IT Professionals

Hired To Help People Bail On Cable

Posted by on Oct 28, 2010 | 4 Comments

There should be an image here!Every time someone learns that I watch Hulu through my laptop via VGA to my TV set, the first question is “can you help me do that so I can cancel cable?” Clearly, there is something to consider here, both as an audience tired of being fleeced by insane cable/satellite costs, in addition to the appeal of getting TV for free or cheap… like we did when I was a kid.

At age 37, I vividly remember getting up as a child to warm up my TV for Saturday morning cartoons. To make sure my selection was not disturbed in any way, I would actually remove the “knob” from the TV set to guarantee my brother would not change the channel during an episode of my favorite cartoon show. Back then, the idea of paying for TV was not in the realm of reality of most people. 99% of the country was using a crazy contraption called broadcast TV. It cost us nothing other than time to warm up the TV set and maybe a pair of rabbit ears.

Flash forward to now. I think people are yearning for this simplicity once again. And settop devices, along with physical computers attached, do provide us with the ability to forego TV options of the 20th century once and for all.

The problem is, are they really ready for it? Do people understand that by going to a TV setup where you cannot simply have it running in the background with shows you’re not watching is where they’d be headed? On-demand TV is very different than cable or even broadcast TV. The obvious compromise, I guess, is a mixture of HD broadcast and on-demand options with Hulu, Netflix, and so on.

So no, I will not be available for hire as my friends and neighbors have asked me. Not because I cannot provide what they are asking for. Rather, because I realize its limitations are not always considered by those making the request. Once Hulu Plus comes to Roku (this fall), however, despite it being a little more limited in content than on the PC, I might reconsider setting folks up with my current home setup.

[Photo above by ellenm1 / CC BY-ND 2.0]

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  • Randy Allen

    Ahhh….The good ‘ole days. I can’t believe what passes for saturday morning cartoons these days. The high pitched, shrill voices drill right through my head. And the animations are a joke. With the high tech advantages we have these days, why don’t they surpass what Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hannah-Barbera were doing 40 or 50 years ago? Bugs, we sure miss you!

    But I digress. I think I could get by without DirecTV if I could get live sports (NFL, NCAA) from the web. I may try the antenna thing, but it’s sketchy since I am 60+ miles from the transmitters. I have been looking at set top boxes, but I can’t tell if they get the free version of Hulu or not, and Hulu Plus isn’t yet an option. You mentioned limitations of the STB version of Hulu+. What are those? I have been reading, but haven’t seen any real comparisons between what I can get on computer vs. STBs. Why does the technology I seek move so slow? I know it can be done, but I don’t really want to keep a computer hooked to my TV when it should be a lot easier than it is now! And the bandwidth! Come on AT&T! Enough already! Give me the speed I need! There are no other options for my area, so you need to step it up and deliver the goods!

    Waiting on the technical revolution in rural Mississippi…

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    Randy: Exactly, back when TV was furniture and Daffy Duck was Duck Dodgers, of the 24 1/2 Century! Good times… :)

    On the Hulu PLus front, it’s coming to the small, affordable and might I add, worth every penny Roku box. I have Hulu Plus now on my laptop (was a beta tester) and can tell you that what appears on it, vs a settop box will differ some. Select programming won’t be available immediately, but more is coming.

    Yes, broadband in the South can be challenging. I lived in rural KY for a couple of years and know that the pleasant pace of life does come at a cost in some the lack of some technologies.

    In the meantime, looks like wireless broadband has fair availability in your neck of the woods?
    http://www.onelasvegas.com/wireless/MS.html

  • D

    Something which wasn’t mentioned…but I have seen in other articles is using all you’ve mentioned…along with Netflix. Funny thing about this is that I can get Netflix is that you can use consoles…3rd party PVR software and on PC’s.

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    D: From the article above;
    “The obvious compromise, I guess, is a mixture of HD broadcast and on-demand options with Hulu, Netflix, and so on.”

    So you are right, Netflix is a fantastic supplement for sure, I own a Roku box which makes Netflix instant pretty awesome. ;)