DirecTV vs. cable

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

I'm starting to get closer than ever to stereotypical modern white guy in regards to my TV habits. I remember back in college there was a girl in my class who told me about how she hardly if ever watched TV any more and I couldn't fathom the idea.

These days, granted I'm spending a significant amount of time looking at a screen of some sort, but its rarely that of a traditional TV broadcast. Heck a year or two ago I switched from NHL Center Ice (NHL cable package) to Hockey Streams Online (which at least compared to the streaming NHL Gamecenter service was cheaper and better quality [60 fps vs 30 fps]).

For NFL games I'm usually "pirating" streams, mainly for Skins games. For almost any other sport streaming would be unbearable due to the usually no better than 240p quality and 30 fps but for the most part, as long as you're not 'breaking down film', football is more then bearable at lower qualities due to the fact that its not too hard to follow and slow moving enough while being accompanied by numerous replays and commentary.

Also as of last year I got the Mohu leaf HD TV antenna on Amazon for $40 where I couldn't believe the difference in quality over my Comcast HD. Granted I only had the traditional rabbit ear channels but for NFL football you're usually fine as you have Fox, CBS, and NBC.

Heck even with ESPN Monday Night Football I started using the X-Box 360 app instead of my cable box. Granted theres a few games on NFL Network where I turn to my cable box but even the Draft is streamed directly from NFL.com these days.

Anyway the point is times are a changing. Lets just hope that the cable lobbyist don't mess it up for the rest of us.

I long for the day when we can sit back and laugh about the times when we had to go through a cable or satellite company to watch all of our favorite programming - especially football games. I'll admit that I absolutely LOVE watching football in HD - but like you, if I had to go the stream route, I could handle it. The only thing is, I often don't get home in time to watch the early game, so I have it recording on the DVR. If there could be a delayed stream on live games where you could start from the beginning (and maybe there is?) then I'd be OK with that!