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Thread: Cable/dish etc vs. rabbit ears

  1. #1
    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Cable/dish etc vs. rabbit ears

    So yesterday we were having a discussion and I told DH if something were to happen to him I would ditch the cable. It seems like a waste of money to me. He loves his sports, but I could take almost any thing on TV or leave it. I told him I would have the kids help me figure out how to pick up any local channels

    so is cable and other services worth it to you? It seems like landlines, Home Internet, cell phones and cable are getting more and more expensive. What is the minimum you could live with?

    i think I would be OK with just a cell phone. Or perhaps home internet and a cell.

  2. #2
    Moderator Float On's Avatar
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    I've never in my life had cable or satellite. For what it's worth we didn't have TV the first 8 years of our marriage either. Dad got satellite after we'd all grown and married and weren't moving back home (he likes friday night fights with his pizza). I don't think I'd ever get satellite or cable. We get maybe 8 channels with a small antenna that sits behind the smallest flat screen TV we could find. I don't regret losing the landline but I do miss the home internet. I would probably add that back because I enjoyed watching netflick on my laptop or plugging the laptop into the TV for a few inches more of screen. Otherwise I'm completely happy with my cell service and unlimited data.
    Float On: My "Happy Place" is on my little kayak in the coves of Table Rock Lake.

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    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I don't have TV or cable because I can find what I need with my wifi connection. There is so much available online now. I might need to wait a day for some TV program but since I rarely watch, it has not been an issue.
    Occasionally a friend will tell me about a really good program that was watched. As I ask about it, the friend gives me the highlights and thoughts about it. That is enough for me, it seems.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  4. #4
    Senior Member Tradd's Avatar
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    I have a digital antenna I got at Target for about $40 a few years ago. All I watch is the local news and PBS. It works fine.

  5. #5
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    Flowers, how is the cable hooked up? Does it go directly to the tv, or is it going to a box, with a tv tuner that decrypts the signal, and you change the channel on the cable box?
    Some of the boxes go to the tv, via a cable, others via a HDMI. (ask which yours is)
    If it isn't cable, then you should have an open coax (cable port) on the back of your tv. Old rabbit ears and new are the same, with the possible exception of the "leads" (wire from them to the tv). I have an old antenna in my house that uses the old flat, two wire cable. There are adapters that convert that to coax (cable) that hooks to modern tv's. I found an antenna at a garage sale, for less the $1, which was worth it to me, rather then go up in the attic. (tv in different part of the house, then the days when people owned one tv)

    I hooked up the tv last year, after a news story locally. Don't watch it much, but there is an old movie channel, that has had some favorite old movies of mine.
    I used to watch tv, via one of those illegal online tv sites, because of several programs I watched, are not broadcast in this country. (or available via dvd, here) One other program I watched, is only broadcast over expensive cable, or satellite. Now I wait until it has been out a bit, and buy the dvd used.
    Cable internet is worth it to me. When I was a child, small screen meant tv, now it means cell phones more often then not. My cell phone is a candy bar style, that costs me $70 last year, and has no texting or internet abilities. I wouldn't want to watch a screen that small or fight to type. However, I do not need the higher speeds, and would much prefer if I qualified for lifeline status (speeds that fit both need and want of budget).
    There are actually fewer choices for people like me, now.

  6. #6
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    No cable, digital antennae here at home in the city.

    But at our weekend house digital antennae does not work but we do get about 3 channels there, rerun channels. After decDes of no cable tv, we were getting used to the pretty good selection of channels available via digital antanae.

    Depending on the Internet speed there, we may not get cable or satellite. We are still considering options. I want to put it off as long as possible. I suspect we will not get tv service.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    We can't live without our cable. We both love it. We pay 194/month for cable, landline and high speed internet. They raise the price yearly but then I call and say we are retired and usually get them to lower it. We have 2 big screen tv's for when we don't want to watch the same thing.

  8. #8
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    We have cable Internet and the minimum package of channels (mostly broadcast and shopping) that our city forces Comcast to provide in exchange for their monopoly. And the only reason we have that is because the price of that package is lower than getting cable Internet without any channels. We don't use it, though, having replaced Comcast's carppy cable signal (charging extra for HD? Really??Q?) with an antenna on the roof. There is one station we don't get (too far away for the antenna) and I did miss the Mhz channel (primarily international news) but I was at my mom's place the other day and it appears Comcast doesn't offer Mhz anymore, so I guess there's no loss there. The cable lies behind the wall unit, disconnected, and the adapter box sits in a closet. Comcast doesn't have to know.

    We use enough Internet that going through a phone, even as a hotspot, would be much more expensive (and slower) than Comcast. We subscribe to a couple of streaming services and when my photography business was operating, routinely moved gigabytes of information to cloud services for backup/access and to clients. There is no landline phone in the house; we both have smartphones and a plan with Consumer Cellular which lets us share 1 gigabyte of data we rarely use each month.

    Every now and then Comcast bumps up the price another 7-12% and we look at CenturyLink/Dish (the "competition" in our area). But once their come-on price is over with, the price is competitive -- and, from what I hear from CL customers, so is the service. So we haven't gone through the bother of switching.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  9. #9
    Senior Member Sad Eyed Lady's Avatar
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    No satellite or cable at my house either. I have a small flat antenna on the wall (maybe 10 inch square or less) that lets me get local stations and PBS stations. I also have a Roku that I use some, and then every 6 months or so I subscribe to Netflix, ($7.99 a month for one T.V. which is all I have), to watch a few of their programs then cancel it again for another 6 months.

    On another subject almost, I have been watching some old "All In The Family" episodes at night on Crackle, one of the stations that is streamed through my Roku. A couple of nights ago the issue being "debated" in the Bunker household was.........gun control! Some things never go out of style I guess! And, I don't mean that in a callous way, it's like we never change that much, same old problems.
    "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in the midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free." Leonard Cohen

  10. #10
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    We just have a Roku, Netflix ($8 a mo.) and cheap antenna for local news stations. Our wi-fi internet is $45 a mo. Had Amazon Prime but canceled that and don't miss it at all.

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