incoming calls were some type of telemarketing, political poll, police union pension, charity fundraising, etc. That number was in so many telemarketing databases, we were happy to give it to somebody else and start over. We're very careful not to give the new GV number to anyone except family and friends, which has resulted in zero unsolicited incoming calls.

+1000, ditched our landline number when we went to GV years ago. Rarely ever get any unwanted calls now.

[REWahoo]

Eleven months after cutting the cord (actually unplugging the satellite dish) I'm sad to report I'm going back to DIREC TV and cancelling our Netflix account.

Both DW and I were very happy without cable/sat TV but our internet service provider let us down. The company has fallen victim to its own success and added too many customers, not enough bandwidth, or both. In the evenings and during some periods on weekends the speed now slows to a crawl. We live in a rural area and over-the-air or satellite are our only real options for internet. Satellite has download caps that make streaming out of the question.

The joys of country living...

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Eleven months after cutting the cord (actually unplugging the satellite dish) I'm sad to report I'm going back to DIREC TV and cancelling our Netflix account. Both DW and I were very happy without cable/sat TV but our internet service provider let us down. The company has fallen victim to its own success and added too many customers, not enough bandwidth, or both. In the evenings and during some periods on weekends the speed now slows to a crawl. We live in a rural area and over-the-air or satellite are our only real options for internet. Satellite has download caps that make streaming out of the question. The joys of country living...

It frustrates me that we can't download the shows overnight (or other non-peak times), store on a hard drive, and then play when we want. I prefer that anyhow, FF/RW and skipping to a specific spot in the show is almost immediate - streaming has delays as it rebuffers. I know the content owners restrict this to protect their IP.

It almost makes we want to go search the torrents for content. I really don't want to, it's probably illegal content, but I wouldn't use it any differently than the way I stream, so I would not consider it unethical (anyone is free to disagree on this, I really don't care!). My torrent client has great features, I used it to DL the install files for Linux (totally legal use), and it was nice. I could set limits on how much BW it uses, so I wouldn't grind my other computer access to a halt.

I dunno, they do the timing thing with books, why couldn't Netflix let you DL a movie overnight (I could go up a step or two in quality w/o the 'real time' requirement), and then set it to 'expire' in 3 days?

-ERD50

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 I dunno, they do the timing thing with books, why couldn't Netflix let you DL a movie overnight (I could go up a step or two in quality w/o the 'real time' requirement), and then set it to 'expire' in 3 days? -ERD50

My guess is that Netflix could allow a complete download with an expiration date. But, the companies Netflix licenses its content from would probably not permit it. Movie and TV production companies have yet to come to terms with digital advances.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut My guess is that Netflix could allow a complete download with an expiration date. But, the companies Netflix licenses its content from would probably not permit it. Movie and TV production companies have yet to come to terms with digital advances.

My impression is that they're still pissed off about VCRs.

[bUU]

I suspect that if the government had a legal way to more vigorously prosecute those who violated DRM, and did so vigorously, then those who protect their property with DRM would be more willing to rely on it. It's the nature of intellectual property: The more freedom people have to take what they didn't pay for the less inclined the makers will be to offer what they make in less readily secure-able packages.

Be careful what you wish for: "Coming to terms with digital advances" may mean a recognition that there really is no way to protect digital content. Once the industry realizes that, it may severely undercut the value of being in the business of producing quality movie and television productions. Try making today's high-production-value programming with budgets a fraction of what they are today. I used to be heavily invested in the sector, but no more. I think trying to make money in a business where consumers can just take whatever they want without paying is foolish.

[EastWest Gal]

I think I'm stuck on satellite. Seeing what's on and recording stuff we like, mainly to watch when we want and then dump it, we almost never watch TV in real time. The only major broadcast network stuff we watch is the 11 o'clock local news, after it has been recorded so we can skip commercials.

We're building the courage to dump the landline next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

[Elantan]

We are now a year T.V license and cable free, i can honestly say we have no regrets, we are saving approx £50 a month so £600 a year is nothing to be sniffed at, enough to pay the house contents insurance and the car insurance, would be better if I put the money by and saved it for those bills right enough lol

We have done away with the house phone as well ( saving a further £30 approx a month) as I had noticed that out of 30 phone calls 29 of them were for solar panels or debt recovery services, so we now have a mobile phone ( bill cut down from £45 a month to £16 a month) ... we did however keep the boradband 150 meg download which is something we use so worth it

[Z3Dreamer]

Cut the cord a month ago. Although, there is some getting used to it, all is going well. I have wonderful digital antenna signal on 7 TV's, a DVR for Over The Air recording and an extra $130 per month. My blood pressure has improved as I have no cable news.

