In 2009, commandN.tv’s Jeff MacArthur will cut the cable television cord. He will take his family’s entertainment viewing online, using new devices and technologies, in the living room and in your pocket.
In addition to new decabled techTIPS and hotSTUFF video segments on commandN.tv (which we’ll let you know about here, of course), Jeff will be here at decabled.com writing about, reporting on, and showing you how to live a better life without cable. And more than that, he wants you to take part in the adventure – so be sure to subscribe and share your thoughts in the comments.
Goodbye cable!
Great idea. Since your in Canada, it will be interesting to see you watching your favorite TV show without Hulu, Fox or CBS. I put your web site in my bookmark and i’ll get back in 2009.
Have great holidays!
K
When providers and consumers realize that content is simply 1′s and 0′s maybe we’ll see a different business model develop. Until then, we at times, pay for what we don’t use and don’t pay for what we do read-watch-listen to-communicate with, etc., in the end use. I’m looking forward to being decabled myself someday. I eagerly anticipate the changes the decade to come will bring. Thanks for helping me keep up with the details.
I love the idea but how can you get around bandwidth caps? I have the highest plan that HughesNet (satellite high speed) offers and have a cap of 425MB a day. Just one podcast of commandN is over 100MB and in the evenings the service slows down to a crawl.
I wish you luck and I will be following your adventure and hope to join you some day.
I dropped my satellite provider because I was just flipping through stuff that I didn’t watch. I did get basic cable to watch local news I will watch to see if Jeff has a alternative for local news. I also have a roku box for streaming netflix and my favorite tv series are on DvD I also feel my watching needs with content like commandN. I cant wait till the day I am completely decabled. To those of u that work on commandN I want to thankyou for the work that you put into the show and will continue to watch Happy Holidays.
I’ve been decabled for 2 months now but to be completely honest, I haven’t been watching TV for more than 6 months. everything I need is online. Of course I live in the states so all of the services like Netflix streaming, Hulu and even YouTube with their latest deal through MGM to start offering their classic catalog is definitely a start. I mean, you can go and watch It’s A Wonderful Life in it’s entirety on Google Video but like I mentioned before, it’s a start. I was surprised to see that Hulu is streaming some serious movies now.
On the News front, I could care less about local. If it’s truly important, it’ll be online and if you also followed the trend of local news, they’re now borrowing concepts that work for the national media like MSNBC. Good examples are like The Rachel Maddow Show that’s streamed online right after its East Coast airing. The same can be said for Countdown With Keith Olbermann. Not to mention the fact that they’re now creating specific content for iTunes so can get instantly on the iPhone. Download speeds are decent to. So yeah, local news stations are starting to stream their content on their respective sites so it’s only a matter of bookmarking them, really.
I think that viewers and thus consumers are feed up with advertisements that have absolutely have no relation to their lives. All we want to do is watch a show and that’s it. Of course there are plenty of other methods available for media consumption but I don’t think that this is place to share in regards to that matter. Either way, people are going to acquire their means. Let’s not forget iTunes. It’s the reason why I watch the CommandN podcast!
Wow, sorry for all of my typos above. I hate misspelling. Btw, I can’t wait for this site to develop into a good source for alternative media. Great job Jeff!
Hi Jeff,
I’ve been watching CommandN for some months now and I must say that the content , webPicks and such keep very interesting week after week. I also just started a blog yesterday about new media and the internet on http://www.dullers.be. My first post also talks about the change of the classic to the new media and how our behavior might evolve from the cable to the wire. I am regularly trying to post more and more stuff regarding this subject so stay tuned. i’ll place a link towards decabled because i’m convinced that very interesting content will come up soon.
Hey there. Yeah, we are moving to a mac mini and a boxee setup – you should get a mac mini and test it out.
Sounds like an interesting experiment. I have considered this myself but the main problem I run into is sports. Not a huge sports guy but I do love to watch (American) football on TV. Mainly because of my addiction to fantasy football, heh. Yeah the NFL network has a few games online but not enough.
Ill be staying tuned into this blog in the future.
PS – Ive seen you guys do some CommandN episodes in new smyrna beach, FL a couple of times. It seems you may spend some time there. I live there on the beachside just a short walk from flagler ave. If you are ever in town id love to get together sometime and just talk geek stuff with you guys.
Good luck with the blog and getting decabled.
Jason
Thanks for all the great comments everyone – I’m had comment notification set up wrong so I didn’t even realize these were here yet – whoops
.
Kheops74: Yes, it will be a challenge here in the Great White North but there are ways to get around that – more to come!
