We have finally decided to dump our CableCo and try a combination of less television and getting what television we'd like to continue watching through another source, namely the Internet.

It hasn't been without its difficulties or concerns. We haven't quite made the leap, still using the CableCo for most of our television time. Some of that has to do with convenience, some with comfort, and, alas, some with content.

Connections and Devices

One of the difficulties has to do with our equipment and the way the video gear is wired together. While huge, our television has only one HDMI input. We've connected several devices through a Yamaha A/V receiver that acceepts up to three HDIM inputs, as well as others. Further, we use a Logitech universal remote to try to control all of the equipment at once.

For ease, I figured when we cut the CableCo box out of the equation, I'll plug the Roku in its place to keep the equipment experience mostly the same. The idea is to try as much as possible to replace the content selection and delivery from CableCo equipment to the Roku without too much monkeying about with wiring, remote programming, or furniture.

One small failing to this is that the Roku seems to use an RF remote, instead of an IR signal. Our universal remote does only RF, so it cannot control the Roku via the RF (nor can it control the PS3 via Bluetooth). Neither does the Roku remote do IR, so there's no way to have it control at least or even just the television. This means that we'll have multiple remotes to control the Roku for content and the television or receiver for volume. This is a small adjustment as we have been doing this when using the PS3 for watching movies, which will probably happen less now that the Roku is here and has the same capabilities (and is silent while doing so).

Another seems to be that the Roku can either do the composite or HDMI as part of its configuration, not something it can select at use-time. This I infer from the set-up of the Roku box and its installation poster. I've yet to test it. The CableCo box has both HDMI and component (as well as composite, S-video, and coax), and would work with either as the equipment allowed. This meant we could just go with television and CableCo box via component cables for simple watching, or through HDMI via the Yamaha for 5.1 surround-sound. Both offered 1080 HD video, too. It'd be nice to be able to use just the television for simple viewing, but have the option of using the HDMI for deeper audio experiences. It's a bit overkill to have the surround-sound on for simple time-wasting viewing, but small sacrifice.

Channel-Surfing

One thing we've recognized as a huge paradigm shift is channel-surfing. For those occasions when you're trapping yourself in front of the tube, but have no particular objective, it's handy to just flip around until something catches your eye. Of course, we can browse show "channels" on Hulu or whatever using the Roku, but nothing is "on" to catch your eye. We're seeing this as a plus, as the television is too often a time-suck and is probably taking too much away from other things by allowing such aimless viewing.

Time-Shifting

This is something that the CableCo did adequately, and then abysmally. Since the days of VCR, we've been "record when it's on and watch at our convenience" kind of people. Our CableCo boxes have had built-in DVRs for many years. Earlier this year, they made a change to the interface and other software, and now it totally sucks.

In addition to channel-surfing by changing channels was the ability to surf through the pop-up guide. One of the recent changes broke the way the navigation buttons work by turning them into show-control buttons. Now if you hit the "guide up" button, instead of showing the guide and scrolling up a line, it pauses the show. Likewise, instead of hitting the "guide down" button, instead of showing the guide and scrolling down a line, it flips to "live" mode, which jumps past any pausing you may have previously experienced,or does nothing if already live. Further, hitting the "guide" button to pop-up the guide without skipping a line now shows the description of the show and not the guide at all.

Another flaw they introduced has to do with interrutped programming. For whatever reason, it would happen that a recording would stop before the show was completed. Previously this was only annoying as there would be another recording for the remainder of the show (or until the next interruption). Now when a recording is interrupted, there is no attempt to collect the rest of the show. This was actually the impetus for jumping off CableCo boxes; it's frustrating to get into a show only to find you haven't got the conclusion. The rearranging of the information provided doesn't make it apparent before you start watching, either.

With the Roku, of course, nearly everything is time-shifted already. Most shows aren't available until some time after they've aired. This suits us just fine, as we dreaded watching most shows live as you can't skip the commercials; this often led to channel-surfing to avoid commercials. Additionally, shows are available in their entierty (unless you seek only the clips).

