Motivation & Money

The motivation for this project started with Amy and me getting DVR. We never watched "live" TV and with our Netflix subscription, we watch stuff on demand as much as we watch regular TV. The main reason we kept cable was for me and sports. With ESPN360 and a lot of other streaming sporting events (NCAA bball tourney, SEC tourney), we kind of thought it made sense to save the money and cut cable. Basically the cost of cable isn't worth the handful of games that aren't broadcast on the internet. Plus, the more I researched, the more I found that literally every TV show is online somewhere- most in HD. Ultimately, it just didn't feel like we were giving up that much and it might even be more convenient to watch TV over the internet.

The other main factor was cost. It looks like we'll invest under $700 all-in for a new computer to devote to "media" watching (it has blu-ray) and probably an HD antenna for local TV networks. We were able to sell our old computer and with the monthly savings from cutting cable, we should make money back from the initial investment in between 3-4 months. For those of you actually interested in this, you could very easily get an HD-video producing computer for under $400. I'm guessing the antenna will be about $50. That should give you a baseline for how your own cost/savings would shake out.