Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

[mooncliff]

I used to ask a friend to videotape PBS and mail tapes to me in Japan. A box of 10 tapes used to cost $100. I threw 1,000 of them away.
DVDs and CDs used to cost quite a lot. I gave almost all of them away.
DVD rentals are quite expensive, around $5, and then you have to remember to return the disk.
I used to subscribe to a cable broadcast service for $30 a month.
I bought a $500 hard disk recorder and disk burner to record cable broadcasts. Programming the recording was a huge waste of time.

I got an AppleTV. It was $100 and works well if you install a remote control app on your touch device. Everything is on demand. The device is the size of two decks of playing cards. You need broadband, preferably with wifi, to use the AppleTV.

YouTube now has many full length movies such as Ghandi, The Sixth Sense, etc. The quality is perfectly acceptable on a big screen TV. For free. You can watch YouTube on AppleTV.

I just subscribed to Hulu Plus Japan for $12 a month on AppleTV. It is amazing. It would take me a year to watch all the things I want to watch with the programming they have already, and that programming will no doubt increase over time.

So, I no longer need to program the recorder for cable broadcasts. I dont need to buy a new recorder with a larger hard disk, which I was considering. I discontinued SkyPerfect cable broadcast, which cost twice as much as Hulu anyway.

I guesstimate this will cut my video bill by about $1,000 a year. Part of my quest to get to Star Trek world where everything except luxuries are essentially free.
The remastered Star Trek the Original Series is on Hulu Japan in high definition, so I just saved myself several hundred dollars by not buying it on BluRay, which I was looking at in the store last week.
This saving is on par with discovering Skype for me.

So far, rent down $1,500 (and I am about to ask for another $1,500 a year reduction because all the rents are falling), electricity down $800, phone bill down $2,000, taxi bill down $2,000 since a new train line opened up that is perfect for me, $1,000 down on food since I go to Costco a few times a year, really good order made suits in Japan that fit perfectly for $150, not to mention all the things I can order from US Amazon that are 1/2 the price of Japan Amazon, and now saving $1,000 a year for videos. Once I started thinking how to get what I want for less, I find more and more opportunities.
This thought process started in 2005 for me when I concluded we were going to have a depression and there would be no growth for a very long time, if ever.
So, since I couldnt earn a return on investments, could I instead invest money in things that cut future expenses?
Yes!

Have you tried a Slingbox?
I bought one to connect to my cable in Hawaii, but I didnt have time to set it up... also ran into a problem where it required a specific version of Windows to set it up, so that is something to watch out for.
The idea is you can send your cable signal to a device anywhere in the world over the Internet.
I have no idea if this works or not since I have not done it myself, but that is what the video demo says. Goggle it.
So the idea is if you could connect a sling box to cable of a friend in the US, you could watch the cable stations over the internet anywhere in the world... I think the slingbox can only send to one IP address.
Worth looking into if you are frustrated overseas since the total cost will be only the cost of the device. There is no monthly fee.

OH AND I JUST FOUND OUT HOW TO WATCH HULU ON MY IPAD. So now anywhere I go with fast enough broadband, I can see anything on Hulu I could see on my tv at home.

By the way, is it true that in the US you have to have a special set top cable box to see high def broadcasts? That is what Roadrunner seems to require. All the broadcasts in Japan are already in high def, and we dont have set top boxes for cable.
Also, people in the US have been complaining that the set top boxes consume a lot of electricity because, well, the cable company doesnt have to pay for the electricity. Is that true?

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

I really don’t understand why content providers haven’t moved faster to offer stuff for cheaper prices all around the globe. Several friends visiting from Japan told me most of the people they know are still downloading much of what they watch from illegal sources.

The cable prices here in Thailand are way out of reach for most middle class Thais, so everyone resorts to stealing. Family compounds share one internet/cable/satellite connection with numerous households.

People who want access to everything have VPN’s. At the malls you can buy any popular movie as soon as it’s been released. Actually, you can often buy them before they have been released.

It’s Napster and Grooveshark all over again. The weird thing in most countries is people who could pay and would pay, have no choice but to buy counterfeit content. I’m reminded of when I bought an HP PC here six years ago from the factory. It came with illegal copies of Windows and Office.

Even stuff on the margins is easily found. Case in point: “Public Speaking” with Fran Lebowitz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwPPmqbzA78

I’m very curious to see how books shake out. I listened to Terry Gross the other week and heard an interview with JR Moehringer. The download of his book, “The Tender Bar,” is 1.99 at Amazon in the US, but many other ebook prices exceed the paperback prices by three or four dollars.

