You have 200 channels, and there's never anything on. 200 channels, and you only watch 5 of them regularly. Why are you still paying for cable? I recently decided to cut my cable entirely and get my favorite shows and movies online, and have cut my cable bill by over HALF! And you can too.
Instructions
1. First and foremost, you must get high speed internet access, if you don't have it already. Check in your area for local providers. In most cases, your cable or satellite provider also provides high-speed internet services. The thing to watch out for is if the service providers have any monthly bandwidth restrictions, and if so, what the cap is. Ideally you want a provider that does not have such restrictions, especially if you're going to be streaming a lot of video online.
2. Once you have your internet connection, and a cable modem (either provided by your ISP or purchased yourself; I recommend buying your own to avoid the extra rental fee from your provider), just get on the internet! Many of the major network channels stream full episodes of their popular shows.
If you don't want to bookmark a dozen different channels, you can find most of your favorite programs at Hulu.com. Hulu will either stream the shows directly or else link you to the web site where they can be viewed, all for free. Now you can watch at your convenience without paying for a DVR. Hulu also often has entire movies available, as well as entire TV series. Not just current shows either, but programming going back decades. This is the minimum you need to do to replace your cable subscription, but continue on for more options.
3. Subscribe to Netflix. If you enjoy movies, you can replace your cable movies with a subscription to Netflix, or other DVD by mail services. But the main draw for Netflix in this plan is the unlimited instant online viewing service you get with any of Netflix's unlimited plans, as little as $8.95 a month. There are thousands of movies and TV shows available to watch online with Netflix, from classic Golden Age of Hollywood titles to some very current titles, with more being added all the time. The only downside of this is that some movies are only available online for a limited time due to licensing, but you always have plenty of warning. And quite often the movies are still available after the original date they were to be taken down lapses.
4. Watch online programming on your TV. If you're not keen about watching shows on your computer all the time, especially after shelling out money for your 52-inch HD TV, there are more options available. If you have a laptop or spare computer, you can install Boxee on them and hook it up to your TV. Boxee is a media center application specifically designed to play media from a variety of differnt sources, including online, directly on your tv. One problem with Boxee is that it is currently blocked by Hulu.
5. If you have an PS3, XBox360, or HP MediaSmart TV, you can stream online content to your TV buy purchasing the media center program PlayOn from www.themediamall.com. The program costs $39.99. It works by streaming content from your PC through your home network to your network-connected game console. A few limitations I've noticed with this program is that you can't skip ahead when watching a Netflix movie. Also the content you can watch on Hulu with PlayOn seems to be limited to the shows that are hosted directly by Hulu. So you can watch the Daily Show, but to see the latest episode of South Park (which is hosted by SouthParkStudios.com) you have to watch from your computer.
6. There are several options to watch Netflix online movies directly on your TV. If you have an XBox360, TiVo, or certain models of network-enabled BD players (go to Netflix.com for more specifics) you already have this ability. Another option (and the one I use) is the Roku digital video player ($99.99). This device can use a wired or wireless connection to your home network to stream movies from Netflix (and Amazon Video on Demand) to your TV. It's a good option if you don't want to spend a few hundred dollars on an XBox360 or BD player. One downside is that you have to log on to Netflix from a computer to add movies to your online queue before you can watch them with the Roku.
7. Watching from your TV in most cases requires not just having a computer hooked to the internet, but another device as well. This means you will also need to set up a home network. A decent wireless router can be purchased for around $50. For help in setting up the network, you can find instructions in the router documentation, or online, very likely here on eHow.com.
8. It may seem like you're only spending more money by buying a router or a Roku player or special software, but you will save more money in the long run. I used to pay $140 for HD Cable and 8Mbps internet from my cable provider. After switching over to watching Netflix and Hulu with an internet-only plan, my bill is now about $55. Over a year this will save me over $1000, more than paying for the equipment. You may actually find yourself getting more things done, now that you don't spend hours flipping channels aimlessly looking for something to watch.
Tags: from your, home network, directly your, have XBox360, Hulu with, media center
