Category: Videos
Illness-Related Blog Draught
I’ve been going through a bit of a blogging drought lately and it’s all JSL’s fault. You see, he’s been sick recently. 101 fevers and screaming that his hair/head/ears hurt. It makes it hard to blog when you’re worried about your little one. And if he’s bunking in your bed, waking you up every so many hours, well the exhaustion that sets in doesn’t help.
Luckily, though, JSL has had some happy moments in between sickly complaining. For example, last night I was sitting in bed trying to get him to sleep. JSL saw my Twitter Feed and saw a tweet from ThinkGeek. Since ThinkGeek’s mascot (and Twitter icon) is Timmy the Monkey, JSL shouted "Da Da, look! Ooh ooh ahh ahh on Da Da’s computer!" I told him that was ThinkGeek and we got him to say it. I neglected to get it on video, but I just rectified this mistake.
[flv]/2010/03/0304001417_ThinkGeek.flv|320|240[/flv]
Yes, he’s my little Geek-In-Training! And hopefully, JSL-Geek-In-Training will get better soon. Meanwhile, I’ll work on posts bit by bit. They’ll just come out slower than I’d hoped.
JSL To Join Laurie Berkner On Tour
Ok, just kidding. JSL’s not really going to join Laurie Berkner. He does, however, seem intent on practicing just in case Laurie stops by asking him to join the band. Hey, it could happen. 
Meanwhile, he’ll just keep jamming and singing.
[flv]/2009/12/P1220415.flv|424|240[/flv]
In case you’re wondering, that’s the My Family video by Laurie Berkner in the background playing on Nick Jr. I tried turning the volume down so JSL’s singing would come through better, but JSL complained that he couldn’t hear. This was also taken at about 8pm so JSL was fighting off sleep by rocking out with Laurie Berkner music.
Netflix, Roku and Cut Cable, Oh My!, Part 4
It Slices! It Dices! It Cuts Cable Cords In Two!!!
Thanks to the one two punch of Netflix Online and Roku, I’m pretty confident that my kids would survive a cut cable cord without too much screaming. So where does this leave cable in our household?
For now, it hasn’t been cut, but don’t confuse being uncut with being safe. We’re currently looking into many options ranging from cutting to going with an alternative service like DirecTV. (Any DirecTV reps out there who want a technologically savvy daddy blogger to do a review on your service? )
My original conclusion, meanwhile, has been revised. Previously, I determined that we would save about $15 per month if we cut cable. However, I soon realized that that relied on two erroneous assumptions.
The first was that we would buy $15 in DVDs every month. We really don’t buy many DVD movies because we tend to watch them once or twice and then add them to the stack. Kids movies get a bit more play, but there’s only so many times you can let your child watch a show before you go insane. Now, we tend to rent our DVDs via Netflix or our local library. DVD purchases happen pretty much only if a deal is extremely good or for a Chanukah or Birthday present. Our total DVD purchase budget is probably closer to $30 per year than $15 per month. This increases the Cut Cable savings to $27.50 per month.
The second assumption was that we would frequent Amazon VOD. Apart from having Mythbusters episodes, I just can’t see spending a lot of money on this service when I get essentially the same thing "for free" with my paid for Netflix subscription. (Yeah, I know Netflix isn’t free, but you know what I mean. I don’t have to pay $1.99 just to see another episode of Heroes. It’s right there.)
The only thing I might pay for is the aforementioned Mythbusters. (TechyDad want big boom!) At $1.99 per episode and an average of 25 episodes per season, I’d only be paying about $24, or $2 per month, for this Amazon VOD. This is far short of the $26 a month I initially assumed and raises the Cut Cable savings to $51.50 a month.
I’ve also re-thought my setup. I don’t need to invest in a media streaming setup. I just need to manage our existing DVDs better. So I’ve used EMDB to catalog all of my DVDs. I plan on making a list out of it and laminating it for the kids to refer to. This way they’ll be able to point to an item on the list and have B or I put it in rather than wondering just what we have to watch.
