Had it up to here [points to gullet] with the endless expanses of nothingness on standard cable TV. It’s not that there’s nothing on, just that every time we sit down we have usually half hour or so and just want to be entertained for a bit. More often than not the burrito is done before the commercials finally end, and what’s on is just plain bleak, unsatisfying. There are a few things we like, but the likelihood of them being on when we have free time is slim. Tivo seems like the grail, but to have that, you have to subscribe both to Tivo and to the cable or satellite to feed it.
Feh. Mutiny. Jacked in the 50-year-old antenna on top of the new house and whoa, we get almost a dozen network channels, most of them fairly clear. Unfortunately this also means no 24 hr news and no trigger happy tv, but we’re going to live with this for a while and see how it goes.
Gotta use that VCR to FF commercials and online tvguide.com to get what you need.
Comedy central and HBO seem worth it sometimes.
Sometimes I watch FOX to compare their bullshit
with my own.
When cable companies figure it out and offer a la carte pricing – say, $2 per channel per month, or maybe everything pay-per-view at a quarter a show – I’ll get cable again. Until then, it’s a waste of money. I only watched 5 or 6 channels with any regularity: TLC, CNN, PBS, (broadcast) FOX, Comedy Central, and Science Channel. VH1 Classic when over at friends who had the expensive package.
Seems like advertisers would love to have audiences who were paying specifically for the channel — why haven’t cablecos done this yet? Infrastructure reasons?
I haven’t had cable since I moved out in the mid-80s, at first because my neighborhood wasn’t wired, then, by the time they finally plugged us in a few years ago, I didn’t care anymore.
It’s not such a bad life. We get, I think, five PBS affiliates and several foreign-language stations, and I can rent pretty much anything else I want to see (eventually).
netflix. it’s awesome. everytime i go to col’s she has a good movie to watch. and we were tweaking her up-and-coming list the other day.
only problem: a movie lasts longer than a burrito.
cheaper than cable though.
I’m a happy Dish Network customer. And I’ve noticed that Dish Network seems to have tivo-esque boxes for sale at CompUSA. They also have a few HD channels, so if you want to go that route you can order their HD kit instead of the standard one. It’s expensive.
-Jim
>only problem: a movie lasts longer than a burrito
I defy you to find the movie that lasts longer than THIS burrito:
http://www.sfbg.com/Extra/aln/bloat.html
Hmm… there’s already a dish on our house. If we find we just can’t swing it without The Fifth Wheel, I should check into having it activated and have a look at their PVRs.
Instead of buying a PVR – how about a tuner with Firewire connection?
I’ve thought about it, Lars. Would necessitate putting a server in teh living room to feed the TV, which I’d rather not do and I KNOW my wife wouldn’t be into it. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to make the case :)
Ah, She Who Must Be Obeyed :-) But a good point.
I am thinking about getting a TV tuner myself (and then watch the recorded programs directly on my Mac), but I also have the advantage that our house has cable outlets in virtually every room.
In theory the house is also wired with 10Base ethernet, but having Wi-Fi I never looked into that.
I haven’t had any cable for the past 20-15 years and I am more than happy with it. Mind you – I am NOT one a peace-love-new-age-granola-hippy-chick that is anti-tv. Hardly! I have stood bizarre interpretive dance configurations just to get proper reception while religously watching Buffy the Vampre Slayer. AND I have enjoyed zoning in front of a guest’s TV or a hotel TV watching the History Channel. But I have not missed it in my home – nor do I miss the monthly costs. You pay a lot of money every month just to watch more of NOTHING and before you know it, you’ve wasted 3 hours watching nothing and all the same shit you had to do 3 hours ago still need to be done.
So I feel like I am missing out on nothing.
Lauren, I totally agree. It’s been nearly a year now and still no cable. I still miss The Daily Show and occasional access to CNN, but overall we’re more than happy without. Seems the TV wasteland gets more and more bleak every month.