Who among you has cancelled your cable tv, satellite tv, etc.?

Going on 2 years without cable. Still have internet so I get the shows I want in hd with no commercials. I still only spend about an hour a day watching them. My other hobbies which mostly include the outdoors are way more entertaining.
 
I actually just implemented an antenna and cancelled the cable TV this past weekend. I have been paring down the cable for a while and the last thing I had was just 23 channels for under $30 per month. After switching to over-the-air I get 18 channels and don't have all the QVC crap. I got a clearstream4 antenna and installed it in my attic (I am 35 miles from the stations), ran the antenna cable to where the cable came into the house, plugged the antenna cable into the splitter and profited! One antenna for 5 TVs. Only took a few hours. I just wish there was another reliable way to get internet. Still have cable for that.
 
Thanks for the antenna recommendation. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of experimentation with antennas to see what works. My secret underground bunker is in the suburbs and probably 15 -20 miles from most transmitters, so I should be okay. The goal will probably be to stick one in the attic and run it down to the basement, and then up to the tv's.
 
No tv in my house. I was a couch potato as a kid. When I got married, we decided to do stuff ourselves, instead of watching other people pretend to do stuff.
 
I just took it a step further and canceled my internet. Still have a smart phone, and plenty of DVDs in the redbox machines if I feel like watching one.
 
blue109 said:
I just took it a step further and canceled my internet. Still have a smart phone, and plenty of DVDs in the redbox machines if I feel like watching one.
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I haven't had internet service since I separated from the wife just over a year ago. Even while married, I rarely used a computer. I do all my internet activity with my LG Optimus G Pro.
 
Okay, the idea of cancelling home access to the interweb is just crazy talk. Lets not go to extremes here. I can live without Bering Sea Gold, but I have to have Bladeforums on my laptop.
 
I'm 57 years old and have never had cable or satellite. I didn't watch much TV as a kid as I was always outside or at least out of the house, so I didn't develop the habit. More of a reader anyway.

When I moved out of the house at 20, (crap! 37 years ago!) I didn't get cable and it hasn't interested me. I have tried Netflix when they have a promotion and that is OK, but since I am really a documentary fan I find there are plenty of free documentary sites (including YouTube) that have all you can watch. I don't mind watching stuff on my computer at all. If I want that "theater sound" I have a fairly nice set of headphones to wear.

I do have a television and will buy or borrow a movie to watch from time to time. I bought an outside HDTV antenna and the quality of signal is stunning. The programming still isn't all that good, but from time to time there are things to record and watch later. The key to the HDTV was to get a good antenna, mount it as high as I could and then go to the net to find out how to orient it. I had it up and going in about 4 hours from start to finish. Since there is so little of value to watch on TV these days, I can honestly say I haven't turned that setup on in about 2 years.

These days I watch the replayer services or go to a buddy's house when the weather is bad and we watch the stuff he records like Justified, Hell on Wheels, The Americans, etc. Since the seasons these days are ususually only 4 - 6 shows, it is like watching a movie (timewise) to watch a whole season.

NEVER, EVER, have I wanted cable. My opinion is that we get 10 channels of crap for nothing over the air, and all I would be doing is to add to that mix. Besides, all the guys I know that have cable/satellite tell me the same thing; they only watch 5 or 6 channels out of the few hundred they are paying for.

So in my world, with the $100 a month most folks pay for cable I see $1200. $1200 that can buy me a knife or two a year, plenty of cigars, a bbq plate at my favorite joint from time to time, a bottle of good bourbon to go with the cigars and I will still have money left over.

Never have understood the whole cable/satellite thing...

Robert
 
Growing up in the 60s and 70s my mother would not allow TV in the house. We encouraged to be outdoors. We have been married 34 years and raised 8 kids and lived all but a few years without a TV. I traveling last month and surfing the tube in the hotel found over 100 channels of wasteland. Last year there were over 20 reality shows filmed in Alaska . In last year I have been contacted by four production companies casting for a reality show involveing hunting for mammoth tusks. I am not interested. I was involved behind the scenes in one and found most of them are scripted and they do not want to pay you any thing.
 
midnight flyer said:
Never have understood the whole cable/satellite thing...
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Distraction. Anesthesia from the stress of the world. When you are watching Wedding Dresses of Atlanta, you forget for a while that you will never live out your childhood dream of being an astronaut or a professional baseball player. Same reason we buy more knives than we need, or spend the day hitting a golf ball for no apparent reason. Distraction. But that's for another thread.
 
I can't imagine paying to watch tv. Someone would need to pay me a lot of money to force me to watch one. A lot of money.
 
I Pay a lot more than $70 a month but for me it's just the opposite.... I' haven't had cable or satellite ever! I'm still in the honeymoon phase Lol. I must admit, i would be lost without my DVR. It makes it so easy to record stuff when i'm not around.

If I can, I'd like to recommend a TiVo... An older TiVo. Buy (if you can find it) a Toshiba TiVo TS-RX120. These particular ones come with FREE lifetime TiVo! Of course it's the basic TiVo service but is still pretty cool. It also has a built in DVD burner for burning the shows you record on to a DVD.
You can find them on a certain Bay for around $50 to $100. Make sure it comes with the remote (these are expensive if you have to buy them separate)

When I had TV only, my TiVo made the watching experience much better...

Also, you can hook (just about) any apple product to an HDMI cable via adapter and to your TV (providing your TV has an HDMI connection)
 
Unfortunately, without cable or satellite, there is no TV or internet in my area. I could live without the TV part, but my wife couldn't.

I suppose that I could get DSL, but from what I have heard, it's pretty bad here.

Cable here sucks. Dish and Direct TV suck to the power of 10.
 
powernoodle said:
Thanks for the antenna recommendation. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of experimentation with antennas to see what works. My secret underground bunker is in the suburbs and probably 15 -20 miles from most transmitters, so I should be okay. The goal will probably be to stick one in the attic and run it down to the basement, and then up to the tv's.
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I installed a digital antenna to watch a football game a couple of months ago. It was simple. I just taped it to the wall behind the tv and it picks up all the basic channels. I think it was $50 or so at the Fred Meyers.
 
No more cable, Internet and barely watch free TV. I do watch PBS for cooking shows (because it's actually about food and not drama).
All Internet is done on my phone. My GF even canceled her cellphone and uses my phone.

Slowly I am disconnecting myself from the harmful media.

1984.
 
I almost had cable once. When the installers ran the cable to the wrong side of the house after having been given extremely specific, written instructions and them doing the work while I was inside the house and them still getting it wrong. I took the whole pile of crap they sent me and put it on the porch to be picked up. Told the customer service guy on the phone that if they couldn't string a cable correctly, I sure wasn't interested in finding out how bad their regular service was. They eventually picked up the box o'crap after trying to get me to pay a $200 cancellation fee. Never paid a dime.

We use Netflix for DVDs and I have it on my iPad, that's plenty.
 
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