We got TV, it's on probation.

[frkelly74]

For the last 4 years or so we have not been connected to a television source. I got mad at having to pay a cable/ sputnick company and still having to sit through the hard sell part of the programming mix. So we let it lapse and the silence was golden. We would still on occasion get a whole season of a show like NCIS, or Monk, or Lie To Me from the library and binge out on it for a treat with no commercial breaks at all. It was great and the library had an immense selection and the ability to borrow more from all the other libraries in the county. Well we moved back to the land of long shadows and the library system here is not so hot. So, Menards had an antenna for digital reception on sale with a rebate for $.99 plus tax and postage for the rebate, so I got one and it works pretty well. We can get 7 or 8 channels, CBS NBC PBS among them. The commercials have gotten worse but at least it is free and there is a channel that broadcasts shows like Green Acres and others of that vintage. And there is ION TV with shows like Criminal Minds, I saw an episode of Columbo and an old X Files and enjoyed them, I admit it. But the first day or so was when the shooter at las vegas was the hot story and all the wild speculation and "we gotta do something" was pouring forth and I found my blood pressure rising. Yesterday was Columbus day and on the 11 oclock local news the news reader was delivering the story of a statue of Columbus someplace out east that was defaced with red paint and right at the end in the same ho ho ho santa clause voice announced that "Columbus brutalized and enslaved the Native Americans that he encountered." So I think that he was happy to see the statue with red paint on it. Still plenty of absolute garbage on the air for sure.

[Remiel]

Yeah that statue was on my neck of the woods and the news keeps cutting to the same rosie odonnel looking woman to get her opinion on the matter, meanwhile Cuomo is touting the safe law as a model for the country and adding bumpstocks to an already vague law, it feels like he may be setting up for a presidential run.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[3leggedturtle]

If I have a TV I watch a lot. If I don't have one, really don't miss it. I watch shows from the 80's and earlier, and the History shows. Todd/3leg

[MyFlatline]

Ours has been cut for a few years, don't miss watching fake news, homosexual-Bi-Racial Sitcoms and overpaid pompous pro athletes...Did I miss anyone?

[Hickory]

My TV quit working in 1978 or 79, my mind is blissfully unbrainwashed and not contaminated with, (full in the blank.)

[white eagle]

yes its 5 min worth of television and 15 min worth of ads
b.s for sure

[sparkyv]

Ours has been cut for a few years, don't miss watching fake news, homosexual-Bi-Racial Sitcoms and overpaid pompous pro athletes...Did I miss anyone?

We just cut the cable in my house for many of these same reasons, especially the NFL. Now just on antenna and although there is quite a bit of garbage over the air, at least I'm no longer paying for it (at least not directly).

[Finster101]

Like you I have an antenna in the attic (we get hurricanes you know). I watch mostly news and PBS when they have something I'm interested on. PBS has some good cooking shows on on the weekends.

[RogerDat]

I would go 100% internet for video and music entertainment but spouse is very engaged (fixated) on the dancing shows. She is a dancer so those shows must remain. I told her we could get an antenna since any tv antenna gets digital, antenna is only different to be optimized for different frequencies but any signal in those frequencies can be pulled in. Tuners on tv have to be able to handle the digital signal. So with antenna we would see those dancing programs and I could pick what to watch and when from the internet the rest of the time.

She insists she would be missing something but I'm pretty sure she wouldn't. And she isn't sure what it would be so I can't confirm the unknown program will be available. My super power of research and comparison has met her kryptonite of stubbornness so we still have cable.

[smokeywolf]

About 20+ years ago I got tired of shelling out more money for cable than water and sewer. Switched to satellite and made a deal with the satellite company to pay once a year. 3 years later the switcher went out and they wanted too much to replace it. Went without any connections for about 10+ years; never felt deprived. Been watching internet TV for about 7 years. Watch mostly documentaries, westerns and some of the old 3 camera, shot-on-film sitcoms. We also have a library of about 500 DVDs.

Have always been very careful, very picky of what kind of news and programming my children get exposed to.

[GhostHawk]

We did not cut the cable, but we did throttle it back severely.

Kept the good internet, put the cable back to 35$ a month basic. Bought a Amazon fire stick, then the bigger fire tv. We put 10$ a month into Netflix. And between those and a few programs we get off the big 3 networks we have plenty to watch.

We have been watching a lot of BBC, PBS programing. All with no commercials.
We do pay for prime, but as far as I am concerned it pays for itself a couple times over.

This last summer we watched Fire tv and Netflix almost exclusively. Now the new shows are back on we roughly split time between cable and amazon.

Love the control.

