BellGab.com Archive

I've done it before for an extended period, and I'm thinking of doing it again as my cable bill is due to rise by another $30 this month.     I don't watch a lot of TV.  I try to avoid crap like Honey Boo Boo and the rest of the garbage on the "Learning Channel."  I watch a little Canadian programming on CBC, a few shows on network TV, a few shows on MeTV, vintage Doctor Who, and that's about it.  Nine times out of ten, I'm watching something that I don't even need cable TV for.

I already have Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime streaming, and I can add Hulu Plus for a few bucks a month. 

Anyone else make due with over-the-air channels?

Quote from: HorrorRetro on January 18, 2013, 02:11:39 PM
I've done it before for an extended period, and I'm thinking of doing it again as my cable bill is due to rise by another $30 this month.     I don't watch a lot of TV.  I try to avoid crap like Honey Boo Boo and the rest of the garbage on the "Learning Channel."  I watch a little Canadian programming on CBC, a few shows on network TV, a few shows on MeTV, vintage Doctor Who, and that's about it.  Nine times out of ten, I'm watching something that I don't even need cable TV for.

I already have Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime streaming, and I can add Hulu Plus for a few bucks a month. 

Anyone else make due with over-the-air channels?

         Yeah, I ditched HBO last year and Showtime in 2008. I really watch maybe a dozen channels tops and even then it's sporadic. I don't watch much TV either, it's often on in the background. M'lady wasn't thrilled about giving up the HBO, but I basically asked to list what new movies/shows she'd watched in the past year. It stumped her. She came up with turkeys like the latest Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler turds(I never watched)...she basically watched 7 new movies in a year. Hardly worth what I was paying.

We were paying an exorbitant amount of money for cable/internet/phone from AT&T and decided to cut the cable. I don't watch TV but my husband does; however, cable was the most costly item on the bill.

Interestingly, when we called to cut the cable, they started making offers. I could hardly believe what this woman was saying, she started at $210 for the whole "package" and by the time we were finished, we had THE EXACT SAME SERVICE plus some pay channels, internet and phone for $99 a month, locked in for a year.

In other words, they bargain with you. We were just up front and honest: we could not afford over two hundred bucks a month for their services.

When I called Cox to stop their internet, they did the same thing. I was really angry because if we'd been able to have internet for fifteen dollars, we'd never have switched to AT&T.

I should call the Kansas Power And Light Company and say, "We just can't afford you anymore. Now, for ten bucks a month, we might be able to deal..."

It could work.

Quote from: HorrorRetro on January 18, 2013, 02:11:39 PM

Anyone else make due with over-the-air channels?

When I first moved to my current apartment complex, the previous renter's cable remained on for over a year, then got cut to some basic channels like Travel and Weather. I grumbled a little, but I hate cable companies and their practice of offering teaser rates to new subscribers that increase periodically, raising rates in general, and playing little games with channel availability.

A few months ago I moved to a new unit and now get ZERO channels.  I can get whatever I need from YouTube and torrent sites.  Cable just isn't necessary. I'm also of the opinion that TV/movies are mostly vile garbage I couldn't watch anyway.  I don't even have a DVD player, and I've not set foot in a theater in more than a decade.

I cut the cable in 1998.  Now with Amazon prime streaming, and 22 hi-def digital channels over the air, I see no need for it at all.

I dropped cable about 2 years ago. I have hulu and reluctantly have netflix for another 3 months.


There are too many options for TV to have to pay a subscription price. I use EZtv, a torrent site. I just found www.torrenting.com. I also use tpb. I don't see programs as they are broadcast but wait for a day and can see almost any program I want.


I see movies much sooner than they show on the so-called movie channels. I haven't missed the television/movie/phone service from the local provider.

No Cable or internets bills paid at my place for almost a year now.  God Bless wifi and it's inherent security flaws.

Quote from: ziznak on January 18, 2013, 05:20:45 PM
No Cable or internets bills paid at my place for almost a year now.  God Bless wifi and it's inherent security flaws.

But you're stealing someone else's signal.

Quote from: Sardondi on January 18, 2013, 05:25:02 PM
But you're stealing someone else's signal.

Maybe it's kinda like sharing that signal.

