The Great Television Rant of 2009 (or How I Learned to Stop Paying for TV)
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There are a whole lot of online articles about people giving up television or pay television, and some went on to discover what is available online. We’ve all read them.
A few years back, I went on my own online tv search, paralleling an article. I put a few links aside for later, in case I wanted to review them or was without tv. The latter is laughable, as I don’t watch too much tv. I used to, until I discovered guitars and computers.
My wife, on the other hand, is powerless over the effects of television on her life. When she’s not watching tv, it’s on as background noise. Unfortunately I get exposed to a lot of tv this way.
The event that started this whole dance off was my wife misfiling a bill, resulting in the Dish Company turning off our service. Why this had to happen immediately and without so much as a phone call is beyond me but who am I to question the ways of Dish Company?
This left us with a few options:
- watch over-the-air (OTA) tv via the taxpayer-subsidized converter box
- watch tapes and dvd’s
- watch nothing
I was fine with number three but I was the only one, apparently.
So on went the converter box and we started watching OTA tv. OTA is a potentially wonderful system, whereby each former channel got enough space to send three separate channels of programming to everyone. As we all know, theory and practice are two wildly different concepts.
Assuming you have the correct antenna, which is a totally separate rant in itself, you’ll notice that some channels fill one of their spots with only weather. When cable tv first came out, there was no end of jokes about twenty four hour weather channels. Now OTA tv has at least two, possibly more.
As with any broadcast medium, there is no shortage of religious channels. In fact, there are tons more religious channels than before we went digital. I’m not going to do the math: it would only make my head hurt.
There appears to be about five channels of Indian programming. Nobody knows why. I dare not call the converter box’s help line to find out.
My wife is a fan of B-movies. When I say B-movies, I mean Z-movies. The ones that could never hope to run before B-movies in theaters or on tv. She will buy (alleged) horror movies at convenience stores for $1.99. Does that give you an indication of the quality of the programming?
Strangely enough, my wife hit a bullseye with something called THIS. I am at a loss as to how to describe the programming on this, for lack of better term, network. Z-movies purchased at all-night truck stops would be a great improvement over THIS fare. THIS plays all the worst movies you’ve never seen, starring people who knew stars before they were stars, but not featuring any actual stars (unless you consider Robby Benson at 14 a star). These were the bad movies that were bad movies when you were growing up and run only after one in the morning, to be used solely as sleep-aids.
Their station identification consists of some female whispering “THIS”, at which point I look up and yell “SUCKS“.
As bad as the alleged programming is, the commercials are many steps below. I used to think the worst thing in the known universe was Dish Company commercials. That was right up until my first night of THIS commercials. In both cases, the same commercials are run over and over again. In THIS‘ case, there were only five commercials run all day, over and over again, until your head exploded, in a scene that was way too detailed and fun-filled to be broadcast on THIS.
There are a bunch of different sell your gold for cash commercials, two aftermarket car warranty ripoffs, a bring in your car title for cash commercial, and a few that try to sell you things, featuring inserted footage of the president, as if he’s telling you to purchase them.
The `programming’ is very considerate. I keep noticing it protects me from hearing words every now and then. I watch the actors’ lips move yet I hear no sound. Yes, they’re protecting me from hearing words. Words that no doubt would leap from the speakers and assault my virgin ears. Did you know that you can say dammit but not God-dammit? It’s simply wonderful of them to protect us from words like these.
My marriage has survived more grief and carnage than any four marriages you can mention. We’re still together and still happy. However, watching OTA tv has put more stress on our union than anything else in fourteen years. It’s driving me up a wall and down another one – and I am not the one watching tv. I’m sitting there with a laptop or cooking or relaxing after work. Since my wife likes her audio at eardrum-rattling levels, it’s somewhat difficult to ignore.
Finally, out of patience and earplugs, I remembered those online tv links I put away from a rainy day. Since it was raining (“It’s Always Raining in Philadelphia”), I got them out and started some evaluation and research. My wife wanted nothing to do with this. She likes her large tv and surround audio system…. a laptop just won’t do.