Of course, this isn't perfect, either.

Commercial Interruptions

The just-mentioned commercials are in a lot of the shows on Roku. The big provider on Roku for television content is Hulu Plus; an important distinction is made from the otherwise on-line Hulu service, discussed in a moment. The commercial interruptions in Hulu shows is pretty brief, especially by comparison to CableCo or regular television broadcast content. Generally the shows are broken at the same place as they were when broadcast, and then a short commercial or two is shown.

Understandably, you can't fast-forward over the commercials. Almost annoyingly, though, you can't pause them, either. With just one or two commercials, the "leave the television for whatever purpose" break during the commercials isn't possible. Thankfully, you can still pause (or rewind) the show content.

Sports

One of the few things we watch live, or nearly live is sports. Sometimes we'd time-shift, if we were going to be gone. Or if we wanted to avoid commercials. Go ahead; pause your sports broadcast for about 15-20 minutes, and then you can skip ahead through most of the commercial breaks and won't catch up until near the end of the event.

We have the ability to catch many of the games on broadcast television, but not all of them. Between "blackouts" and a move from broadcast to cable, not all games are broadcast. For example, most Twins games are on Fox Sports North, a cable channel; MLB does offer a live feed on Roku, for less than a month's worth of cable, but I'm wary as the only team subject to blackout rules in my area is the team I'd want to watch. Most of the Vikings games are broadcast. Since we're season ticket owners, we've been able to go to the home games in the past, but with the two-foot tall addition to the family, we're not going to the stadium this year (or maybe even next...), so we'll need to catch those games somehow. There are various highlight solutions, for example the recently announced NFL Ticket service is available on PS3 (which we still have, and can use where the Roku falls short), but we want to watch the games, when we want to watch the games.

Our televison is older than the new ASTC digital tuners that now come in televisions. While up and coming when we bought our jumbo-size tube, since we were happy CableCo customers, it wasn't a concern what kind of tuner was in there. A small box, and we're good to go, bringing us a dozen live channels, most in HD, too. No time-shifting, though, unless we want to drop a couple hundred bucks on a box, or get into a software solution like MythTV.

Missing Content

In addition to the potential missed sports events, a number of television shows we like to watch aren't available on the Hulu Plus service. Hulu is a service available on PCs that delivers television, movie, and other video content through the web browser. Some of the content is merely listed on Hulu, and then you visit the content provider's website from a link Hulu has in their guide. For example, if you want to watch The Big Bang Theory, you can find the show listed on Hulu, but are then directed to CBS.com for their list of available videos.

Some of those shows are available after the end of the season, either on Hulu Plus or Netflix or one of the other services Roku can use. This doesn't help us keep "current" with our television-based meme, so we'll fall aside in some conversations. That might not be all bad, either.

Expectations After CableCo

Some of this changed and missing content will simply realign our video viewing. With different choices come different decisions. What shows to watch is a pretty trivial decision, in the grander scheme of life. I mean, I went for a few years without a television, and frankly didn't miss it at all. That was before Internet video was anything close to what it is now; when the Internet was measured in kilobits, and downloads were measured in hours.

I hope that we'll adjust into a different kind of schedule, perhaps with a bit less of the electron show. We've already come to enjoy Monday night television on Tuesday nights, or at least starting an hour later on Monday night, so that shouldn't change much. We like some of the shows on our 500 channels of CableCo-provided content, but really only a dozen or so. Of that dozen or so, only a few are missing from Roku's services. Of those few, only one stands out as one I'll really miss (AMC's The Walking Dead). Perhaps we'll reduce our television viewing to just those handful of shows we like. Of course, there are a lot of different shows that conflicted or didn't pique our interest, or are from different providers than we had before, so there's a lot of "new to us" content out there that will no doubt draw our attention.

I expect that as time continues, either more agreements with content providers and existing services, or more services or new agreements will allow more of the content I'll want, when I want it.

Isn't that the promise of Internet television, after all?