Well, our newest TV is about two years old, and I had hoped, maybe just maybe that it would have the new tuner built in,, guess not.. when they flipped over, I lost my one and only good channel.. now to be fair, I was getting three channels, one being local Ontario T.V. but for some reason either you get snow from the start or it would go to snow within a matter of a few min, CBC change never did come in, no matter how much you flipped those rabbit ears, it was always blurry and filled with static, on the other hand, CTV came in like a dream ,bright color, great sound and while I don’t watch much TV, I’m more a CBC radio gal, I did like the fact that I could watch my new Big Bang show! Most of the time, the few shows I do watch, I am a year behind and just get them on DVD sets.
However, I am surprised to see that we almost always turned on the evening local news for the first 20 min, turning it off after the weather, and now its not there, I would sometimes flip on the view at 11 and off again at noon.
Now they say that if I pay my sixty dollars, I can get a converter box and will in fact have many more channels, between 20 to 30 in fact, but I really wonder if I want that many channels, or if I should just get rid of the TV in total.. I mean I like to watch the odd movie or the odd DVD set, and I like my wii, I use it for winter workouts, and to challange my hubbies with some of the wii party-party games, so its not like I would get rid of the TV itself.
I think what we will do is give it a month and see.. did you lose your free TV when they rolled it over? If so, are you planning on getting the digital box? or are you tuning out?
Just another Day on the Farm 
We have more cable channels than you can shake a big stick at, but are seriouslly considering reverting to the basic package. We only really watch the news and KCTS9 public tv most nights, and having a smaller selection of rubbish to flick through might encourage us to turn it off more. We got netflix at xmas for 7.99 a month and have quite enjoyed that. It might provide an alternative to tv and your dvds and the wii can be the box that delivers it.
Hi Queen
The cost of getting high enough speed internet to get netflix would cost as much or more then getting Sat for the TV shows.. They keep trying to tell me that I should have coverage but I am in a cell tower dead zone.. you should see the folks that walk around, holding their phone in the air going, I just don’t get it..
Took me awhile to figure out why cars, truck and vans would stop just at the forest edge, be there from a few min to half an hour.. drove me crazy, till I figured out that is the point the locals know to pull over or they will lose the call, got to love living in the country š
We haven’t had any reception for two years because of our basement apartment. I’m far, far too cheap to pay for cable, so no free stations meant no TV at all.
Honest, I rarely miss it. However, I do feel weird when people ask me if I’ve seen this or that popular show! š
I know what you mean about the shows, even having CTV and most of the typical shows, I get that one as well, they will ask about shows on history, or space etc
Hubby figured out how to fix that, if there is a show that everyone is talking about, we look it up on wiki and read about it, so that we can answer or say a few basic questions or comments and not get those looks LOL
I don’t do it often, but sometimes its easier then feeling like i am left out because I’m to cheap to get my satalite hooked up, the whole kit and gear came with the farm, but I am so not wanting to pay that high cost monthly.
I would LOVE to get rid of our sattelite service, but the guys would revolt. I refuse to pay the bill, so they are forced to cough up the dough for it. If it were up to me, we would just switch over to the digital signal. Mr. S gave me a little tv for Christmas, and I get all of the digital feed from the States on it and there are a LOT more stations now. Combined with the Canadian ones now it means a pretty good selection. Not that it means much to me, I just end up watching Seinfeld reruns. š
We used a hi-tech version of the rabbits ears here in Vancouver, and had five channels. (one of which was CBC in french – not a lot of francophones west of the Rockies). On Wednesday all we had was snow, (the TV kind not the frozen water kind!) so off I went to Best Buy, got our ($79+tax) digital converter, and after about an hour of creative swearing figured it all out and now we have seven channels to choose from – go figure!
What really bugs me about instruction manuals (apart from the fact that they’re usually badly translated from one of several asian languages) is the amount of assumed tech-speak knowledge their creators – geeky fanboys/girls who have never known a world without the interwebz – assume the average person knows. I know that in another decade this rant will be obsolete, but for now I shall rant on regardless!
With regards to favourite shows. Most of my faves I can watch on-live at the particular TV station’s website. They’re usually uploaded the day after they’re shown on TV
We cut off cable two years ago in my house. We’re out in the TV boondocks for an antenna to pick up anything, so we have nothing in regards to TV watching. We don’t miss it at all. I never was a huge TV watcher, but my husband is. He went through withdrawls for a bit, but then we discovered hulu.com and Netflix. Much, much cheaper than spending $60 a month for basic cable where we live!
In my whole life, I only had a TV from 1994 to 2000, and that was only because a roommate had one (and would never turn the darn thing off). So, of course, I don’t miss it. I find TV extremely distracting, and I never seem to accomplish anything if the thing is on. Hubby found it took some adjustment to living without TV, but now he reads a lot more, and appreciates how quiet the house is. When we have houseguests, we actually talk to them – some folks find that disconcerting, since their usual form of ‘interaction’ is to watch a show together. I find I want less when I am not being shown, over and over, how ‘good’ other folks have it, or being advertised to all the time. The only down side is that I am left out of most of the conversations at work – apparently my colleagues’ lives revolve around their televisions…