I guess the first thing to address about decabled.com is “why”. Why decable from that steady stream of round-the-clock entertainment that has been serving us so well for over half a century?
- To show that “we’re there”: I don’t think I could have made this decision much before now without largely sacrificing consuming any content from mainstream television. Cable speeds are getting respectable; wireless delivery within a home is easy and fast; and there is a wide array of new devices that deliver film, tv, and other video and audio content from enormous catalogs to your TV. And to be clear, I’m not trying to cut out all of the media that’s out there, our goal is simply to show that you can consume media with more choice and at your leisure in an easily scalable manner, making it so you naturally partake in a wider field of entertainment and activity than you would with the cable connected. Maybe some of this time is playing Wii Fit, maybe some of it is enjoying interactive experiences online, but hopefully it gives you more time to create something of your own or just go enjoy the world outside.
So a big part of decabled.com will really be about sharing technical solutions for living a decabled life – whether it be about gear, content providers, or whatever else – and we want you guys to help with this too by posting your solutions in the comments. However, we’re also here for the broader conversation about television, networks, movie studios, and how the world of media is changing as time goes on, so feel free to let us know your thoughts on that too.
- To decide more “freely” what to do with my time: The problem with round-the-clock entertainment is precisely that it’s always there. It easily leads to a “path of least resistance” behavior by allowing us a seeming change in activity by just switching the channel but really just leaves us sitting on the couch for another half hour or more. The networks and cable companies have been hearing for a decade about the desire for on-demand television and yet pre-programmed television is by far the most consumed.
Now you’d think that DVRs would have been the solution to the “wait around and watch” behavior above but I think they’ve introduced a strange, new kind of behavior: you want to keep your DVR box fairly full so you have a lot of options for what to watch BUT you also know that new shows will come along and bump old shows off the box. What this leads to in many cases is the mentality of “I’ve got to watch that to make room on the box”, i.e. specifically watching TV at a time you may not have otherwise, in order to catch up with the automated harvesting of new shows into the relatively small drive in your cable box. With new solutions come new problems, I guess.
And why is being able to freely decide what to do with my time (at least outside of work) so important? In this day and age, not only do people seem shorter on time than ever, the opportunities we have for how to spend that “free” time are more impressive than ever. The average American watches 4 hours and 35 minutes of television per day (2006). That’s over 32 hours each and every week that someone like me could easily spend recording a music album or editing a short film on my laptop – to say nothing of the conventional “get some exercise” use for that time. The point is that, if my viewing per day were at the average American level, I could instead spend an hour doing exercise, an hour doing music stuff, an hour doing video editing, and still have enough time to watch more than four half-hour shows or two 1-hour shows or whatever combination (without commercials) EVERY SINGLE DAY! Our hope is that by having to explicitly choose what we REALLY want to watch (including through the use of financial disincentives, like having to buy shows off iTunes), we’ll end up watching less (but keep in mind, even the equation above leaves us with 2-4 individual series each day to watch if we wanted, so it’s not much of a sacrifice).
- “The Networks” Behavior: While I realize that much of the content that would likely be consumed through cable or any other medium today relies on the participation of the big networks, I feel like I need to voice some protest over how they’ve grown increasingly defective by not allowing productions a proper gestation time to survive. This has basically encouraged production of further derivative works or the inexpensive lure of reality television – no thanks!
There was a time when the networks let some of the greatest television of all time grow with the audience. The TV-changing “All if the Family”, for instance, debuted with a paltry 15% audience share (a distant third behind NBC and ABC) and struggled with ratings for months (ending its first season ranked 34) but the next five years it was ranked number 1 with over 20 million households tuning in. I can’t help but think that there would be no chance of that today and that’s part of the problem with network TV – I know they’re running a business but the fact that shows are being cancelled after a handful (or less) of episodes I think shows that their methods are in need of changing.
