I know we might be behind other countries in this...but my tv just lost all signal a few minutes ago.... No more analog tv as of today (april 4th)......digital only.... Guess I have to get into the future and get a digi box....or should i scrap it altogether?? There's enough entertainment around here to keep me busy
Rejoice. Just scrap it. I have been without cable television for a few years now and don't miss it at all. There are plenty of other means of watching the shows I actually like, and there's only a handful of those. Also, I don't think I could tolerate sitting through commercials anymore. Sure, I may not catch my coworker's stupid references to them, but is that really missing much.
But I like the choice of only five channels Besides I went about 11years without a tv ('89-'01) and I didn't feel like I missed that much.... Also,,the internet takes up enough of my time these days.... my phone is hd,,is that good enough???
That is what ultimately chased me away..... And then brought me back to tv when I moved to the UK.... we have far less commercials here and they are generally much better than US ones...bbc channels only have an ad break between shows...so if they play a film,,,it is uninterrupted....
Jeb makes a good point. Sure, the picture quality of digital broadcast TV is better, and you get your viewing guides and widescreen and superior sound and whatnot, but it's sort of weird having once-familiar stations broken up into several sub-stations, many of which in my region are rented out for informercials or uber-niche programming, usually not of the interesting kind. Life made more sense when there were only three major networks plus one PBS channel augmented by the weirdo DIY UHF channels. The mainstream VHF stations had a more consistent "culture" about them, and your local broadcasters actually seemed local, familiar and reliable. They didn't just suddenly turn into The Stamp Collector Network at 8pm. Is massive distribution of endlessly varied content actually better? Is the trend towards higher and higher picture resolution necessarily a universally desirable thing? Is widescreen always superior to simpler, boxier aspect ratios? Does the massive popularity of apps like Instagram that make new digital photos look like old faded analog photos signify a yearning for simpler, lower fidelity? Am I rambling like some tiresome philistine who hypocritically embraces high tech while questioning it? Is a cultural phenomenon like what happened when "Roots" was originally broadcast even possible in today's media milieu? What was that good point that Jeb was making again? Sorry, I got distracted... Analog in the UK!
The local cable provider is doing this too...turning off the analog channels...so if you don't have one of their boxes, then you have to get this little gadget that will make the channels work. Aside for what feels like a money grab, I LOVE HD TV. I'm spoiled for it now. I record almost everything that I watch so that I can forward through commercials (except for shows on HBO/Showtime which don't have any, of course).
Do they still have those TV detector trucks in England? They can tell if you have an untaxed television in your house...?
I remember when I had to turn a dial to change the channel and remote controls were a luxury. When channels would go off line for the night and that rainbow standby pic is thrown up for a couple of hours. I remember when dawn came and I think the national anthem would pop up and start the day. Now it's constant programming at all hours. I kind of miss that separation of programming. A start and an end. Now it's just endless paid programming. Meh, I think I was feeling nostalgic when our area officially ended analog. Rabbit ears adjusting. Heh!
We're drawing to a close for analogue here in Ausland too. Some places may already have been switched off. I'm all set for the new dawn, but from what I've seen it's really not that rosy. Essentially we've gone from 6 free to air channels to over 20. And still very little to watch. We've always had a connection to UK programming - most of the stuff I grew up with was UK based, but it seems we've lost a chunk of that. While all these new channels are just playing yesteryear's tv, none of it is the good stuff off nostalgia - nor was ever made for the TVs of today.
To my knowledge,,,they never actually existed!! Media campaigns about unlicensed tv detecting trucks were a smoke&mirrors scare tactic to make the public at large obey... I do know people who have never paid their tv license....and they have never been busted...maybe once a year a tv license person knocks on the door or a letter arrives in the post saying their house is unregistered...that's it!! They do much the same with benefits/welfare cheats....there are commercials about how big brother is watching and you will get caught!!! But the reality is that the commercial also includes a phone number where people can snitch on others.. I know that that's how they catch out most people that are cheating the system,,,all it takes is one disgruntled friend or neighbour... But again the reality is that it is very easy to do....big brother is NOT watching.... I know the UK has the most CCTV cameras in the world & it makes some people weary...but again the reality is that they are just recording for the good of the public...there is not an operator behind each one reporting your every move...that would cost millions a day to operate... The data is only retrieved when a crime is committed in the area...and with so many cameras around,,,they are usually quite effective in tracking criminal's movements..... So,,in a nutshell,,,if you're not doing anything wrong,,,then there is nothing to worry about....... And even if you insist on doing something slightly dodgy (like pissing in the street or rolling a joint)....the cameras or the powers that be couldn't really give a shit
Kill your TV! Interesting points brought up, especially by Dean. I find it to be a great wasteland of shit for the most part (TV). My catchphrase for anyone with cable is always "700 channels of nothing!". Yet people consistently pay hundred of dollars each month to keep it. Sure you have some good shows on AMC, some on the pay networks like HBO, PBS is great, maybe some slightly interesting speciality shows, but it's mostly brain dead crap. I mean do we really need a show about inbreds catching gators? Come on. You don't need cable. I watch everything I want to watch online for free. A little annoying at times, but seriously why pay to mindlessly waste your life surfing through crap like that? I blame the corporations. They need dumbed down programming to sell their wares so they cater to the lowest common denominator. I'm sure most major sponsors have people reviewing scripts.
I wouldnt be without freeview. The Killing, Borgen, and Those that Kill are some of the best must see tv since The Wire.
Thanks for the response jebcrow, the first time I visited my sister in London a truck was slowly rolling down here street, they thought it was a TV detector truck. I had a hard time understanding why you needed to have a license to own a TV. The whole CCTV/cameras everywhere thing is odd over there too. But I suppose it makes perfect sense as you pointed out, that they are usually used after the fact when a heinous crime is committed. I've been seeing them more and more here too, although people are violently opposed to them. My own city has a handful in the really high crime areas, but nobody is watching them. They scan constantly so you may get a few seconds of a shooting or something, they are virtually worthless.
This. We still had a tube TV when analog went away, and we didn't buy a box to get over-the-air digital. So our TV turned into a monitor for watching DVDs and Netflix streaming. Eventually we bought an HDTV, which gave us access to over-the-air digital. We tried watching some of our favorite shows as they aired and after one night I was done. Now I just wait however long it takes for the TV shows I like to get to Netflix. And with programming, and original content, moving to the web it appears that the end of television as we've known it may finally be just around the corner. Felicia Day's new Geek & Sundry network, the coming of an Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix - it's all helping to tear down the divide between television and internet. The only time I actually watch broadcast TV is when there's a Blazer game on - and that's about once a month. I watch the other games on-line via a crappy video feed routed through Europe. Beats paying ridiculous amounts of money.
I miss those old cable boxes that only went from channel 1-99, pay per view Was in that low of a channel, there was no MTV2, or 3 etc... TNT was bringing more viewers to WCW than WWF... And the scrambled porn was always funny I thought lol... Times sure have changed
When we moved, we just scrapped cable and got a better internet connection + Netflix (which used to suck in Canada but is getting better and better). If you don't mind torrents, you can use that internet connection to download the shows you want to watch in hd a few hours (minutes?) after they've screened. Otherwise, you can probably buy a handful of blu-rays a month for the price of cable. If a few friends do the same, you should be set-up for tv entertainment...
I do the same exact thing with hockey. I've watched hundreds of games this year through satellite feed from Europe. Not paying ridiculous money to watch things. There is always away around it.
