Pull plug on paid/cable TV

I love television.

Broadcast television still has many excellent shows, 30 Rock, The Office, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory are all hilarious.

"Basic" Cable probably has the best programs though, Mad Men, Louie, No Reservations, Breaking Bad, The Daily Show are worth the cost or wiring your house.

And for your entertainment dollar it is pretty hard to beat "Premium" cable, on top of movies old and new whenever you like who else would take on a project like The Pacific?

TV Rocks!
 
Josh K said:
I don't have cable. I don't even have a TV. I put my money towards decent internet and leave it at that.
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Gollnick said:
exactly. My TV broke about 15 years ago and I haven't gotten around to repairing it yet... and it's too late now since I threw it out in my last move.

Today, when I do getthe chance to watch TV, I am constantly amazed that people waste their time... and money... on it.

Billions of dollars have been spent on high definition TV, but nothing on high quality TV.
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How do these two post help tekapo with his question about TV antennas?
 
We stream ours through the Wii, while the in laws stream through their blu ray player. I prefer the wii since you can look for stuff to watch from the tv, while the blu ray player you have to add items through your computer.
 
I've put a lot of energy into how to disconnect my hated cable. Unfortunately I'm many many many miles away from the nearest broadcast stations and I'd have to put a montorous directional antenna on top of my house to pull anything in. I've been toying with just living with the NetFlix Stream and Broadcast Basic...and waiting for Hulu to make their player as good as the NetFlix player. Broadcast Basic is now over $20.00 in my neck of the woods. :mad: I hate my cable company.
 
About a year ago my wife & I were tired of the escalating cable price so I called Comcast and said I wanted to cancel my subscription so I could go with AT&T...long story short I talked to a manager and my price was magically lowered. This tactic may work for you.
 
ok ok my spelling sucks big time. boy did I hate english class. I ask the teacher what the heck?? do you think I am going to write a book or something?? I forgot to use my spell checker.
 
Thomason said:
How do these two post help tekapo with his question about TV antennas?
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My response is, in fact, the most helpful of all of the responses here. The OP complained about the high cost of watching TV and asked how to cut his costs of TV watching. He had some thoughts about changing his antenna or something, but I showed him how to cut his TV costs all the way to ZERO!... and with no new equipment is required.
 
digital reception is sometimes sketchy. I use an 8x or 8bay antenna. It does what I need it to. a channel master amplifier and rotor would drastically improve my results. I have installed quite a few, however I don't watch network locals that much to add the rotor or amp for myself. Radio shack amps pale in comparison to channel master higher end amps. the channel master high end amps are worth the money.
 
So with this Roku deal, if you want to watch on two TVs, do you need two boxes and two Netflix accounts? Anybody know?
 
craigz said:
So with this Roku deal, if you want to watch on two TVs, do you need two boxes and two Netflix accounts? Anybody know?
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You would need two NetFlix players...or carry the Roku into the room you want to play it in...or get a HD A\B switch and a loooooooooooong HD cable. I have one (1) NetFlix account. I can watch NetFlix streams on my Roku in the bedroom or on my BlueRay (it has NetFlix built-in) player in the den. But I can obly watch one at a time. If I want to stream to two different platers at the same time it's an extra $8.00 per month.
 
boring said:
digital reception is sometimes sketchy. I use an 8x or 8bay antenna. It does what I need it to. a channel master amplifier and rotor would drastically improve my results. I have installed quite a few, however I don't watch network locals that much to add the rotor or amp for myself. Radio shack amps pale in comparison to channel master higher end amps. the channel master high end amps are worth the money.
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Thanks! That is exactly what I was looking to here. The more I read up on the cable, the more I think we are getting a lesser quality picture. With the switch to digital, I find the pictures are not as clear. When I called they said I need to upgrade to HD. I read that cable compresses the signal to get it to everyone and use less space (bandwidth) sort of like posting a compressed jpg file rather than the real image. Over the air waves shows are not compressed and broadcast in the full pure format.

From my research the Channelmaster and Wingard seem to have the best rated antennas and I agree on the pre-amp. Even my cable company had to put a pre-amp on my cable to get a clearer picture which makes me wonder how good the signal actually is.

I'll try one in the attic first.

Thanks for the tips.

We'll do the Netflix too this winter, just have to buy something to download it to.
 
tekapo said:
Thanks! That is exactly what I was looking to here. The more I read up on the cable, the more I think we are getting a lesser quality picture. With the switch to digital, I find the pictures are not as clear. When I called they said I need to upgrade to HD. I read that cable compresses the signal to get it to everyone and use less space (bandwidth) sort of like posting a compressed jpg file rather than the real image. Over the air waves shows are not compressed and broadcast in the full pure format.

From my research the Channelmaster and Wingard seem to have the best rated antennas and I agree on the pre-amp. Even my cable company had to put a pre-amp on my cable to get a clearer picture which makes me wonder how good the signal actually is.

I'll try one in the attic first.

Thanks for the tips.

We'll do the Netflix too this winter, just have to buy something to download it to.
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It sounds like you are confident that you can get a good number of clear, unobstructed channels "over the air" in your area, so you do have the ability to go with some of the options offered here.

If you live in "the boonies" like I do, this isn't possible, so like me, if you want TV, you'll be held hostage by either cable TV, or satellite dish companies.

Verify you have good "over the air" reception of channels before you invest in antenna's, and boosters and such. I know that in my circumstance (surrounded by mountains out in the boonies) that no such options exist because the signals just aren't there "in the air".:mad:
 
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