- Shoddy Delievery and (for many) Equipment: This last one might be a bit nit-picky but there’s a reason why, for example, Motorola’s DVR/Cable boxes have ended up on worst technology gifts of the year lists and have people like Walt Mossberg and others complaining. What can I say, going from fast forward to rewind in the DVR causes the program to jump back to the beginning of the show; there are regular sound drops; recorded content time bugs show over 1000- minute programs and knock off old content I haven’t watched; countless screwups requiring restarts from the cable company (which I can’t trigger myself); etc. Suffice to say, I’ll be happy to see that miserable piece of garbage go.
But I can’t bring this to a close without stressing one final reason why we’re doing the decabled.com blog – we want YOU to join us in the journey and help us (and other visitors) along with any tips or ideas you might have. Decabled isn’t just about showing people that this CAN be done – it’s about showing people how to do it and what their many options are. So please, comment freely and let us know what you’re doing that fits into a decabled world!
PS: First decabled techTIP on commandN.tv Episode 163 – “How to surf the internet on your TV”.
It does make sense to me, but I still think what cutting the TV cable in our household would mean is more time spent hunting down content that we like online. Which either means illegally, or if we go the legal route which I prefer is extremely limited in Canada (iTunes) and more costly.
Or having to change what we watch to suit what is available out there, which isn’t that far from what TV makes us do.
For me it’s frustrating because I agree with all your points and would love nothing more than to cut out TV altogether, but I don’t want to spend a lifetime chasing down content… and even worse the back door Hulu ways.
In a perfect world I’d say good bye to the TV, internet, and cell… move to a hippie commune and live of the land. Trouble is, I don’t think I can really ever get to that place. I like the internet
I am excited to follow this along, for maybe some form of a kick in the pants that I can do it.
John: You are fast on the draw, my friend – your comment went up within minutes of my post
.
I think you bring up a very, very good point, John, and it’s something we’ll be aiming to help people overcome – how do I not just waste my “recovered” TV time searching for content to watch? To this end, we’ll be looking at ways to subscribe to materials (e.g. RSS feeds, iTunes), do some intelligent bookmarking (e.g. bookmarking carefully cultivated search term results on some of the online networks), and other methods to make sure we don’t have to scramble for content every time we want something to watch.
It’s a great point and something we’ll keep in mind throughout our decabled trek.
Jeff
I’m looking forward to following you on this experiment. I think it won’t be that hard to do. The only thing that really keeps me tied to cable is live sports. If you can find a way for me to watch my hockey, football and baseball games live online you’ll have yourself a big fan.
-Scott
Man, I love the “The Networks” Behavior argument. It’s an absolute shame and sometimes an insult to the viewing public that the networks and studios developed this extremely low tolerance for new material retention. Shows are now getting cancelled within their first 3 to 5 airings! I mean full fledged, high budget, decent writing, name driven shows.
I mean, look at My Own Worst Enemy with Christian Slater on NBC. There are now several fan petitions to save the now axed spy drama and at least move it to another network on the Universal umbrella. It’s like they don’t want the television viewer to think anymore. For this, I say yeah, of course, let the viewer decide their own methods of consumption.
Again, it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood catches up with the thorn on their side they call the “Bit Torrent Nightmare”. It’s not because people do not want to pay for something that airs for free on the networks. It’s more of the simple fact that we desire to see what we want when we want it with no commercial interruption. This is the reason why Hulu and the like only show “limited advertisements” because once the networks starts to bombard the viewer online the same way they do on television, it’s over. And the selection of entertainment speaks for itself. Just awful programming.
Hey bro,
Great to see your first (ok, second) post up on this blog. I’m glad to see you cut the cable cord. I have a bit of an issue with live TV news (often on in the background), but when networks get good live video feeds online cable is gone in our house too.
Amber
Ahh you must be a Bell Canada HD DVR user with all those issues you report with the hardware… Same issues here!
I cut the cable cord last year and don’t regret it at all. The first few weeks were kind of strange and I transitioned from my old habits to new ones but now I don’t even think about it. The best part is I am discovering new shows that I missed the first time around. And with shows like Command N there are great alternatives to the junk that is on cable.
The only down side is major sporting events. NBC was streaming their Sunday night football games but that seems to have disappeared now that the playoffs started.
the eastlink DVRs have given me more frustration in 3 weeks than any piece of tech gear in my life.
glad to see someone else has experienced it as well.
