Late last summer, after returning from the mini-retirement in france, we cut the cord on Cable TV. I thought I’d provide a quick update on how the change has felt for all of us.
Cutting the cord is not just about saving money for the next mini-retirement (remember, they don’t cost that much. France wasn’t crazy expensive for 10 weeks). It’s about disconnecting from all sorts of crap that we just don’t need.
Anyway, we cut Rogers Cable. In its place we got:
1) A subscription to Netflix
2) Two Apple TV boxes
3) Switched from Rogers to TekSavvy for Internet (300 Gig cap versus 60 Gigs)
4) Plex server, which is free and runs on my iMac (also available for PC).
5) Plex for iPad app.
So the upfront investment was $200 in Apple hardware and $5 for the Plex iPad app. I have to say that app is outstanding! Best $5 I’ve ever spent on an app.
Our cost to watch TV and Movies has now dropped to about $20 per month instead of whatever we were paying for a pretty basic Rogers package ($50 or so).
I had to Jailbreak the Apple TV boxes so they’d run Plex (free app to install on Apple TV). This was pretty easy. I’d never done it before. I just found a tutorial and followed the steps. It’s no harder than setting up a Wi-Fi router.
We can watch whatever we want. We can watch it on the HDTV in the basement, or upstairs on the bedroom TV, or on the iPad .. and on the Macs if we want to.
Yesterday my daughter was home sick. She watched something on the iPad while I was in the basement (my office during the day). I figured she’d want some company so I relocated her to the basement couch. We paused the iPad, and seamlessly resumed her movie on the Apple TV. Sweet!
I almost never watch news. Sure, I can watch it if I want. We’ve always got OTA HD TV coming in strong from the CN Tower or Buffalo transmitters. But I just don’t care to watch.
I get my news from the web. Most news is so negative anyway, I like to control what I read versus mindlessly watch whatever someone else deems important.
I don’t watch sports. I suppose I could, again, using OTA. I just don’t. It’s never been my thing. Personal choice. I’d rather go DO sports.
My kids never got into regular TV anyway. This is where Netflix comes in so strong. They used to watch Treehouse On Demand via Rogers Cable. We actually have tons more choice on Netflix, even in Canada. Plus I have all sorts of kids DVDs ripped and stored in my Apple Time Capsule, which is where we store all our content for use via Plex.
My wife is into multiple TV shows. I thought this experiment would bother her after a while. But I was wrong. She loves being completely in control of what she watches, no commercials, etc. We watched an episode of The Walking Dead while on spring break in Florida at the in laws’ rental. It was cable TV. Commercials. So annoying.
There are also some cool side benefits of making a habit of using the Apple TV box. They play Podcasts! No downloading required. So whatever I mark as a favourite podcast shows up on my list. I can workout, clean, or whatever while I have a podcast coming right through my basement entertainment system (loud and clear).
My latest favourite podcast is Mixery. Andrew Warner is an awesome interviewer, and he does several great episodes per week. He interviews startup founders and other entrepreneurial / successful people. I highly recommend it.
What’s missing: Plex is my media player of choice, and they don’t support RIM devices. Judging by their April Fool’s joke I don’t think they have a whole lot of respect for RIM either. It seems highly unlikely they’ll be launching a Playbook client. This quite frankly, pisses me off. I wish they would. But now that they’ve gone out of their way to make fun of RIM, they probably won’t.
What’s not perfect: The only other minor annoyance is that the Plex app crashes on the Apple TV box regularly. Usually NOT during a show / movie, but when you’re navigating or hitting play. It happens probably once every 2 days. Quick unplug, plug back in … and waiting one minute for a reboot. All set. Not a huge deal. Certainly not a deal breaker.
So that’s where I’m at with cutting the cord!
Final suggestion: If you havne’t yet tried Netflix, they do offer a 30 day free trial. And unlike pretty much every cable and phone company on the planet, they make it super EASY to pause, cancel, etc. We paused our subscription while in France. Literally 30 seconds. Give it a try if you haven’t already.
