February 27, 2010
By Gülay Birand
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Posted In
Apple, Blog, Gadgets, Personal
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Steps for getting rid of Evil Comcast for good
Possibly one of the best things we did when we moved to our new condo, is to ditch our cable and internet company, Comcast.
Over the years, we’ve received sub-par service both in programming and internet connection. When we found out that our building would be getting a new, local ISP with speeds of 30MB minimum (Cascadelink rocks!), we knew this was our way out. The decision was also part of our plan to ditch our television *gasp*.
Initially, we hadn’t thought of going TVless, but once we spent a few days trying to figure out what the best placement would be for a TV in our new cable-forced layout and how much it would cost to make it happen, we decided it just wasn’t going to be worth the time, effort and funds. We figured, with two laptops, two iPhones and a Mini, we have enough glowing rectangles in the house to watch our favorite shows and movies on.
Take a look at the following to see if you’re ready to get rid of your cable company:
- You have a violent reaction to insipid commercials that show up every 15 minutes.
- You don’t mind watching your show a day or so later.
- You have a subscription to Netflix and/or Hulu.
- You have an iTunes account.
- You weren’t hyperventilating when I talked about getting rid of cable.
- You like to optimize your time.
- You deal well with change.
- You have an alternate, high-speed internet provider in your area.
If you said “YES” to most of these, you’re a good candidate.
Here are the steps for getting rid of cable:
- Get a Mac mini (as your media center), time capsule (router and backups) and nice large Mac screen if you don’t have them already. You can also connect your existing TV screen to the Mac mini if you prefer.
- Arrange for your new ISP to start service ASAP and switch over to it.
- Get subscriptions for Netflix and Hulu if you don’t already have them and setup an iTunes account.
- Make sure the above setup is working for you.
- Now make that call you’ve been dying to make to Comcast. So long, bad service.
- Enjoy your freedom to watch whatever, whenever, wherever.
We now only watch shows and movies we care about and cut out the unnecessary programming in between. Having the media library in one central location allows us to be able to watch movies tucked away in bed or while cooking in the kitchen.
I’m now waiting for Netflix to come out with their iPhone app. Hurry up guys!
DVD Cleaner : said on October 31, 2010
Cable companies are already offering bundled internet and cable tv services at a cheap price ::
Gülay Birand said on November 3, 2010
@ DVD Cleaner: My current internet provider offers 30MB minimum download (it usually clocks in at 60MB!!) at $39.99/month and Netflix + Hulu Plus cost me $20/month. I don’t know of any cable company can beat this today.
Cauchon19263 said on November 24, 2010
Cable companies are also offering broadband internet these days and the cost is cheap too
Marine Salay said on January 25, 2011
I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives great information
Bob said on February 23, 2011
I thought that I would miss a lot of my shows and live sports after cutting the cord, but I actually have found better programming and I guess watch more efficiently…no more flipping for hours. Like you, Netflix and Hulu are two main staples in my setup and I stream them through the Playstation 3 and Apple TV.
Bob
http://kickoutcable.com