I remembered my prior evaluation efforts as spotty, with many online providers failing to provide. Tons of broken links and little in the way of things I wanted to watch. That turned out to be pretty accurate. What was different this time was that I managed to find some decent, reliable feeds and content. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Some networks stream their own content online, which I had heard about but was still somewhat surprising. More and more is making it online these days. If you haven’t checked, it might be worth your time.
In addition to the networks, there are a ton more `less official’ content providers or linkers. Again, service is spotty but you’d be pretty surprised at what you can find. There’s also the torrent route, which takes too long for me.
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My wife started going through detox from Dish Company content pretty early on in the process. She explained what happened and paid two months at once. Dish Company told her there would be an additional $150 charge for reconnection. I didn’t pay $150 for connection, no less reconnection. I told her to cancel the service if that was their attitude.
While she’s deciding whether she can live without her dish or not, I finally introduced her to Laptop TV, for lack of better term. And wasn’t I surprised when she took to it like mad, staying up most of the first night while the kids watched everything they could find. I saw that coming from miles away. The only surprise was that it took so long to notice it for the first time.
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SO WHAT CAN I SEE?
Good question. Here are a few of my decent findings:
Choose and Watch has a pretty interesting variety of links. There are even adult and movie downloads, but watch out: they’re commercial. You can choose by category or country.
Like Television will feel comfortable and familiar, largely because of the tons of old programs and cartoons you can watch. Classic TV, the Addams Family (my favorite), cartoons, movies, weird toy commercials… great stuff.
TV Channels Free has a lot of potential but it tends to get squandered in failed links that refuse to work. Again, you can categorize by country or type. As they claim to have over 3600 feeds, it’s worth checking out. They do a lot of work, maintaining things so there’s a category of recently fixed stations to check out. At least you know they work (hopefully).
Open Hulu will make your head spin. The sheer variety and quantity is frightening. Are you ready for Adam 12, Bionic Woman, Kojack, Scrubs, and Doogie Houser (back when he was straight)?
For something completely different, check out Hulu. You can check out popular clips, featured videos, and full episodes. This is where I saw Warehouse 13, which I like a lot. Lots of current content, no broken links, great quality.
Streaming TV Episodes features the best live operating room footage you have ever seen. No, I’m just kidding. It features streaming tv episodes. Who woulda guessed? Good place to watch complete episodes of the Daily Show.
Sidereel is a good place to catch House, for one. Or a Harry Potter trailer. We call him Hairy Cocker for reasons you can imagine.
All of the networks have their own pages with their own content, like ABC, CBS, and NBC (dot com). You can watch full episodes online there too. And why not – all you have to do is sit through a few less commercials than you would watching OTA tv in the first place. By the way, the commercials are way less stupid and annoying, trust me.
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I used to think cable/dish tv was one hundred channels of nothing to watch. Let me update this: with one hundred channels of junk, pay tv is heaven compared to OTA tv.
This is not to say that all OTA tv is total garbage. Only 99% of it is garbage. Since I haven’t watched OTA tv in many years, I didn’t know you could get away with some of the things they do on Two and a Half Men. This is a funny show, in spite of its co-star.
I didn’t know that Mental came from OTA tv. Wow, I have to say something nice about Fox now: it’s probably going to snow. They also have Family Guy – a must watch.
Warehouse 13 is a very good new series from Sci-Fi, which you can catch online. It looks quite promising.
I desperately miss Animal Planet, History, and National Geographic, as those were pretty much all I would voluntarily watch. However, if you have some curiosity and sense, you can find the individual programs online or for download. The new season of UFO Hunters starts soon and I’d hate to miss Bill Birnes twitching and declaring everything an alien artifact.
One of my wife’s favorites is Nurse Jackie (Showtime?). She says she’s never seen anything closer to real life on tv before (with the possible exception of snorting oxycontin).
Everything else is garbage, ok?
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So there you have it: my comprehensive (brief) guide to online tv. Please leave your suggestions and comments in the (drum roll, please) comments box.
28 Comments
Jeff Atkinson
July 24th, 2009
at 11:59pm
Hi,
I’m just getting started with my new blog. Would you want to exchange links on our blog-rolls?