The only tripping point at the moment is how we would hook our existing TVs up to receive over the air broadcasts (do we need to buy any equipment for this?) and what DVR to buy to replace our cable company issued one. TiVo is a possibility, of course, but the monthly fee ($129 per year) would eat into our Cut Cable savings. Still, even after TiVo, we would have over $40 left per month in savings. The first six months of savings would pay off the purchase price of TiVo. After that (and possibly a few months paying off equipment to receive digital OTA signals), we’d be in pure savings mode.
Alternatively, we could switch from Time Warner Cable to DirecTV. The one year locked in rate would save us $28 per month over cable. Either way, money talks, especially in this economy. Unless things radically change, I don’t think our current cable connection has much of a life left in our household.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary 3 month preview of Netflix for review purposes. However, after my preview period, I intend to remain on as a paying Netflix member. As stated, I won the Roku box during an online giveaway. The reviews expressed above are my own and were not altered in any way by Netflix, Roku or anyone else.
Netflix, Roku and Cut Cable, Oh My!, Part 3
Heeeere’s Roku!
When we last left our intrepid Cable Cutting hero, he was talking about Netflix streaming devices. There are many of these on the market, to be sure, but my favorite is the Roku box. This small box, and I’m talking palm of your hand small, will easily fit into any home theater arrangement. It is easy to set up, navigate and has plenty of content available on it.
Once your Netflix Instant Queue is set up, the titles appear nearly instantly on your Roku box. If your title includes multiple episodes, say because you’re watching The Addams Family, you can jump to a specific episode easily . Fast forwarding and rewinding, though inexact, are simple to master. Simple enough, in fact, that my 6 year old figured it out quickly and now is not to be trusted near the remote. Not because he’s going to mess something up, but because he *will* fast forward/rewind/change the video when I just want to watch what’s playing. In fact, all of the controls are easy to master. If I hand NHL the remote, I can be certain that he will find a show that he wants to watch and will be able to play it with no problem.
The only problem we ran into was constant wireless network connection losses. However, considering I’ve been experiencing these on my laptop as well, I think this is more of a problem with my network (more specifically, my router) than with Roku/Netflix. Even when the network is acting funky, though, reconnecting is as easy as clicking "OK" a few times. Assuming that the network cooperates, that is, but you can hardly fault Roku or Netflix for not being able to connect to a trouble-making router!
Since introducing them to the Roku, my children’s viewing habits have changed. Whereas before their "default" choice was Noggin, The Disney Channel or possibly PBS Kids, they have rapidly made Roku one of their favorite choices. Why, after all, bother with waiting until their favorite show is on when you can just click and play. JSL has learned to ask for "Wiggle Roku" for his favorite Wiggles videos or "Bobby He Can Build It Roku" (Bob the Builder on Roku) and NHL has found enjoyment in some of my old favorites: Inspector Gadget, Super Mario Brothers and The Pink Panther.
Previously, I had mentioned how Netflix wasn’t resting on their laurels. Well, Roku isn’t either. While Netflix on Roku might be enough to justify the $80 – $130 price tag (depending on which Roku box you buy), Roku also offers access to Amazon Video on Demand, which has some great movies and TV shows, and Major League baseball.
Those offerings require extra purchases, however. Amazon VOD requires you to pay for each video while MLB insists on a yearly subscription fee. To increase the value of your Roku box, they are branching out to other content providers, most of which will be free for all. Their Channel Guide allows you to customize your channel listing to include Motionbox, Mediafly, blip.tv, twit.tv, Facebook Photos, Revision3, Frame Channel, Flickr and Pandora. These options just came out, so I haven’t explored them fully. Still, I got a taste for how much more content they have just made available via Roku and I like it. Clearly, Roku is trying to position itself as the go-to box for streamed media content.
Coming up next, will the cable cord survive being cut?
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary 3 month preview of Netflix for review purposes. However, after my preview period, I intend to remain on as a paying Netflix member. As stated, I won the Roku box during an online giveaway. The reviews expressed above are my own and were not altered in any way by Netflix, Roku or anyone else.