Sunday, January 13, 2013

Ersatz Cable - When it's time to say goodbye...

One of the items on our list of "luxury" costs lately was cable. We were paying for dozens of channels that we never watched, and we constantly missed our favorite shows due to scheduling (read: naptime / bedtime) conflicts anyhow. So, we cut the cord.

Luckily, there's a fantastic alternative to cable these days: streaming TV. For $50, we bought a Roku box that sits neatly on our TV stand. It connects to our wireless and, with a mere $8 Netflix subscription, will stream almost any TV show to our tube. Granted, you're always a season behind, but as long as you don't read the spoilers on Facebook, you're golden. I've been watching all sorts of shows that I've never had the time or ability to watch: Heroes, Mad Men, Downton Abbey, Parenthood, Portlandia...not to mention plenty of great movies.

Pros:
  1. Watch any time you want, day or night (or naptime)! Press pause at any moment!
  2. No commercials.
  3. Only $8 a month for TV, miniseries, and movies!
  4. Netflix offers a tremendous number of streaming foreign and independent films and shows.

Cons:
  1. Shows release episodes a season behind.
  2. Not all shows on all networks are available.
  3. There are few new releases of movies (but you can rent them through the Roku by using amazon.com for a few bucks).
  4. A one-time $50 purchase for the Roku box.
Bottom Line: 

Streaming TV is a fantastic substitute for cable. Because we already bought a subscription to Netflix, cutting cable is saving us upwards of $30 a month. 


1 comment:

  1. Hi, can I contact you through your email? I've something to share that might interest you.

    Aaron
    aarongrey112 gmail.com

    ReplyDelete