Mark Ratterman: Amen to that – hopefully it won’t take anywhere near a decade, though, as a lot of the infrastructure is in place already. The big challenge will be for consumers to hall out the TV junky IV, but if that can be done then we’re very close (certainly in the US).
Calvin Perry: Bandwidth caps suck and I’m happy to say that my provider does not have any. That’s certainly a good target area for action for the decabled, though.
Kent: Definitely will be trying to find a way to fill the local news gap, so good to know there are others looking for a solution too.
Claudio: Don’t worry about the typos – thanks for all the great comments, though, and cool to hear about your setup.
Phil Campbell: I’ve thought about the Mac Mini route and, although I think it would be a great help, I just can’t justify buying ANOTHER Mac for this
. I will, however, be trying to use my laptop connected to my TV to do many of the same things and I think I may just look at modding my AppleTV as well.
Jason: I’m not a big sports fan but I do love seeing the big games – I guess that just means I’ll have to go out to sports bars more
. In terms of the FLA connection, our folks rent a place each year in Daytona Beach area, so that’s where that comes from. They’re heading back now but we’ll keep you in mind if we’re down next Fall.
Thanks for the interest, everyone, and definitely drop back to be part of the decabled community – first real posts start within a week!
Jeff
Sorry, Tijl, missed you in my response above
. Your blog looks very cool and already has some great and very decabled-relevant content!
PS: Where’d you get that cool RSS feed embed?
Jeff
Jeff,
The nice RSS feed came after installing the latest version of wordpress and applying the iNove theme I got from the wordpress theme directory.
I was also amased by this RSS embed since I remember that previous time I setup wordpress this was not included by default.
So if you get the iNove theme and have a look at the php source I’m quite sure you will find the source to include it into your theme, … or you can just keep that theme since you are still using the default WP theme.
Br, Tijl
Hi Jason,
Wow – we LOVE New Smyrna – great town! Each time I go to Florida we get over there at least a few times. Next time we’re down, we’ll make sure to look you up and we can grab a drink/coffee at the surf cafe on the main strip!!! They have the best orange juice ever!
-Amber
Jason/Amber: I think I might have something stronger than orange juice, though.
Jeff
Jeff/Amber:
That sounds awesome
Im down for either variety of drinks that you guys are suggesting 
You should tell your folks to rent in NSB instead of Daytona, its much more chill here. They probably already know that though.
Amber, you are right about the orange juice! That stuff is the nectar of the gods. Been a fan of yours since the techTV days, its a shame what happened over there and the garbage thats on now.
Ill drop you guys a line next year around this time to see if you are coming down. Keep up the good work!
Jason
Good luck! I’ve been “decabled” for almost 4 years, and that’s with two young children. We use a media center computer running Vista Ultimate – and we have OTA HDTV so we can record really good quality TV.
For anything we can’t record … we can use Hulu, network sites, Netflix, and … ahem … bittorrent.
Don’t underestimate the value of video-podcasts like your own … I also enjoy Totall Rad Show and Diggnation. I’ll keep my eyes on this blog to see how you do “decabled”.
My sister got DirecTV in 1994 with a 52 inch Hitachi and would now like to break her DirecTV addiction, however basic packages now cost only $29.95 per month. She currently has a 1.5 megabit DSL service so, what do you think, can she realistically get all the TV stations she wants using just DSL, and if so how?
Also, is the DTV4PC product any good?
DTV4PC states: “Turn your PC into a complete digital entertainment center with DTV4PC. No subscriptions, no pay-per-view, no recurring fees, no hidden charges! Browse and save your favorite channels with the easy-to-use menu interface. Watch over 1,000 television channels from the comfort of your desktop or laptop computer. FREE DTV Radio Player Included! Our premium radio player plugs directly into your DTV4PC software to give you full access to over 2,000 live radio stations from around the world! With Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, R&B, Country, Jazz, or Classical selections; you are sure to find a station you’ll love! From local, national or international broadcasters, you have immediate online access to a huge variety of programming, including sports, news, music, videos, movies and much more. Includes the FREE DTV Radio Player that gives you full access to over 2,000 live radio stations from around the world. Get DTV4PC and start watching today!”
Hi,
I cancelled my DirecTV subscription over a year ago; I had all the HD + DVR options and it was about $100/month. My main goal was to waste less time and read more (that worked) and also to save money (cancelled other stuff, too. Worked really well).
Now I have an antenna for over-the-air HDTV, which gives me CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS, Netflix and iTunes with an apple tv. On my 52″ Sharp and 26″ Sony everything looks great; OTA ATSC HDTV is way better than DTV.
