Cut your cable! Apple TV with Netflix is the future!

We cut our cable about 4-5 months ago. No one missed it much. Sure we had to sacrifice the last season of Dexter (although I fear it's jumped the shark now :( ). But I was able to utilize our local library for many free titles to keep everyone happy. Our girls are very much movie watchers, not really TV show watchers, so it's been a little easier. I feared they would not be able to chat as easily with friends, not knowing what happened on that show last night, etc. It's not like we are that family that got rid of all the TVs period. But I don't think they suffered. I know I didn't suffer paying the $200+ monthly bill to have 400 channels and a DVR I never had time to watch.

So we got an Apple TV ($99) after Xmas. We added the Netflix service ($10/mo.) and upped our DSL internet to 12mbps for only $10/mo. more.


You can control the Apple TV with your iPhone remote app, which is extremely cool. You can rent and view their content, which is all streamed now, no more downloading. These are rentals and priced accordingly, so we don't really use it that much.

You can also connect it to your computer on the same WiFi network and watch any content you have there. I've been burning copies of our DVD collection into a "libray" that we can peruse on screen anytime. No more standing in front of the bookcases of movies trying to figure out what to watch! Be aware, though, it helps to have very large harddrives! I run a 2tb raid along with matching backup for this.

But the Netflix service really tops it out. For $10/mo. we can get one DVD at a time sent to our house (which I copy and put into our system) and you can instantly watch 1000s of movies, tv shows, etc.

For instance, we got the new A-Team movie on DVD from Netflix the other day, watched it, reminisced about how I used to watch it on TV as a boy and loved it for all it's campy glory. That made the girls want to know about it as they'd never heard of it. So we watched part of the first season right then and there! Instant! Love it!

My wife and I have been able to see movies we haven't seen in 20 years, back when we first dated in High School. We've been watching shows that were cancelled or were from years back like Dead Like Me, Eureka, I got to finally see the last season of lost (stayed up to 3:30am addicted to see the last 4 episodes). All commercial free, mind you!

In my humble opinion, this is the future of home entertainment!