We just cut our Time Warner Cable TV service.

from inside my head | Feb. 11th 2013 | Mad Dawgg

[Mad Dawgg]

I've been 3 months trying to get TWC to come and get my defective DVR (we have 2) several calls promising they would come and they would adjust our bill blah blah blah.

Then the new bill came and informed us we are getting a price increase so we talked it over and did some research.

Our TV bill (We have their internet as well) was over 110 bucks a month. We realized we could get Hulu plus and receiver most of the shows we watch for about 9 bucks a month and the two shows we definitely watch that Hulu doesn't have we could download the entire season of both shows in HD for less than we spend for one month of cable. Further you get each episode just a few hours after it is broadcast on TV.

We are going to build an antenna so we can get local news and NFL football. SO total savings will be about $1100 dollars a year and we will still get about all the shows we enjoy.

How is Cable TV going to stay afloat when people realize it isn't necessary anymore?

[BreezyDog]

What do you do when you have 8 TV’s(at least)that all get watched? And I stream from the slingbox whenever I want on the 16 other wireless/wired devices in the house...These simple solutions works great for a 2 TV house but won’t do squat for my needs...unfortunately.

[DukeBillie]

We’re with Comcast. We don’t watch much TV. But we do enjoy watch old TV shows - Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Leave It To Beaver ... I bought a Roku so we could cancel Comcast but I haven’t found any place that offers the old shows. Netfix doesn’t. Any suggestions?

[BattleFlag]

I cut the cord 6 years ago and haven't regretted it for one second. Also, I don't buy newspapers or magazines. I choose what I want to watch, when I want to watch it and I get my news and information from a variety of sources so I feel better informed.

There is life after network (cable included) television and reliance on limited sources of print information.

This helps break the MSMs hold on 'the truth' which is nothing but good.

[ggrrrrr23456]

Anyone have any luck homebrewing an antenna using an old Dish Network satellite dish? There’s one installed on our house with a cable coming down inside. We don’t subscribe but I’m wondering if there’s a way to use it as an antenna for other stations/satellites without a subscription. No hacking here, just picking up publicly available channels.

[FamiliarFace]

If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for internet?

[eyeamok]

XBMC has every TV show ever made and it is free, install on windows or Linux, personally I use Linux.

[UB355]

Leave it to Beaver is on Amazon.

[DukeBillie]

Thank you

[mrsmith]

Your local over the air station might broadcast “MeTV” on one of it’s digital channels (most statioms broadcast 3 channels). It has nearly all of the old shows.

It’s free, you just need an antenna. Check the listings for your local over the air stations.

[FreedomPoster]

I just ordered parts to build a Raspberry Pi box specifically to run Raspbmc. Can’t wait to play with it.

[Jet Jaguar]

Anybody have suggestions for a low profile or indoor HDTV antenna. We live 23 miles from the transmitter and in a tin sided house and cannot pick up anything.

The only transmitter is in Fairbanks. Nothing else near.

[eyeamok]

Your Welcome, I use navi-x addon and it literally has anything and everything you would ever need.

[eyeamok]

Yeah I have been looking at building one to replace the HTPC’s I have going. Linux Boxes with ATSC,DVB-S,XBMC,IPTV...Raspberry will be nice and small and uses very little power and is Silent.

[Mad Dawgg]

Yes, A friend of mine has been making HDTV Antennas out of old Sat dishes.

Ge:t you one of these: that is an old 75ohm converter that was used to transform a cable signal to antenna connection on older TVs. You can still get them at Radio shack.

Splice in the wired end to your dish.(you'll need to cut and splice the wires that lead to the element in the middle of the dish) Now if the dish was installed properly it should have one of these: (it may have more connections usually 2 or four) make sure the coaxial side of the 75 Ohm transformer is connected to it and then connect the other side to the cable that will run inside your house. This is important because it grounds your antenna and can protect against lighting. There should be a grounding wire that runs from this down to a metal rod that sticks in the ground.

The dish will need to be pointed in the direction the TV stations that you are trying to pickup are located.

[Mad Dawgg]

"What do you do when you have 8 TV’s(at least)that all get watched? And I stream from the slingbox whenever I want on the 16 other wireless/wired devices in the house...These simple solutions works great for a 2 TV house but won’t do squat for my needs...unfortunately."

Research ROKU. They have a multi-tv system. My BIL has it and he loves it.

[cynwoody]

Get a dish. I get about 30 channels on mine in the Philippines. I have DSL for internet.

Upon moving into a new house, my sister and her husband in Colorado recently fired Comcast in favor of Dish Network (or whatever it's called) plus a DSL for internet.

They're getting excellent TV, such as it is, from the satellite for substantially less than they were paying Comcast. However, their internet sucks. (It was great over Comcast at their old house a couple of miles away!)

As for me, I don't even own a working TV (since the digital switchover). As far as I'm concerned, the internet is all that matters. I have Verizon FiOS.

So it would seem, if you care about TV, the proper strategy is buy your TV from Dish and buy your internet (but probably not your TV) from the fastest service that passes by your house.

[AlexW]

” However, their internet sucks. (It was great over Comcast at their old house a couple of miles away!)”
______________________________________

Yes, the cable companies can provide very fast internet.
We have yet to get cable in our town, but it is on the way.

DSL providers often have different levels of service.
Our telephone is also part of the DSL line.
You should ask your provider.
At first I had only 500 K, but for a little extra they upgraded me to 2 megs max, but it is sometimes slower then that.

I am not sure about Satellite internet.
I have a friend in rural Alabama that had such internet, but I think it was only for the download. I think his upload was by phone line and the upload was quite slow.
I will have to ask him about it.

Having been out of the USSA for the past 12 years, I am way behind on what is available, even though my business was radio communications.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

I cancelled Comcast a few weeks ago and I love it. I’ll be saving 80 bucks a month. I would have missed O’Reilly and Special Report but I can listen to those shows on the fox news radio app so I dont miss it that much. Plus I have to say the picture is sooooooo much clearer with the digital antenna over cable. I really enjoyed watching the Super Bowl.

[Yosemitest]

May I recommend Directv ?

[Mad Dawgg]

"May I recommend Directv ?"

The reason I had TWC was because DirecTV's DVRs would crash and they would take weeks to replace them. But, they still charged me the full month's fees.