Gave up cable TV -- now what?

May 4, 2011 | Me

[Keltik]

I gave up cable TV a few days ago. I watched perhaps five or six channels, at most, and it just wasn't worth the money.

Now, I have no TV at all since my set is pre-digital and I don't have an antenna. What now? Do I have to get a special antenna? I would like to have at least broadcast TV if only for sports.

[Eccl 10:2]

bump

[Carlucci]

I haven’t had TV since 1996.

"You don't have a TV?? Then what's all your furniture pointed at?" -- Joey Tribiani.

[scottteng]

Pre digital tv you need converter box check ebay and amazon for sub $50 pricing. Last one I got was $27 from Amazon with free shipping. Antenna best is old fashioned outside antenna above the peak of your roof there are plans online for antennas you can build which they claim do a good job they look good for attic type install I don’t see that they would last in the wind. I get some 30 stations as I am close to a major city Tampa most of the network stations have 2or 3 sideband stations attached to the main one.

[conservativeimage]

Netflix instant streaming of block buster, classic and entire seasons of television shows in their collection without any commercials whatsoever. You will be spoiled by the selections available in their vast library and absence of interruptions interruptions interruptions. You'll find such a wealth of material that you won't know where to begin. And then your head will pop off from shear ebullient, satisfactory bliss. You're set for years upon years of exploring cinematographic history. Oh what will you find that will become your number one item for that stranded on a desert island scenario? Invader Zim? Apocalypto? Macgyver or the Twilight Zone Series? War Documentaries? Mystery Science Theater 3000? Maybe you could try the anime category that the kids are so excited about today? How about Ghost in the Shell, Mushi-shi, Ghost Hound. Trust me my friend, your television is not going away, just the cable commercial ridden programming that theeey tell you to watch. Now you get to choose and explore and enjoy! Then go for a walk, you need exercise from watching so much quality entertainment.

[Average Al]

"You don't have a TV?? Then what's all your furniture pointed at?" -- Joey Tribiani.

The refrigerator in the living room.

[SoothingDave]

they look good for attic type install I don’t see that they would last in the wind.

They're not in the wind, they're in the attic.

[dangerdoc]

Loosen up the purse strings and buy a new TV.

Over the air broadcasts look great on a new HDTV, especially sports. With the money you save on cable, you pay for the new TV.

[samiam1972]

Ping for later research. We haven’t had cable for years. We’ll never go back!

[NewHampshireDuo]

We are rural and satellite is our only option for TV. What it comes down to is we only watch HGTV and some old sitcom reruns. Pretty much given up on the news channels as the internet is a far better resource.

The only issue with getting feeds via the internet (I think) is that our “high speed” connection is often less than high speed. Watching YouTube videos is often a challenge.

With internet TV access or a ROKU (sp?) box, do they in anyway buffer or store to eliminate the stop/start issues we see with streaming video?

[BubbaBobTX]

Netflix subscription is only $7.95 per month for streaming movies.

[Tainan]

EZTV...TV thru Your computer. NOT Streaming. Download and view.

[netmilsmom]

Welcome to the club. Third year here without cable.

I’m FReepmailing you.

[reformedliberal]

We just got our Roku and will cancel sat TV at the end of the month. We have a $15/month Netflix account....2 videos at a time plus unlimited streaming.

From what we have seen, the movies and TV series episodes play perfectly, no different from a DVD. The US *news* channels, though are really video podcasts or the same clips available on You Tube and they have buffering problems that are annoying. There are several foreign *news* channels, Middle Eastern, French, BBC. Those are free. There is subscription HuluPlus, for an additional $15/more thru the Roku Channel Store. No news, but they appear to stream important news events, live. From their site, it looks as through they do have ads. We have DSL and a wireless router.

We are rural and in hill country. We went totally without TV for 15 years, until we got our first large satellite dish in 1990 or 1991. That was great: clear reception, unscrambled feeds, news pool footage. Then came scrambling and commercials. We then got subscription satellite. By now it is full of infomercials and the weird conglomeration of channels all owned by the same network and filled with various recycled footage made into *new* documentaries.

Roku is new and I think they will find ways to add American news in English. We stopped watching the alphabet channels in 2004, so we have 7 years of network series to catch up on. Netflix is supposedly beginning to create original material. News we get online and the You Tube clips have less buffering problem than the same clips through the Roku.

What I like besides no commercials, which takes an episode from 1 hr down to 40 minutes, is that I can watch on my schedule.

[libh8er]

Listen to Rush for three hours every day on your local flagship AM station. That’s all the infotainment you need for a day. Even better, subscribe to Rush 24/7 and listen commercial free on your own shhedule.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>go get a converter box....they run about 50 bucks...

If the OP’s TV is new enough to have an ATV Tuner, a convert box is unneeded. Just an antenna. Depending on their location, a good antenna set up, properly installed - could run $200.

[reformedliberal]

Forgot to explain that the reason we have videos and streaming from Netflix is that we can use the videos in the shop. We may not keep that part of the subscription, but are trying it for now. Radio works well when we are working, but sometimes nothing much is available except music and NPR.

[whd23]

Use TV Fool to determine what channels you are likely to receive and what type of antenna you'll need to receive them.

[ctdonath2]

+

AppleTV: $99
Netflix: ~$9/mo

Between those, you've got far more good material than you'll know what to do with, from premium to free. AppleTV is starting to support sports as well.

In addition, I have a Sony Blu-ray player with built-in WiFi which supports Hulu+ ($8/mo) and Amazon Video.

Haven't had TV per se for about 5 years. Been running AppleTV for about 4 months (DVD only before that).

Frankly, I don't see how people can spend so much time watching TV. At best I can squeeze in maybe two half-hour segments a week at best (now working thru Aeon Flux) and maybe two movies a month. No wonder the country was so productive prior to, and so lazy after, the advent of TV.

[MosesKnows]

What now?

The very first thing you need to do is to purchase a new television which will include a digital tuner. The second thing is to make or purchase a decent antenna. How decent the antenna need be is a function of the distance between you and the television transmitter.

The money saved on cable bills will make buying a new television an easy choice. Almost all the suggestions offered here will work but none will provide the advances of viewing a high definition television broadcast signal.

[max americana]

Simple...

Be like my neighbor. If you need specific shows, download via bit torrent on www.eztv.it. EVERY FREAKIN SHOW is available for download in real time and updated every second.You need to watch a live sports broadcast around the world, aka NBA playoffs or MLB or EPL SOCCER..is available on P2P.EU.

You do not need cable, bud. Just make sure your internet is hi-speed.