Disaster (kinda) strikes!

Updated on June 28, 2012 By Ken Begg 26 Comments

In all things, follow Galaxy Jane.

Who can be wiser? A few days ago GJ mentioned she didn’t have cable TV anymore. I mentioned that I had the lowest tier of Comcast programming, because it gave me Discovery, Food Network and, most importantly, TCM.

Well, this morning TCM and Food Network have been dropped from my package. So it’s time to join GJ and cancel my service. I know they’ll offer me a deal on the next higher tier, but really, $40 a month is $500 a year for TV. Also, and I know this is just a reflection of my Luddite tendencies, but I’m sure moving up to the next tier will require me to get one of their friggin’ boxes and have to install it, and I am just gadgeted out.

When it comes down to it, I don’t watch much TV. Yes, I wish I had access to the local channels, if only for news in the morning, but like Jane, I know that once TV is gone I’ll very rarely miss it. Heaven knows I have enough DVDs to keep me occupied for the next twenty years, and some shows I can watch via the Web if I have to, and hell, maybe without the distraction of the tube I’ll actually get some writing done.

Anyway, TV, thanks for all the fishes.

Now to go through the laborious process of canceling my service, and the attempts to screw me on ‘equipment’ charges, etc.

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  • Ericb

    Welcome to the Video Ludditeville.  I still have a tube tv with an antenna and I’ll keep it until it dies.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yeah, I *might* eventually get an antenna so I at least get the local channels…but probably once it’s gone it’ll be out of mind and I won’t bother.

  • MrTongoRad

    We have a digital antenna on the house with the required converter boxes. The picture is really great (cable and/or satellite quality), plus we get all sorts of ‘extra’ channels (we’re in a major metropolitan area, though I couldn’t say if that matters) showing old TV shows, old movies, even the Live-Well Network where I can catch up on my Rick Bayless. Between that and our cooperative library system we are definitely not wanting. I just am about a season behind on the shows I watch.

    I cut the cable in 1993 and have never regretted it, but the relatively new digital signal has pleasantly surprised even me.

  • The Rev.

    As I mentioned in another thread, we’re moving toward this as well.  We’re looking into antennas for the local channels, mostly so the lady of the house can continue to catch “Today” in the mornings, and for “Amazing Race” and “Survivor.”

  • Ken_Begg

    They offered to let me continue the basic service for $10 a month, but for six months, and then I’d have to haggle again, and I just don’t have the energy for that. So I cancelled entirely. I’ll have to drive to their office on Saturday and drop off the gear, but after that I’ll be done. No TV at all, but again, I’ll live with it. I think AR I can watched on the Internets, and if not, meh.

    Comcast wasn’t as pushy as I thought / feared they’d be, so who knows, maybe I’ll go back to them someday, but really, it’s hard to justify spending $40-50 dollars a month for one and a half channels, even TCM. I’ll miss that channel, though.

  • GalaxyJane

    I do advise getting a cheap digital antenna and converter box.  There are some great new UHF-style channels on the digital subcarriers these days that cater very much to the likes of us, with old movies and TV shows being the mainstays of their programming.  Heck, I even get Chicago’s own Svengoolie on one of mine on Saturday nights.

    I also can’t say enough good things about the ROKU streaming boxes for the TV. They not only offer the ability to watch the paid services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon video on your TV, but they offer a bunch of free channels specializing in such things as old public domain movies (Pub-D-Hub and Internet Archive are the ones I use most), YouTube, specialty content for many,many interests and even live streaming news from FOX and others. For under 100 bucks the boxes are a great deal and I have one on each TV. 

    The one channel I miss is BBC America and one of the nicer things I’ve found is that, through Amazon,  I can subscribe to a show and get each episode the day after it broadcasts (there’s even a discount for doing it this way).  I will not do it often, but I did keep up with the latest season of “Being Human” this way and will do the same in late summer to get my “Dr. Who” fix before it can get spoilered for me.  It will still cost me significantly less than a single month of cable.

    Discovery and History Channel content are so well represented on Neflix streaming that I not only don’t miss them, I have an easier time watching the shows I am interested in than I did on live TV.

  • Flangepart

    Ya wanna write? Watch less TV, trust me.
    The digital channels have bad reception in any kind of weather, even with an antenna, but still cheaper than cable. Sat. nights here is Lost in Space, ST/TOS and Sven, so it can be good…if the signal comes through…
    Yeah, TV ain’t all it’s shaped up to be. DvD on the other hand…

  • Ericb

    The only time I view cable tv is when I visit my mother and watching it kind of freaks me out.  I’m like, “this is the state of our mainstream popular culture?”  I’d rather not know about it.

  • I refused to get a box. I heartily echo the old battle cry “Fight Pay TV!” So, I did what I’m sure millions of others did. I canceled my satellite to save some coin, then I watched the local channels until they switched over to digital signal. So now I just rely on my vast movie library. If I want news, well, I still have a radio.