Go figure and when you understand it all, let us in on the secrets.

[don]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

The cable prices here in Thailand are way out of reach for most middle class Thais, so everyone resorts to stealing.

A classic response. When the 'legitimate' economy doesn't work, people quickly find their own solutions.

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

I used to ask a friend to videotape PBS and mail tapes to me in Japan. A box of 10 tapes used to cost $100. I threw 1,000 of them away.
DVDs and CDs used to cost quite a lot. I gave almost all of them away.
DVD rentals are quite expensive, around $5, and then you have to remember to return the disk.
I used to subscribe to a cable broadcast service for $30 a month.
I bought a $500 hard disk recorder and disk burner to record cable broadcasts. Programming the recording was a huge waste of time.

I got an AppleTV. It was $100 and works well if you install a remote control app on your touch device. Everything is on demand. The device is the size of two decks of playing cards. You need broadband, preferably with wifi, to use the AppleTV.

YouTube now has many full length movies such as Ghandi, The Sixth Sense, etc. The quality is perfectly acceptable on a big screen TV. For free. You can watch YouTube on AppleTV.

I just subscribed to Hulu Plus Japan for $12 a month on AppleTV. It is amazing. It would take me a year to watch all the things I want to watch with the programming they have already, and that programming will no doubt increase over time.

So, I no longer need to program the recorder for cable broadcasts. I dont need to buy a new recorder with a larger hard disk, which I was considering. I discontinued SkyPerfect cable broadcast, which cost twice as much as Hulu anyway.

I guesstimate this will cut my video bill by about $1,000 a year. Part of my quest to get to Star Trek world where everything except luxuries are essentially free.
The remastered Star Trek the Original Series is on Hulu Japan in high definition, so I just saved myself several hundred dollars by not buying it on BluRay, which I was looking at in the store last week.
This saving is on par with discovering Skype for me.

So far, rent down $1,500 (and I am about to ask for another $1,500 a year reduction because all the rents are falling), electricity down $800, phone bill down $2,000, taxi bill down $2,000 since a new train line opened up that is perfect for me, $1,000 down on food since I go to Costco a few times a year, really good order made suits in Japan that fit perfectly for $150, not to mention all the things I can order from US Amazon that are 1/2 the price of Japan Amazon, and now saving $1,000 a year for videos. Once I started thinking how to get what I want for less, I find more and more opportunities.

By the way, is it true that in the US you have to have a special set top cable box to see high def broadcasts? That is what Roadrunner seems to require. All the broadcasts in Japan are already in high def, and we dont have set top boxes for cable.
Also, people in the US have been complaining that the set top boxes consume a lot of electricity because, well, the cable company doesnt have to pay for the electricity. Is that true?

In France you cannot get Hulu or NetFlix. There is a service called Glowria, but they only provide French language DVDs without subtitles. They also have a rigid piracy law here called HADOPI. The whole thing is a conspiracy to force me to speak French.

[FrankL]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

In France you cannot get Hulu or NetFlix. There is a service called Glowria, but they only provide French language DVDs without subtitles. They also have a rigid piracy law here called HADOPI. The whole thing is a conspiracy to force me to speak French.

to put things into perspective (for the people not familiar with France):
Keep in mind that in France, most internet subscriptions sold are triple-play. The adsl/cable/fibre modems that are supplied with the subscription have evolved to multi-function devices (dubbed '-box') that do VOIP (digital telephony) with unlimited calling to landlines in most countries over the world, router, wifi that comes with a secondary SSID for hotspot-access for all subscribers of the same telco. An additional 'box' is provided for digital television viewing/recording abilities. The subscriptions come with a vast online pay-per-view video library, where you can get unlimited access for a modest fee.

These triple-play subscriptions generally are in the 30-40 euro area. If you don't care about television (or don't have one, like me), it's actually not easy to find a subscription without tv. I managed to find a subscription for internet + VOIP telephony for 20 euro per month (20 Mbit ADSL2+).

Mind you that most young French people I've talked to keep downloading torrents without resorting to VPNs and such, and haven't received any warnings yet. (HADOPI mandates 3 official warnings before internet cutoff + court trial).

[DSpencer]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

mooncliff,

I always enjoy your money saving posts. Even though many are not directly applicable to the US. One question though: are you saying you spent $10,000 to watch PBS?

[nedtheguy]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

redacted

[BadJuju]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

mooncliff,
One question though: are you saying you spent $10,000 to watch PBS?

