I cut the tie from the subscription Cable pig 18 months ago. Just use their high speed internet.
I bought a used PS3 for the front end and tVersity to stream, Easynews for newsgroup aggregation and I can usually get HBO and SHO stuff pretty quickly (yes, I'd love for them to find a way for me to pay them without going through a cable company), and rabbit ears for local channels. Flipping CBS, NBC, PBS, and ABC is sort of nostalgic...and cool at the same time since it's HD these days.
The downside is that I can't surf and see what new shows may be coming up and sometimes hear a long-time later about a cool new show, but then I head to Easynews and usually find it pretty quickly.
A 2TB drive and I'm in hog heaven with a great backlog of great movies and can go watch Charlie Sheen's slow decline into a Season 8. Winning!