This Christmas I bought an Tivo HD (tv without tivo sucks) and it lets me stream netflix movies. I use my blu-ray player to show DVD’s I own and rent disks from netflix as well; I decided when I bought the player I would not replace my movie collection and just rent.
Good luck! This move has worked out really well for me,
Byron
I’m really looking forward to see how you’ll manage to replace cable TV for your every day entertainment here, in the Great White North.
I’ve been thinking of doing this for a few years, but, unfortunately, I’m not finding viable alternatives for local and/or non-English content. Being from Montreal, even though about 80% of what I watch is in English, I’m also looking for content in French.
So at one point in your experience, it would be interesting if you could explore or provide links or tips for more regional/local/non-english content.
Similar to Jason above, I’m also extending my invitation next time you are in cold Montreal.
Sounds like a great Idea, but what about IPTV. Are you going the get rid of the old CRT and do it all on the computer?
This is just the thing I would like to do myself…get decabled! I live in Vancouver and I also hope to see what can be done here in Canada. I’m thinking of going the Apple TV route but I hear about the Boxee setup and would like some guidance on options and possibilities.
Congrats on the new project!
I’m in a situation where the net is all I have for my entertainment, looking forward to increasing my arsenal!
Hey Jeff, what are you going to be doing about internet?
We’ve thought, like everyone else here about trimming down our TV, or even cutting it off. It would save us some money, for sure, but the same company that we get TV from, we get internet, and cellular.
I guess I wondering is this decision to decable (only TV) more an attempt at sending an early message to communications companies that online/web is the delivery model? Because if I were to cut off TV, yet still search for the same content on internet, over the same cable my TV used to come through, then really I am not decabling.
I guess I am asking the reasoning behind this?
One of my favories to watch video on my laptop is
http://www.veoh.com/channels/TV-Shows-Online?CMP=KNC-googitvcontent&HBX_PK=internet%20tv%20video&HBX_OU=50
http://www.veoh.com/static/corporate/aboutUs.html
Good luck with your blog
Hope others can point to links to watch video on pc.
btw I am ready for watching internet on tv. As a matter of fact it would be great to set up TV to watch movies and internet youtube using remote control. Cable TV is really getting bad and more variety is needed.
Jeff,
I am just getting caught up on my vidcasts and saw your “decabled” announcement. FYI, we yanked cable about 1.5 years ago and it is wonderful. I found commandN as a result since a good portion (but not the majority) of our video entertainment comes from video podcasting. If you are ever short of some new show-n-tell ideas for your commandN segments in this vein, don’t hesitate to contact me at the email addy provided. I’d love to share our experiences and hopefully entice others to walk away from the corporate media’s re-education agendas. I’d be happy to discuss the content sources we use, as well as the technologies we use to view them.
Regards,
RN
Hey guys,
Wanted to get the latest post on “Why decabled?” up before getting back to your comments, so check that out (and this week’s commandN.tv decabled techTIPS on “How to surf the internet on your TV”)…
Greg L: Great to hear that you’re bringing video podcasts in with your regular viewing – I’ve been hearing that from more and more people nowadays. Any idea if the over-the-air HDTV will dry up with the changes coming to over-the-air cable distribution?
Paul: I don’t know anything (yet) about the DTV4PC (but would love you to let us know how your sister is getting along with it) BUT I certainly intend to show that anyone with a fast internet connection can get their viewing materials online, so stay tuned!
Byron: Man, sounds like you got it under control – great gear for the decabled – and hopefully that OTA HDTV keeps working for you.
Francois: I lived in Montreal for 5 years and love getting back there, so thanks for the invite. Will definitely talk about alternatives that area available to Canadians (and hopeful our other friends around the world) and will keep in mind the regional/local/non-english content angle.
onemon: Lots of what we discuss will be content easily available through a computer BUT we really want to focus on being able to deliver shared-experience viewing too – so being able to get that content onto a TV screen in your living room will be a big part of things too!
Mau: WIll definitely be checking out Boxee on the Apple TV and other solutions – I wonder if there’s any over-the-air HD broadcasts that bleed from Seattle up to Vancouver? Let us know if you find anything like this.
Andrew: That’s what we’re here for!
And since it seems you’re already there, let us know how you’re managing things too.
John: I think the most recent “Why decabled?” post should answer some of your questions and clarify where we’re coming from on this. Not looking to reject all that juicy network TV, just looking to haul our the IV cable drip so we know that when we’re watching that that’s what we want to be doing
.
SAMTEX: Apple TV has a decent YouTube viewing experience – it’s actually the only way I’ve ever really browsed YouTube for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Definitely want to encourage consumption of alternate content as well, as there’s getting to be some great indie stuff out there.