100$ for the box, 200$ for prime and all of amazon's video is at your fingertips plus music.

[Plate plinker]

Well Ghosthawk you need something to do on those nasty winter days up there. I imagine by late January your reloading is done for a year.

[Lloyd Smale]

with my bad back I cant allways get out and do what I want and to be honest would be lost without a tv. I wouldn't settle for an antenna because you mostly get abc nbc and cbs on them and there probably the worse and most commercialized stations on the tv. that said about half the channels I get I take right off the menu because I have absolutely no interest in them. Dish and cable company's need to get real and let a guy buy only the channels he wants. Angers me that I have to pay money for shopping networks, a whole bunch of sports channels and even Spanish speaking channels, cooking channels and even soap opera channels and other trash they lump in with these packages.

[GhostHawk]

I do watch some tv in the daytime, mostly off the wall, documentarys, or outdoors/wildlife stuff.

Reloading is done in the basement, summers are cool down there, winters are cooler. But a lightweight longsleeved shirt =cast and reload in comfort. So both casting and reloading happen on a "as needed" situation. I have not had a lot of energy for shooting of late so the reloading "need" factor is way low. Winter is coming though and I do have plenty of pistol brass, plus .223, 7.62x39 and .30-30 brass to fill if I can find the ambition.




Well Ghosthawk you need something to do on those nasty winter days up there. I imagine by late January your reloading is done for a year.

[GhostHawk]

Lloyd you are exactly correct. We should have a list of channels on a web page, with a price per month for the channel. And we should be able to pick and choose. And we should be able any month to go change those channels.

Our cable provider recently told us our rates are going up to pay for sports programing which I never ever watch. Burns my butt. Make the guys who watch it pay for it.

[marlin39a]

I have a 60" Vizio, and Dish network. I blocked the offensive channels. We mostly enjoy TCM, RFD TV, and Fox News.

[tja6435]

We have internet only for tv. I bought an antenna with a supposed 150 mile range (Denver is 150 miles from here) and we get zero reception on it. If I want to proceed chasing broadcast tv, I have to buy an antenna mast at least 80' high. Not worth it to me, but I appreciate being removed from the constant tv going in the background all the time. And I appreciate our boys being very restricted in what they get to watch, and even at that they usually don't watch much more than 2 hr of tv per week. Some weeks, zero tv---they prefer going outside and helping

[MT Gianni]

My long range antenna gets a PBS station. I haven't missed it. My wife watches amazon prime when she wants to see something or library dvd's. I go on the news web site and pick stories I want to see every three days or so.

[MyFlatline]

with my bad back I cant allways get out and do what I want and to be honest would be lost without a tv. I wouldn't settle for an antenna because you mostly get abc nbc and cbs on them and there probably the worse and most commercialized stations on the tv. that said about half the channels I get I take right off the menu because I have absolutely no interest in them. Dish and cable company's need to get real and let a guy buy only the channels he wants. Angers me that I have to pay money for shopping networks, a whole bunch of sports channels and even Spanish speaking channels, cooking channels and even soap opera channels and other trash they lump in with these packages.

Just like an Insurance policy..When I had O'care I was covered for birth control and pregnancy. Man would I be one rich SOB if that were to happen.

I hear what you are saying but I'm afraid it is to late for that.

[DerekP Houston]

I have cable tv on exactly one tv...my wife's in the bedroom. We cut the cord ~5-6 years ago before we got married due to tight finances and I found I never really missed it. The only reason we have it at the moment was the internet/tv package deal was a far better option than the "internet only" package from AT&T for a similar price at slower speeds. Once we move we will probably go back to internet only since the promo deal has worn off.

I can find almost anything I want to online or via netflix/amazon and I prefer not to watch all the ad's for stuff I don't really need. Bad enough on the wallet perusing gun sites and the swapping and selling on here, I don't need any more help spending money!

If I could pick and choose which channels I wanted to pay for then it would be a different story, but like most of yall I don't watch 95% of them and stick to the history channel, discovery channel, travel channel, etc. If I wanted to see people look like idiots I just go to walmart.

[dbosman]

What I want to know is what happened to the deal where "we" agreed to ads in exchange for limited commercials. FCC imposed and regulated. With cable we pay the cable fee, the cable company pays the networks, and "we" still have to put up with commercials.

[FISH4BUGS]

My son and I took our TV to the range some 25 years ago and machine gunned it and finished it off with a Serbu Super Shorty. It was very liberating.
Haven't had TV since. No VCR, no movies, nothing. Don't miss it one bit.
You would be surprised at how much you can get done without a TV or a reason to be a vegetable in front of some brain deadening object.
...and yes, we cleaned up the mess.