My wife and I just traded in our cable subscription ($65/month) for Netflix ($12/month) + XBox 360 for tv streaming ($299) and let's face it, XBox 360 duties as well. Streaming from a USB hard drive (already owned). Plus Christmas gifts basically covered the XBox.
One month in, no regrets.
I don't think the video industry is "dead", but it sure is in for an upheaval.
Netflix's streaming library is "meh", but if you have Netflix streaming be sure to poke into the "Starz" library; they seem to have to keep it visually separate for legal reasons and it has a surprising amount of moderately good/recent stuff in it. If you see reviews from before the Starz edition, it's certainly gotten less meh since then.
I would characterize the Netflix streaming library as: If you have a specific video in mind and you want to know if it can be streamed, the answer is "no". If you want to stream a video and you wonder if there's something good worth streaming, the answer is "yes". That's actually progress, all things considered.
Now, if either Netflix or Microsoft (XBox 360) cut a deal with Hulu, I'm set. And I expect the odds of at least one of those occurring in six months to be better than 50/50.
I have the Apple TV and have cancelled cable as well. Greatest thing about Apple TV is that my wife and her sister - neither of whom have any patience for futzing around with AV or computer equipment - can easily figure everything out and happily watch TV/movies whenever they want. Also, LOVE watching podcasts on a normal TV and being able to control music playback in the living room via my phone. Video podcasts have replaced the time I used to spend randomly flipping through channels.
I think the only thing that's really missing from my current experience is an easy way to stream live video to my Apple TV (without breaking the simple interface). It was a bit of an issue during the election. I would have paid to have had access to a CNN or some other news channel other than one of the broadcast networks, though PBS served us reasonably well.
One month in, no regrets.
I don't think the video industry is "dead", but it sure is in for an upheaval.
Netflix's streaming library is "meh", but if you have Netflix streaming be sure to poke into the "Starz" library; they seem to have to keep it visually separate for legal reasons and it has a surprising amount of moderately good/recent stuff in it. If you see reviews from before the Starz edition, it's certainly gotten less meh since then.
I would characterize the Netflix streaming library as: If you have a specific video in mind and you want to know if it can be streamed, the answer is "no". If you want to stream a video and you wonder if there's something good worth streaming, the answer is "yes". That's actually progress, all things considered.
Now, if either Netflix or Microsoft (XBox 360) cut a deal with Hulu, I'm set. And I expect the odds of at least one of those occurring in six months to be better than 50/50.