20230401-cable_fools.txt
It's April 1st, but I found the "jokes" went out of style after middle
school for me. I'm not here to mess around with all 3 readers of this.
I finally convinced my mom to ditch cable. They had recently jacked up
the prices of our internet + cable package to over $270 a month. She's
retired, so that was a huge incentive to ditch. I had been after her
and my dad to get rid of cable for a while, but the lack of quality
ISPs kept my dad from ditching them. Something about older people
being stuck in their ways despite better, cheaper alternatives.
We signed up with a fiber optic provider. They had been around our
neighborhood installing cables the past few months. Anyway, they're
only charging around $70 a month and my mom decided to go with Joutube
TV to provide her "necessary" cable channels (I don't get it, but she
loves AMC, TCM, and GSN). Unfortunately our digital TVs are just a bit
too old to get the Joutube TV app, so we ordered a couple C-cast
dongles. In the meantime, I introduced her to the wonders of free OTA
TV. Oh, and I was so, so mad when I dug out my old Chrm OS stick that
updated at least 3 times and STILL wouldn't allow JTTV playback. I
guess it was pushing 7 or 8 years, but still. It's a dadgum G browser
on a stick and it doesn't work with another G product? Jerks.
She wasn't a fan at first. I can't say I blame her as it's been
decades since she had to deal with signal dropping. I finally found a
good spot for the indoor antenna and it works pretty well now. It
doesn't get a ton of channels compared to most cities, but it works.
Outside of a few sports games, I haven't used cable in years. I've
used the antenna sparingly, but mostly I get my video fix online or
from my massive collection of movies and TV that I own.
Anyway, the new gateway was installed, I really like the Eero
management app as the de facto network admin. And I'm no longer
constantly reminded that Xfnty owns our router and lets any Tom, Dick,
or Harry with a Cmcst account access it, which is very nice.
Despite the impending doom of online streaming, it's still cheaper to
subscribe to 3 or 4 streaming services than it is to subscribe to one
cable box. That and the BS little charges they add like making you pay
a fee just to use a remote every month. Really? Do I have a choice?
No? Then stop charging people for it! When the dust settles and every
single show has its own streaming service, I'll look on from my
underground bunker with all my DVDs and Blu-rays in my hands and laugh
maniacally without a disc player in sight. ;)
