Back in my senior year of college, my roommate and I made a spur of the moment decision that ended up being a big part of my life. We were signing up for internet and needed to figure out whether to get cable or not. We looked at each other and said “Well, we don’t really use it, and it’s way cheaper without, so we’ll just get internet.” We knew we could always add cable if we were desperately bored. We never ended up adding it, and were quite happy without it. I already had Netflix, back when they mailed you actual DVDs. I spent several weeks building and setting up a fancy home theater PC that we could use to play those DVDs, as well as our completely-legally-acquired-through-legal-means other content. It was kludgey, hard to use, and broke often, but it was free, and that was way more important.
Eventually, I graduated, and began my life of apartment hopping (seriously, starting in 2010 until 2016 I moved roughly once per year). In each of my moves, Comcast would try to sell me on getting cable. I often refused, unless the bundle was cheaper than just the internet. I’m not a huge sports person, nor am I big into reality television. Whenever I’m visiting my dad and we end up watching TV, I’m always shocked how much commercials have grown and cut into TV time. When I watch an hour of TV, I’m watching an HOUR of TV. Right now I have a cable box sitting in my closet, ready to return when my bundle deal expires. My setup has improved now too. I bought a Roku 4, and it beautifully streams anything I need or want to watch. I subscribe to the following:
- Netflix: $10 and the selections is pretty good.
- Seeso: $3 per month for great British and original comedy.
- Amazon Prime: This has a huge library, and is free with my Prime subscription.
I also use an application called Plex. I often describe Plex as “Netflix for your downloads.” I have a lot of DVDs/Blu-rays that I’ve bought and ripped to video files, and Plex allows me to stream those to my Roku, phone, or laptop anywhere in the world I have Internet (or download them and watch later on a flight). Plex also allows me to share my library with friends, family, and co-workers. Plex fills the niche of everything I need that the others don’t provide. Oh what’s that, Netflix got rid of Psych? Buy the DVDs used off of eBay and rip all 8 wonderful seasons. Have a bunch of weird, old yoga DVDs you found at a garage sale? BAM! Plex it and you can pause, come back a week later, and scratch your head at how they expect a beginner to do a headstand in their first session. Have a copy of the Clue VHS Board game? You guessed it! Plex it (though that one is way easier to just download than trying to hook a VCR up to a computer).
So, friends, come and join the cord cutting revolution! All will be buffered and streamed!