Netflix is a great alternative to cable
and TiVO.
A couple of weeks ago, I cancelled my Comcast cable account, which was
running about $80 per month. Reasons:
- I'm not at my apartment many nights to watch the shows.
- The cable went down for the third time in two years, and they couldn't
fix the problem without me sitting at home for four hours during the
workday.
- Finally, Comcast tried to hide a six percent rate hike by announcing it over the Thanksgiving holiday, on the
theory no one is reading the newspaper or watching TV news. Slimy.
When I called Comcast to cancel my account, they offered not only to roll
back the price increase but to cut my rate $10 per month for a year. I
declined.
Instead, I signed up for Netflix. For $18 per month, I gain access to
every show I care about. The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Arrested Development,
the Office, Simpsons, even Carnivale, which starts a new season this month.
Anne gets her sci fi shows, like Babylon Five.
And without paying for TiVo, we never miss an episode, and watch whenever
we want, and can pause to go to the bathroom or take dinner out of the oven.
We also watch wherever we want, at any location with a DVD player.
Oh, and we can get movies, too. ;-->
It takes one day for our DVDs to reach Netflix by mail, and one day in
the other direction.
Of course, you don't get the newest shows. The delay is one to two years
before most shows hit DVD. But with so many fantastic series in the archive
to be watched, who needs the latest and greatest?
I miss CNN a litle, but I watched it very little. Most of my news I get
on the Internet now, or through my Time magazine.
If Berkeley didn't have far more serious problems to wrestle with, I'd
suggest an aggressive library expansion to offer this type of service to
residents.
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