BTW – I’m up to about 100 visitors per day.
The Great Television Rant of 2009 (or How I Learned to Stop Paying for Tv)
July 25th, 2009
at 12:05am
[...] to, until I discovered guitars and computers. My wife, on the other hand, is powerless over the e click for more var _wh = ((document.location.protocol==’https:’) ? “https://sec1.woopra.com” : [...]
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July 25th, 2009
at 12:11am
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July 25th, 2009
at 12:39am
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July 25th, 2009
at 1:33am
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July 25th, 2009
at 2:04am
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Buffet
July 25th, 2009
at 3:20am
Like you, I’m fine with option No. 3, because television turns peoples brains into #2! Just a suggestion man – sounds as though you wife might benefit from taking up a new hobby, joining a civic or charitable organiztion, a girls club of some type, taking up a craft, evening classes at the community college, bowling, softball, learning sign language, volunteering at a hospital or nursing home, or just plain gossiping with her friends on the telephone. The point is, is doesn’t matter what “it” is, everyone just needs at least one thing in life that they are passionate about, that they enjoy doing. Watching television is ‘living’ vicariously through rubbish. I’m betting there’s something out there she’d simply love to be doing/involved in, and that she just hasn’t found it yet. Please forgive the unsolicited advice. Just tryin’ to be helpful.
Getting Out is a Good Thing | Chris Pirillo
July 25th, 2009
at 4:48am
[...] One blogger has learned how to stop paying for television. [...]
Eric L.
July 25th, 2009
at 5:19am
All is good information to share with everyone, A+ on the article….
Just one thing that you should remind people…. video downloads are better on broadband (cable internet)(yeah and then there is the so call highspeed DSL…lol) and everyone knows that streaming media such as video is a quick way to rack up megabytes, and many companies are implementing data caps… such as Comcast has a 250 GB download limit per month after which they start charging you extra…. So all I’m saying is…. Anyone that is thinking of using this method of suppling tv to a household, should check with their ISP to make sure there is no bandwidth cap/limit, and/or what it is, and last but not least, what happens when you go over and how much more does/will it cost.
Other than that, I think it’s a great idea… unfortunatly, with my family of 5’s viewing habits… I would fear going over the limit… especially during summer vacation.
Then again, I have the same type of wife that loves her TV, so I would be afraid with just her viewing habits…lol
Take Care,
–Eric
Getting Out is a Good Thing | Tech-monkey.info Blogs
July 25th, 2009
at 5:22am
[...] One blogger has learned how to stop paying for television. [...]
ca
July 25th, 2009
at 5:50am
Nice blog…broadcasters have to be drummer then dirt…anyway you can take it a step farther.
You can get cables that will hook your computer up to your television or for a little extra you can go the wireless adapter way. I haven’t done it but it seems like an easy thing to do. Just search ‘computer to TV’
Getting Out is a Good Thing | dv8-designs
July 25th, 2009
at 6:42am
[...] One blogger has learned how to stop paying for television. [...]
etim
July 25th, 2009
at 7:44am
With sites like http://www.movieplex.org and http://ipb.quicksilverscreen.com , I rarely have to bother looking any farther for good stuff. You don’t HAVE to register to see good vids, but signing up is safe and I’ve never been spammed from them.
thunderbay
July 25th, 2009
at 8:58am
great writing … I will try the links provided.
Mike
July 25th, 2009
at 9:30am
I had DirecTV for many, many years. But the cable/sat networks finally crossed the line one too many times with excessive advertising, especially “pop-ups” over the programming I was trying to watch.
When the OTA digital box coupons became available, I picked up two boxes, had a rooftop antenna installed for under $300, and am now equipped for the few network programs that I regularly enjoy. I can receive news for free if I need it. And for everything else I have my AppleTV, my Roku, and NetFlix.
The best part of all is saving the $$$ that I’m not sending to DirecTV every month!
The Great Television Rant of 2009 (or How I Learned to Stop Paying … | Great Cards Cheap
July 25th, 2009
at 10:04am
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John
July 25th, 2009
at 10:50am
But what kind of bandwidth do you need for these online movies and TV?
leftystrat
July 25th, 2009
at 11:44am
Thanks for the great comments!
