Where are we going with TV? Part 1 - Pioneers

I wrote the post below over a year ago. It really shows as we have seen some changes to the landscape. Yes our internet bills are rising to $100+ a month, HBO is now available without a cable subscription and we can search across many services at once on some devices and services. Sadly while everything advanced, sports remains behind. Old post below for your viewing....


I'll tell you the answer upfront, its a race to online viewing for everything. But its not as nice of a future as it may seem to be.

The pioneers of this movement are the cord cutters and the online TV service providers. Some of the big choices right now are Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, Vudu, and Aereo. Some charge recurring monthly fees, others charge per show or movie. Then there are services which support online viewing but have a requirement for existing TV packages like HBOGo, Showtime Anytime, WatchESPN. Finally we have the big sports franchises which offer online viewing for a $100-200 per season fee with a myriad of restrictions and blackouts. Finally we get down to watching these services on a TV. This is accomplished with a box like Roku or AppleTV. There are hundreds of boxes to choose from but not any single device supports every option.

The result of this is the cord cutters have multiple devices or they forego certain services, all the while having to click dozens of buttons to switch from one type of service to another. They also have to check specialized websites to find where they can watch their shows, or flip from service to service and perform a dozen searches to find what they want to watch. And there are still certain shows they can't watch, even if they want to pay for them. This leads to some turning to piracy, 'borrowing' cable passwords from friends, or paying for questionable services which bypass regional black outs.

Why are they cutting the cord with all these hurdles? Some can't afford to pay for cable, others have reached a point where their cable bills are unjustifiably high, and others like the flexibility with cord cutting. If you aren't hooked on a particular show but just want TV to watch when you have time, you can get a $50 Roku box and a $9/mo netflix subscription and have thousands of TV shows, movies, kids shows all commercial free at the press of a button. Add an antenna for $20-40 and also get major networks for no monthly fee. If you don't have a good antenna signal and live in one of the 22 markets coming this year, for $8/mo you could subscribe to Aereo and get all the major networks, free DVR service, and no antenna needed.

It use to be internet was a $10 - $15.00 add on to cable or phone packages. Now internet is a $50-80 add on. Soon internet service will be $100/mo and cable companies will be in a position to offer TV in any market for $30 as an add on to internet service. To get here cable companies need to also reduce what they are paying for TV. One interesting aspect is for cable companies to get behind Aereo (yes the company that threatens a portion of their business).

AT&T Mobile Share - Cost Effective Phone Upgrades

With the Apple iPhone 6 coming out tomorrow, many people are looking at upgrading. Most people would believe that getting the iPhone 6 for $199 is a good deal. It usually is not because of the hidden costs.

This post mostly applies to those who have switched to the Mobile Share plan which has a shared data cost and seperate per device costs. Voice and Texts are usually unlimited on these plans. This post still applies if you are buying an iPhone 6, iPhone 5c, or even a Samsung Galaxy.

Homemade $20 super antenna out of paper and tape!

First Attempts
I decided to cut the cord earlier this year once my cable bill started peaking at $220 and Verizon would not work with me. One of the first steps for me was to ensure I could get the important channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX). First I tried the Mohu Leaf, but it was not working out well for me. The Mohu is somewhat of a gimmick in that, yes it is a functioning antenna but no its not magic. Its just another antenna.

Super Antennas
A coworker suggested to me the Gray-Hoverman super antenna. What makes it super? Well it was originally designed in 1959 and it has held two patents which have expired. Since the expiration of the patents and with advances in computers the old hoverman design was modelled and improved with computer software. After years of work and real world testing the antenna design had an extraordinary gain in performance which rivals all of today's commercially available TV antennas. The improved design is available for free under the GPLv3 license.

From Ubuntu to Mac

For approximately 5 years I used Ubuntu as my base system with windows inside of virtualbox for those rare occasions. I absolutely loved the freedom of Ubuntu and knowing that whatever I wanted to change was simply a textedit away. However, while I managed to solve every problem I ran into with Ubuntu, I got tired of solving problems. Don't misunderstand. If someone asks me to fix their old Windows machine, they are most likely going to get back an Ubuntu machine. But if someone asks me what to buy, my answer these days is Mac.

About 3 years ago this is where I would have stopped reading. I'm not going to change your mind either. But here is my 20 years of technical experience.

Windows is more work than Ubuntu. Not upfront, but later when the system slows down or gets some nasty malware. Windows is also very hard to maintain. Users usually don't maintain it. They let all their software go out of date and eventually have problems or get hacked. Finding new software is risky too. Users become accustomed to downloading and running files off the internet. No matter how many 'Are you really sure?' prompts windows displays, once the user is used to clicking yes, they will continue.

Ubuntu has many improvements in this regard. The system doesn't slow down like Windows. It's interface is easy to use. Finding new software is easy and safer because it comes from one place. This is the hardest part for a Windows user trying Ubuntu. They are used to finding software on the internet and installing it. They try the same thing with Ubuntu and they get confused why nothing works. The same software is usually 1 click away in the 'FREE App Store'. And updating and maintaining the software is all done from one place too. Every little piece of installed software is monitored and maintained with 1 or 2 clicks.

Mac offers many of the features of Ubuntu with regard to the 'App Store'. However with the Mac you usually have to pay for the software. This is the biggest hurdle for Ubuntu users. They want everything for free, and never truly understand the value open source. The Mac hardware and ecosystem has a value on its own. You cannot usually find a better piece of equipment for less. You can get a cheaper laptop, but it will be a cheap laptop with lots of missing bits. I have a Dell laptop which was about half the cost of a MacBook. It has not held up well over the last 2 years. I have re-soldered the power button twice, and the case is separating. The power port is also going out, which is the biggest problem with dell laptops. Windows runs quite slow on it and the thing feels like it was out of date in 6 months. I also have a 2-3 year old MacBook Pro. It cost twice as much but the laptop looks like the day I got it. I've never had to repair it, and nothing has even given me the slightest headache. It was also forward thinking on many areas to a point where it is still a very relavent laptop today. Loaded with the Mac OS, it runs very quickly, opens as many windows and apps as I throw at it, and has features which are still not standard on other laptops, such as a lighted keyboard and aluminum body.

For those of you working with people in the Windows world, Mac again has Ubuntu beat. I was forced to do all my Office work in a Windows VM on Ubuntu. Office for Mac has been flawless and the only thing I use a virtual machine for these days is Visual Studio. The same work in Ubuntu and I had 3 virtual windows machines running at once.

Ubuntu or Linux in general still has them all beat for servers. But in the case of getting work done Mac is the better choice for me.

Inaccuracies above are mostly just omissions for the point of brevity.