lannguyen.me

cutting the cord: goodbye cable tv

The thought of disengaging myself from traditional cable started sometime last year though nothing really happened until now only because I was worried I wouldn’t find a suitable replacement.  After weighing everything and the lovely fact that time warner cable is evil… i’ve cut the cord.

Roku vs. AppleTV

On paper it was so easy to see the roku would be the best fit, but my loyalty to Apple and all their well designed products did make me pause or take several pauses. Currently AppleTV does not have the ability to stream media from hulu plus which is one of the places i planned to get the majority of my shows.  AppleTV does allow streaming movies, shows, music, and other media from networked computers which is great, but i’ve never invested in purchasing movies or shows from itunes.  That part never made sense to me… the pricing for episodes did not equate to the value.  After I see it, I most likely will not watch it again.  Roku seems to be more “open” in terms of the variety of channels it has available.  More options = more content!

Roku vs. Blu Ray player w/wifi+streaming

I do own a lot of dvds, but I haven’t really delved into blu ray.  The way things are going though, streaming seems to be the way to go and maybe blu ray is already obsolete? Plus I have a great dvd player on loan (almost 3 yrs) from a friend who might have forgotten about it by now :)

What about the sports?!?

Being a big NBA fan, the ability to watch my games are also important.  I don’t know if this is the solution as it has not been tested yet, but NBA League Pass Broadband is available for the roku.  League Pass has a couple of different price packages which i don’t mind buying because in the end… i’m still going to save money compared to my current setup.

Savings: $97.00/month, $1,164.00/year 

Saving money and only watch the content I want; getting rid of the things I don’t have time for?  It’s so logical, I just don’t know what to do… perhaps I’ll purchase 1,164 balloons and gleefully exclaim to all across the land that i’ve defeated the time warner dragon.

note: one-time cost of roku 2 xs+hdmi cable: $130.00. Net projected year one savings: $1,034.00