The experiment continues

As you can probably see, I added Google AdSense to this page. I will never ever post anything about anything that has to do with my last post, because the ads that are showing up are absolutely horrible and I don't like them here. Sorry for that... but if you see something you think is interesting in one of the ads, click on it. I think somehow I get paid per click somehow. I don't really know how it works, but if Google sent me a check for 5 bucks once every six months that would be fine.

When I moved out here I was beginning an experiment of sorts. Take someone who is completely addicted and obsessed with Television, and put him in an environment where he has no cable. This is the first time since I was at Sarah Lawrence that I have been without cable... and it's kinda frightening. The experiment is not to see how quickly I will kill someone or become a drug addict, the experiment is to see how I will get my Recommended Daily Value of media, not that it doesn't all come to me from Cox, Comcast, or Time Warner.

1. Netflix: I'm a new subscriber to Netflix. I used to have Blockbuster Online, and I loved it. I could take the movies I got in the mail back to the store and get free rentals, I was never without a movie. Then one day I noticed that every time I added something to my cue... Blockbuster told me they were adding it to my Facebook profile, without ever asking me. That's fucked up. Maybe I don't want everyone on my Facebook profile to know that I just added "Can't Hardly Wait" , "Bring It On" , and "Bring It On Again" to my cue. They could have at least made me opt in. So I cancelled that out of sheer frustration and signed up for Netflix. The selection and user experience of Netflix is about 1,000 times better than Blockbuster. I actually enjoyed the process of signing up, rating movies, and then loading up my cue. It really was an awesome user experience. I've gotten pretty good at getting one movie back out the door at the latest the next day, so with some easy trips to the mailbox I'm pretty much never without a movie this way either. Netflix also lets you watch movies instantly on the web... which is pretty neat, but the selection really sucks. There are only about 4 movies in my queue that I would have any interest in watching. The quality sucks too... not quite as much as the selection, but I'm still not impressed. This is definitely the, I'm REALLY bored on a sunday night option.

2. Hulu: I'm relatively impressed with Hulu, NBC and FOX's entry into the online TV watching ring. The selection is pretty good if you like shows on Fox and NBC... but the writers strike has really made it difficult. They put shows up usually the day after they air, but with so few new shows airing, there's really not much new content. Sure, if I wanted to watch Who's The Boss and Air Wolf, I'd be set. The quality is not bad and looks pretty good scaled up on my 26" Vizio.

3. ABC: I just tonight discovered that ABC seems to have a pretty good online option. They have the entire catalog of Lost seasons up for viewing in "HD." I really don't know what this means, but they do definitely look better than an standard 720 x 480 video clip. I don't think my internet is fast enough here for them to stream in full HD (1280x720 is what I think they are calling their brand of HD) but it does still look better than Hulu. I know that this will probably keep from buying new ABC shows on iTunes. Unless of course I start having streaming issues.

4. iTunes: The old standby is still the best option here. So far there is definitely no option here for getting "premium" content that looks this good. I really am genuinely impressed with how good these shows look scaled up on my LCD TV. The new ability to rent movies is pretty fantastic too. I rented "Raising Arizona" last night and was very pleased with the quality. I have rented but not yet watched "The Day After Tomorrow." It will be very interesting to see if the quality still holds up on a huge blockbuster VFX film. I don't really need to see a movie like "Raising Arizona" on a big screen at exceptional quality, but a movie with explosions and the world freezing may not hold up as well.

5. Joost: Crap! It was a nice try and I think they are trying to make a go at it with CBS as a content partner, but for some reason the way that just seems to completely hijack my computer when I am using is bothers me. I like the idea of a net app that doesn't live in a web browser, but I don't like the way that Joost is implemented, and it just doesn't work often enough.

6. Miro: This may be the most promising option at the moment for "non-premium" content, and definitely the place to go to wow people with the quality of HD programming. I know that pretty much everything that I can get with Miro I could also get with iTunes... but I just like the way that Miro handles video podcasts more.

So I guess that those are all of my options laid out before you. I think that I'm gonna make it work. Really, what major network TV am I missing here. I guess CBS really doesn't factor much into this mix, but there's nothing on CBS that I am so addicted to that I am going to fall apart not being able to watch it. I pretty much made myself hate CSI in all it's flavors. It's become more common in syndication than Law and Order. I think that's a new term, a show has been "Law and Ordered" when it is in syndication on so many networks that you can find it on the air at least 16 hours out of the day.
It is pretty incredible that there are so many options out there for getting media. The only thing that I don't have available to me at the moment is an Apple TV, which I really don't think is that necessary. I would love to be able to rent movies in HD from iTunes, and I would love to be able to do all with with one tiny little remote, but I don't know if that is worth $300 to me.
I will keep updating the progress of this experiment and if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please post them in the comments.
OUT

Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions for a really small wireless keyboard and mouse combo for the mac, I would appreciate it. Something like that new logitech keyboard... but I don't think you can use that on a mac.