Why you should say $@#% YOU to your Cable Provider and switch to Hulu

As some of you know I have recently moved into the big city, NYC. I wanted to do a life experiment where I didn’t bring my current TV or buy a new one. I was thinking of waiting to buy a new Vizio when released in November that has all the features I am looking for (integrated with Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, etc.), but thats another post all togetherf. I am excited for it because it’s getting closer to my “media on demand” concept where you can pull up any content you want at any time.

So the experiment was can I still enjoy TV without a TV using my external 22in LCD monitor to watch Hulu and DVDs. See what the pro/con’s are and make suggestions for people who are in a similar situation or thinking how can I save money (recession what?) and still enjoy media entertainment.

So far it’s been a couple of months and I wanted to write up what I have learned how much Hulu is better then any cable provider I have had. Now first off I have to give some disclaimers as I am comparing Hulu vs FiOS as that was my last provider. Just as a note, I am obsessed with FiOS and really really really wish I had it where I am now (it’s coming to my building in the upcoming weeks, supposedly). I had an option between RCN and Time Warner Cable (TWC). As sad as it was I elected TWC for my ISP with “powerboost”, such a crock. Although considering I already had a Cable Modem (which was a whole issue within itself) it saved me a deposit and I feel like I am saving something… anywho.

Let’s jump into the quick comparison.

Cable VS Hulu

Cable Pro’s

• I can “surf” through channels without lag.
• Every station is in real-time
• Automate Recording (DVR) of Show (including from phone)
• On Demand – Instant Movies/Shows
• HDTV (mostly 1080i/24)

Cable Con’s

• Bill every month with “imagined” fees, such as the franchise fee I got, WTF!!! (Who likes bills anyway?)
• Required Commercials – Even Fast Forwarding DVR takes time
• If not on demand or dvr, can’t get past shows, also specific time, now option to search/skip/etc.

Hulu Pro’s

• FREE, FREE, FREE!
• Shorter Commercials
• Offers Past Episodes and Behind the Scenes
• Features FREE Documentary/Movies

Hulu Con’s

• I can’t “surf” through channels, only search and browse
• Lag time loading station/show
• No need for DVR, but can’t watch in real time, “The Office is on Fridays now ”
• Not HDTV

Okay, so that’s a quick list I put together, but let’s go through this pro/con list and understand all that the cable service and hulu provide.

To start off, all the shows I watch, except for a couple on planet green and the Science channel (can you tell I’m a nerd?) hulu has it all. Not only the most recent episode, but a past season for some depending on the show and will add new ones as they remove the old. For example, I watched the first episode of Warehouse 13 on SyFi and I really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because I like to solve problems and each case is about finding what the problem is specifically and resolving it, all in one episode. Anywho, after watching the first one, I started the moving process and missed the upcoming ones… until Hulu. Hulu has not only the current episodes, but also a behind the scense episode to show some background into the case and background. Much like a bonus or behind the scenes on a DVD, this is pretty cool. I enjoyed these bonus shows and for that I gotta hand it to Hulu. Now where does Hulu seem to fail, surfing. I can’t just easily flip through some shows, which I know most of us do. I am not always in the mood for watching a show from start to finish. I noticed this when I would watch AMC or TBS where a movie might be on and I would force myself to watch it even though I had the DVD sitting in a box next to me. Strange right? Well, I just know that sometimes I don’t want to see the whole thing, but skip around or fast-forward to a good part.

Okay, let’s dive into the cost and why I feel like I am getting $#%& by every cable provider no matter who I have had. Just to give you some background I grew up with the following providers: Comcast, directTV, Adelphia, Cablevision, RCN, and FiOS at some point in my life, yes I guess I didn’t always pay the bill, but still watched tv, saw the issues and cost.

The biggest beef I have with cable providers are the commercials, you are BUYING a service every month and yet the provider is making even more money off of you. This is similar to newspapers (which I also can’t stand) who have the same argument, the commercials offset the price and your bill is lower because of the commercials. I know I had HBO when growing up and the thing I loved back then was that HBO would go from Movie to Movie (maybe a Brain Game in between, remember those? It’s now over). HBO was a premium service where you paid and got no commercials. HBO has changed dramatically, they have way too much self promotion. Always “internal commercials” about Entourage or one of their hit shows, ugh. It’s much like Sirus, which I also have beef with, it’s not commerical free as they do all of this DJ crap that talks about the channels and ugh!!! Okay, getting over that, I just can’t help but think I would be willing to “watch” these advertisement but no bill for me, if you can “subside” the bill, then you should be able to insert another one or two and cut out my bill thanks. If anything maybe I can get paid for the amount of commercials I watch, like a credit system (any VC interested?).

Here is the pitch, for each show you watch you are forced to watch a commercials, sound simple, yeah Hulu does this. Not only watch a commercials, but you can choose to watch commercials in between or a long one up front for some shows. Talk about options! I tend to watch the long ones and grab a drink or food, just saying. So the credit system works in way to pay for view. The commercials are so much shorter then with cable providers, it’s a 3 to 5 minute commercial with the daily show on FiOS but 1 minute or 30 seconds with hulu.

So with all of this talk about commercials I just have to point out something. I am sure you have heard of TiVo and how you can’t call your cable box a TiVo but a Digital Video Recorder. Anyway, the original TiVO (dating myself) had the option to remove commercials completely. They would search for the short frames of black and cut them out. Talk about a great service, it would remove the “crap” in between and just leave the show/movie I want. None of this “fast forward” crap. Well TiVo got hit hard about this and changed their service to conform, damn capitalism! I remember when I built a mythtv box (before boxee) it had a built in system that did just this and it was awesome!

I could go on a bit more with this comparison, but for myself, I don’t see getting cable anytime soon. For the shows that I would like to watch, I can always pickup the DVD pack and be a year behind, no big deal. So for the people who are unemployed looking for a way to cut down on bills, lose your cable provider and invest in an apple tv. It pays for itself within a couple of months!!!!

Has anyone else done this, no TV? I would love to hear your experiences with hulu and what features you would like to see.

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