Cable TV -- and the box -- have had their day
We got stuck with one of those clunky old cable boxes, is just a piece of obsolete junk. You have to pay extra for everything, include "high definition". Its not worth plugging in (and it uses a ton of power if you do)(and if you turn it off it takes all day to reboot). Its easily replaced, though -- a TiVo accepts a cable card and it will run applications. Its what the FCC is proposing, its not a big deal despite the squeals from the cable companies.
Even the TiVo's now redundant, though. Television has been replaced by streaming -- if you have cable or a fiber then you've got decent Internet so you just don't need cable TV unless you're a sports fanatic and you just have to watch those games. For us the Roku does just fine -- its cheap to buy, you own it and it works.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
