Lifestyle Notes

Getting rid of cable and going with TV on the internet has obviously changed the way we watch TV and treat our TV watching. A few observations:

- We don't watch as much TV. As I type this, I am sitting in front of the TV but it's not on. If we had cable still, it would be on ESPN or something and as soon as I closed my computer I'd get sucked in to watch some stupid game. We probably used to actually watch TV for 1-2 hours a night and have it on for another couple maybe, as we were just doing this and that. Now, we might watch a total of 1 hour with no background TV.

- There's no more mindless channel surfing. You have to know ahead of time what you want to watch- no more sitting down and mindlessly flipping through the channels.

- You have to wait to watch your favorite shows. Usually, you don't have to wait long, maybe a day or two, but some shows, like House, have an 8 day lag. Others, like LOST, are up almost immediately.

- Quality is an issue. Now that we're actually watching TV online, I realize this is the biggest deterrent from switching. For popular shows, especially ones posted on Hulu, quality is a non-issue. For the bootlegged, free, or purely streaming stuff, quality is more of an issue.

- Sports are easily accessible and high quality. This is what I thought would be the biggest deterrent, but it's not. As you probably know, I get CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC in HD through the digital antenna and pretty much every other game is on ESPN, which means you can watch it on ESPN360.com.

- We have more flexibility. You don't have to program a DVR or save a show or even sit down right when the show comes on. You just sit down when you want to watch something and in a couple clicks, you're watching it. I'd say the time from when I sit down to when I'm watching something is no more than 30 seconds and usually faster.

Overall, this was a great decision. Yes, quality is somewhat of an issue, but only for a handful of shows and if that's the only real drawback, then it's definitely worth the money we're saving. Neither one of us has ever really gotten frustrated or annoyed with our new setup and I am enjoying not having the TV on all the time. There are so many resources out there to help you consolidate shows and you almost always have a backup means of watching a show. Everyone could potentially have a different experience but at this point, I would recommend this setup to anyone- even if you don't dedicate a computer to your TV.