“Like electricity and hot water, pay TV has become a vital source of comfort in my home. But unlike the basic utilities, pay TV has become incredibly expensive. So while it’ll take a radical change in how I consume media, pay TV has got to go,” Roberto Baldwin reports for Wired. “Pay TV puts hundreds, if not thousands, of channels at the fingertips of those willing to fork over a hefty sum for its warm glow. Entertainment is available on every channel (if you don’t count MTV) and it never sleeps. But, the nonstop onslaught of reality shows, nature documentaries and AMC Originals comes at a price I’ve decided I’m unwilling to pay. I’m walking away and not looking back.”
“I’m paying $94 a month for basic digital cable. $94 a month for something I’ve been supplementing with streaming services because I’ve realized I only watching a few shows on a few channels. The rest is just noise,” Baldwin reports. “That noise has pushed me to the Apple TV… But, I’m also a big fan of Breaking Bad and saving money. Both are in direct conflict with one another. Currently, I could only keep up with the best show on television if I continued to suckle at the Comcast teat. Sure, AMC offers full episodes on AMC.com a few days after the show airs, but convincing my wife to huddle around a computer to watch a show when we have a 56-inch TV in the living room was a tough sell. Luckily, something big happened in Appleland that changed all that.”
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Baldwin reports, “With Mountain Lion’s new AirPlay mirroring to Apple TV, I can watch anything that’s on the internet, including Breaking Bad, on my HDTV with the push of a button… As long as the system works to force consumers to pay for channels they don’t want, I’ll be streaming my content and watching over-the-air HD of the big four networks. It won’t always look as pristine as HD cable, but that extra $94 in my pockets every month, I think I’ll be OK with a few pixels.”
Read more in the full article here.
It’s still not perfect….no Amazon Prime Instant Video (no mirroring)…..
appletv needs the internet connection – wirelessly
it works well
rent or buy and broadcast from your computer to the appletv is also beautiful
rentals is SOMETHING APPLE needs to PUSH harder as this is UNIQUE to the competition and requires TO ADVERTISE the benefit…
an iTOUCH does not need the CONSTANT wifi CONNECTION to watch a rental LATER in the long drive to the cottage
it is USEFUL too
I have a 2 year old MacBook Pro so AirPlay doesn’t work. Lucky I found Airparrot which is even better and more inclusive. I’m still with Comcast but not for much longer.
Where did you find Airparrot? I did not find it when I searched the internet? Thanks!!!!!
I always find it humorous to see these “cut the cable” style of articles that fail to mention the obvious: there’s millions of consumers within ~30 miles of urban centers that still have “OTA” (over the air) TV available for $0/month … all it takes is to slap an antenna on your roof.
-hh
I’m one of them. Always funny how shocked people are when they come over, and can’t understand how I get a high def picture with an OTA antenna.
I have had the same experience. When I called my cable company to cancel the operator could not understand how I could watch television without cable.
Been Comcast free for a couple of years now. I have a direct connection to our big screen from an antenna on the roof and stream over our Airport Extreme from my old G5 tower where I have EyeTV running as my DVR. I get 20 HD channels plus the internet (e.g. ESPN3). Add in Netflix on our Wii and we are pretty well covered for $8 a month (to Netflix).
You don’t even need AirPlay mirroring – just order up from iTunes Store via your Apple TV.
Sure, if you want to pay to download it.
Otherwise, with AirPlay, it’s 100% free.
I cut the cord 2 years ago. I have my OTA to watch local news and NFL games but most of the stuff we watch is via the internet. I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my HDTV (I have the first model with an HDMI port) and it is great. The mini cost me $700 which is much less than the $2600 I would have spent on cable in that time. We also find that we watch less TV as we only watch what we really want to watch.
Ah AirPlay Mirroring, a really nice feature… which… would have been nice if it worked for all OS X 10.8 compatible Macs as many (even recent Mac buyers) were falsely led to believe. Thank you Apple for swindling $20 from a fairly significant portion of your users in exchange for Messages, Notes, and Reminders apps while also cutting other corners to “simplify” OS X.