And hello to a savings of $600 that will now be in my pocket every year. Yup, as of this morning, I am cable TV’less.

Why did I do it? Well, besides the aforementioned monetary gains, I finally got sick of paying for dozens if not hundreds of channels that I never watched.  When I sat down and actually analyzed my viewing habits I discovered there are only a few programs that I actually want to watch and all the rest is pretty much useless as far as I’m concerned. Once I made this realization it was just a matter of figuring out how to keep watching what I wanted to watch and then severing my cable TV umbilical.

Here’s how I did it. I bought an HDTV antenna from Amazon so I could pick up network broadcasts such as NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, and FOX for free. The antenna cost basically the same amount as one month of cable service but it’s a one time cost. That solution takes care of any broadcast shows such as 30 Rock, The Office, Antiques Roadshow, and NOVA that I want to watch. And did I mention they’re all FREE? This site will help you decide if an HD antenna will work for you and let you know what channels you’re likely to pick up.

The next step is more complicated but the short answer is that I connected my Macbook to my TV using a device like this. That adapter takes care of the video signal but you have to run a separate cable from the headphone port for the audio. Now a whole world of TV options become available.  For starters, I’m a Netflix member so I have access to thousands of DVD’s available to watch instantly. Having done so, I can vouch that the image quality and sound are excellent!

I can also do things like watch Hulu or YouTube for free. There are also several media players such as Miro and Boxee that give you access to lots of free content. That covers most of the free TV picture in the “legal” realm of the internet. For those of you not averse to a little copyright infringement, there are literally tens of thousands of torrents available for pretty much anything you’d ever want to watch. I’m just sayin’.

Lastly, to control this whole mess, I use two devices and one piece of software. I can’t recommend getting a master remote control highly enough, it will make TV viewing and any other media consumption much easier. My remote of choice is the Logitech Harmony 550, which has been replaced by the Harmony 510. Yes, it’s kinda expensive but I’ve found it to be indispensable and extremely flexible meaning that it controls all my media components, HDTV, stereo, Blu-ray, PS3, etc.

So that guy turns everything on and controls the volume when I want to watch TV from my Macbook but there’s still the question of controlling the Macbook from the couch. I suppose you could just have it with you on the couch since it’s a laptop but I prefer to leave it on my desk and use the following, an iPod Touch (iPhone works too!) running the Mobile Air Mouse Pro software. This little piece of software is really amazing, basically you can do anything from it as if you were sitting at your Mac. It acts as a remote mouse and a keyboard and so much more. So say I’m watching a streaming movie from Netflix and need to pause it or perhaps switch to a different movie, I can do all that with Mobile Air Mouse Pro and not have to get up and go to my computer. It’s pretty cool.

I just realized I’ve neglected to mention iTunes as an entertainment option. It certainly has tons of TV and movies available for viewing but I think most of it costs money and the point of this project was to quit spending $50 a month for TV. Well, that’s about it. I hope I’ve given you some ideas about decreasing your entertainment costs. Here’s an article from the New York Times about a couple doing more or less the same thing that you might also find useful.

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