That damn Big Bird.

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

Netflix is not available in Australia, either, but you can either setup a VPN or I use this service which basically re-routes your internet traffic through the US: http://www.unblock-us.com/ With Netflix streaming, I have more TV and movies to watch than I have free hours in the day. $13 a month for Unblock & Netflix. You can watch Hulu and whatever else TV in the US and it also works for the BBC iPlayer in the UK. Like mooncliff, I bought an AppleTV the last time I was in the US and can watch Netflix through that. No NFL app on there, but if the NHL would get their act together, I could watch ice hockey on there again.

Like Thailandnotes mentioned, there are all sorts of legit and non-legit options. I'll just say whatever you want is out there if you know how to find it, and people are willing to give their money to the content providers for a reasonable price, but there is nothing more annoying than seeing "Content not available in your region". I'd discuss the difficulty of getting an ebook that I legitimately bought on Google Play books into a readable format on my Kindle, but that makes me ranty. Fortunately, nice folks have made apps to get around that, as well.

Ned, I figured all that out shortly after I got here. I just like to rant. Actually dealing with French language material is exactly what I need. French is hard. I need to practice every day. It is like running a marathon.

[mooncliff]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

yep, I would guess I spent 5 to 10 k to watch PBS, Star Trek, and a few other TV shows. This was say 1990 to 2000. I was the only one in Japan that I know of who had that much stuff. This is way before the Net became functional, so this was the only way to see it. Friends would come over and gasp when they saw Nova, American Experience, etc. I wasnt a waste because I lent them all out, some tapes were seen by more than 10 people. I spent $1,000 on the DVDs for Deep Space Nine... oh well... it is my favorite Trek... a parable of the end of the British Raj, and the end to all empires, including the US... with terrorism, torture, etc... and all wrapped up BEFORE 9/11. Someone asked the writers how they knew what was going to happen. They said: same sh*t, different planet, different century. I lent that out to many people, so in the end, it was totally worthwhile.

Hey, I got the idea of asking the landlord to reduce the rent (which everyone said they would not do in Japan) by hearing people on NPR talk about how they asked the landlord to reduce rents in Manhattan after the 2008 blow up. I got my mom a Skype phone, so now she calls relatives, and relatives call her for free over the wifi (It is too hard for her to use the computer... too complicated... she gets flustered... but with the Skype phone, she just picks it up and pushes a speed dial button). I got mom's expenses down by $6,000 a year with no change in standard of living. Before, I used to think about how to make more money; now I think about ways to reduce expenses but get the same things. Beats working like a dog.

[mooncliff]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

Have you tried a Slingbox?
I bought one to connect to my cable in Hawaii, but I didnt have time to set it up... also ran into a problem where it required a specific version of Windows to set it up, so that is something to watch out for.
The idea is you can send your cable signal to a device anywhere in the world over the Internet.
I have no idea if this works or not since I have not done it myself, but that is what the video demo says.
So the idea is if you could connect a sling box to cable of a friend in the US, you could watch the cable stations over the internet anywhere in the world... I think the slingbox can only send to one IP address.
Worth looking into if you are frustrated overseas since the total cost will be only the cost of the device. There is no monthly fee.

[stetts]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

Electricity down? How did you manage that? Good on ya--just wondering what did it. Thanks. Stetts
PS. And a hearty congratulations to you on all the expense reductions. That is impressive. I must admit I do like your attitude of spending less being the same or better than earning more. Sweet. Keep it up.

