Alright, perhaps that is a bit overstated. However I am finding that I am enjoying TV shows of yesterday over the never-ending crap being passed off these days. With some limited exceptions, I am finding that I could actually live without cable/satellite service in my life.

Do not misunderstand me, I enjoy passive entertainment as I spend all my day ready for work. The mouth breathing moments do feel good after a long day. Yet I simply am unable to get my mind around what I am actually “getting” from my Comcast service these days. The Internet, definitely enjoying that. TV however, for the last week, I have been almost exclusively DVD involved as nothing of interest has been recorded from my Comcast DVR.  Still, considering the fact my wife enjoys some shows on TV as do I on occasion, I think I am ready for an adjustment – going back to satellite.

I used to be a DirectTV customer and let me say, they are just as bad or good as Comcast in many areas. The two differences that mattered to me the most – cost and quality. To this day, Comcast video quality is NOT as good as standard def on DirectTV or Dish. People can scream and yell all they like, however after using Comcast in two completely unrelated regions, the quality continues to disappoint. Keep in mind that I am talking about simple S-Video here. So it is not like I am switching connection types or expecting something fabulous from a standard def setup. I just want local channels for my wife’s shows and maybe a few other extended basic channels. Is this too much to ask? I do know this much, I am going back to satellite, however most likely Dish Network over DirecTV due to hassles with DirecTV in the past and the fantastic service my parents had with Dish. Anytime they can call them, ask to cut back on their programming package and end up with that along with a couple of free months of service – I see little reason to go with anyone else.

I am currently giving serious consideration to the following extra supplementary options:

•  Vudu- Positives include being able to download more movies that I would finding from On-Demand with Comcast with some immediacy onto a dedicated device. Negatives include unit price ($400), poor selection of movies and selecting from “purchase plans” from which individual rentals or purchases are deducted – no thanks.
• Tivo and Amazon Unbox- Positives include being able to “dial-up” movies like On-Demand/Pay-per-view and have them delivered onto a device with a LOT more functionality than Vudu. Negatives, honestly, the only one I have arrived at thus far was buying a new DVR. So this is a maybe…
• Netflix- It’s cheap, an awesome way to relive some of my old TV favs, entire seasons in fact. And the cost cannot be beat by any stretch. The only downside is I have little interest in watching anything on my PC and I have a turn around with DVD mailings. Based on my last experience with this, I never had any lag there as I was subscribing to older (70′s,80′s and 90′s) TV shows – not new release movies. My mother-in-law has a new release DVD collection that would make Blockbuster jealous.