Wayne Manor Cost Cutting

Hard times have fallen upon stately Wayne Manor. We have decided to start cutting out some of the services that are no longer required. One such service is TiVo. I will be sad to see TiVo go, but truthfully we do not use the DVR all that much these days. In fact, I often find myself only browsing to TiVo to clean out shows that it has recorded but I won’t bother watching. I think it all started about two years ago when we got our new TV and some HD channels. Since the TiVo was only a series 2, it was not HD, so we just stopped watching television through the TiVo and as a result we really won’t miss having it around.

We also have a DVD player/burner that really only serves those two purposes. So, two devices, two distinct remotes, and a price tag of $29.94 a month ($12.95 for TiVo, $16.99 for Netflix). Right there is almost $360 saved in the coming year. But for someone who likes movies, what will I do? Sure, I could go with the TiVo Series 3 HD receiver, but that would cost $300 and I would still have to pay for the TiVo service, a service that offers a lot of functionality that I just do not use.

So, time to make a switch. While at the MTC in Waltham recently I came across a fact that seemed to be well known to everyone in the Universe. The xbox 360 will connect to a service call xbox Live (roughly $50 a year, far less than the $156 a year I pay TiVo), and that service will let me connect to Netflix, which means I can stream my movies from Netflix on demand. What’s more is that I can reduce my Netflix subscription to only $8.99 a month, saving another $96 on the year. I can ditch the TiVo, the DVD player, and my PS2 all at once, freeing up a bunch of space, cables, and probably saving on my electric bill.

So, last weekend I picked up the xbox 360 and managed to get everything configured correctly before the end of the evening. I can stream my Netflix movies in HD quality, the surround sound is working perfectly, and the xbox came with two games (Kung-Fu Panda, Indiana Jones) that our children enjoy playing (or, trying to play since they are still young).

I think I am going to like not having a DVR. For some reason I always felt obligated to keep up with the shows I am currently following. No, I don’t know why, I just did. I got the TiVo just over four years ago and during that time it has become increasingly easier for me to get caught up with shows I may have missed. Going forward if I miss a show I want to feel as if it was because there was something more interesting that had my attention, and less as if I was missing out on something. Besides, if I spend less time trying to stay caught up with only a handful of shows I may have more time for writing, preparing presentations, my book on the evil Al Gore and his weather machine, and all things bacon.

1 thought on “Wayne Manor Cost Cutting”

  1. We got DVR about 6 months ago and for me it is a time saver. I don’t tend to watch TV actively, too much else going on. So I record the few shows I care about and when I get around to watching them, I can FF through the commercials.

    However, given all that, I’ve noticed I’ve started to delete a lot of programs I just never get around to watch. And I’ve got some series set to only keep 10. So our DVR may go the route of yours. We’ll see.

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