Cable Alternatives (Advice)

[elgreazy1]

So recently my fiance and I have been looking at cutting costs in our bills and we were looking into getting rid of our cable or at least cutting it down drastically. At this point it's ridiculous to be spending roughly $150/month on cable, especially when I mostly watch syndicated sitcoms & sports and she mainly does the same, except swap sports for true crime shows. So my question is for those out there, what measures did you take to counter this?

I know you need some technology and such to make this work so here's what we have: 2 HDTVs, MacBook Pro, iPod, Xbox 360, desktop PC, wireless internet router, & a Netflix account. I know you can stream Netflix to the 360 and to my MacBook - which I then can hook directly up to my HDTVs.

But what else is there I can do? Any websites that people would recommend to stream sitcoms, tv shows, etc (youtube.com, hulu.com, etc). Any additional software/hardware we can purchase to record live tv, save it to a computer and then stream back through either my 360 or laptop - effectively replacing DVRs & the monthly rental fee from Cable?

Any help would be awesome and I know a lot of you tech junkies probably have found alternatives to help. Much thanks and appreciation.

EDIT:
Cable bill = 2 HD-DVRs, cable modem, cable (non-premium ie: no HBO, Showtime, etc)

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

$150 a month for cable? Do you subscribe to every premium channel like HBO or something? If not you are getting screwed.

As far as streaming sitcoms, pretty much every network streams their shows on their websites by the next day.

[elgreazy1]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

Also, on a slightly related topic:

Does anyone know of software - preferably free or shareware - that I could use to rip my DVD library to my computer to stream to my PC & laptop? Also, would software be able to edit ripped files; for instance, I have sitcom series collections (Simpsons, The Office, Seinfeld, Futurama, South Park, Tim & Eric, etc) and I'd like to be able to rip & cut so I could save episodes, not just the entire file as one. Sadly, these are the shows I'm paying cable to watch when I have them at home. D'OH!!!

[Splitter77]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

thats expensive for a cable bill.
just call them and get on a promo.
You really only need 1 DVR, so switch one hd dvr for an hd box, or no box all together.
iuf yout get an hd dvr, internet with no premiums, the bill should be no more than $110 as a bundle, and thats after promo's

[MrNFL_FanIQ]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

Also, on a slightly related topic:

Does anyone know of software - preferably free or shareware - that I could use to rip my DVD library to my computer to stream to my PC & laptop? Also, would software be able to edit ripped files; for instance, I have sitcom series collections (Simpsons, The Office, Seinfeld, Futurama, South Park, Tim & Eric, etc) and I'd like to be able to rip & cut so I could save episodes, not just the entire file as one. Sadly, these are the shows I'm paying cable to watch when I have them at home. D'OH!!!

I had one free trial one called AOA ripper, but the free one only lets you rip 10 minutes at a time.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

So recently my fiance and I have been looking at cutting costs in our bills and we were looking into getting rid of our cable or at least cutting it down drastically. At this point it's ridiculous to be spending roughly $150/month on cable, especially when I mostly watch syndicated sitcoms & sports and she mainly does the same, except swap sports for true crime shows. So my question is for those out there, what measures did you take to counter this?

I know you need some technology and such to make this work so here's what we have: 2 HDTVs, MacBook Pro, iPod, Xbox 360, desktop PC, wireless internet router, & a Netflix account. I know you can stream Netflix to the 360 and to my MacBook - which I then can hook directly up to my HDTVs.

But what else is there I can do? Any websites that people would recommend to stream sitcoms, tv shows, etc (youtube.com, hulu.com, etc). Any additional software/hardware we can purchase to record live tv, save it to a computer and then stream back through either my 360 or laptop - effectively replacing DVRs & the monthly rental fee from Cable?

Any help would be awesome and I know a lot of you tech junkies probably have found alternatives to help. Much thanks and appreciation.

EDIT:
Cable bill = 2 HD-DVRs, cable modem, cable (non-premium ie: no HBO, Showtime, etc)

How fast is your internet connection? Might want to consider usenet. For about $10-15 a month you just download what tv shows you want to watch.

I have Roadrunner and it takes all of 5 min to download a 30 minute tv show.

Between that, OTA HD channels and Netflix I don't miss cable. Haven't had a cable bill in 7 years.

Oh yeah, satellite is cheaper than cable.

[elgreazy1]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

I have Road Runner Turbo and I'm really thinking that might be over-kill. Do you have regular or turbo? Do you have your consoles (360 or PS3) connected wirelessly? If just regular, do you ever find slow-down or bad connections for online gaming?

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Cable Alternatives (Advice)

I have Road Runner Turbo and I'm really thinking that might be over-kill. Do you have regular or turbo? Do you have your consoles (360 or PS3) connected wirelessly? If just regular, do you ever find slow-down or bad connections for online gaming?

Have the Road Runner that is one step below Turbo...regular price is $54 a month. It's plenty fast for my needs. I had a PS3 connected wirelessly (until it got stolen in an apt break in). Didn't play it much online as it was used as my primary blu ray player and streaming of netflix and files off my laptop.