This “documentary” by The Discovery Channel is why I don’t watch the Discovery Channel anymore. When it first came on the air years ago, it was worth watching. Then it went into all natural disasters, all the time mode. Now it has maybe one show that I would think about watching.
Bitter and I plan to drop cable service shortly. It’s horrendously expensive for digital HD, and we hardly watch it. I’d rather save the money and spend it on ammunition, which is more entertaining for me than sitting in front of the boob tube watching overpriced, bad cable programming.
I keep saying I’m gonna drop the satellite too. I hardly ever watch it, and just about anything I would watch I can get on line, or from Netflix.
There’s just not enough watchable content to justify the expense.
Before you drop it totally, you might want to check what kind of digital broadcast reception you get off your antenna. My parents don’t have cable (by choice). When I went down there for Christmas, I checked out their digital reception in preparation for the shutdown of analog broadcasts in Feb. They went from 7 vhf channels with great reception (they are about 25-30 miles from the NYC transmitters) on analog, to ONE perfect digital station and 2 that are mostly watchable (occasional pixelating).
They have a higher end directional antenna but it’s mounted inside the attic of their 2 story house. I’m gonna try and move it outside to the chimney, which is something they were opposed to in the past because of aesthetics and wind-load on the chimmney itself. If that doesn’t do it I’ll probably break down and buy them superbasic cable which for $15-20/month gives them basically what they have now for free.
Dude, I still got Rabbit Ears……….
and when they drop old school analog broadcasting for digital HD, they can keep it. No loss for me. It’s like you said, more $$ for ammo. I can just watch LOST or Family Guy online.
I basically dropped Cable/Satellite a few years ago. I live solely off of Netflix (and their Netflix Watch-it-now service via Xbox360) and the occasional iTunes download.
I have a [somewhat] broadband Internet connection (from a cable company at about $44/month, but if FIOS ever gets here…) but dropped the TV part a couple of years ago.
I go through Usenet (subscribe to GigaNews circa $28/month vs an added $70+ for cable TV, use XNews reader freebie) and “subscribe” (no money) to a couple of groups like alt.binaries.tv for downloading. Doesn’t get everything by any means, but enough that I can barely watch what is available – including some British and Australian shows. And I have had TV_output video cards in my PC for decades : even pre-Web I was participating in BBSs (precursor of blogs) using a 44-inch TV instead of a monitor (and chuckilng about the guy who bragged of having a not-available-commercially 20-inch “huge” monitor).
And Web streaming is [finally] entering the equivalent of puberty with at least some shows available from the over-the-air channels.
I’m strongly considering chucking the cable too. I hate that I’ll miss Wednesday nights on the Outdoor Channel, but yeah – the money can be spent better elsewhere.
I actually realized we could buy about 5-9 dvds a month if we wanted entertainment. We could buy a full season or two of most tv shows each month. It’s nuts! We won’t do that, of course, but it shows just how insane the price of cable is at this point.
There are some good shows, but cable is useless for what you have to pay for. I myself have satellite (Direct TV) and find it far more worth it in terms of choices and cost. Look into some of the deals you that you can get with satellite and take it from there.
IMHO Cable is crap, and the people who work the sales for my local one (Charter) are the biggest douche-bags this side of the Mason Dixon. I personally wouldn’t give them a dime……
Cable’s useful if you want sports; if I could get the ABC/ESPN family of channels alone I’d be pretty okay, just buying DVDs of shows I like. I will say that I wouldn’t tune in especially for Dirty Jobs, but I’ll watch it if it’s on.
so was the federal mandate to go to digital TV a favor for cable companies or those who would benefit from the old analog TV spectrum, like google?
There are other shows besides MB on there that aren’t all bad, but not many. My TV has been DVD only for the last few years. A buddy (gasp!) doesn’t even have a TV and when that was made know at a recent holiday party was questioned endlessly…surprised he got out of there without full cavity search.
I like “How its Made” and USA and Spike. I get it in a package with the fios phone and internet. The 4 history channels are good and some SCI FI.
Weather Channel and cable news Fox and Fox business. CNN and BBC had more news on the Georgia/ Russia conflict.
I agree with 200 channels there is rarely anything I watch.
Do it! I dropped cable over ten years ago and have regretted it for a minute.
Er, have not regretted it. Grrrrr.
“How it’s Made” and “Dirty Jobs” aren’t that bad either, but overall Discovery’s been going down the tube, along with most of the rest of cable.
I was watching a “documentary” on Discovery today about execution devices that was so full of non-sequiters and misleading information I had to turn it off.
Almost four years ago I forgot to pay the cable bill and they shut it off. When I turned on the TV and found nothing but static I called the company the next day and asked if there was a problem with the cable.
They told me there was no problem, I had been shut off for non-payment… more than three weeks before.
I realized then and there I was paying for something I didn’t use anyway, wrote the check for what I owed them and canceled the service.
Haven’t missed it since.
When I visit friends and watch TV with them I am constantly amazed at the complete garbage that is on the air and never regret I no longer have service.
Mythbusters was good, but turned st00pid when they started “testing” obviously false myths. Having said that, there are two great shows on DC: Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs. I am, however, getting ticked that Investigation Discovery still isn’t broadcasting HD.
By way of broadcasting landmarks, my cable TV went away round about the end of season four of Babylon 5. In all that time I truly haven’t missed it. There are only two shows I really want to watch: The Daytona 500 and the Indy 500. And if I miss Daytona I don’t really get that upset about it. At least as of last year both were on broadcast that I could pull in with my antenna.
Now if I could only break my blogging addiction that has replaced my former TV addiction I might actually have some time to get to the range!
If I dropped the cable TV I have, my broadband bill would go *up* (strange but true – naked broadband from comcast is more expensive than broadband+limited basic). I don’t recall the last time I turned on the TV prior to the ball drop (which I probably could have found streamed).
Probably 90% of the programming we watch is cable (over satellite), and not the trash on network TV. I couldn’t live without Spike, the NHL Channel, Fox Sports Pittsburgh, or Versus. I could easily live without NBC, CBS, ABC, or Fox, especially since none of our local providers are broadcasting more than a few shows in HD.
Unfortunately, dropping the networks isn’t an option.