Is cable dead?

This concerns my cat.

Soon I am moving out, presuming that I find a place, which I kind of have to presume, and I’ve been wondering if I should bother to get cable. Here is why I have cable:

— I love television.

— I love AMC and HBO.

— Dr. Phil. Sometimes Dr. Oz.

— And really, this all comes down to having the DVR. I need to be able to record all my shows and watch them whenever I want.

I have a Wii on which I can stream Netflix and that’s it. And yes I have my computer to watch things from Hulu and…other places, but I don’t want to watch TV on my computer. I work on a computer all day. I am internet. I want to watch TV on a TV.

There’s this thing called Roku that I’m wondering if I should get.

Can someone help me out? For those of you who don’t have cable, how do you:

— Watch Mad Men and The Walking Dead? And shows that aren’t available on Netflix or Hulu or the show’s site?

— Watch a daily daytime show like The Today Show or Dr. Oz or Dr. Phil? And just do me a favor and pretend that you watch Dr. Phil. And yes I already googled “watch Dr. Phil online” and I can’t find anything reliable. Am I supposed to use a VCR? Isn’t that a gigantic step backwards?

— Why does my back itch and what are these red bumps on it?

I guess I could get HBO 2 Go or whatever boy band it’s called but what about AMC? Am I supposed to wait until the entire season of Mad Men comes out on Netflix, or until the episode is available online the next week? I can’t wait a week, I work in social media, the spoiler alerts, the goggles, they do nothing.

So what do you do? Do you think cable is dead? Also if you’re one of those people who says, “I don’t watch TV” I just want to let you know that you are missing out on everything ever.

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41 thoughts on “Is cable dead?

  1. Alison

    I have a Roku, it is the shit. You should get it, although be warned, you have to subscribe to Hulu Plus if you want to watch your Hulu shows on it. Also, some shows are only on regular Hulu, not on Hulu Plus (it’s confusing.)

    Mad Men was on amc.com this week (I watched it on Monday night) sooo I’m just hoping that continues. I went from having cable + a DVR to having a Roku and the internet, and while once in a while it’s slightly inconvenient, I rarely feel like I’m missing out.

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      “Also, some shows are only on regular Hulu, not on Hulu Plus (it’s confusing.)” What? Why? So how do you switch from Hulu to Hulu+? What is this future we’re living in??

      1. Anonymous

        Actually, everything that’s on hulu is on hulu+ as long as you’re watching from your computer. What’s confusing is that not everything that’s on either hulu or hulu+ can be viewed through the hulu+ app (which you would be watching through a Roku, Tivo, Xbox, or PS3 – also it’s only hulu+ that is available on those devices, which you have to pay for. So basically hulu+ is a good idea if you want to watch hulu on your TV, for instance). So let’s say you subscribe to hulu+ for $7.99 a month, you can watch everything they possibly have in their library on your computer. But, for example, you can’t watch 30 Rock through the app, which means you can’t watch it on your TV. There’s not very many instances of this happening, but they certainly do happen.

        1. Anonymous

          Also paying for hulu+ gives you access to almost the entire criterion collection, which also may be worth it.

  2. Anonymous

    i don’t have cable and stream netflix on my wii and watch hulu and i totally don’t download torrents illegally, for real and i’m serious, i really seriously don’t do that. i haven’t watched the new seasons of mad men or walking dead and don’t work in social media so i have no problems waiting for the whole season to come out. it’s actually better because there’s none of that impatiently waiting for the next episode to air. i watched all of LOST while unemployed a few years ago (all day. every day. don’t get laid off.) and all i had to wait for was the last episode. if you can’t watch daytime tv….i’m going to venture to say you’ll live. you aren’t missing anything except reasons to be depressed by humanity, and who needs more of that? those red bumbs are probably scabies. or poison ivy. or sun poisoning. or leprosy. it’s probably leprosy. what is roku? i have actually really enjoyed not having cable, and you might find that you don’t miss it once it’s gone. i do more non-tv related things, and the only real downfall is if you end up in a bar or at a friend’s house with a tv on, your eyes unwillingly become glued to it and other people cease to exist.

