Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02
Host:
Road Runner
PC gaming GAMES
PC gaming Tech
| reply to kamm
Re: Exactly my plan...
I canceled DirecTV last summer.
Honestly the only thing I miss is NFL football. Most everything else can be found in some variety elsewhere.
Enjoying the Netflix streaming. It's the first service I've used that I feel is priced fairly and doesn't annoy me. Find I'm actually reading books. Go figure. |
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Mizzat
Will post for thumbs
Premium
join:2003-05-03
Atlanta, GA
 ·AT&T Southeast
2 edits | Funny Article. I've been doing just that for 2 years. I've got a 46" LCD and no cable, friends think I'm absurd until they see now nice free HD OTA (over-the-air) is. Sure I don't get discovery or ESPN, but I get enough to get me by. I used Blockbuster because it is just as easy to run around the block and trade in my DVD I got in the mail and pick out another one I want to watch. $18 a month as well with tax. I also used my SkyMiles that I never used to get a few magazine subscriptions for free. I've plenty to do and with programs like Boxee coming out that make my HTPC even easier to view things like Hulu, online radio, and many other multimedia sites, I'm happy as a clam!
I make real decent money, and I'm not fearing a layoff, but with me in school for my MBA and plenty of other things to do. I don't miss cable a bit, once you become OTA, it starts to become somewhat of a hobby for me. That is, finding other things to do besides sitting in front of the TV. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Karl Bode
She may be getting 50 digital TV channels OTA but I'd bet only 10-15 or so are the main HD stream. Nonetheless, the quality usually beats cable on either.
One thing you missed: The February transition to all digital won't result in less digital coverage. That makes no sense. If anything, the OTA coverage will increase as stations move their transition signals to their final, full-power transmission facilities.
I've weaned my wife off of cable and onto a HD TiVo connected to an antenna in the attic. We get all of the Chicago OTA digital channels and don't miss Comcast's overpriced, poor-quality offerings at all. |
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eric_n_dfw
join:2001-10-22
Euless, TX
·EarthLink
 ·AT&T U-Verse
1 edit | ditto to your last paragraph. Dumped DTV when I went HD last summer, settling on a TivoHD + TWC. Then I dumped TWC and was 100% OTA plus an occasional Amazon.com "on demand" download.
Now I'm trying out the Netflix streaming and am fairly impressed, although it has a few quirks I hope they fix soon.
PS: I'm on 6/1 UVerse DSL service and get great quality on the Netflix streaming, BTW. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| Mine is 6016/768 DSL and so far it's been perfect with a Roku box even with other applications using the connection. Considering that the TiVo offering just went live last week I'm sure there are a couple of bugs to work out. The Roku unit has been flawless.
Have you wasted a day on YouTube with your TiVo yet? 
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Toolmaster of La Grange. |
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kamm
join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
 ·T-Mobile US
| reply to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode  :I canceled DirecTV last summer. Honestly the only thing I miss is NFL football. Most everything else can be found in some variety elsewhere. Enjoying the Netflix streaming. It's the first service I've used that I feel is priced fairly and doesn't annoy me. Find I'm actually reading books. Go figure. Heh, it's (one of) the upside of living in a city: I read a lot, mostly during my 2x30 mins daily subway trips. 
TV programming is something that's ridiculously overpriced here, in the US - of course, it isn't an accident, it's the country of corporate laws and rules (a' la carte, anyone?)
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[BQUOTE=[user=bicker]]Waaaa waaaa waaaa. You just want what you want and don't care to factor in what is right or true. Your perspectives are un-American, and deserve far more ridicule than I'm prepared to pile on them.
[/BQUOTE] |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode :I canceled DirecTV last summer. Honestly the only thing I miss is NFL football. Most everything else can be found in some variety elsewhere. Enjoying the Netflix streaming. It's the first service I've used that I feel is priced fairly and doesn't annoy me. Find I'm actually reading books. Go figure. I have a bad addiction to the the Discovery, Discovery Science and NatGeo channels. If I could find an alternate (legal) delivery method of those channels in HD, my cable would be canceled the next day. |
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eric_n_dfw
join:2001-10-22
Euless, TX
·EarthLink
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to RadioDoc
YouTube on Tivo is only valuable for showing a group of people something on the big screen - and then only if you absolutely know what search query to use. Surfing/browsing YouTube is too cumbersome.
I wish Tivo would enable USB keyboard support - it would make things like YouTube and everything else much easier to use. |
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hescominsoon
join:2003-02-18
Brunswick, MD
 ·Comcast
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to RadioDoc
said by RadioDoc :She may be getting 50 digital TV channels OTA but I'd bet only 10-15 or so are the main HD stream. Nonetheless, the quality usually beats cable on either. One thing you missed: The February transition to all digital won't result in less digital coverage. That makes no sense. If anything, the OTA coverage will increase as stations move their transition signals to their final, full-power transmission facilities. I've weaned my wife off of cable and onto a HD TiVo connected to an antenna in the attic. We get all of the Chicago OTA digital channels and don't miss Comcast's overpriced, poor-quality offerings at all. the digital signals don't' travel as far and are much more sensitive to interference. If your analog OTa is marginal your DTV OTA is going to outright suck. This rule is not absolute of course. |
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Lazlow
join:2006-08-07
Saint Louis, MO
| It depends on how you are defining more sensitive to interference. DTV is an all or nothing proposition. You pretty much get a perfect picture or you get nothing. So if your analog is very snowy, fades in and out, you are probably correct that your current setup is probably not going to work for that channel. In most cases this can be improved with a higher or larger antenna. You can also use a preamp out on the mast(do not cheap out on this option if you go this route, buy a channel master). Many people do not know that placing the antenna inside the attic will greatly reduce the signal, as compared to placing the antenna on the rooftop. If I remember correctly the usable limit for digital is about 90 miles vs about 125 for analog. Most people that live that far out will probably have alternate solutions anyway(usually sat). |
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yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| reply to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode :I canceled DirecTV last summer. Honestly the only thing I miss is NFL football. Its been 2 years since I canceled Directv.
I don't miss it expect Sci-fi. Adult Swim, locals. |
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