Posted on 07/27/2013 1:34:53 PM PDT by ottbmare
We have never had cable TV, and it was the greatest relief to me when analog television broadcasting stopped so that my kids couldn't watch TV at our house. Nobody was going to study at all, much less do Algebra II and graduate from high school, if the temptation of stupid entertainment was available, so I always refused to pay for cable.
There were times I did miss television, though. When other Freepers would talk about news or sports events, when there was an election or an historic occasion, it would have been good to see for myself what they were enjoying. And there were, it seemed, movies and shows I would have liked to see.
Now both of my kids are grown and gone, and last week Verizon installed FiOS fiberoptic cable in my neighborhood. When they asked me if I wanted to sign up, I arranged for the lowest-priced package.
But 99% of what's available on the air appears to be about depraved people like the Kardashians, whoever they may be. Suddenly all those great movies have slipped my mind. May I have some recommendations from Freepers about what they find of value to watch?
My tastes run toward pretty sedate, cultural things, historical A&E productions or BBC things, but I do like movies like Master & Commander, Die Hard, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.
Thanks for your input. There's got to be more to this whole television thing than just Fox News and Glenn Beck, right?
Internet— Netflix. Hulu....
Cable, including FiOS and AT&T’s Uverse are for news and sports. For movies and anything else with a shelf live of more than 20 minutes, you should be looking at Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, and similar offerings.
OTT devices (Over the Top) run from $35 to just over $100 and most will allow you to stream any of those services listed above and more.
We get “Sky Angel”, it does not have much of the regular channels. It has Fox News a few sports channels some old movie channels a few low budget kid channels and a whole bunch of Christian channels. Its pretty cheap. For series we miss (like Dr Who, Stargate etc) we by dvd sets.
We mostly watch Japanese animation, and the military channel. History channel has to be carefully watched, it tends to get stuff from the Howard Zinn(crypto-communist) end of the spectrum.
Wide band internet access is pretty nice though.
You can get a lot on youtube. You will find that TV has gotten more annoying and vacuous since you last saw it. I suggest you get a iBook or Kindle and read. Or, you could actually write your own books. (Here are four of mine. http://amzn.to/15yxkiy)
I haven’t watched TV in ages, the Internet is my TV.
The ONLY reason we have cable is my wife likes to watch sports on TV (I couldn’t care less about sports). I get my content from Amazon Prime, Blockbuster, Hulu, and Apple iTunes/Apple TV. I’d love to dump our cable TV, but Mrs. POF says “over my dead body.” Besides, we get our phone and Internet from Comcast now, too, and get a great package price.
Frankly, it sounds like you really don’t need cable; I’d consider the sources of content such as I suggested above and maybe NetFlix or Roku. Also check out the new Google $35 ChromeCast HDMI dongle introduced this week. Better yet, get an Internet-ready TV to access this content.
Quite a few good shows q43 being produced by cable networks and NetFlix, but you can purchase these ala carte from many sources. Or, if you wait long enough, watch them for free (eg, Amazon Prime).
Internet only.
Internet
Internet
Internet
We stream most of what we watch, I’m jealous of your fiber connection. We cut the cable a decade ago,
I thought I missed Fox until I was stuck in the hospital for two weeks.
If you aren’t in an area shadowed by hills and mountains, over the air broadcast television is great. Crystal clear picture and no monthly fee.
yeah yeah, my mom was like that back in the 70s I thought it was stupid then and I think it is stupid now
The History Channel is why I convinced myself that I needed cable. But the History Channel is now, a total waste of time. Maybe, MAYBE, once a week, they have a vaguely historical offering. Maybe. The rest is worthless...
There IS a Military History Channel, and, History Channel International, but even these are merely dumping grounds for shows that USED to be on the History Channel.
Smithsonian Channel ain’t too bad though...
I liked it better when it was still "The Hitler Channel."
I like the food channel. I’d watch Laura Calder or Giada burn water if it was televised. Also like Adam Richman on the travel channel. The wealth channel is cool with some interesting stuff sometimes. Restaurant takeover shows are sometimes fun. Bar Rescue is an interesting show as well. Also the DIY home shows are sometimes good. Love Mountain Men on History channel. Burn Notice is coming to an end, but for awhile, it was very cool, very Miami, and very good “blow stuff up” entertainment. There’s a lot out there. Keep perusing!
Depends on how much you want to invest.
I have a ROKU box (Abt $70) (requires a router so it can work off the modem for the Internet) to connect to the TV. With ROKU, I also have Netflix (subscription $9/mo). Hulu and Amazon Prime are other subscription services that operate through ROKU.
With ROKU, you can also add the PLEX channel. The PLEX software is available free. PLEX can connect via your computer (it has to be on) to the Internet to access videos on many TV networks and various video websites. PLEX then plays them through ROKU on your TV.
Netflix/Hulu/Amazon have many movies and TV series. Hulu adds short commercials throughout. Netflix and Amazon are commercial free.
I do kind of still like the Military History Channel
I watch Korean programs now online with subtitles. Less filth and less leftist drivel.
Viki and DramaFever are the two sites I use most.
Stay away from the perverted Japanese cartoons.
I get TV Polonia on the Internet. They have some great Polish series and movies, usually with English Subtitles.
I have a Roku box and use my internet service to get content through it. My only expense is a Netflix streaming account which is about $10 a month (there is also a lot of free content outside Netflix).
The only thing I want want to see on cable TV but can't get through Roku is NFL football but that wouldn't stop me from canceling cable if I could - I'd just see the game in a bar or over a friend's house if I had to.
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