No Cable, No Satellite, No Problem

This is a continuation of my ongoing quest to not pay the cable & satellite companies for their over-bloated, over-priced TV services.

First a recap:

Looking to trim the budget of unnecessary or wasteful expenses, my wife and I got rid of cable TV. How can I, a self-described TV-junky survive?

We have a really nice OTA (over the air) digital receiver which lets us pick up local ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS & CW programming. I watched the Super Bowl & Sunday's Celtics/Spurs game in HD & for "free." My receiver records onto a hard drive or DvD, so I can also record my favorite shows for later. I also have Netflix & a decent DvD collection at my local library.

Now for the "New" stuff:

Netflix: With the announcement that Apple is entering the online video rental race, Netflix chanced it's online program. If you have any kind of unlimited rental plan (even 1 at a time) you now get unlimited access to Netflix Online. And they are also finally adding quality movies and TV shows to their online library.

Major TV Networks Online: All the major TV networks have incredible streaming options. They all work best with Internet Explorer, and provide amazing quality for someone with fast internet & a decent computer. So what's online that's so great?

First, let's cover the must see reruns that I missed the first time...

Lost (Every Season in HD) - Available on ABC.com. ABC designed a really nice "full-episode" player on their website. The first thing they did was provide a complete library of every episode of Lost in HD streaming. The video quality blows everything else I've seen online out the door.

30Rock (Season 1) - Available on Netflix Online, it's a great spoof of the behind-the-scenes of a "SNL"-style show.

Jeremiah (Season 1-2) - Available on Netflix Online. This Showtime original show is about a post-apocalyptic America. A plague wiped out all the adults. Now, the children have grown up and are trying to rebuild society. What happens if the plague returns? Created by J Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5.

Doctor Who (Season 1) - Available on Netflix Online. The popular British remake.

Now for the current stuff...

Miss a new episode of Lost, 30 Rock, NCIS, Numb3rs? Chances are that you can find them online. Every one of the major networks now allows you to see the last 2-3 episodes of a show with "limited" commercial interruptions. NBC got the ball rolling with Heroes last year, but you can really thank CBS for putting most of their content out there on in a quality streaming plugin for both IE7 & Firefox (works best in IE7.) Each network does things a little differently. The best player is by far the one from ABC.com. My least favorite is from FOX which doesn't have a "full-screen" mode yet. But, when the power went out the other day and my recorder missed the latest Terminator, I was able to see it at FOX.com.

So, there you have it. I think this is the beginning of the "new" TV. What about sports? Like I've mentioned in previous posts, I get national games on the major networks and MLB has a paid live-streaming service. (Which needs improvement but wasn't bad.) The NCAA is coming out with some kind of "free" streaming service for March Madness. I'll definitely try that and let you know. As of now, the NBA won't let you stream unless you have their cable package.