Hi, I'm Chris Umiastowski. I'm a 10-year veteran of sell side equity research and this is where I come to connect with friends on all things related to tech investing.
Great post – I cut the cable cord four years ago and replaced it with a Popcorn Hour, Netflix, Windows Home Server and an HD antenna pointed at the CN Tower. No more sub par HD, no more DVDs and BlueRays cluttering everything, no more $100 bill for crap (that I watched anyway). I do miss sports variety but I was very happy to get the Superbowl from Rochester this year. I flirted with Plex and AppleTV – It is a lot cheaper – but hate iTunes and don’t trust the jailbreaking. I also couldnt get subtitles to work. I am a graduate of XBMC on my Xbox so it was easy to follow the path I chose. This is essentially what I set up almost four years ago and it still runs well. Everyone in the family likes it. http://goo.gl/ACaap
Rob – awesome! Yeah, I know a lot of people love XBMC. I think that, plus Plex are the two best known solutions on the market. Popcorn hour is fantastic too. One of my best friends still swears by his for blue ray quality download + playback. He uses a Mac Mini also, but says that box doesn’t handle HD nearly as well as the Popcorn.
You should consider adding a newsgroup account to your arsenal. A simple 1TB block is about $45. I’m not advocating piracy but the actions and policies from RIAA and MPAA are ridiculous and self-defeating.
I won’t write about piracy either. But I’ve been told that NZB Matrix ($8 one time fee) and Astraweb ($8/month if you find the coupon) are amazing. And then you’ve got sabNZB+ to handle the downloads. Pretty sweet solution for very little money.
Chris,
Great post — I have some articles on the background behind jailbreaking and the solution from Firecore.com for AppleTV. I swear by the simple yet powerful media player and apps that come out of the box for $30 one time cost. Then you can install 3rd party apps with one click. This is the solution that AppleTV should evolve to eventually.
I don’t particularly like the idea of a server sitting there, sucking electricity for the few times it is being used. Also the solution set on a server with transcoding features et all are nice, but usually not necessary for most people. I have found the Synology line of NAS devices (budget and otherwise) to be terrific. The software that runs on them is simply incredibly – a full network attached storage operating system that does ALOT more than just serving files to network shares. If you haven’t explored the world of NAS now is the time. There are many solutions out there and I swear by Synology.
Check more articles here: blog.newpathnetwork.org/future-of-television where I blog my experiences…
Alex
Alex – awesome comment. I’m totally a newbie to NAS other than my Time Capsule if you call that NAS.
Plex sounds promising. I already have an antenna but also kept cable for CNN, HGTV and PBS but see that CNN & HGTV are available on Plex (and many PBS shows are available to watch on their website), but I can’t seem to find anything on Plex’s website or the net about what it costs to get those channels. Are they free? Do they stream just like regular TV or do you pick from a menu of programs on that channel?
Hey Noel – CNN + HGTV on Plex … it’s free as far as I know, but I think it’s limited to certain stuff. I don’t have those channels added, but I did at CNET and some other stuff. Basically, the CNET channel is a daily series of short videos such as gadget releases, etc. CNN and HGTV probably has the same type of setup.
Hey! Great setup you have there! You should go to http://www.unblock-us.com and get yourself their US dns settings (or get an US IP address) and get AMERICAN Netflix – it’s sooooo much better! I find unblock-us service the best. Of course, then you can also go to Hulu, NBC, Fox and all those other websites and watch all their shows streamed for free. I live by this.
Good luck!
Does anyone know if you need a US credit card to set up a US Netflix account? I’d like to use unblockus to get a US IP address so I get SU Nexflix feed, but if I use a Canadian Visa to register will tye default to Canadian feed?
Ian
You don’t need a US card. I use my Canadian TD Visa.
Great article, Chris! I have a similar setup but instead of jailbreaking my AppleTV, I’m looking at a Roku which has a Plex app available. No jailbreaking needed!
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