How to quit cable TV for good and not miss anything

My new TV doesn’t fit the old entertainment center, so I string up a long, gray coaxial cable from the jack on one side of the room, tape it around the doorway and hide the excess coil under the temporary TV stand on the other side of the room. Not the most high-tech operation at home, but we’re getting there.

My antiquated entertainment habits are not the norm in the high-tech industry. The internet and a slurry of devices have created a revolution in TV entertainment similar to MP3’s revolution of music entertainment. And most of the techies around the Claris office have severed their cable TV packages for good.  Cable TV as we’ve known it has joined the cassette tape, the 8 track, the VCR and the wall-mounted rotary phone in the realm of outdated  technology.

Here are some of the technologies and services Claris techies (and Kevin Simtumuang at The Wall Street Journal) recommend to help you effectively break up with cable TV. 

Devices

1. Channel Master CM-7400 – $400
   1. This box steams almost anything that can be streamed over cable through the air, with the help of an antenna. It also includes a DVR and Vudu access. –Image credit F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
      
      
2. Boxee – $180
   1. Comes with Vudu, Netflix app, and all the other standard goodies, but also goes a step farther. If there’s free content online, it will find it. Even in those hard to reach nooks and crannies of the web. Includes a QWERTY remote. –Image credit Boxee.com
       
3. Playstation 3 – $250
   1. The Playstation 3 is reportedly a VERY fast streamer and has its own video store. Plus, your Blue Ray discs are very welcome there. –Image credit Giantbomb.com
       
4. Netgear PTVU1000 – $130
   1. This device wirelessly streams the content on your laptop to your TV without connecting and disconnecting cables all the time. Simply leave the receiver in your TV and a small USB transmitter in your computer. –Image credit F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
       
5. Lenovo N5902 PC Remote – $40
   1. Remotes like this from Lenovo can turn your computer-enabled TV viewing “from more of a lean-forward experience than a lean-back one,” says Kevin Simtumuang from WSJ. Enough said, I think. –Image credit F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal

Services
One drawback of all this online media is the ridiculous number of services and devices there are to view it all. If you’re willing to go here or there for this or that show, these services can help. And some can make it a good bit simpler.

• The staples: Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video.
  • Varying in price, there’s not much online content you can’t get with these streaming services.
     
• PlayOn.com
  • For $29 a year, PlayOn puts a ton of the web video content in the same place for you for a pretty reasonable price.
     
• Kylo.TV
  • Download this free web browser to view your web TV content on. It’s got big words and a more app-like user experience.

Have you cut loose from cable TV? What’s your experience been like?

Other image credits: H Berends