Time for a new cable/Internet solution?

EmperorSeth

As of right now, I pay too much for my communication systems; a land-line phone I barely use, cable, and Internet. As readers of my recent job woes thread know, I just hit a hard time financially, so it's time to lose what I no longer need or find cheaper solutions. I know the land lines gotta go, but I also get a DSL Internet connection with the same company (AT&T.) I pay $60 a month with that, which isn't too bad when split with the roommate. I also pay about $80 a month with cable, though. What are my options here? Are there easy ones except cable for, well, cable TV? Assuming I want to watch TV on TV and not on the computer? Remember, I live in the west Chicago suburbs, so my options are limited to what's available here.

theclam

I'd drop the cable. You can pick up some channels over the air and a few cheapo cables will let you watch Hulu on your TV. Depending on what kind of things you watch (i.e. things that come out on DVD boxsets), a Netflix subscription may work.

You could also try calling your cable and DSL companies to see if they have any sort of bundles that will save you money.

shutz

One thing: if you have an XBox 360, you can install TVersity on your PC, and stream whatever video and music you like to your TV. It even works with some online streams, and if memory serves, Youtube (although it's simpler to download the videos and then stream them from your hard drive than from the Internet.)

I think TVersity can also stream to PS3, but I don't know how well that works out. It can also stream to a Wii, but that's not quite as practical, and I've often hit the limits of the Wii's Opera browser, which is needed for such streaming.

I use TVersity all the time to stream music through my XBox360 while I play some games. I used to stream tons of video as well, but now I usually just plop the files onto a USB key, and plug that into the console (although that means converting many videos, first... DivX/XVid AVIs only work up to DVD resolution, MP4 supports HD, but only with Stereo AAC sound, and WMV supports HD with full 5.1 sound.) With TVersity, any format that your PC can play can also be transcoded on-the-fly to a WMV stream that the XBox360 can play, although you need a pretty powerful system to transcode HD video on the fly (my Core Duo 2.0 GHz isn't powerful enough, for instance.)

I currently don't have cable, I only pick up a few TV signals (some of which are half static, barely watchable) so I watch a lot of DVDs, and other videos with the methods I just mentioned. Internet, for me, is a much higher priority than TV; I spend way more time in front of my computer than in front of the TV (and that's even counting video games.)

One thing: if your best option for Internet in your area remains DSL, keep the landline, just ask for the cheapest service possible (especially when it comes to long distance, get the plan that costs the least per month, up front, even though actual calls might cost you more. If you don't use it, you don't need to pay for it.) Otherwise, if there are other options for broadband that you're comfortable with, go with that.

One other thing that could really help you save money: cut down on the channels you get from cable, as much as possible. The first channels to go should be the movie channels, and the premium channels (like HBO and Showtime.) That should really bring your monthly costs down. If you need to watch movies, just watch DVDs you own, or go out and rent, once in a while (or use Netflix -- also, remember about Netflix's streaming service, which is supposed to work with the 360!)