TV, Comcast, and alternatives

So I'm unhappy with my cable provider, Comcast.  My unhappiness is several fold.

It starts with price for TV service.  It's now pushing $100 per month and if I'm unwilling to sign a new 2 year agreement it's going to be over $100.  It seems the reward for being a good customer is to pay more!  Doesn't work for me.

As if price wasn't enough, Comcast recently decided to disable fast forward for some On Demand content.  The story is "the network made us do it."  Reality is a) Comcast agreed to the restriction as part of a deal to get the content for free, and b) Comcast is sending the codes to the DVR I rent from them (notice here I'm paying for the DVR and its functions) not the content provider.  Doesn't work for me.

The final straw was when I called Comcast to deal with the above issues.  After Comcast's agent explained to me that buying service from Comcast was akin to belonging to a health club, I could always quit and go elsewhere!  Outrageous from any rational service perspective.

So having been invited to quit, rimes with fire Comcast, I've begun to explore alternatives.

It turns out that there is a lot of TV content on the Internet.  Most is somewhat delayed from the original date of broadcast, but not all.  Indeed it turns out that things that I care about in a timely manner like weather and news isn't delayed at all.  I can go to NECN weather or the NWS and get weather in real time.  Likewise, I can get current news from CNN or ABC or CBS or any number of other providers.  The vast majority of TV shows we enjoy are available within a few days to a week of broadcast on either HULU or from the network.  The net of it is I don't need Comcast for TV.

So I've been experimenting with driving my TV from an old laptop who's keyboard has a couple of dead keys.  It doesn't have an HDMI output but I'm able to connect via a VGA out to my Samsung TV at compatible resolutions.  So far so good.

The keyboard is a bit of an issue so I tried an old wireless keyboard I have.  It works but eats batteries.  A bit of searching revealed an interesting YouTube video on a similar setup.

So I did a bit of research and installed TightVNC on the laptop driving the TV and Win2VNC on my laptop.  Presto, I can use my laptop's keyboard and mouse from the comfort of the couch to control the TV laptop.

Next step is to really see what it's like without cable TV.  I'll signup for the free week of HULU premium and the other services we might use and see what it's like.