Apple TV/Itunes to replace cable, thoughts

first off im posting this here as an idea to switch from cable to iTunes entirely.

I was doing some number crunching cause, well, that's what I do when I get excited about various apple products.

anyway, here we go,

so I was figuring out what I currently pay for cable with my roomates which is about $130/month and includes our DVR and cable internet.

canceling the cable and DVR brings the cable internet down to about $40/month
this leaves cable to costing about $90/month or for the year,

$90 x 12 months = $1080 a year

Now I am moving in with my g/f in January/February of this year coming up. We can afford cable in addition to well... rent and life lol, but I really only watch a few TV shows, south park, family guy, Colts games, and Arsenal FC (in England).

the latter two I almost ALWAYS go out to watch at the pub. drinking or not I prefer to do that with my friends.

anyway here is the big part. it appears on itunes you can buy the season of the show and receive it as the episodes come out, for example south park is about 14,15 episodes a season for $23.99.

obviously i have to take into account the price of the apple TV but, to even reach only HALF of what I pay for cable I could get 22 seasons of various shows. not to mention the better organization that comes with iTunes, AND the mobility to watch it on any of my computers and my iPhone.

anyone given this much thought?

think this stands out to be an actual cable killer?

maybe cable for just about dirt cheap some day soon?

I really dont see the downside of doing this.

I guess it depends how you watch TV, if you take into account all you watch, and it works out cheaper via iTunes, by all means go for it! You also gain the plus of being able to rewatch whenever you like and not having ads.

However, some people, might like to watch the news in the morning, which obviously you wouldn't be able to do. Or if you and your friends all watch a series - I think iTunes gets it a couple of days later - so you'd be behind.

news ---> internet

local areas generally stream live.

That would not work for me, I like channel surfing, plus I wouldn't be able to watch my beloved Tennis Channel.

imnothardcore said:

news ---> internet

local areas generally stream live.

Click to expand...

Very true. I guess it's a culture thing. One day in the future TV probably will be a situation akin to TV.

im leaning towards this also because of how much you are paying for with cable.

I and probably 95% of the people i know do NOT watch 45 separate series/shows. that is so much.

think about those weeks you are out of town or, maybe for a month or two no TV.

apple TV or even your computer hooked to your TV costs you nothing monthly if it sits there unused. for the cost of cable you could finance a really nice new computer and even hook it to your tv and set it up dual screen. use it for work and playing itunes on your TV.

i was really hoping this would get more hits/ideas.

I think its an awesome idea. I don't surf either and am thinking about it.

(my one issue is that i live in Europe and generally you cant get the tv shows from American networks unless you have an IP address there - but maybe I can purchase seasons....?)

in response to surfing, you know, you could always surf the stores and watch all the trailers as they are available. its essentially the same thing. and they even have a section for new stuff as it comes out.

and surfing the channels is finding something to watch. nothing new, alright time to find something else to do, and go about my business.

Here in the UK, I have dumped SKY which is digital satellite tv. We have cable too but its not in our area. Luckily for us, we have something called freeeview which for around $50 we can get a PVR for freeview so that is what I have done.

I too have been looking at other options to get my premium content that I miss from having sky and that is things like Prison Break, 24 & My Name is Earl.

I have found that legally buying the content is cheaper for me also. The only issue you don't seem to have accounted for is whether you will need additional cost for storage of the data (dvd's or HDD). I guess it will still work out cheaper but just thought I would drop this into the conversation incase you hadn't considered that.

Also, you may want to look at an application called "livestation". I noted that it has Arsenal TV as an option to watch. I am not sure of the quality or how well it works but its a free app recommended on the apple website so try downloading and seeing if it works for you.

There are some people from the macrumors forum who has dumped cable and switched to AppleTV. I can't remember exactly which forum it was in, but have a look over there

homer_j said:

Here in the UK, I have dumped SKY which is digital satellite tv. We have cable too but its not in our area. Luckily for us, we have something called freeeview which for around $50 we can get a PVR for freeview so that is what I have done.

I too have been looking at other options to get my premium content that I miss from having sky and that is things like Prison Break, 24 & My Name is Earl.

I have found that legally buying the content is cheaper for me also. The only issue you don't seem to have accounted for is whether you will need additional cost for storage of the data (dvd's or HDD). I guess it will still work out cheaper but just thought I would drop this into the conversation incase you hadn't considered that.

Also, you may want to look at an application called "livestation". I noted that it has Arsenal TV as an option to watch. I am not sure of the quality or how well it works but its a free app recommended on the apple website so try downloading and seeing if it works for you.

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thanks for the arsenal tv info, I really appreciate that and was looking for a way to get it as I live in the states.

Hard drives and DVD's continue to go down in price so much I dont see that ever becoming a problem. I just saw a seagate barracuda 400GB on newegg for about 50 bucks.

I keep bringing this up to friends and they really have no reasons not to. some of them are uncomfortable about it and i think its just because its a weird change.

as i said before i really dont see a reason not to do this.

imnothardcore said:

thanks for the arsenal tv info, I really appreciate that and was looking for a way to get it as I live in the states.

Hard drives and DVD's continue to go down in price so much I dont see that ever becoming a problem. I just saw a seagate barracuda 400GB on newegg for about 50 bucks.

I keep bringing this up to friends and they really have no reasons not to. some of them are uncomfortable about it and i think its just because its a weird change.

as i said before i really dont see a reason not to do this.

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I think a lot of it depends on what someone's needs are. Personally, I can't live without sportscenter and football, Colts all the way! But I have a media server that holds all my movies/music/pictures etc. I used to have a hacked xbox that was on the network that served as my media player on my tv. I was able to watch movies, listen to music, view pictures etc. on my tv.

Well the xbox broke and I haven't replaced it. I figured my new MB could serve as the media player wirelessly downstairs but I haven't gotten around to buying the necessary cables to do so.

I think eventually cable companies will move to more on demand, ala carte programming. Much to the way I'm used to doing things. Once the fiber infrastructure is laid down, each household will be able to watch anything at anytime. Everything will be digital content that can be stored on the set top box or in servers that cable companies will host. I also think this will lead to the slow death of blu ray or any other "media type." Maybe blu ray can be used to burn content and as secondary storage. Sites such as hulu.com let you stream tv shows for free. Only problem is, you never really "own" it and episodes eventually expire.

Imagine being able to order any movie off the top of your head and be able to watch it right then and there on your tv! Course this is just my guess I kinda got off track there but I'm anxious to see what kind of technology will be available in my life time.

imnothardcore said:

first off im posting this here as an idea to so I was figuring out what I currently pay for cable with my roomates which is about $130/month and includes our DVR and cable internet.

canceling the cable and DVR brings the cable internet down to about $40/month
this leaves cable to costing about $90/month or for the year,

Click to expand...

Double-check those figures. It sounds as if you currently have a bundle, which almost always results in a deep discount off of what you'd pay if you bought each service separately. Dropping part of a bundle almost always means that you then pay full or nearly full price for the remaining service(s).

already checked and its the same

good call though, when i realized that i got nervous.

Apple TV doesn't carry all networks or all TV shows. You won't have access to everything. You may find yourself wanting to watch something you cant. Sci Fi original movie? NBC? Top Chef?

And of course for someone with kids, the ability to turn on a random childrens channel and watch cartoons is nice, discovery channel shows?

yah, in case that happens though additionally.

I have the internets.

'nuff said.