I can't stand watching tv anymore. There's nothing good on, and if I happen to find something half-asses entertaining, it will be interrupted in minutes by one of those pandering, soft selling, brain dead corporate propaganda films known as commercials. I also hate having to plan my life around the local Fox affiliate's neurotic scheduling department. Fortunately, I don't have to put up with it. I have discovered a way to watch just the shows I want when I want without commercials and in HD if I want. Here's how I did it.
For me, the decision to stop watching TV was easy. I couldn't afford it. I had no tv, and no cable and couldn't afford either. I did however have a computer with a 19" monitor and fast Internet access. I also had a good sized DVD collection.
One day, I was watching a DVD of Firefly and realized that it looked much clearer on my computer than it did on my roommate's tv. I did a little research and realized that most computer monitors are capable of displaying HD quality video! This DVD was not HD by aany means, but it still looked far better on my high resolution computer screen than on any regular TV. From this point on, I never watched anything on a regular TV again if I could help it.
A couple of years later, a technology called Bittorrent started to become popular. Bittorrent allows one person with a relatively slow consumer Internet connection to share large files easily by splittin up the load among everyone downloading. In addition, once at least one person has downloaded a complete copy, it is no longer necessary for the original uploader to stay connected. This technology, combined with websites that link to 1000's of .torrents (Bittorrent pointer files) makes it possible to download almost anything quickly, as long as it's popular enough.
Now, I can download any TV show I want hours after it's first broadcast. I can watch it whenever I want to in HD with NO commercials. Here's the secret formula:
1. Bittorrent Software
I like Vuze (http://www.vuze.com/app) but it is a little complicated. There is also uTorrent (pronounced 'micro-torrent' - http://utorrent.com/) which is much simpler. There are others, but these are the best two.
2. Torrent Source
You can get .torrent files from all over. There are sites that index thousands of torrents like http://torrentreactor.to or http://piratebay.org. There are also specialty sites like Eztv (http://www.eztv.it) which lists all popular TV shows as soon as they are available on the Internet and ISO Hunt (http://www.isohunt.com) which focuses on software and CDs. You can also find torrent links on random web sites, or get them from friends.
3. Ditch your cable subscription
Now you can get rid of that expensive cable bill. If you have Internet through your cable company, you can usually drop the TV subscription and pay for just the Internet.
One other cool advantage is that with Vuze and several other Torrent programs (Miro comes to mind - http://www.getmiro.com/) act like Internet TV program guides. They give you access to the best Internet based shows (and the crap ones). Just subscribe to the shows you like and you will get the newest copy as soon as it's available. You can even watch the video in the software. I don't like Internet TV as much as 'real' TV, but some of it is really good.
That's all there is too it. Now you can watch your favorite shows whenever you want, in HD with no commercials.