Quote from: Sardondi on January 18, 2013, 05:25:02 PM
But you're stealing someone else's signal.

you make it sound so dirty

had cable tv removed three or four years ago. use eztv (wOOT @ MVgroup and LOL), torrenting dot com, 1Channel, YouTube and most any network that provides episodes of anything i might consider watching online. with the last two, i never worry about seeing any ads while using Firefox (which provides me with a means of downloading anything i want to view later). I also use netflix steaming about three months out of the year and then cancel it.
my total time viewing any programming per week is about 12 hours. i still keep a library card and considering getting an electronic reading device. i use tracfone for my communications and have never upgraded from a simple flip phone and average only a few hours use within a three month service time. my mp3 player gets the most use and helps in avoiding the unending crap most people make much of when they feel the need.
anywho.... i don't miss or have a use for cable TV.   

Yeah, I think we're going to cut it.  I used to keep it around because I was a news junkie and always had the news on in the background.  However, this past election from hell has cured me of that.  I rarely watch the news anymore.  If necessary, I can find a free stream online.  I already have a Tivo which allows for YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, etc, and it records over-the-air channels.   What bites is that we use Comcast, and they also provide my internet, which actually takes up the majority of the bill.  We have only Comcrap or Clear Wireless for internet here.

There is nothing on cable worth paying for. Even channels that once were good have went the way of hillbilly "reality" tv. te4levsion is pure garbage.

I had a couple Best Buy gift certificates sitting around here, so we went and bought a Roku tonight.  It's going to make cutting the cable much easier, I think. I was excited to see a grindhouse channel and lots of vintage horror channels.  It overlaps with a few of the services my Tivo has, but there are hundreds of Roku channels too.  Going to hook up our antenna tomorrow and see what over-the-air channels we can get, and then we'll call Comcrap and cancel our cable.

I had cable shut off about two years ago, but the guy never disconnected it at the box, so I had basic cable for free for a year and a half or so, until the people next door signed up and they finally disconnected mine. I bought an over-the-air antenna (8X10 inches and the thickness of a laminated piece of paper) from Go Mohu and I get all the local networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS, ION) all in HD. Two things about over-the-air HD: 1) There's no snow or other interference. You either have a picture or you don't. 2) Each station can have a number of substations (looks like 4 max) so the local FOX affiliate on channel 47 runs ME TV (mostly the same stuff TV Land airs) on 47.2.

I miss ESPN, but it isn't worth the $60+ a month basic cable would cost. Memo to cable industry: switch to al la carte at a reasonable price per station and I'm back tomorrow. I'm not paying for six shopping channels anymore.

Been putting it off for as long as I can, but I'm about to cut the line.
I've always had TV, so I'm pretty nervous about it.  I signed up for Netflix, but I do like to watch the local news stations.  I don't subscribe to the local newspaper anymore and its website is a nightmare to navigate.
I don't have an outside antenna and can't really climb a ladder to put one up myself.  We have an over-the-air box at work without one and it's horrible.  The picture freezes and breaksup, and the voice warbles.  I answer the phone, so I can't escape behind headphones. 
Guess I'll just hold my breath and jump.   

Quote from: Treading Water on January 19, 2013, 09:43:25 AM
I don't subscribe to the local newspaper anymore and its website is a nightmare to navigate.
   

They all are. Someday one newspaper will forget about paywalls and wringing the last dime of profit out of its website and create a site with enough advertising to pay the bills and that's easy to navigate. I think they'll be surprised at their success.

I'm at least 20 miles from the transmitters for the stations here, and most of the time the signal is fine, with occasional disruption when a big truck goes by.

I, too, hate the local news websites.  For me, it's the glaring grammatical errors that drive me crazy.  No one proofreads anymore.  Anyway, an alternative to those sites are the local Patch sites that offer local stories and information.  We have several for the communities all around me, so I get pretty good coverage from them.  They are not in all states though.  http://www.patch.com/ 

I think Patch is actually written by people working in the Phillipines and Brazil at very low wages, converting police blotter content etc into news. Then there is some overworked and underpaid editor here in the US that gives all the overseas-generated content a look before publishing.

I'm astounded in this day of cheap server space, that so many newspapers kill the links to their old articles.  The old articles are a wealth of information and would lead a lot of people doing research to their pages.  Since the pages are set up to display today's ads, it would mean more page views for the advertisers - something that should help the newspapers sell ads.