    Just the same, I continue to feel cheated by the change over to digital. Honestly, can’t anyone tell that analog signals are superior? I guess not. (Then again, if anything, my life is much more relaxed since I washed my hands of commercial broadcasts!)

  • Lawyer Ku

    No cable TV for over ten years. No local channels either. Too much to do in life. Also, I simply refuse to pay for channels that I don’t watch (the Praise Jeebus stations, the Spanish stations, the shopping channels, old nuns, young skaters, middle-aged wives, potbellied bikers, etc.). Until it’s a la carte, count this lawyer/professor out. When you’re channel surfing, you’re wasting time.

  • Darkward

    Add one more vote for going broadcast-only. I have, and 90% of my viewing is MeTV (the stuff that was on TV 40-50 years ago is still the best stuff on TV, IMO). The other 10% is Antenna TV, This TV, or PBS. Plus with DVDs (owned and Netflix), there’s more than enough. As you say, who needs to pay $500 a year for TV?

  • Kirk

    I can’t even begin to stress how important it is to have Discovery channel…  

  • Ken_Begg

    I’ll miss Mythbusters, but the library will buy the DVDs.

    I’m sure somebody will hook me up if anything unusual pops up.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes, I had never gotten those channels until a month ago, and they are pretty addictive. I’m sure I’ll get a digital converter box at some point.

  • Kdraut

    It is very, very important that as many people as possible tune into Discovery channel in August.

  • Ken_Begg

    Why’s that, Kirk? C’mon, don’t make me grill you. That would be the pits, you saucy devil.

  • GalaxyJane

    MeTV and Antenna TV are both completely addictive. I also really like Bounce for their blaxploitation lineup (“Brown Sugar Saturday Night” *giggles hysterically*). Either MeTV or This is doing an all Vincent Price lineup tomorrow night. And almost everything on those channels is kid-appropriate without me having to take any extra steps, they particularly like the Monkees and Batman. It’s really hard to go wrong with this stuff and the fact that it’s all OTA just makes it better.

  • MrTongoRad

    Hey- we get the same channels in NYC! I guess that makes sense, though I never really thought about it much. My kids are the same, watching those old shows. Sanford and Son is pretty hot these days.

    We’re also looking into those Roku boxes you mentioned above. I am assuming there is an easy way to hook it up so that you can watch either broadcast TV, DVDs or streaming. That whole deal sounds really sweet.

  • GalaxyJane

    My understanding with all those channels is that they are basically syndicated and each station can buy which ever one they like to broadcast on their subcarrier bandwidth. But with only so many of them in existence so far, most markets are going to share a lot of the same stuff.  Yes, I’m enough of a nerd that I looked a bunch of them up one day to figure out how it worked, sigh…

    The Roku boxes are completely idiot-proof plug and play *except* that you need a TV with a minimum of an RCA video input (yellow video, white/red audio, not coax) to hook it up and if you only have a single video input that you are sharing with another device I have no idea how to switch it without physically unhooking it.  It’s not something I ever think about, because both my sets are new enough to have multiple HDMI ports, which is nice because the boxes will stream HD. I swear I don’t work for the company, I just really like my little boxes!

  • Ericb

    Wow I should try to see if I get MeTV though I will probably need to replace my broken rabbit ear antenna with proper digital one.

  • MrTongoRad

    Sorry, Eric. I may have mentally lumped MeTV in with the rest, but I’m not totally sure about that one. From their website it is supposedly broadcast on Channel 43. I can double check it when I get home.

    Galaxy Jane- that’s for the info, I have a much better understanding on how they work now. My problem may be that I still have old TVs (for the simple reason that I don’t see any reason to throw something away that works perfectly well). But unplugging and replugging things in is how we normally roll, anyway, so it’s probably not much of a problem for now.

  • The Rev.

    I just found out last week that one of those types of channels is carrying Svengoolie here, as well.  Hell, it might be the same one.  Unfortunately I completely forgot to record it, but I’ve already made a note for future reference.

  • The Rev.

    Should’ve read down farther…MeTV, that’s the one that was playing Svengoolie!  I hope they’re the ones playing Price movies this weekend; better check when I get home.

    I think they’re the one’s playing “Thriller” and “The Night Gallery” as well, but I could be wrong on that.

  • GalaxyJane

    I’m actually completely with you about not throwing away functional stuff (hence my VERY used cars).  My excuse for the TVs is that I was living away from home for 2 years due to Army stuff and my Texas TV got stolen in a break-in, so I had a brand new second set to hand when I finally moved home.  And the BIG set was my coming home gift to the boys for putting up with me being gone for 2 years  :)  I will not deny enjoying the heck out of it though.

  • GalaxyJane

    Drat Rev, I gave you bad intel. The Price stuff started at noon, not tonight and was on This.  Theater of Blood is on now, then that’s it.  Sorry about that.

  • Darkward

    Yes, “Thriller” is on MeTV Sunday nights at 10/9 Central.

    My latest addiction is watching “The Big Valley,” and seeing how many guest-stars from Classic Trek show up.