[mooncliff]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

The timing was perfect. My appliances were 16 years old. The TV died, the air conditioner was on its last legs, the refrigerator was not very efficient. Suddenly, in Japan, LEDs came on the market, and extremely efficient TVs, air conditioner/heater heat pumps, and refrigerators came on the market. The LEDs cut my lighting electricity use by 90%, my TV uses 70 watts instead of 250 the old one did, the air conditioner heat pump uses 70% less electricity the old one did even though the old one was the most energy efficient on the market when I bought it, and the refrigerator also uses about 70% less electricity but is double the size of the old one. Even though I have three HEPA air cleaners on all the time, an aquarium, the lights come on automatically when I go in a room, a hot pot full of hot water on all the time, etc., when it is not heating or cooling season, which is 3 months in the fall and 3 months in the spring, my electricity use is under 150 kwh per month. This reduction in electricity use by the refrigerator etc was important for me because from April to November in Japan, you really do not want nonsense heat coming out of appliances... when I used to come home and open the door, it was uncomfortably warm inside and I would have to open up the apartment to get all the hot air out... now since the refrigerator produces less nonsense heat, the apartment is barely warm during this period. Also, if the appliances are using more electricity, it all winds up as unwanted heat that the air conditioner has to remove in the summer, which makes the air conditioner work harder and use more electricity. I installed LEDs in my relatives houses in Hawaii and in places in Japan, and for a $5,000 investment, I cut each household's electric bill by $500 to $900 dollars a year, and reduced the nonsense heat being produced by 90%. I guesstimate this is saving $20,000 a year in total. Unfortunately, the LEDs available in the US are not good yet... I keep looking on ebay and Amazon... but it is worth trying one to learn all the issues. It is extremely complicated.
Anyway, my comfort level is much better, the air conditioner cost the same $1,500 the previous one did, the TV cost $1,500 instead of $6,000 the old high def one did, and the refrigerator cost the same $1,500 the old one did. Good LEDs in Japan are down to $10 from Toshiba, Sharp, etc. My electric bill is $800 a year instead of $1,600 that it was. I do not have gas heating, so that $800 includes all the heating and cooling for a 600 sq ft apartment. It gets quite cold in Japan... last winter every night was down to near 20F (minus 5 C) for 3 months... it was annoying, and this past summer was the hottest on record with highs of 90 to upper 90s for 2 months.
I used an online electricity use comparison, and it seems I am using about 1/5 the residential per capita energy use of someone in the US.

[shiny!]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

Mooncliff, your account is fascinating. I've done a lot of the same things:

• switched from an old CRT TV to a flat-screen LED-LCD TV, draws 45 watts.
• to prevent phantom power draw, plugged the entertainment center devices to a surge protector that's switched off when not in use,
• switched to LED lights,
• replaced the old refrigerator (it was a huge heat producer in the kitchen),
• sealed a leaky A/C duct under the house and replaced the insulation under there,
• installed insulated windows,
• low-power consumption computer and monitor,
• got rid of my gas range+oven because the oven pilot light produced so much heat in the summer, replacing it with portable induction cooktops and a countertop convection oven for the rare times I bake. (this also gave me more working counter and cabinet space)
• new 14 seer central air/heatpump system two years ago

But your air conditioner has me stumped. I'd love to get your kind of savings but don't think it's possible here. Outside temps get up to 115-118 F in the summer, and are still over 100 late at night. It seems your system handles each room individually, turning off when there's no movement. If that happens here, within minutes the room heats up so much that an air conditioner will struggle for hours to cool it off again. Without A/C, indoor temps quickly rise to 108 degrees (I know this from when my A/C died a few summers ago). I don't want my house getting that hot when I'm out; it's bad for my pets, food, the refrigerator, etc...

My summer electric bill is over $200/month :-(

[DSpencer]

Re: Reducing future expenses by dematerializing media

Have you tried a Slingbox?
I bought one to connect to my cable in Hawaii, but I didnt have time to set it up... also ran into a problem where it required a specific version of Windows to set it up, so that is something to watch out for.
The idea is you can send your cable signal to a device anywhere in the world over the Internet.
I have no idea if this works or not since I have not done it myself, but that is what the video demo says.
So the idea is if you could connect a sling box to cable of a friend in the US, you could watch the cable stations over the internet anywhere in the world... I think the slingbox can only send to one IP address.
Worth looking into if you are frustrated overseas since the total cost will be only the cost of the device. There is no monthly fee.

I got one for my dad and he loves it. It is especially useful when he travels overseas. He used to complain about not being able to watch American programming, but now he can just pull out his laptop or ipad anywhere he has internet access and watch anything he'd be able to if he was in his living room. This assumes of course that you have a good internet connection in both places. I know he tried using it over the wifi on an airplane and the result was basically unwatchable due to the connection speed. However, we were able to watch an NFL playoff game at a little hotel in the Italian Alps. Silly, trivial and maybe a waste of vacation time on the one hand, but also satisfying in the sense that I love being able to use technology to do what I want. There was some fellow US travelers who were big football fans and it's pretty cool to say "oh you wish you could watch the Patriots game tonight? No problem." If only I'd had a mini projector or proper pc to tv cord.

The downside for having it at a friends house is that the slingbox shows exactly what you're watching on the home base tv. So you'd have to be ok watching the same things at least if you were watching at the same time. However, for some people that might be ok especially with the time differences. Also, with a dual DVR you could watch one show while recording a different one for your friend to watch in France at a time when you'll be asleep anyway.