Goodbye DVR

Adam and I have been talking for a long time about cutting down on cable. We don't watch sports and rarely have time to watch movies. Frankly, most of the shows that I watch are major network shows and would be picked up by an antenna. And Adam just doesn't care that much about TV. The main reason that we didn't do it sooner was our DVR. Oh, our beloved DVR.

Our relationship with the DVR started right before the twins were born. We splurged; we recognized that it was a chunk of our budget, but we were just so tempted by how cool it was, how easy, how "now." And indeed, it was all of those things. It made watching TV so convenient, especially when we had twinfants and were home so much. We stopped watching things when they aired or even knowing when things were really on. (Except The Biggest Loser - that is one show that we watched on Tuesday nights. But we fast forwarded through a LOT of it, which is what made the show actually good. At this point, we have let go of that show altogether.)

As time has gone on, we have become accustomed to life with our DVR. But the cost continued to plague us. We were paying for so many channels that we never watched. And our awareness of other options for TV-viewing was growing. Netflix streaming, Hulu, network websites... to name a few. Momentum was keeping us attached to our DVR. Momentum and ease.

Finally we made the call. I was taken aback when the AT&T person said, "Do you want this effective today?" I stumbled, "uh, uh....I guess so" searching frantically for reasons to hold on. But no, let's rip this band-aid right off. "Yes, effective today." As soon as we hung up, I quickly turned on the TV and starting jotting down the things in our queue. As I was doing so, a message came on: "Your service has been discontinued, the system will restart in 30 seconds."

NOOOOOOOO!!!

But, yes. I think it was a good call, and now, two days later, I'm realizing: It's not that big of a deal. We're not really missing anything. Adam and I signed up for Netflix streaming through our Wii. We both will sign up for Hulu accounts (not Hulu Plus at this point.) We'll see how it goes. It will be an adjustment, but in the end probably almost as easy. And a whole lot cheaper.