  3. Drea

    So, I’m getting rid of my cable, too. I mostly have it for DVR, which I realized was the truth when I narrowed down the reason I still have cable to “because I have so many hours of DVR to catch up on.” Then I got really sick and I did catch up and now I am out of excuses. I can watch many of those shows on my Roku or online… at work. Just kidding, not at work, I would never do that – I TOTALLY DO THAT. So, now , my largest concern is Mad Men, which is the Only Show On Television That I Actually Care About. I’m planning on buying a season pass on iTunes. It’s $34.99 for the whole season, which is less than what i will save in just one month of not-having-cable. (You can do the same thing for The Walking Dead, but I think I should quit that show because I can’t watch it without a running sarcastic commentary going through my head. Or maybe I should start blogging about it.) And, again, I can watch it on my iPad at work. If I desire. Which I do, I mean, whatever. I need to stay entertained all day somehow.

  4. tori

    I just want you to know that I read the sentence “Why does my back itch and what are these red bumps on it?” and laughed out loud/almost fainted.

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      They still itch and are quite pronounced, and now they’re on the front of me as well, it’s all very mysterious!

  5. Sarah

    I don’t know if this works anywhere else, but in Illinois you get local channels for free using old school bunny ears, they come in okay and are broadcast in HD now.

  6. Maribel

    I have cable. I would much rather watch TV on a TV than on my laptop. I say get cable!

    But…before I started watching the Walking Dead on TV, I would download the episodes…err.. my sister would do it and then give them to me… you can do that.

    Also, isnt the Walking Dead awesome!!?

  7. Betsey

    I have a Roku that streams on my Tv, and I’m obsessed with it. Totally solved my problem of watching tv on my computer and then procrastinating my life away.

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      Are there any shows you want to watch that are not available through Roku and if so what do you do?

  8. Luda

    Can you hook your laptop up to your TV so you can watch shows online on your TV? You will need an HDMI cable to do this, and your TV needs an HDMI port. It probably has one, if it’s a newer TV.

    Also, you have herpes. You shouldn’t have let that gross dude hump your back.

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      I don’t know if I can hook up my laptop to my TV, I mostly use my laptop to look at cat videos on the internet.

  9. trista

    Just download everything illegally on your computer and hook it up to your tv and speakers. It’s the only way. Cable is too expensive. And find a boyfriend with cable so you can watch all the good shows on Sundays.

  10. Cherie Jamison

    I almost exclusively stream from Netflix and Hulu Plus.

    There is only one television channel — Fuse — that I actually watch on actual TV. And I only do that because they DON’T do online streaming. But honestly, if I were to move tomorrow, I probably wouldn’t shell out the extra $$ for cable just to watch one channel and the occasional rerun of Friends.

    But that is just me. I am pretty damn good at avoiding spoilers.

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      What if there’s a show you want to see that is not available on Netflix or Hulu Plus?

  11. Lyndsey

    I personally cannot live without TV because I love my local stations, AMC (big Mad Men fan), HBO and of course my Cartoon Network. When I decided to move out on my own, I needed a service that was affordable so I went with DISH. Even now, which is three years from when I first started out on my own, their programming is still cheaper than the other companies, plus I get HBO GO on my XBOX free because I subscribe to HBO. I work in one of DISH’s call centers and I talk to many people who are thinking of switching from their current provider or cutting the cord altogether, but once they find out that DISH’s DVRs have the most memory and that their services are cheaper, they tend to want to signup with DISH. As for the red bumps, it sounds like you may have a food allergy, I remember my little cousin used to get something similar and it turns out she’s allergic to certain types of milk, weird I know.

    1. Anonymous

      Dish is sounding better, but there’s no setup where I can get Dish + Internet is there? This is Almie/Apocalypstick I just don’t feel like signing in.

    2. Anonymous

      Oh sorry what I mean is can I get Dish + Internet only? I don’t want Dish + Internet + Phone, who needs a phone line anymore? — Almie/Apocalypstick, still too lazy to sign in.

      1. Lyndsey

        I don’t have a home phone, but I do get my internet through Dish, which is pretty convenient since I only have to deal with one bill.

  12. Almie Rose Post author

    I think I’m going to go with Roku…if I understand correctly I can still get Mad Men via Amazon or iTunes. But who knows how that all adds up in the end?

    This site seems incredibly helpful also: http://www.clicker.com/

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      I am interested in The Hub but more importantly how they can pay my bills as well.

  13. Denise

    I have a Google TV (similar idea to Roku, I think?) and I love it. I watch a lot of Netflix, and have friends torrent shows for me. My DVD player comes with a USB port so I can hook up a hard drive to watch downloaded shows on my TV.

