Unplugged: 6 weeks without television

[swan]

6 weeks ago my cable television service provider (Charter) raised their rates again. That was it for me, I watched less than 1 hour of TV a day so I canceled my cable service. Even with digital converter box I have no reception in my area of the bluffs, so no TV whatsoever. In the past, during different chapters of my life, gone months, even years without TV by choice and was happy.

The first week was a disruption in my routine, (no BBC news, bad cooking shows, Nat Geo, Cartoon Network) but now it feels great. I spend more time working on my Gold Star, reading books, listening internet and public radio and feel better overall. The extra $60 a month gets put back into my bike.


Anyone else unplugged?

 

[TonyD]

Yup. There is a tv at home, but I haven't watched it since August. I'm totally fine with it. As long as I can watch my races on line, everything is good. Plus, there are very few motorcycle shows on tv anyway, so what's the point!!

 

[RedPlastic]

I know eggzachary what you mean..I told charter to shove off at the end of december, I dont miss it a bit. For those times I want to watch a little tv, I have netflix

 

[Swagger]

I gave up n broadcast TV sheesh....I guess it's coming up on 8 years ago. I don't really miss it though speedvision was good when they featured motorcycle racing and not nascar crap. I do miss the science channel and discovery on occasion but not enough to cop for the exorbitant fees the providers are grasping for.

 

[Seanzo]

Since moving out from the 'rents I've never signed up for cable and my gf and I don't have any at our new house now. We are both too busy to watch TV anyway. The only stations I miss are the home and garden and discovery channels.

 

[Saki]

I save my money and just use netflix/hulu/exc and such to replace cable/sat.

 

[Swagger]

Yeah I've built up a pretty impressive DVD collection by this point....

 

[Ringo]

I don't ever watch TV either. Used to when I was younger...but I just have no interest now. It's the commercials that really piss me off.

I'm still a sucker for a little Top Gear on Netflix, though!

 

[lingo]

Top Gear UK is the only thing on television worth watching

 

[RedPlastic]

finalgear.com + hdmi cable from the pc = winning!

 

[Hoofhearted]

My wife has a few shows she likes. Mostly travel and the like. I'll watch speed when it shows MotoGP and thats about it. I recently changed providers and got everything bundled. Saves a couple of bucks. To paraphrase Roger Waters I now have 300+ plus channels of shit to choose from.

 

[sal_13]

havent had cable for a year.. honstly dont miss it.. lol

 

[Juggernaut]

No cable TV for a months but I've been using Hulu for my fix and bit torrents for movies. The last two weeks I been watching the show Wrecked on it. Great series from Chicago. I kinda want to be a wrecker driver now.

 

[Basement rat]

I hadent had TV for around two years because I was too cheep but the wife wanted it so she got it. Gotta say, I love PVR. Top Grear, Power Block, Brew Masters... whenever I'm ready to watch it and I can skip through the commercials. It helps when I'm too broke to buy and have to save up the the spendy parts for the bike/ car/ truck/ sled/ boat, etc...

 

[Tim]

I dumped my TV service back in October once all the free promo's on my HD PVR rental etc. ran out.

Was spending $100 a month on all the nonsense, while at the same time I had a PC connected to my TV already (long time home-made PVR fan) and 2 x 23" HD LCD's in my home office. My daughter has a computer in her room, wife has a Macbook...

So, I made sure I had loads of bandwidth on my internet connect, hooked up with Entropay for a virtual US VISA (I'm in Canada) and used it to sign up for US Netflix at $8 monthly for streaming only.

Netflix along with Hulu and all the major networks more than satisfies my TV cravings.

 

[Swagger]

If i could pick and choose what channels I had and didn't have to pay for all the other crap I might consider it. If i could it'd be:
Discovery, History, Nat. Geography, speed and maybe one of the myriad of ESPN offerings, but that's about it.

not likely....

 

[biker_reject]

TV is my friend. I watch it all the time.

 

[Big R]

Good on you Swan (and others). I probably watch 3 hours of TV a week, and none of it is live. My wife insists on having cable though.....

It really is amazing how much time you can spend watching tv and not even realize it.

 

[tjb2of3]

I know the feeling man, no cable in our dorms at school, so everything I watch I get from Hulu. Gradually, the number of shows I watch has dropped to one or two. I can't imagine actually paying to flip through channels and watch things I don't actually like...

 

[SquadraCorse]

I havent had television for years. Not really needed at this point with high speed internet. Whatever I want to see is pretty much available online or through torrents.