I’ve been decabled for a while now and I have more stuff to keep me entertained than I have time to spare. I look forward to seeing how you fare.
This looks very interesting. Will you also deal with technical issues such as serving your stored content to the various computers/monitors/televisions throughout your house?
I’ve been off the cable now since June 2006. Nothing new to note here. I get all my media selections from Internet only. I’m more up to date on viral videos than anyone else lol. But I do get all sorts of online newsfeeds, video casts, and what not without the need to interface with push technology (i.e. television). I had the Rogers full package before cutting it, and with several hundred channels there was still nothing to watch that you could not get (eventually) online. Its all a matter of timing.
Good for you! I ditched cable about 6 months ago and I don’t miss it one bit. – well, I miss CBC Sunday docs and Colbert on the PVR. That’s it.
Jeff,
Thanks to your sister’s tweet about this blog! I’ve been decabled since January of ’05 and after about a month of withdrawls I survived. Now I find my entertainment via the internet and itunes in the form of video podcasts.
I’ve rekindled my love for photography and found time to enjoy reading again.
I totally agree with the points you made in your post. There really isn’t anything worth watching on TV anymore and with the huge channel selection on most cable companies, that is multiplied even more.
Over a year ago I joined NetFlix in order to at least catch some of the latest videos that my coworkers were talking about and then found out about the unlimited watch online feature. While that selection isn’t always the greatest, I find something to watch when I need some downtime.
Good luck and I look forward to keeping up with your decabled blog.
Jeff,
Cool.
I did this a couple of years ago. Do not regret it one little bit.
Keep up the good work with commandN. Congrats on the recent top pick from PC Mag.
Let me know if you need help with anything.
All the Best,
Philip
Hi!
I have never had cable so I have never really had to go through this “decabling” process. For me, right now I see absolutely no reason to get cable because I can watch everything I want online (Surf the channel, torrents ect..) I live in Canada so unfortunately Hulu and the other networks are not available here.
Before you think of me as someone with no morals, consider this:
I go to network sites as much as possible to watch shows that are available in Canada such as the comedy network for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I would stop torrenting my shows and (some) movies if Hulu or something like it were available here, albeit with a few changes or Amazon Unbox. Buying from Itunes is not an option because of the DRM and the price (I own a Zune so no go) Its all about availability, if only the studios could figure that out….
Having the ability to watch shows when I want where ever I want has allowed me to pursue some of my interests a bit more as I dont have to structure my (little amount of) free time based on a TV schedule.
Anyway, I am interested to see where this goes looking in from a bit of a different point of view.
Forgot to add this
You will find (or at least I did) that you will discover a lot more original content like podcasts and web series. Over half of my time watching “TV” on my computer is spent watching “shows” like Tekzilla, Diggnation and TRS.
Hello from Vancouver Jeff!
My wife and I decabled ourselves a couple years ago and really haven’t looked back. We rely on our Apple TV, which serves us a variety of podcasts, etc. Also useful is the Miro media player – it’s a nice alternative to iTunes for podcast downloads, as it uses BitTorrent to transfer files, making for much faster downloads.
We do miss the CBC, and not all of their shows are online, so we just picked up an antenna for our TV today. We’re pulling in the local HD CBC feed and the quality is amazing.
I can’t forsee us ever going back to cable or satellite TV.
I cut the cord for the first time about 4 years ago. Technology wasn’t ready then and so after a year I went back. But have cut again about a year or so ago. I live in a major city in the US so am able to get OTA digital on both TVs in the house with a simple antenna. One in the attic for the bedroom and one inside the entertainment cabinet in the living room. A tivoHD on the bedroom TV for timeshifting content. This works well for network feeds.
About 6 months ago I added a refurbed Mac Mini to the living room set. Running Boxee on it, http://www.boxee.tv works well for having one place to go to access all of the content, locally stored and Internet including RSS feeds like CommandN. It is still in alpha and has some bugs, but when it is beta and beyond, I think it will be great. Even without Boxee, some good bookmarking and a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and I have all the content I need. A $9.99 Netflix account gives me access to their (limited) streamed content. Good mostly for seasons of network shows and older movies. Hulu.com has all of the current content from NBC and Fox along with a lot of others. ABC and CBS are streaming HD content from their sites day after standard broadcast. Even networks like HGTV, FoodTV, and Discovery Channel are ramping up online content.
