# Thinking of ditching satellite TV -- your experiences? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 23, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053 "2008-11-23T00:26:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/21 "2008-12-20T01:23:38Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > I’m on satellite Internet, and they kind of frown on that. I have Wild Blue as my satellite internet provider. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/22 "2008-12-20T02:31:21Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > Ah, OK, “component video” means just regular video cables. But I think (after further reading) that our TV still isn’t compatible; it’s not listed on the AppleTV specs page. That’s OK; I’d love an excuse to buy a shiny new LCD widescreen. Yeah, “Component” is three video cables, Red, Green and Blue (plus the two audio), as opposed to “Composite” with one video cable (usually yellow). They all use the RCA jacks (same as the audio cable), but I think the video cables are typically built to better specs than the audio cables. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/23 "2008-12-20T03:14:54Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I have Wild Blue as my satellite internet provider. Yeah, me too, but my understanding is that [streaming media can easily put you over your bandwidth limit](http://wildblue.com/legal/WildBlue_Fair_Access_Policy_28-Feb-2008.pdf) **(PDF link)**: > [@WildBlue Fair Access Policy](#): > > You are likely to avoid any limitations imposed by the FAP if your use is typical of the majority of Internet users and consists primarily of Web surfing and a reasonable amount of downloading. The table below shows the monthly Usage Thresholds for each plan. These limits specify the amount of data that you can upload and download before your access speed is reduced. Please note that your Usage Total is far more likely to exceed the Usage Thresholds below if you use peer-to-peer file sharing programs, you use a webcam or you download full length movies, large quantities of music files, full software applications or similar high-bandwidth activities. Checking my recent usage: holy crap! I never stream anything sizable, just watch YouTube and various short video (news clips, etc.), but my usage in the last 3 months was: October: 6074 MB download November: 4046 MB download Last 30 rolling days: 2669 MB ## My monthly download limit is only 7500 MB. What the hell was I doing in October??? Anyway, check my math here: iTunes says that Season 7 of Monk (9 episodes) is 12.33 GB. That’s about 1/6 of my monthly limit, for just one show. \*\*(ETA: No it isn’t, it’s about 50% OVER my monthly limit, right? FUCK.)\*\*Ouch. Then again, I’d likely be downloading these one at a time, so three or four a month. Hm. And what’s with the pricing? A “Season Pass” for Season 7 is $45, or $5 each for 9 episodes. But to buy them individually, they’re $3 each. Two bucks each for automatic download? Unless I’m missing something, sounds like a huge ripoff. ---
**Author:** ![CAT\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CAT\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CAT_1)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/24 "2008-12-20T03:27:56Z")
When we first moved to our current house, over 10 years ago, all we had for our TV was the rooftop antenna, and 3 local channels to watch. And one of those was pretty fuzzy. It was fine with me. I still watched way it way too much. We didn’t get a mini dish for a year or so. But the hubby wanted more channels: outdoor channels, sports channels, channels to watch poker, channels to get the local stations in clearly, and a ton of other crap channels that cost us more than I care to know. I did put the kibosh on him getting any of the premium movie channels. So, now I am watching even more. If it is here, I watch. And I am getting fatter and more stupid every minute! I don’t have it on now, and I turned it off for 4 hours yesterday, but it seems like the TV is on nearly 24/7 around here. I am shocked that the boy learned to read at age 5, for as much as he watches TV. I see a good resolution for this family for 2009 emerging…hmmm… Good luck going without. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/25 "2008-12-20T03:32:45Z")
I haven’t gotten their meter to work. I emailed them and they said, “Well, gee, some guys just can’t get it to work.” :rolleyes: Mrs. Plant was streaming episodes of something or other for a bit, but they didn’t penalize me for it. The connection is the lest expensive, and too slow tp watch video on. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/26 "2008-12-20T03:45:17Z")
> [@CAT\_1](#): > > Good luck going without. If nothing else, I might get more work done. I was finding myself scheduling my breaks around TV shows, instead of when I completed this batch or that. Not good. I’ll probably also “find more time” to practice guitar, do things around the house, etc. I’m still twitching a bit over missing my 9-10 pm Frasier fix. This was too sudden!!! ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/27 "2008-12-20T03:48:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I haven’t gotten their meter to work. I emailed them and they said, “Well, gee, some guys just can’t get it to work.” :rolleyes: Well, that was helpful of them. :rolleyes: indeed. > [@](#): > > Mrs. Plant was streaming episodes of something or other for a bit, but they didn’t penalize me for it. The connection is the least expensive, and too slow to watch video on. Yeah, I have the cheapest plan too, and that’s always been enough. Until now. Nuts. ---
**Author:** ![JackofHearts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@JackofHearts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackofHearts)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/28 "2008-12-20T04:43:34Z")
Just to clarify a bit (and someone smarter than I will probably clarify me, but hey…) I am under the impression that streaming a show through sometime like Hulu or netflix instant takes far less bandwidth than downloading a high-def episode from iTunes…more like YouTube. I have clearwire internet and rarely get over 1MB/s and hulu can definitely stutter…the upside to clearwire is the downloads are unlimited, so i can download the whole season on itunes (slowly) while at work…it’s pretty nice. And yeah, my guitar playing time went WAY up when i lost the ability to mindlessly veg in front of the TV… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053/29 "2008-12-20T05:32:18Z")
Are you losing the ability to mindlessly veg, gaining the ability to download things you’ve seen before or heard about, and losing the ability to cruise the channels or program a device to record something that will occur in the future? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thinking-of-ditching-satellite-tv-your-experiences/474053.md?page=1)