The TiVo welcome screen finally lit up our HDTV, signaling the dawn of a new era and this experiment that I like to call Hello TiVo.

We’re back for the second segment in a series of articles on ditching cable and moving to a TiVo solution.  So far, I’ve authored two articles on the subject and brought you my reasoning, preparation and installation (links below).  Now, we pick up with The Reality of switching from the high-cost cable bill to a mix-n-match approach of keeping up with our favorite TV shows, cable series, movies and more.

• Cancel Your Cable/Satellite and Save Money While Adding Functionality
• Buh-Bye DirecTV, Hello TiVo – How I Ditched Cable

Our last article ended with the photo story of our TiVo units arriving, getting hooked up and powering on.  After 3 weeks with the new TiVo Premiere units, I have some insight for others who might want to take the same plunge.

Reality

What is it like to live day-by-day with no cable.  In two words: challenging and awesome!  As with any change, there are some hurdles that we couldn’t predict, but they were not the result of the TiVo hardware or software.

Challenge 1:  Only OTA

MTV... seriously???

I knew that our switch away from cable would pose some issues when it came to watching our favorite TV shows and programs from cable stations, but I wasn’t fully prepared for the switch.  Example: The MTV Movie Awards.  About 2 weeks into our switch, the MTV Movie Awards were going to air.  Since we only receive local stations on our TiVo units, I had to find another way to watch this live show.  Surely a company like MTV, with a core audience of tech-savvy young adults, would be airing a simple awards show online… right?

As it turns out, the MTV web site stated that there was an “All Access Live Stream” available on their web site, so we settled in to watch the program on the PC set up in the living room (with our HDTV as the monitor).  What a let down!  The only thing you could see via the “All Access Live Stream” was the audience.  Yes, you read that right.  We could hear the host, award nominations and acceptance speeches (barely), but we could only see the audience.  Major, major FAIL!!!!  MTV, what were you thinking?

Challenge 2:  Soccer

FIFA World Cup

If you are aware that soccer exists or you own a television, you know that it is World Cup time.  Now through July 11th, there will be matches almost every day and they will be broadcast for the world to see.  This was something I was not prepared for, as many of the games are televised on ESPN3 and not local broadcast stations like ABC, NBC or CBS.  Luckily, they do show the games on Univision (the Spanish channel).  Unfortunately, I do not speak Spanish.  Maybe by the time the World Cup is over, I’ll be fluent.

Missing out on ESPN and the World Cup got me thinking.  What else will we miss due to our switch.  Uh-oh!  Monday Night Football will be back on ESPN again this season.  The good news there is you can always catch the Monday night games at a local sports bar or restaurant, but I would honestly rather watch it at home.  Maybe there will be a solution by the time football season starts.

Challenge 3:  True Blood

HBO Will Figure it Out.... One Day

Here is another example of trouble that I could not predict.  The new season of True Blood started last Sunday.  Prior to dumping DirecTV, I researched all of our shows and saw that True Blood was available on Amazon.com to download.  As it turns out, the “brain-trusts” over at HBO don’t offer their programs for immediate download on iTunes or Amazon.  Instead, they wait until the season is complete to start offering digital downloads of their content.  I can only assume that this is to increase their number of monthly subscriptions via cable, but for a non-cable subscriber this is not an option.

I guess nobody at HBO has ever heard of bittorrents, rapidshare or peer-to-peer file-sharing (don’t feel bad if you haven’t either), as their shows are readily available for illegal download all over the internet.  I can only imagine the lost revenue that is floating around from computer to computer as HBO sits back and waits on the general public to shell over hard-earned dollars for 6-month old programming.  Hey HBO, we want to watch our programs now, not after the storyline has been spoiled by co-workers, magazines and fan sites.  Don’t you like money?

Awesome 1:  HD Everywhere

One of the benefits in making this switch is the availability of HD programming.  Not only are the HD broadcasts picked up by my new attic-mounted antenna in full 1080p HD, but the additional programs that I purchase on Amazon.com and the movies we watch via Netflix (streaming) are also in full HD.  Before, with DirecTV, many stations were still not available in HD and (even if they were) the signal had been filtered by DirecTV.  The quality of programming that we receive now is far beyond our previous setup.

Awesome 2:  Online Content on our TV

Amazon Video on Demand!

The single best part of the new TiVo Premiere units is their ability to stream “online content” locally.  As mentioned above, we are streaming movies and TV from Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand, but what I didn’t mention is that I also have access to Blockbuster video and YouTube.  We haven’t used the Blockbuster service yet, since Amazon’s service is so easy to use and error-free.  We did however spend one night watching YouTube videos.  Aside from the bad quality of the videos posted (user error), the service was top-notch.

With Amazon Video on Demand, you can purchase TV Passes (basically a season pass) of your favorite shows at a reduced rate.  Soon, we’ll have new seasons of shows like Rescue Me, Mad Men and Weeds and, if the service works as I hope it will, new episodes will simply appear in “my shows” once they are available.  In the mean time, I can purchase individual episodes of ongoing shows like Justified and Breaking Bad to watch instantly.  I have already watched about 10 different shows this way and the service is fantastic.

Awesome 3:  Room-to-Room

Before the TiVo Premiere units arrived, we had to keep track of what was recorded in each room.  It never failed that we would get settled into bed to watch a favorite show and realize that it was recorded in the living room.  TiVo allows you to copy shows from room-to-room so you can view them wherever and whenever you like.  There are some restrictions on downloaded content, but once again this is not a result of TiVo’s strict rules.  We have the networks and film studios to thank for that complication.

Verdict

Challenging and Awesome!  While there are some hurdles, the enhancements provided by TiVo far outweigh the cost of a high monthly cable bill.  I have no doubt that cable stations like MTV and HBO will eventually get with the times and find a way to make money from online broadcasts and downloads (like the rest of the entertainment industry has already done).  So, I’ll wait patiently and continue to research the changes as they unfold.  In the mean time, I’ll begin putting money back in my pocket, enjoy my HD programming and watch what I want, when I want, on the best DVR software to ever grace the small screen.

Accessories

You might have thought this was the end of the Hello TiVo series.  Well, don’t give up on me yet.  TiVo has a huge following and their technology has been enhanced by others through applications, wireless keyboards, software programs and more.  In our next article we review some of the Accessories that make the TiVo Premiere easier to use and even more powerful than advertised.

Related Articles:

Finding a Cable Alternative – Dumping DirecTV for TiVo (posted on KilltheCableBill.com)

Tags: 1080p, Amazon, cable, DirecTV, FIFA, HBO, HD, mtv, mtv movie awards, Premiere, satellite, TiVo, True Blood, Video on demand, World Cup

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 10:25 am and is filed under TiVo & DVR Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.