Live sports though has been the rub…until ESPN360.com. With my AT&T DSL, I can access the content at ESPN360. They have tons of live content and saved content. So if I miss a game that was on Saturday, I can go back and watch it on Tuesday when I should be working.
I love this idea Jeff and glad you that you are diving in to it. I think there are tons of alternatives to the cable monopolies. My fear is that since they also control a significant portion of the bandwidth into the home is that they will begin metering bandwidth as a way to make up for lost revenue of cable TV subscribers.
This site is a great idea. I live in the UK, where the BBC, and the other 2 major terrestrial channels have started serving all their content online. I find myself watching TV less and less, and its brilliant. Especially now iPlayer (the BBC’s on-demand provision) is iPhone compatible.
I really want to ditch the cable, but there are always some programs that I just can’t get legally elsewhere – frustrating! I totally agree with the DVR problem, that happens all the time, its a counter-intuitive solution.
Good for you Jeff. I wish I could do that but I need my HD hockey games live.
Great idea Jeff, if it wasn’t for my wife I would cut the cable too. Her problem is she wants to turn on the TV and just watch something, she doesn’t want to have to search for content. I got her an Apple TV last year that I love but she never uses because it takes too long to find content she wants to view. I hacked Boxee onto it and I love it. I also have Joost loaded onto my iPod Touch and use it with a video cable onto my TV.
We decabled in September and love it. I’m amazed at how much better the picture is especially for HD football. I picked up 2 HD tivos to act as my digital receiver for OTA antenna reception. Buy additional shows from Amazon VOD and iTunes. Very happy with download TV quality and antenna reception. Only thing I missed was hockey games…until I found some free internet feeds that have respectable quality. Never going back.
I just got cable. Cable internet that is. I haven’t had cable tv since the early 1990′s. If I watch TV, it is all over the air broadcasts (which are actually expanding from 6 channels to about 11 channels with Digital reception where I live). I could never justify paying cable for all that stuff when there was such a wealth of information online legal or not. Plus, as I get older I realize my time is more valuable and am even starting to cut out broadcast tv and internet usage.
Very nice blog here. My wife and I moved from Utah to BC this summer and never bothered to get any cable. I just bought a TV that I could hook up to my computer, got a wireless mouse and keyboard, and now we download everything. I love it because I no longer have to listen to American Idol or whatever other crap was usually on at our old house, and my small boys don’t get marketed to. We find ourselves watching much less and doing other things (like Rock Band most recently). Two things I would like to see more discussion on is how to work with bittorrent rss feeds for automatically downloading new TV episodes, and the best media PC setups. Thanks.
Hi Jeff,
Cool idea you have. I’d just like to say that most of the stuff cable TV offers you can get for free online, I watch alot of hockey online and it’s very clear. Movies and regular TV shows are all over the net. I think more people will turn to the internet and drop cable TV once they discover how much content there actually is online.
I’m decabled as well. I rely on AppleTV and shows on DVD for everything. My biggest issue is I don’t have easy access to live sports.
two years cable-free. my only issue, like brent’s, is watching live sports. my tv reception is poor. any chance the digital conversion (U.S.) will improve that?
Wow, great to see such an active comment thread off the bat. And don’t worry, we’ll be moving from What and Why to How very soon
.
Scott & molson & Denis Laing & brent: Yes, live sports is on the list to see what solutions can be found (in the meantime, I’ll be at the local sports bar
).
Claudio: Good to know I’m not alone in thinking this – and, yes, My Own Worst Enemy is a perfect example.
Anon (& cuzzy): Actually, cuzzy and I are with Eastlink (who, aside from the terrible Motorolla box are quite a good provider) but, yeah, there’s a LOT of companies using the same garbage hardware. Anyone know why?
Mike: Yes, technical issues will probably be the main thrust here in the sense that we want to show HOW to do this. In fact, I just installed my modded Xbox upstairs so I could get content onto a secondary set. More to come!