    You could also look into a Slingbox. I have done very minimal research on this, but my dad mentioned it to me. From what I understand, you put the box at a TV (I would leave one at my parents’ house where they have cable + premium channels like HBO) and I could access their TV+DVR via my computer, TV (Google TV is internet enabled and has a Slingbox app), smartphone, etc. I could essentially control my parents’ TV as long as they aren’t watching anything/change the channel on me. If you have a parent or friend that is willing to let you leave on at their place and their TV watching doesn’t conflict with yours, this sounds like a great option.

    1. Lindsey

      I use the sister product, the Sling Adapter, and it’s actually a pretty neat device. I use it so that I can watch live TV and my DVR recordings on my Android or my iPad. I downloaded the free DISH Remote Access app and it lets me watch all of this video content wherever I have access to Wi-Fi or mobile 3G network. It’s definitely made watching TV a lot more convenient for me.

      1. Almie Rose Post author

        I’m trying so hard to understand this. You have DVR recordings on your phone? And there’s an app for that?

        1. Lyndsey

          I have a Sling Adapter connected to my DVR, and with the DISH Remote Access app, I can basically turn my phone into a portable TV. The Sling Adapter relays the video content so that with the app I can watch all of my live TV channels and anything I have recorded on my DVR. If you go to DISH’s homepage, they have a Test Drive link that’ll give you a taste of what the DISH Remote Access app is like free. I was a little confused when I first found out about it, but after I experienced TV on my phone, I was just happy that I could watch TV on my phone.

  14. littlesarahbigworld

    I watch Mad Men for free every Sunday in a movie theater called Brewvies, where one is encouraged to drink beer and eat bar food while talking about letting Don Draper get as strict as he wants to.

    So probably you should move to Salt Lake. We got a new mall. We’re almost like a real city now.

  15. Anonymous

    I have a Roku box with HBO Go, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Video which takes care of pretty much every cable show for a nominal price (Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Daily Show, etc). Hulu is around $8 or so a month, HBO Go is free (but somebody you know like a parent has to be a subscriber), and Amazon is generally $2.99 an episode in HD. For daytime and live events, just get an indoor digital antenna. They’re really small and really cheap (like $30). You get more channels than you’d think, but the important ones are of course the big 4 networks plus PBS. All for free like how TV is intended! I will never give Time Warner a cent if just for their tagline. Enjoy better? What does that even mean? Enjoy better what? Rant continued in my head…

      1. Anonymous

        No, it actually doesn’t “come with internet/wifi” meaning, you already have to have an internet connection for it to work, which of course means cable or dsl. Roku is wifi enabled, meaning you don’t have to have a cord from your modem to connect to it if your modem is wifi (which of course it should be in this day and age).

        So the question is, if you’re using cable for internet, why not just add the TV in a bundle to save money? This is a trick. Do not get cable anything. Those bastards are nothing but greedy assholes and need to be sent back to the hell they came from. So how should you get internet access? If you can’t “borrow” from a neighbor, I would consider getting Clear internet, which is basically 4G internet for your home (this is what I use). They do have problems and are notorious for limiting your bandwidth if they consider you a heavy user (which you would be if you’re streaming everything to get watch TV), but in the last couple months I have noticed nothing of the sort, so I think they may have changed their tune for the better. They’re also pretty cheap (I pay $20 a month) and the speeds are good (5-10mbps, depending on the time of day). I wish there was a better ISP that I felt good about giving money to, but it’s like choosing which piece of poop tastes the best. But I think freeing yourself from the cable companies is the lesser of the evils. It is a dead technology and needs to die off quickly, and the only way that can happen is if we don’t endorse it.

        1. Anonymous

          However, if Verizon offers FIOS or AT&T offers U-Verse (make sure it’s the highspeed one over 6mbps – they call all their internet U-Verse for some reason even if it’s just regular old DSL) in your area, definitely do that for internet.

  16. Anonymous

    I just made the switch when I moved and dropped cable all together. I too was worried about the DVR, but then I looked into the original DVR- TIVO- turned out for 100 bucks at best buy I could get a TIVO (45 hrs of storage) that also is Internet ready for apps like Hulu and Netflix. TIVO now records my local channels and acts as an ondemand box with my Hulu subscription all for $23 per month (Tivo is 15, Hulu is 8). For shows that don’t air on Hulu or free broadcast (like Mad Men and the rest of AMC), I either pay a la carte via itunes or watch with friends.

    1. Anonymous

      But what do you do for Internet? As I understand you can’t get Internet with Tivo…or am I just stupid? — Almie, too lazy to log in.

  17. Robert Harper

    I love my Roku at home. It has become our “go to” device for watching television. I am a member of Amazon Prime and get my Mad Men there. There are a bunch of benefits so I would recommend checking it out.

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