My wife and I cut the cable when our daughter turned 3 (she's now 11).  It was a scary idea at first, but now when I see standard TV, I am astonished at how hateful and irritating so many of the commercials and programs are.  We get Netflix and have recently introduced our daughter to X Files (only the monster-of-the-week and alien-abduction episodes -- not the creepy serial killer episodes), Farscape, Monarch of the Glen (Anglo-philes that we are) and such.  One of the benefits is that she could not hum a Justin Bieber song to save her life.  I heard that the average American spends something like 9 hours a day in contact with various forms of media (TV, radio, internet, magazines, etc.).  Of those 9 hours, about 3-4 minutes are spent with actual books.  We've pretty much established the inverse of that figure in our house.  Of course, I suppose she may hate us when she hits the teen years, but for now, all is well. 

I know that my contact with the radio has dropped greatly since Art Bell left the airwaves.

I do broadcast cable for $12/month and then Hulu and Netflix. Total cost: $33/month

        I cut the cable about a year ago. Surrendered my DVRs and have never looked back. It is a sign of the times, there's not nearly nothin' left on the dial for bright people, unless you watch a lot of sports in which case cable is useful. The few shows I watch I grab from iTunes.

Small update.  We cancelled cable TV a few days ago now.  We still have Comcast's internet, since we have very few choices where we are.  Funny thing is we now get very basic cable for free.  We get all the network channels and their subchannels; Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which is one I watch regularly; a local regional news channel; and a few channels like Hallmark, TLC, etc.  When I'd watch TV, those were the channels I was watching most often anyway, so I was paying a crap load when I could have been getting them for free all along. 

For awhile I was getting the cable package for 'Spanish speakers'.   Everything I had been getting plus a few more Spanish stations at about 60% of the regular cable cost for dumb gringos.  I ended up being lured away from that by getting the phone/internet/cable package deal for a year.

No, I don't speak Spanish. 

Quote from: McPhallus on January 18, 2013, 04:11:05 PM
When I first moved to my current apartment complex, the previous renter's cable remained on for over a year, then got cut to some basic channels like Travel and Weather. I grumbled a little, but I hate cable companies and their practice of offering teaser rates to new subscribers that increase periodically, raising rates in general, and playing little games with channel availability.

A few months ago I moved to a new unit and now get ZERO channels.  I can get whatever I need from YouTube and torrent sites.  Cable just isn't necessary. I'm also of the opinion that TV/movies are mostly vile garbage I couldn't watch anyway.  I don't even have a DVD player, and I've not set foot in a theater in more than a decade.

I didn't catch the name of it, but I saw at Wal Mart tonight a little thing that looked like a thumb drive which supposedly gives you internet tv channels, free movies and more. Couldn't see the price for it but was amused that they had this HUGE display full of the things about 20 feet away from a guy who was at a table trying to get people to sign up for Comcast. I have Comcast and hate them, one reason is that they ( and other cable providers ) refuse to let customers choose their own content. I don't need the Indian channel, the Tagalog channel and the like. I don't watch basketball or hockey. I have theoretical access to 500 channels yet so much of it is premium sports or foreign language crap.

I'm hoping eventually to get an antenna to get the local channels and then I'd only need the Weather Channel and the various business channels. I'm old school and still like my movies on disc and am slowly buying blue ray and upgrading films from tape or cd. I've had too  many drives stop working and DON'T like Apple's push to eliminate CD drives. That choice should be up to me not them.

I ditched cable and satellite a long time ago. Best decision I ever made.


I now use Amazon prime ($79/YEAR). In my opinion, the best deal around, especially if you order a lot of things through Amazon (FREE 2 DAY SHIPPING), as I do.


Additionally, what`s not on Amazon can usually be found on Youtube, Vimeo, or some other free site.

For those switching to over the air - I just bought a set of RCA rabbit ears for less than $9.00 from Amazon.  I understand that some Big Lots have it even cheaper.  It works wonderfully - better than the powered antennas I've bought in the past.  I get by with my local channels and Amazon Prime.

I don't have cable and don't watch terrestrial, but I got a Roku. It works very well, even on my crappy 3G connection.

We have a new Roku too.  I haven't used it very much, but I've watched a few documentaries on it.  I saw they have at least one grindhouse channel, so that'll be perfect for me when I feel like movie.

Regarding Amazon Prime, if you have a college .edu e-mail account, you can get it for $39 per year, and that carries over for a full four years.  I've been on this plan for a couple of years.  It's a great deal and, as far as I know, it's exactly the same as a full-priced account.  I get the 2-day free shipping as well as the streaming and other benefits.