Off topic - cable TV, etc help needed

[WILCO]

[shooterg]

I don't understand much of the above ! But I see Walmart has a 50" Roku TV for $398 ! I'll have to look into this, but I'd still have to keep internet with cable.

[DHurtig]

We have 3 months left on a 2 year contract with Direct TV. Absolutely the worst service I have ever had. Rain= no service, snow = no service, wind = service comes and goes. They accept no responsibility for their service or equipment, meaning no warranty of any kind. We get messages almost daily that internet connection has been lost, check this , reset that, constant headache. They are the most predatory company I have ever dealt with financially. Every 2 to 3 months they try to raise the rate or add on equipment charges or surcharges of some kind. We are on a minimum plan now just to get to the end of the contract, so we get a couple local channels, a few kids channels and about 100 infomercial and shopping channels. For all practical purposes our service in unusable. 9 months into our contract our server went bad and had to be replaced. When the new one came, we returned the old one in the same box.with their pre addressed label. They tried for months to bill us for the old one saying they never received it back. Last rep I spoke to says our contract was extended until Sept 2017 because they replaced the server. I told them I will pay until December and they are getting their stuff back and they will never get another dime from me. When I see someone talking to their reps at the kiosk in our local Sams Club I tell them to stay as far away from DTV as possible.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

"Direct TV" ... " They are the most predatory company I have ever dealt "

I have to agree with this.
I've never done business with them, except one time....sort of? During the Digital signal conversion, when the Government was handing out the $40 coupon to buy a converter, I ordered one from Direct TV, as theirs was the only one I found that advertised a programmable timer and TV Program guide [GuidePlus] built into the converter's software. Technically, I didn't buy it, as the government coupon covered the entire price plus shipping. That was about 2006, and since then, I have been getting advertising junk mail from them, at least once a week.

[MaryB]

DTV is okay for TV, the satellite internet sucks the rear end of a donkey.... never had an issue with the TV side or an issue with my bill. But they DO raise rates way to often and for that reason I am done with them when my courtesy credit runs out($30/Month off for a year). TV is progressively becoming less and less worth watching in my opinion... sitcom humor to me is 6th grade at best, all the reality stuff gets old fast, and the rest of it is all infomercial or religious channels I have no interest in.

Some company needs to come out with a web TV streaming service that offers all the same channel in an online format from one sign up and bill(right now there are a dozen services and that means a dozen bills). I am to old and to poor to do a startup and do it myself!

[retread]

I had Direct TV a number of years ago. I lost the neutral leg to the house and of course it fried everything electronic in the house. I have two DT receivers that I paid $99 when I signed up. I called them and asked if I could send them in for repair. They gave me a price of about $400 for the repairs and I said "WHAT!" Needles to say I dropped them like a hot horseshoe! They kept calling me for years trying to get me to come back. Each time I told them what had transpired and if they wanted me back they could send me two new receivers, free of charge. Each time they said no, but they kept calling! Some people just don't get it.

[A pause for the COZ]

I have been after a cheap way to DVR over the air signals for a couple years now.
There is one feature I cant live with out and has kept me with Dish or Direct tv for years.
I like to pause live TV to answer the wife, phone what ever. Then hit play when I am ready.
Recording programs is some thing I like but was not the major consideration.

The over the Air DVR options that I had seen work but cost a bunch of money. Some even want to charge you a subscription fee.

Nope, not what I am after. I just want to pause live TV to take a pee.

Well this little bugger does just that. If you add a USB memory stick or in my case a USB drive.
It will Pause live tv, Just hit pause and its paused.

Record shows on one channel while watching another. Time recording, ect.
Most of the basic features.
They are not as easy to use. You need to know the channel and date/time. Sort of like the old VCR recordings. But it can be done and done cheap.

$29 w/ free shipping.

haven't used it enough to figure it all out yet. But I have a show paused right now while I am typing this. So YEA!!!





As soon as they turn the fiber up so I can upgrade my internet. I will get Sling TV to get cable channels.
https://www.sling.com/takebacktv?cvo...EP2016_DTCRO30

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have been after a cheap way to DVR over the air signals for a couple years now.

SNIP...

That is why I wanted the programmable tuner I mentioned above. I had a Polaroid brand DVR that required a analog signal. Mostly I wanted the capability to record the movies that were broadcast in the middle of the night, But since Digital broadcast has made it possible for networks to have several channels/sub-channels, there are now 3 movie channels that broadcast movies like some cable channels do, and they repeat them several times during a month of schedule...So I have lost interest in recording movies, there is almost always some movie on, when I want to watch a movie...Or I rent a DVD, if I want to watch a new one. So I gave my DVR and converter to my friend, who sadly is unable to figure the DVR out...It was quite complicated as it could do almost everything, except fry bacon LOL, the manual is a couple hundred pages long.

[DerekP Houston]

DTV is okay for TV, the satellite internet sucks the rear end of a donkey.... never had an issue with the TV side or an issue with my bill. But they DO raise rates way to often and for that reason I am done with them when my courtesy credit runs out($30/Month off for a year). TV is progressively becoming less and less worth watching in my opinion... sitcom humor to me is 6th grade at best, all the reality stuff gets old fast, and the rest of it is all infomercial or religious channels I have no interest in.

Some company needs to come out with a web TV streaming service that offers all the same channel in an online format from one sign up and bill(right now there are a dozen services and that means a dozen bills). I am to old and to poor to do a startup and do it myself!

I'm with you there, I get more entertainment value from this site than I do from most sitcoms or reality shows. We still only have a single tv hooked up to it, and its not in the living room. I won't miss it when the free subscription runs out but my wife might.

[Markbo]

So you're not going to turn her.on to Castboolits.com?