RakerNut: Would love your input, RakerNut. Keep active in the comments and feel free to send me an email with any of your ideas (same goes for all the rest of you guys!) to…
jeff-INSERTatSIGN-commandn.tv
Thanks for all the great comments everyone – keep ‘em coming!
Jeff
This looks promising… Will be back to check out more posts soon!
I do not have a TV any more. Not for more than 7 years now. I do have a projector but no TV Tuner attached. So only iTunes and DVD. That’s sufficient.
Hi Jeff, could you elaborate on the changes to over the air cable distribution.
Hey I did the same thing (or sort of), I mean, I live in a very small country in South America, however I have access to a good connection. I try to look for free-tv sites and managed to watch most of the tv series I love, such as The Big Bang Theory or CSI.
I love TV series, movies and History + Discovery documentals. It is such a great option and I agree you can make a better use of your time, since series chapters begin and end right when you want it.
Anyway, great initiative! The only inconvenience is I dont know if big companies will stand it and will eventually start inventing things to change the model… I hope not
Btw, great job at a CommandN. My regards to Amber, you rock people!
Hey Jeff
I’m using a MacMini as a media server on a 52? screen and I it works great!
Dan
MacRyu: New post today!
MacRadge: So do you find you watch less because you have to pay for it directly on iTunes?
Russ: Check out this link… http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html – that’s the FCC site on it.
Wilman: Yeah, I’m always worried about the cable or internet service providers pulling something that will cut this off (even just bad pricing for internet-only connections, which a lot of companies seem to do) but hopefully that becomes increasingly non-viable. Thanks for the kind words.
Dan Leuders: Wireless keyboard or some other kind of controller? Shame they don’t give that thing an IR receiver like the laptops.
Jeff
Do you plan to do a short segment on DVR software such as MythTV at some point in the future? I’ve used a few different platforms in the past. My experience has been hit and miss.
Jeff,
I read about Boxee in the New York Times. Have you had an opportunity to use it?
I love watching television or movie content on sites such as Hulu or Netflix, but would prefer to watch it on my television than my computer.
Thanks!
RakerNut: I’d love to hear (as I’m sure others would) what people are doing with DVR software BUT without cable, I can’t really test much on that end
.
Marina: Yes, I’ve been trying out Boxee. Some serious UI issues but it seems there is some great functionality there. Probably up here north of the border is that it’s very complicated to set up IP spoofing so that we can get the “US-only” shows through things like Boxee
. But, yeah, video is much more pleasant in a comfortable living room on a nice TV than in the desk where I spend the other 99% of my waking hours.
DVR software such as MythTV can use TV tuner cards to pick up over-the-air transmissions without cable or satellite, but can do those as well.
I did not use the software for recording as much as I used it as a media manager / server, similar to Boxee or Windows Media Center. I’ve tried Orb, MythTV (3 different linux distros), Media Portal, Simplify Media, WinAmp server, etc. Personally, I’ve had bad luck with all of them, mainly performance issues or Windows-only packaging (Ubuntu rulz!), have abandoned them all (although Boxee is promising) and was wondering what your experience has been with any others.
For portable media platforms I’ve tried iPod / iTunes (not enough end-user control in my opinion), Microsoft Zune (great hardware but the software felt like something Fisher Price would publish and didn’t integrate with sibling Microsoft media software), and Sony’s portable media players, but returned them all. I ultimately settled on the Sansa View (16gb) while using Miro on Ubuntu for RSS / subscription handling.
While there is no support for direct connection between Miro and the View, Sansa units support both MSC and MTP modes, allowing me to perform drag-n-drop operations or sync through Media Player in Windows (something the Zune doesn’t even do!) or Rhythbox in Ubuntu. The View hardware handles multiple video formats without requiring lengthy pre-processing, but unfortunately is not supported by the RockBox firmware yet. I love the unit’s completely “open” feel however, allowing me to make every decision on what / where / when / how to manage my portable media.
I also have a Philips portable DVR, but I use it mainly for playback and as an external USB HDD since I’ve never been able to get the composite-in video to record.
While I have used dozens of video conversion applications, my tool of choice is “Any Video Converter” (the free version handles everything I need for playback on the Sansa View or the Philips DVR and can do batch processing), and of course my favorite media playback software is the sinfully simple (and free) VLC Player from VideoLAN.
Thanks for the details, RakerNut, sounds like you’ve done your research
.
The only media center-type thing I’ve really tried very much to date is Boxee. While I love the idea, I, as a usability consultant, have some major problems with that interface (and don’t even get me started on the game console interface problems – noting that I don’t have an Xbox 360, so I’ll spare that for now).
Thanks for the comments!