Cheap!

Pay Less For TV

November 10th, 2008

Do people really pay $100 monthly cable bills? We love TV as much as most folks do, but we’ve hit on some ways to save while still feeding our TV addictions.

How do we keep the bills small? First, we don’t subscribe to cable or satellite service. Instead, we pay about $12 per month for TiVo service and $9 per month for the lowest level of Netflix service that includes unlimited Instant Viewing. Taking advantage of these services required a $250 one-time outlay for the amazing TiVo HD box and $100 for the excellent Roku Netflix Player box, but both are a great value.

The TiVo works silently queuing up our favorite shows from the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, UPN, PBS, etc.) in perfect HD for free over a regular antenna. For movies there’s Netflix DVDs (just one at a time to keep the monthly fee low) and the steadily growing library of movies available via Instant Viewing on the Roku box (unlimited streaming straight to your TV).

Finally, there are still some shows from cable networks that The Missus can’t do without. In that case, there’s an automated Bittorrent downloading system I’ve set up using Torrent Episode Downloader, a free application which lets you subscribe to shows almost as you do with TiVo, combined with uTorrent (also free) to run the actual downloads. Once the shows are on my PC (invariably in AVI format) I transfer them to the TiVo wirelessly using an amazingly powerful free application called pyTivo. You can also use the $30 official TiVo Desktop software to do the same job as pyTivo, but it’s far slower and less capable of handling various video file types.

There you have it. With a moderate up-front outlay and very low monthly fees you have a great library of TV and movies ready whenever you want them. Give it a try. You may find you can live without cable or satellite too.

Entry Filed under: Tips