TiVo and Netflix sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G...
First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes streaming movies and TV shows right into your home!
I know. What am I, 5-years-old?! And yea yea, it doesn't rhyme. But I've made my point.
The two companies announced a new partnership today that will allow you to view Netflix movies on TiVO boxes with no extra cost other than Netflix's own fees. TiVo customers with a TiVo Series 3, TiVo HD, or TiVo HD XL will be able to do this come December.
Wicked cool, yes? If you remember our previous confab about the upcoming Comcast rate increase, a few of us mentioned getting rid of pay TV altogether. I know my work spouse Gus (who is at home taking care of his new, wee baby girl. Congrats babe!) has been talking about hooking up a computer to his big screen for all his TV needs.
I gotta say, I've been giving more and more thought to life without pay TV. Would I miss being able to watch favorite shows like The Closer, Monk and Battlestar Galatica on satellite or cable channels? Would I miss being able to watch 24-hour news channels like Fox and CNN? Yes. But due to my tendency to watch mostly Maryland Public Television and miss my shows when they're actually on TV, and thanks to hulu and Fancast, I've been able to watch my favorite shows anyway on my own time.
I realize most HBO and premium channel shows aren't available on either of those two Web sites, but I don't subscribe to those anyway. When I want to watch an HBO show, I just rent it on DVD after the season is over. Now that Netflix and TiVO are partnering up, they're making it even easier for people who don't want to leave the house or mess with mailing DVDs back. I'm not sure I'll sign up for that since I don't have a TiVO, but it seems to me all the forces are converging to make getting rid of cable or satellite even more doable.
Even better, I just got a coupon for a digital converter box in the mail so I'll still be able to get my regular channels. Now I just have to cancel pay TV and give the box back. I haven't really had a problem with DirecTV, but I won't miss giving them $50-plus a month.
Anyone else thinking of taking the no-pay-TV plunge with me?
(Image from www.slashgear.com)
Categories: Cable/Satellite/TV/Comcast/FiOS, Computers, Digital television, Rent, Technology
Comments
I havent paid for tv for 12 years, and its great. I have 6 hdtv's in my house and an antenna in the attic. We stream shows we miss from our computer.
DD: Very cool. brian, Is it difficult to hook the computer up to the TV? I'm fairly low-tech, but think I can manage if I can find instructions some where.
Posted by: brian | October 30, 2008 2:19 PM
DD, almost every new TV, if not all, will have a PC Video in port. You just hook your computer to the TV as if it was a monitor. You'll want a nice graphics card if your TV is significantly larger than a regular monitor, though.
You could alternatively get a graphics card with HDMI output and connect to your TV that way.
There's nothing difficult about it. Then get a bluetooth keyboard with a built in TouchPad (mouse) so you can control your media software from the couch.
DD: awesome. ericb, you rock!
Posted by: ericb | October 30, 2008 4:17 PM
Could I do this Randy?
DD: You mean stop paying for TV or hooking up a computer to your TV?
Posted by: Randy | October 31, 2008 11:33 AM
Hi DD. We canceled cable earlier this year and bought a digital converter box (about $10 with coupon). We hooked the converter box up to a $16 digital antenna from Radio Shack and were suprised to see that our picture quality was actually much better than our old digital cable signal.
Since we were already subscribing to Netflix, we bought a Roku box (one-time price of $99), and can now watch over 10,000 on demand movies for free. DVDs from Netflix, Hulu.com and occasional Itunes purchases allow us to watch just about all our favorite shows. And we are saving about $100/month.
We've been blogging about our experience at CancelCable.com and my husband just created a Showfinder tool which lets us find our favorite shows on Netflix, Hulu and other network sites.
DD: amy, you guys are inspiring me to follow in your footsteps. Very cool blog, too! I'm so ready to cancel satellite. I sure hope I'm not going to have a problem canceling it.
Posted by: amy | November 1, 2008 11:36 AM