How to Replace Cable TV With the Internet

Many people are still paying cable TV, even in the digital age. Besides saving literally your entire TV cable bill every month, using digital distribution has some other great advantages. You won't be plagued by commercials. Most content is show commercial free, but even when there are commercials they're never more than thirty second breaks. You also have the advantage of watching what you want, when you want. You can pause it, watch more later, and pick whatever show and episode you want. You'll be able to easily watch an entire series from start to end and enjoy it far more. This article will give you a lot of different options for watching digitally. You can find links to the various sites, devices, and other eHows mentioned in the resources section at the bottom of the page.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Internet Connection
• Computer
• TV

1. Watch TV on DVD. This is the simplest method. You don't have to buy any devices, learn any new technology, or even fiddle around on the computer. Head to your local blockbuster and rent a few seasons of something interesting. You'll find that being able to sit down whenever you want, commercial free, and watch an entire show's season start to finish is far more rewarding than catching it on TV.

2. 

   Netflix offers instant streaming to your television! Instead of paying a cable bill, why not pay a few dollars a month and get Netflix instead? You can rent TV shows and get the DVDs in the mail, or better yet you can watch films from the Netflix instant queue. With the one time purchase of a cheap device to hook up to your TV, you'll have a near limitless supply of new TV shows to watch. There's an eHow link below in the resources for setting this up! If you have a gaming system, Tivo, DVD or Blu Ray player it's possible that you won't even need a new device to get started.

3. 

   Hook your computer up to your TV. The next few options involve watching content on your computer. With the purchase of a simple cable you can hook most computers to your TV. This will give you the ability to watch whatever would be on your computer monitor on your TV instead. This is a great low cost option to getting literally any video that will play on your computer to play on the television. Some of the following steps will list other methods of getting the computer content on your TV as well.

4. 

   Buy shows in iTunes. Some people don't want to wait for DVDs to be released - they want the new episode of their favorite show right away! iTunes offers individual episode downloads and "season passes". A season pass will let you buy a whole season in advance. Each new episode will automatically download to your computer once it's aired. Many people are content watching episodes on their computer, but if you'd like to watch iTunes purchases on your TV you can do that too. Apple sells a device called AppleTV that does just that. You can also hook your iPod to your TV to watch these episodes.

5. 

   Get shows on Amazon. Aside from selling TV on DVD, Amazon has an online store much like iTunes. You can purchase episodes and download them to your computer. They even have Season Passes. Using a Netflix-like-device, Xbox 360, or several other solutions you can then stream the episodes from your computer to your TV.

6. 

   These options are all great, but what if you want to watch TV for free? Many sites now offer streaming shows directly on their website. You can go on Comedy Central, FreeTube, or ABC HD and watch entire shows. They have short ads instead of requiring you to purchase the episodes. The ads usually run thirty seconds or less, so it's far less painful than traditional TV. The juggernaut of all these sources is Hulu.com. Hulu currently hosts more ad-fueled free TV shows than anywhere online. You don't need to do anything special to start, just head over there and find something to watch.

7. Download TV episodes automatically from the internet! Some TV shows can legally be downloaded from Bittorrent. You can use Ted for Windows / Linux, or automatically download TV episodes with TVShows on a mac. There's a link below to an eHow explaining this step in more detail.

8. 

   Check out the Xbox live marketplace. Xbox 360 is not only a great gaming system, but will also let you watch TV content. With a 360 you can buy shows from the marketplace, get free episodes of select shows, and stream videos from your computer! Xbox 360 will work with Windows PCs right out of the box. For information on streaming from a Mac, check out the eHow in the resources section.

Tips & Warnings

• The only real difference in how you'll enjoy TV with digital distribution is channel-surfing. Many of these steps require you to know what you want to watch. Having a few seasons of some new shows is like channel surfing, but will take some getting used to. Try hopping on Hulu and browsing or subscribing to some video podcasts on the iTunes store for free.

• If you're looking for news, you can subscribe to video podcasts from all the major news networks on their websites. Sites like FreeTube also offer streaming news stations.

• Watch move movies! Let's be honest, while you'd probably miss TV if it were gone you wouldn't actually miss it that much. Of the hundreds of thousands of channels out there showing 24 hour entertainment, how many truly GREAT shows exist? Maybe seven? Film is where it's at.

Resources

• Watch Netflix Instant Queue Movies on Your TV
• Stream Music and Movies from a Mac to an Xbox 360
• Get Your Mac to Automatically Download TV Episodes via Bittorrent
• Watch on Hulu
• Watch Comedy Central
• Watch ABC
• AppleTV
• Xbox 360
• Torrent Episode Downloader
• Amazon TV on Demand
• iPod to TV Cable
• Computer to TV Cable
• FreeTube