We got our monthly cable bill the week before last. We have a major cable provider who shall remain nameless, and for the past year we did not have a contract with our cable provider so we had no guarantee’s that our rate would not go up. But my wife negotiated with the cable company for a reduced rate. They were able to give it to us under a couple conditions. One we had been their customers for close to ten years and always carried a credit on our account so they were never chasing us for their money. The other condition was that times were deemed more challenging last year with the people on unemployment. So for one year we paid a set rate sort of like a contract but nothing set in stone. Well the year came to an end this past month and the cable company sent us a bill for forty dollars more than we were paying. We said forget it. We weren’t willing to pay more. We have a budget and that extra forty dollars a month blew the budget out of the water. My wife called the cable company to see if they could give us some kind of deal. No dice, they had nothing for us, so we talked it over, and we called back to unbundle our services, and move to basic cable. We moved to basic cable got rid of what was suppose to be a high def box, and we went out and bought a Vizio Blue-Ray dvd player that streams Netflix. For ten dollars a month we get access to their online streaming service plus their DVD library. For two dollars more if we want we can get Blue-Ray DVD’s. So we went to Walmart bought the Blue-Ray player. I hooked the DVD player to our big screen Vizio with a cat5 wire, plugged in the wireless adapter. Now about week of working the bugs out of our new system we are now enjoying high-def entertainment better than before. As for the basic cable channels, the only thing I lost access to was the ability to watch the sports networks. No big deal there. I’m so busy, that I don’t have much time for watching sports now as it is. But the bonus is that a lot of the basic cable channels are all digital, and in high-def. So for a cheaper price we got a better viewing experience.
Here are some things to think about when making the switch to an online streaming service like Netflix.
-You might want to get a second modem and skip the wifi for faster streaming speeds, on the flip side of this is the little known fact that the ISP can see how many modem’s you have hooked up to the net. If you go to their website you can see the active devices, and how much they are streaming from the net.
-Which brings me to another point, when you stream, you are using bandwidth, which is shared with your neighbors. If you suck down too much the cable company is going to cut you off from the net. Some cable companies cap households at 250 GBs downloaded others at 150GBs PER MONTH! Check with your carrier for their cap limits.
-Two other things to consider. One, say you go with wifi, then you have to leave your router and modem on all the time. Now you are wasting money in electric bills, because if you are like us, and have all your power cords tied together, then everything is on in the ready state sucking power and costing you money.
Two if you go with wifi for Netflix streaming then consider this. If you are watching the Netflix stream on your big screen tv, and you have a kid surfing the net then both will experience slow service. One option here is to pay more for faster download speed. Another option is to make sure no one is using the net at the time that streaming is going on. Even picking out what to watch will be slowed by all the congestion in the pipes.
That’s just my opinion. Eric.
(Disclosure: My wife and I are the proud owners of Netflix stock. I’m waiting for Vizio to go public. I want a piece of that company too!)
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