Posted on 04/08/2013 2:43:32 AM PDT by markomalley
How did they do it to themselves when they didn't have a choice? The government overlords mandated that broadcast stations change from NTSC (analog signal) to ATSC (digital signal). The signal is still broadcast on the VHF/UHF bands, though mostly UHF, and you need a digital tuner to get the stations.
I bought a 10 foot HDMI cable from Newegg for $4 to hook to the laptop.I can watch Amazon/Youtube and play Call of Duty on the 37” TV.
We cut the cable 10 years ago. We’ve been using an antenna since then. We still watch local news and weather but I think this is the year than no one in the house is watching any nationally broadcasted programming.
Amazon and Netflix provide most of what we watch but even that has dropped off. Mostly, the TV is off unless one of the boys is playing a game.
The sad thing is, I would like to watch something, there’s just nothing interesting.
If I want to watch something, I rent or buy the DVD and watch it on my laptop. And since my tastes are limited to BBC versions of classic literature, and Monk, I avoid the garbage they're pumping into the airwaves. I know my psyche is better for it. (Because I'll never get back that year I wasted watching America's Next Top Model. LOL!)
There’s one TV in our house. But it isn’t hooked to anything. Hasn’t been for years.
Got waaaaay to many TVs, but I almost never watch them. My wife and daughters do, unfortunately. I run away and hide when the crap comes on.
Yep, they should start looking for another business.
I mostly watch youtube, and topdocumentaryfilms.com (claims it's unbiased but there's a lot of bias out there and they drag it in copiously).
Lots of History Channel stuff is free on topdoc and somewhat easier to find than on youtube.
Does anyone know of a service that streams live TV?
We tried streaming Hulu Plus and had bandwidth issues. Cancelled and went back to Hulu Free and the only difference is Plus was streamed to the TV while we have to watch Free on the monitor.
The bandwidth issues online only seem to affect the ads.
We have a Roku device. That’s all we need, that and a $8/month Netflix streaming subscription. If I want to watch live sports, I find a streaming site on the Internet.
I haven’t watched network prime-time TV in years, and I don’t really miss it.
}:-)4
The Roku is great, most of what you will watch will be a paid channel but there is some free stuff aimed at very narrow interests that is nice to have such as ethnic cooking programming.
Check out Amazon Prime. We find more programming there than Netflix now. But we still find enough value to pay for both Prime and Netflix.
I have ripped quite a few of my DVD’s to a server in the basement and stream those directly to the Roku through Plex. It is nice not to have to rummage through the discs.
>>> Even the kid shows are horrible trash.
You can say that again.
We installed a good antenna in our attic, wired our home for TV and Gigabyte Ethernet, got an HDHR tuner and record anything we really want to watch on our computer (Windows Media Center) so we can watch it at our leisure while skipping the commercials - takes an hour show down to 42 minutes or less.
Long ago we had cable, then Dish - got real tired of the monthly fees. Then after living in Switzerland where we had to pay a monthly fee (tax) for radio and TV (neither of which we used as everything was in German - but the fact we had these in the home was enough they could inspect and give us a big fine if we didn’t pay), I really didn’t want to pay anything ever again on returning to the US. Over air or internet is all I will do now.
Plex is great. I’m getting it set up. It works for what it has but I’m having trouble with it seeing new stuff.
Amen...and shame on us for letting public schools brainwash our children.
For live TV try:
http://freetvall.com/videos/4/United-States/most_recent/all_time/ (Make sure you are using Mozilla with pop-up blockers otherwise you have a lot of closing to do)
For catching up on episodes of hundreds of TV shows:
http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/internet/
(Scroll down a bit to alphabetical list)
The cable and satellite companies will go out of business before they let this happen. You'd find out that ten or twenty bucks of your cable bill goes to ESPN channels on its way to the major sports teams, on its way to those hundred-million-dollar contracts.
"A la carte" billing would end modern sports broadcasting and the sports themselves.
The Government can’t watch you.
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