How do you watch TV?

[stroguy]

I am ready to axe DirectTV, too much money for crap I never watch.

I need 3 sports, baseball for sure, Football and hockey as well. But I don't watch a lot of other stuff. TCM and some other movie channels. Don't have HBO or any other pay movie channels.

I have 3 TV's, living room, bedroom and out at the pool in the cabana. None are smart TV's. But of course I have wifi internet and an iPad.

What do you do?

[tommyb]

Your setup is practically the same as mine, but all 3 sets are Samsung smart TV's. I only watch a handful of channels and the rest I can do without. In my world you would be able to pick exactly what channels you want and pay only for the time the tv is actually on. Dream on, right?

[F6B1911]

I went through that dilemna a while back, the monthly bills always had a habit of "Rapid Rise" syndrome.
It's exactly as you describe, too much money for crap I never watched, and got tired of playing the switch game after the 12-month discount ended.
In the Detroit metro area, both cable and satelite dish offerings treat the consumer like they are morons, and neither has the sense to offer ala carte menus, so I refuse to use their products.
I went out and bought the largest HD antenna I could find which gives me all of the channels in my area.
An Apple TV with a Synology NAS was a nice little addition for TV and movies.
I have no monthly bill, but no sports channels, if I need to watch a game, I'll hit the local pub.


If you're even a little internet saavy, you'd be amazed what you can find on usenet.

[willtill]

My old lady pays for the Cable TV (Verizon FIOS package - complete). If it were me, I'd ditch the Cable TV and just keep the Internet connection. We also have a Amazon Fire TV with a Netflix subscription... that's all I need...

[zzh54]

The start of this past summer was the end of my cable. The bill was getting out of hand. All though I don't watch much sports, I can make plans with friends or local bar to watch what I need. As for now My daughter has an account with Netflix and I have account with Hulu that we share.

[Bill_C]

I dialed it back to an internet connection (no cable, dish, etc.) and then added Netflix. There's also lots of content on the internet in general, but it takes a little searching and patience. In a pinch I can rent/stream a movie through my smart TV. Overall it can be a little boring, but that forces me to find something else to do.

[Bighutch14]

I cut the cord for about a year. The reason i went back was because of sports. It gets difficult when theres a big game I want to watch when I dont have cable. Saved plenty of money and its very easy to do, but you need to change your sports viewing habits.

[opas ride]

I have 4 TV's in various rooms, older ones but they work great..2 Sharps and 2 Samsungs...My cable bill from AT&T is " terrible" and I always call and complain every quarter about price hikes and why...Sometime I get a decent break, other times not so much..I have my house phone, computer/internet, and televisions, including the four cable boxes required with the main DVR and it costs me about $210 a month which "sucks"...As said earlier only about 10 channels out of the 300 I have are worth a "shit', but in order to get the church channel for my wife and a couple sports channels for me I have to buy the whole deal.....Damned if you do and damned if you don't...

[Steve 0080]

I/we have AT&T Uverse..... Smokin fast internet, ( mine ) the rest of the stuff is hers...I don't watch TV as a rule. If there is a game on I want to see it is there, if outside our area I will go to a pub and drink tea and watch the game. WE turned off our home phone years ago and only use a cell. The cost of watching the TV is a crime....

[Old Ryder]

I am ready to axe DirectTV, too much money for crap I never watch.

I need 3 sports, baseball for sure, Football and hockey as well. But I don't watch a lot of other stuff. TCM and some other movie channels. Don't have HBO or any other pay movie channels.

I have 3 TV's, living room, bedroom and out at the pool in the cabana. None are smart TV's. But of course I have wifi internet and an iPad.

What do you do?

Hey Stro--I have done this for the last 2 years and it works!!!! Trust me. Call and cancel Direct TV!!!!! I did it for the 2nd time Tuesday.

Now you must completely quit with a cancel date and everything. Within a few days they will call you back with lower prices, but you have to do the complete song and dance of telling them to pick their stuff up and wait for them to call. I get the total choice package 212 channels with DVR and service for 2 TVs for $65 per month. I add the MLB package in March (Yankees fan BTW)

[seadog]

Charter cable is a greedy outfit but the direct TV and the others are almost as bad. But you put a dish in the yard and the first few drops of rain or snow flakes takes those out. So I am stuck with the greedy Charter cable, I have the sports package and extend basic and the HD. High speed internet, and phone. They are reaming us pretty good for all that at close to 200 a month.

[dkooris]

We've also decided that it's kind of stupid to pay $110 a month to watch TV, and we don't even have premium channels. Getting a new Roku, cutting back to basic cable at $17 per month, and keeping Netflix. Most shows stream online now anyways. I'll miss the old movies, but you can rent them, and it's far cheaper and more fun to go to a bar to watch the big game. Next is the landline, but I'm getting a lot of pushback on that from the wife.

Geoff in CT

[stroguy]

All great inputs and I thank everyone. I think I am going to axe the satellite and go with an aerial HDTV antenna. There are so many free channels in Houston and my Spanish needs some help. I'll investigate the Roku and maybe a smart TV but I just cannot stomach $1400 cold hard cash every year for what I watch. That's a Vegas trip right there.

Today has been all college football on what would be a free station over the air.

Again, thanks everyone for great information.

[NAHD]

I kinda don't mind the Simpsons and if I get real lazy on saturday I like Rawhide and the Rifleman ME TV. John Prine had the best idea for the TV.

[53driver]

Yeah, I don't watch it. My wife has Dish, and every internet service imaginable.
73" effing bright "movie theater" scree with a 2,000W surround sound system.

I watch a few DVDs every now and again.
I have every James Bond movie.....
And Pirates of the Caribbean.
And the Carol Burnett Show....
And sometimes a football game....
And every Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes cartoon DVD....

[Bob Penn]

About 10 years ago I canceled, Dish Net, service and bought the longest range antenna I could find. I ended up buying from, Radio Shack for $149.00. I don't know, are they still in business?

The real trick was to buy an antenna direction controller (An additional $75 ) that I installed when I put the new antenna up. I can now control the direction the antenna is pointing from the comfort of my easy chair for perfectly clear pictures.
I now get 74 channels including all the 4 major networks ( they show more then enough sports to satisfy me ) and 2 PBS networks with 6 channels of cooking shows, Nova, and home repair shows. Making me fatter smarter and tired.

I haven't paid for TV in 10 years. :moon:

As far as I'm concerned it isn't the computer that is killing TV! It's the pricing and the poor programming.

[edgeman55]

It's all what your looking for I guess.I have a 60" 4K ultra HD TV and 7.1 surround.Ultra fast internet and WiFi and all the sports,movies,shows.All for 170.00 a month from Charter.That's about 6 bucks a day for a whole shitpot of entertainment.Sure beats the shit out of TV in my youth with 5 channels and rabbit ears to spin around all on a whopping 19" B&W TV.Would I like it to be cheaper why sure but heck I can't take the mula with me when I'm gone so I am going to spend it and enjoy it all with the money my kids,grandkids think they will get-LOL.