I broke down yesterday and became decadent.
I finally got HBO.
I couldn’t get HBO in my old apartment, because my cable TV was part of my apartment and not changeable. Last month we signed up for cable service in the new place, but I didn’t want to get any premium channels because of my preconceived notions of how expensive it would be. That, and I felt guilty spending money on something that would just encourage more laziness.
But the other day I decided, screw it. I’m tired of feeling out of the loop when my family talks about “The Sopranos” or my brother talks about “Entourage” or the blogs talk about the final episode of “Six Feet Under.” When the next good show comes along, I can take part in the conversation. Since my rent-free status is really a function of living with Matt, we decided that I would pay for cable, so it was my decision to make.
So I ordered HBO yesterday after work and it was even cheaper than I’d thought – $7.95/month for six digital HBO channels. (Well, seven, but I don’t speak Spanish.) Not three minutes after I ordered it, the channels were on my TV. I left a note for Matt before leaving for my fiction-writing class, and when I got back and checked the TiVo, I saw that Matt – who had been indifferent to HBO – had already added a movie and three programs to the “To Do” list. Then I added a few of my own.
What this means is that I’m going to have to buy an extra hard drive for my TiVo. I have a 40-hour machine, but I don’t like recording things at the lowest quality, so I really only have about 25 hours of recording space. You non-DVR-owners might think that’s a ton of space, but it’s really not.
Now, if only HBO showed movies in letterbox format.
Anyway, if I start to look like a potato, you’ll let me know, right?
You don’t pay rent anymore, but you were worried about the cost of 1 premium channel? Jeff, Jeff — live a little!
You’re lucky. My cable (AOL/Time-Warner) monopoly provides HBO only as an add-on option to the “deluxe” tier that costs $35 per month on top of the $20 “basic” tier.
They’re doing an excellent job of exploiting legislation that Congress passed some years ago in response to too many complaints about cable gouging. Congress mandated a semi-regulated “basic” tier, but left the monopolies free to do whatever they want beyond that. The result was higher total cable costs (and profits), plus 535 Congresscritters who could tell their non-donor constituents that they respond to complaints. It’s a winning deal for everyone but the consumer, which is the whole point of the Deregulation Religion.
I (and my co-worker from whom I learned this trick) switch back and forth between HBO and Showtime twice a year. You get HBO during their show season, and Showtime during the non-show season. This means you get both Six Feet Under and decent movies to watch. Most providers will let you switch packages on their web sites, even!
Welcome to the age of the glass teat. ;-)
That potato look sneaks up on you, I promise. One day, a week or so after getting TiVo, I looked in the mirror and suddenly wondered which nose and ear set I should stick into my face.