Jesse Morgan: Good for you – Colbert is one of the easier shows to get online, though, so don’t give up on that (heck, we even get that in Canada on the Comedy Network – I think it’s Comedy Central for you guys).
Roger Toliver: Would love to hear some more about how you’re liking Netflix unlimited watch online – haven’t had a chance to try that myself.
Simon: I don’t think anyone here will be making moral judgements (probably mostly in the same boat)
. We’ll be posting some ways to get at Hulu (and other sites) from Canada and check out globaltv.com – they’re got an increasingly decent selection in Canada.
Oliver: That’s great to hear the UK is moving more in that direction – please keep us updated with any great tips, as we certainly want to include our friends across the ocean in our decabled quest.
Thomas Steele: I had something similar with my wife (although she’s come around to the idea now and is supportive of the move) and, as noted in the previous post comments, we’ll certainly be looking for ways so that the time saved from not watching stuff we don’t care about is simply forfeited by time spend searching for things to watch
.
John & Jerry: Cool – let us know where we can find those hockey feeds!
Mike: Yeah, saving the kids from advertising was part of the equation for us too. We’ll look into auto-BT-feeds and Media PC setups for sure.
brett: If you’re watching over the air TV in the US then I think (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that that will end this year
(we’ve got another couple of years in Canada).
Dre & djeddiej & Philip Winton Townsend & Mike K. & Tim & everyone else who has already decabled: Help us all along by letting us know your best tips and tricks for living in a decabled world!
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Here’s a site for live hockey games, as you’ll see there’s other sports too.
http://myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=icehockey
I also use this site for watching Golf Channel, it has other sports too plus CNN. Hope these sites will interest you.
Hi Jeff,
Here’s a site for live hockey games, as you’ll see there’s other sports too.
http://myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=icehockey
I also use this site for watching Golf Channel, it has other sports too plus CNN. http://www.veetle.com/channelList.php
Hope these sites will interest you.
I didnt know Global TV carried full episodes (awesome!)
Hi Jeff:
Always enjoy your segments, and being in St. John’s, NL it is nice to see something form someone who lives in the general area.
In St. John’s I know a number of people who have cut the cable as well. I myself have all my media go through my PC (Windows MCE 2005) to play on my TV in the Den and in the bed room I use an Xbox as a media extender.
While I don’t disagree with your comments I do think any minor pains you may have from playing with DVI/HDMI it is well worth it if you have a TV that support 720P or 1080P. The quality of the output via the HDMI cable is so much better is well worth it. I think the benefits of the quality with the digital output was not something you really spoke about much.
This may also factor into the TV your using. I personally think this sort of activity works much better for people who have a nice new HD TV where you have a system that supports a nice quality video output from a PC / Digital output. Reading text on an old TV is not a lot of fun. So you may want to do a segment about the right TV for cutting the cable.
As for surfing the web on TV, I have a setup in the den that fully allows that via a wireless keyboard 1920X1080 display on a 62” TV. Now that I have had this sort of setup for over two years. I don’t really find myself spending a lot of time surfing the web on this system. I have about five friends with he same sort of setup and at first we all did lots of web surfing but overtime that just went away. We still use it a lot for viewing videos we download but not that much for true web surfing.
Finally I agree 100% surfing on the xbox is ULGY and truly anything short of a full computer has major limitations. That said viewing videos on the xbox that you download works fine. Universal Plug and Play media servers such as tversity and others allow you to port video nicely from your network to your xbox. The big advantage of the xbox is the fact it is only $199 for an Arcade version and it works fine for this sort of thing. You can also use the media center remote on the xbox so it is a user friendly interface.
All the best… Looking forward to your adventures without cable.
Joe
there will still be over the air television available after the switch to all digital, it will require having an ATSC tuner. Most new televisions have them built in already. the picture is great. I live in Milton and I get 10 to 12 digital channels (two or three from the US) with just a pair of indoor rabbit ears. Check out this forum
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=81
it has some really good information on OTA television reception
Hi Jeff – great concept! Since CommandN has audience in both Canada and the US, I assume you’ll be covering both angles. I think the US citizens have a much easier time of it than we do. I’d love to cut the cable too, but as stated above, my wife just wants to watch “something” when she is bored. She does not want to have to think of a specific show to watch. And my daughter, she has her favorite shows so she’d be easier to deal with but I don’t know that it is easy to get the shows from Family Channel, YTV and Teletoon without cable. Please consider a topic on dealing with family members. Us techies are a lot more willing to use the tools than the rest of the family!
