Brief Return to Cable

I haven't cut my cable yet, and I actually watched it for a little bit over the weekend. I have a good reason for this, and the reason's name is Scuttle.

Hey there. I'm needy, and I'm going to spit my food all over your carpet.

I was bird-sitting for my sister while she was in St. Louis this weekend. Last time my sister went out of town, she left Scuttle in our dad's care. My dad turned the light out and poor Scuttle lived in perpetual night for days. At some point Scuttle freaked out and broke two blood feathers and nearly bled to death. To avoid such a situation again, I followed all of Laura's Rules For a Happy Scuttle. I opened up my curtains in my front room for him, and also left a lamp on in the living room in case it was too dark. I made peas so that he could have some (and like a little punk, he would only eat them if I wasn't looking). So that Scuttle wouldn't feel alone all day while I was at work, I left the TV on for him. I even played Animal Planet, per Laura's recommendation. "I like to make him watch Animal Cops so that he can see how good he has it with us."

So turning Animal Planet on for Scuttle was the first time in a couple weeks that I've watched my cable. And you know what? I don't really miss it. For most of the weekend Scuttle and I watched Netflix. Specifically, we watched Hoarders, because it motivates me to clean my apartment.

And in case you're wondering, I have mostly gotten over the hissy fit I threw over the PS3 debacle. I decided not to return the Roku, though. I'm using it on my bedroom TV now, and I like not having to move the PS3 back here if I want to watch Netflix.

Cable Free Experiment: The Beginning

I haven't cancelled my cable yet, but I'm going to try not using it for a couple of weeks to see how I handle it.

My Roku arrived on Thursday. So far, I like it. I am having a weird issue where every time it comes back from the screensaver the sound goes out.... I'm assuming that it's something with how I have it set up, because Googling doesn't show anyone else having this problem. I do like the channel selection, I've added a few "private channels" that are helping me create a cable tv replacement. BTW, "private channels" means it's an unofficial channel, one that has been created by 3rd party developers that hasn't yet been approved for (or even submitted to) the Roku Channel Store. I kind of wish that they used a different phrase to describe these channels, because to me "private channel" sounds like porn.

Anyway- I'm currently watching an episode of House Hunters on my HGTV channel. The picture gets a little pixel-y at times, usually when a video first starts, but for the most part the picture looks good. I watched a movie on the Netflix channel the other night and the picture looked just as good as streaming via the PS3. I've read some complaints online about the sound on the Roku, but honestly I can't tell the difference. Maybe if I bought a big fancy surround sound system I could hear the difference, but that's not going to happen any time soon. I haven't used the Hulu Plus channel yet, but I'm assuming it's going to be the same as when I used my free trial on the PS3.

My favorite thing so far about the Roku is that it's given me a chance to use Amazon Video On Demand. Now, I recognize that I could have watched it on my computer before I bought the Roku, but I never did. I'm an Amazon Prime member, so there is a selection of movies and TV shows that I can watch for free. However, their selection is kind of weak compared to Netflix. But, if I do go ahead and cut my cable I think I might use Amazon VOD more. I discovered when I was using my Hulu Plus trial a few months ago that AMC's TV shows weren't part of the Hulu lineup. But while searching through TV shows on Amazon's website, I noticed that they have a season pass for the AMC show The Killing for 94 cents an episode. In HD. I didn't have HD with my cable subscription because I'm too freakin' cheap to pay extra for it. But Amazon had the HD and the standard version season passes for the same price (buying individual HD episodes costs more). And at less than a dollar per episode, I'd be paying less than $13 for a show I like in HD, which is much less than I pay for cable.

So far it looks like I'll be dumping my cable subscription at the end of the month. I'm starting Grad School in the fall and the city is going to raise my water bill (last I heard they were raising it by 43%). I've gotta save money somewhere, and cable, while fun, is inessential. It's not like I can cut electricity. Or groceries. I'll continue on with this experiment for a little while longer, but it looks like the Roku is a good device for me.

Forget You, PS3

I always liked my PS3, even though I'm not a gamer. I bought it on Black Friday a few years ago and I got a good deal on it. Mostly it gets used as my blu-ray/DVD player and my Netflix streaming gadget. But now I'm replacing it, because Sony has pissed me off royally with this hacking bullshit. They kept me from my Sam Waterston, and that is unacceptable.

I'm sure you heard about the Playstation Network being hacked and users' personal information being stolen. If you haven't heard about it, Abby, that's because you didn't read the email I sent you over a month ago, bitching about how it was nearly unacceptable that Sony let this kind of thing happen. But I decided I was okay, I wouldn't abandon my PS3, mostly because a) I'm poor, and b) I could still use the Netflix application without logging into the Playstation Network.

Well, all that has changed. Monday night I decided I would watch one of the movies that was "expiring" from Netflix Instant on June 1st. I examined my queue online and decided on The Killing Fields, starring a pre-Law & Order Sam Waterston. I went in to the Netflix app on my PS3 and it tried to make me log in to the Network. Only instead of giving up after a couple of failed Network log-ins, it told me that the device was deactivated and that I needed to update my PS3 software.

Ugh, ok, I updated my software. I thought maybe I was getting the "device deactivated" thing because I had just activated my Netflix account on my parents' fancy new TV. But I checked my terms of use and I can have 6 devices activated, and I only have 3. Turns out it didn't matter at all, because after the software update everything went to shit.

This time, when I went to use my Netflix, it refused to load unless I was logged in to the Network. But when I would try to log in to the network, it told me my password was invalid and that they would send instructions to my email on how to change my password. But when I went to my email and clicked on the link, I got a "Site Maintenance" error. I did a little googling and found out that Sony had to take down the password reset site because of fucking hackers.

So, I'm done. I bought a Roku player for streaming my Netflix (and my Hulu-Plus, when I get rid of my cable). I'll still be using my PS3 for DVDs and Blu-rays for the time being, but eventually I'll replace it with a cheap blu-ray player and only break out the PS3 when my sister and I make margaritas and Guitar Hero.