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Canceling Cable?

Sarah and I are looking at making a major shift in our media consumption habits this fall. Most likely we'll be canceling our cable subscription in favor of getting all of our visual media needs in more efficient, on-demand formats. We're thinking that we'll unplug ourselves from cable around the first of August and see how it goes until the first of the year. I've been thinking about the idea for quite awhile, and the recent experience with Dr. Horrible leads me to think the net is becoming a viable distribution tool. The big drawback to this shift is that a lot of content isn't HD right now, but my guess is that will change soon.

There are several reasons for this experiment. The biggest factor is probably the budget. We were evaluating our spending and trying to make some changes because of the increased expenditure of seminary. Turns out we're giving over $100/month to Mediacom. Another factor is that we watch entirely too much television. It's the easy evening activity - we'll watch reruns, bad reality tv (Sarah is obsessed with anything in the Idol franchise), and other pointless content. My guess is that we'll read a lot more without the ability to flip through channels. The DVR has helped focus our TV viewing, but even when there's nothing we really want to watch recorded we'll still watch something. The most interesting factor for me though is the social experiment of trying to stay up-to-date with culturally significant programming without cable/satellite. 

I think we can get everything we would want to watch from iTunes, Hulu, network sites with streaming video, Netflix, and video podcasts. Netflix is the only traditional media we'll be receiving, but I imagine that will change when their watch it now feature is available on the Xbox 360. Our initial plan is to watch content legally without purchasing it whenever possible. When that doesn't work we'll buy content from iTunes.

Our setup:

• HD LCD TV
• AppleTV
• XBOX 360
• DVD player
• PC to be rebuilt into some type of media center
• 6mb DSL

I'm pretty confident that this setup will work. We won't have the PC reconfigured immediately, so there will be a period of hooking one of our laptops up to the TV or just viewing on the laptop. There's a possibility I'll hack the AppleTV so that we can use it as much as possible.

The only thing I'm aware of not being available in any of these formats that I watch regularly is Good Eats from Food Network. I'm wondering what it would take to get Netflix to add the DVDs to their library. As far as we know most of the call-in shows (Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Best Dance Crew, etc) aren't available in any type of digital format. It doesn't matter a lot to me, but Sarah will miss this programming.

Has anybody else made this sort shift?  Anyone have suggestions for content sources? AppleTV hacking tips?

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog - Is This the Future of Entertainment?

 

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog is what happens when a bunch of talented people who can't work get together to do something to fill the time (and make a point about the last year's writers' strike). During the the strke Joss Whedon teamed up with a group of people and have put together what I'm guessing is a great 44 minutes of entertainment. I guess because I've only seen the first act (which went live today). Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog features Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day.

It's also a musical! Joss Whedon generally gets geek points but he's also very musically talented. One of my favorite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the musical episode. Having Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day (also a trained singer) doesn't hurt.

Dr. Horrible is so popular that the web site has been down most of the day. I was lucky enough to watch it before beginning a day of writing. I kept going back to the site in hopes of watching it again. There is a scalability issue here but hopefully it will be solved soon. Whedon obviously has relationships/connections that let him pull together the cast/crew for this piece. There is some budget behind it, but I'm guessing the budget is still substantially below that of a standard 44 minute television episode.

So Dr. Horrible is fun, looks great, is full of talent (both on screen and off), why isn't all television this way? I really wonder if the future of entertainment might be this type of production. Each act will be available only until Sunday, released a day apart on Hulu and in iTunes. Felicia Day has been writing and starring in The Guild for the past year and it shows the other end of the web entertainment spectrum. The Guild is entirely fan supported and is distributed on YouTube. I wonder how long it will be before I can get rid of cable. The time is coming soon when services like Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, etc. will eliminate my need for cable/satelite/broadcast television.

Family Reunion Time!

It's technically Sarah's family, but unlike some people I'm going anyway. That's right it's time for the biennial Skelton Family Reunion. The large family reunion is something that I don't quite relate to, but it's a lot of fun. You see I grew up in a family where both of my parents only had one sibling (and we rarely saw aunts/uncles). Sarah on the other hand comes from a big family on both sides. Her mom is one of 10 (that's right, double digits) siblings - she's also one of the youngest, which means Sarah has cousins that have kids almost our age. It's a crowd of people - always an adventure.

A few cycles back the siblings decided they'd trade off coordinating the family reunion in birth order (it's going to be a long time before Sarah's mom is in charge). This year we're headed to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. From everything I've read it will be a nice location, although I fear it may be the Branson of Virginia. I'm looking forward to getting some open water swimming practice before the triathlon in a few weeks. I'm also looking forward to my first four day break from work/school related activities since last October.

I am taking several books with me to help pass the time. I'm planning a sermon series for the fall based on Leonard Sweet's 11 (going to read it again). I'm also taking Lois Kelly's Beyond Buzz. I'm also taking The Shack and a couple of magazines. I've got rips of Labyrinth and Across the Universe to keep me entertained on the plane.

The Flip cam is packed and I'm hoping to get some video that's actually editable. We'll see what happens. Regular updates on Twitter.