Good luck, can’t wait!
I’m glad to see you doing this blog and the segments on CommandN. I’ve tried ATV Flash and it was a pretty mediocre experience and kind of spoiled even trying Boxxee. ATV Flash would not let me login to Hulu, which is kind of the must-have video source before one can think about cutting the cable. So I’m back in waiting mode to see what develops. Some topics I would be interested in hearing about are:
- Netflix/Roku and other boxes
- LG and other TVs that are coming internet enabled
- Canceling your cable while keeping your Internet – pricing is usually higher if you ONLY get Internet.
- Internet Speeds that are best for this (I’m on an 8Mbps downstream now)
Thanks and I look forward to future installments!
Tom
Simon: Yeah, globaltv.com was a welcome surprise for me – Canadian networks are very much playing catch-up for online video.
Joe: I’m definitely going to try to overcome the HDMI obstacle but was surprised that it wasn’t more plug and play, I guess
Sounds like you have a great setup!
Terry: Definitely want to cover US, Canada, and beyond – I’ll have to rely on readers and outside reports for stuff outside of Canada/US but I’m curious to see how this stuff works all over the place. Will definitely have some family-viewing content on here (e.g. did you know you can get Sesame Street video podcasts through iTunes for FREE?).
Tom: That’s the problem with not being on a full computer – not being able to take advantage of proxy servers, etc., to get stuff across the border
. Thanks for the segment/post ideas too!
Jeff
I have never had a problem with Eastlink until about a month ago when we upgraded to a DVR box. Since I have had the eastlink guy here 4 times and still it is not fixed.
EVery time they are here, they actually make it worse. Now the volume control on the remote does not work and they say there is a service call charge for them to come back and fix it.
There is still audio drops and the remote reaction time is brutal.
Basically it is now set up on HDMI and component and if the breakup is too bad at least I can watch it on component but then the audio has to be through the TV and not the home theatre.
just annoying.
I have to get a restart like once a week for some reason or another.
Glad to read on many sites that the box is actually the issue. NOw it makes me laugh when they tech people try to blame it on other things like the new TV.
Well done Jeff,
I think getting decabled is a great idea. I’ve been considering which way to go with this for a while.
Here in Wales we have 1 cable TV provider (Virgin Media) and the service is good in some ways but very unreliable. We frequently lose programme information and have to reset the box. The picture quality on some of the ‘watch again’ programmes isn’t great and often suffers from a ‘mosaic’ effect.
But I haven’t settled on a good alternative yet. I’m considering getting a Mac Mini off eBay and fitting some sort of TV tuner device for digital terrestrial TV….but then you mentioned the Wii which also works with BBC iPlayer here in Britain….suggestions welcome.
Rich
cuzzy: Yeah, the Motorolla DVR box sucks – period – but they certainly shouldn’t be charging you for a subsequent service call. I wish they’d just admit what crap that hardware is!
Rich: Great to hear from Wales! So what’s the internet connectivity like there? Do you have decent download speeds? I wouldn’t recommend buying a Wii to take over much in the way of internet “TV” viewing but if you already have one then it’s just one more way to get at the content.
Thanks for commenting!
Jeff
Our current download speed, via cable modem, is just over 2MBPS so it’s fine for online video. Thinking of ditching cable provider and getting DSL broadband instead which I think delivers similar speeds, although haven’t used it myself.
Rich: Frankly, I’ve had much better results with cable broadband than ADSL but obviously either will get you to where you need to go
(plus our cable broadband provide has 15 Mbps speeds). Let us know how it goes!
Jeff
Thanks for this great post. I really love this tv seasons. Can’t wait for the next season ! Keep up the awesome work with this
I usually never leave comments on blogs, but your blog is excelent