[jimnjana]

So far we've knocked 60 bucks off of our monthly cable bundle bill. We dropped HBO, reduced the internet speed, and went to the basic TV channel package. Next we will be adding a google voice # to displace our current home phone to save another 20 bucks or so. Because of the way brighthouse prices stand alone internet at this point it will only cost about 20 bucks more to keep a tv package. So DW may have final say on that.

[Birdie Num Nums]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z3Dreamer Cut the cord a month ago. Although, there is some getting used to it, all is going well. I have wonderful digital antenna signal on 7 TV's, a DVR for Over The Air recording and an extra $130 per month. My blood pressure has improved as I have no cable news.

What's your DVR? I too have OTA only, and would like to record a few things here and there for later viewing.

Also, to those posting about Netflix and not being able to download stuff with an expiration date, I can do that with Hoopla digital items from my local library. (I've used it only a couple of times so far, however.)

[robertf57]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 It frustrates me that we can't download the shows overnight (or other non-peak times), store on a hard drive, and then play when we want. I prefer that anyhow, FF/RW and skipping to a specific spot in the show is almost immediate - streaming has delays as it rebuffers. I know the content owners restrict this to protect their IP. It almost makes we want to go search the torrents for content. I really don't want to, it's probably illegal content, but I wouldn't use it any differently than the way I stream, so I would not consider it unethical (anyone is free to disagree on this, I really don't care!). My torrent client has great features, I used it to DL the install files for Linux (totally legal use), and it was nice. I could set limits on how much BW it uses, so I wouldn't grind my other computer access to a halt. I dunno, they do the timing thing with books, why couldn't Netflix let you DL a movie overnight (I could go up a step or two in quality w/o the 'real time' requirement), and then set it to 'expire' in 3 days? -ERD50

Check out something called Playon and Playlater. Apparently allows recording content from the net to your hard drive for later viewing. Not certain what limitations there are..... Might meet your needs for low use time recording.

[jjquantz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bUU ... Try making today's high-production-value programming with budgets a fraction of what they are today. ....

I guess the reason that I cut the cord is that I am still waiting for some of this "high-production-value programming" to be worth watching.

I agree with you 100% with respect to the programming development costs, BTW.

It's just that cable made hundreds of channels available to us and we could still only come up with 60 minutes of programming each week that we actually wanted to watch (and only 22 weeks each year, at that). These 60 minutes were available OTA, too. The math didn't work out too favorably for the cable provider.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Birdie Num Nums What's your DVR? I too have OTA only, and would like to record a few things here and there for later viewing.

Several people who post here have this machine:

http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-...words=homeworx

If you don't mind a rather kludgy interface and have a hard drive to store the shows on, it works OK. If you want an easy to use plug-n-play solution, it may not be for you. Needless to say it lacks many features of more expensive DVR's. All, I need is the ability to tell it to record channel X , set the start and stop times, and days. I also use it for delayed playback so I can FF through commercials.

[Elantan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accidental Retiree Starz' original series "Outlander," based on Diana Gabaldon's bestselling novels, premiered in August and is currently on midseason hiatus. Gabaldon published her first novel in 1991, so this author and her work have had many years to build up a fan base. The Starz series just added to all the excitement. The first half of the series was set and filmed in Scotland, and Mr. Heughan's haunches figured prominently in Episode 7 of the first half of the season, in "The Wedding." Of course, I like the books better (there are 8 of 'em, with a 9th in the works). I only watch this series for the breathtaking scenery and historical content. If you want to get all caught up, Audrey, "dinna fash," you can catch the series this month. Starz will be starting to run the episodes in mid-December, and word has it that Starz will also be doing a marathon on Christmas Day. Huh, yeah, like I'd get to do that. It was supposed to start up again in January, but to much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the midseason break lasts until April. See a brief, earlier ER discussion here, round about Post #15: http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ggs-73783.html

Ive been to a lot of that places outlander talks about it's a great series