John: I have Comcast generic cable internet. I have never metered how much it uses but you shouldn’t need all that bandwidth.
etim
July 25th, 2009
at 11:59am
I have verizon basic dsl that supposedly has dl at 1 Mb. Most dls run at 125k/sec. I usually dl the movies/vids where I can so that I can watch them on my GOM player–gives me much more control over brightness/contrast, sound, short jumps back if I miss what was said, etc.
Dan
July 25th, 2009
at 3:23pm
One of the things that helped us out a lot was the purchase of the cordless headsets. We have went through many sets as they wore out, but cannot get by without them.
It mainly came about with me working the third shift and us having a small home, but we found out that even if we watch a program together, that the headsets work better than just having the volume turned up loud so my wife could hear it, as we are both in our mid 50’s, her hearing has gotten worse, so the headsets have become a regular staple, not only when someone in the house is trying to sleep, but all the time, so the volume level is tolerable to everyone.
The biggest downside would be that conversation suffers while watching a program, as you have to lift up one of the muffs and say “What?” everytime a comment is made or even thought to be made, but it still has made TV watching much more tolerable for all three members of the family, although my son watches his programs in his room, as he has completely different tastes, but you should try it, as you can buy wireless headphones pretty cheaply on flea-bay, although the choices have diminished.
It may just be the thing that helps you and your spouse get what you want without giving up anything.
I would like to add, regarding your comment on satellite TV screwing their customer base that it is almost impossible to change programming without getting fees tacked on unless you simply quit the service and start over with the other brand to get the promotional deals available, and then if you want, switch back to the one you like the best.
I do not like watching TV on my puter. I want to lay on the couch in the potato position and enjoy my shows, so watching the limited free stuff available on the internet is not good enough for me, and if they took away my DVR, I would probably go insane……..
Dan
the oracle
July 26th, 2009
at 3:55am
And now you see why I kept saying that the digital transition was a rather large problem… I am wondering about the Indian channels though. It might be a nice change from the Oriental channels we have here in abundance.
I differ about THIS. I actually have found some stuff I like – after all, how upsetting can it be to see old Chuck Norris movies that feature Barbara Carrera (yowza!) or middle of the night re-runs of The Outer Limits. That’s just way too cool.
Auriette
July 26th, 2009
at 9:20pm
We haven’t had television since Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004. We evacuated from our trailer into our brand new (to us) house and the DirecTV stayed behind. At the time, we were paying about $70 a month, and we had more pressing expenses after the storm — in addition to clean-up costs, one of our cats had some expensive medical bills from a heart condition and we needed a new car. The TV bill went. We watch DVDs ($5 bin at Wal-mart, $3 bin at Big Lots, $1 bin at Dollar Tree, plus stuff we order cheap from DeepDiscount) and we’ve discovered the wonders of hulu. It was easier than I expected to leave pay television behind. And you know what? When we go over to my mom’s house and flip through her 200+ channels, we find we’re really not missing anything.
waltermelons
July 27th, 2009
at 1:29am
Man, you just put the last eight years of my life into a poem.
I have wondered if I could use a digitalBOX antenna as a wifi booster, but that would take too much effort. I am a youtuber but recently got on Hulu, and I haven’t slept a wink since. I am an old SG-1 veteran, and started watching the whole series from start to finish.
leftystrat
July 27th, 2009
at 6:05am
Dan: Thanks – I use the full size phones w/my laptop (and even they don’t protect me).
Oracle: I’m almost ashamed to admit that I saw parts of the very movie of which you speak :) Ok, Barbara Carerra, point taken.
Auriette: You truly bring it home from a larger perspective. Hope things have settled. (diabetic cat here)
walter: yeah, we have to watch our tendency to go nuts and forget about stupid stuff like sleep. At least we can eat while watching tv :)
I just caught most of a TREMENDOUS Hendrix documentary on YouTube (at 10min per segment).
Twitter Pre ~ Windows Fanatics
July 27th, 2009
at 12:44pm
[...] One blogger has learned how to stop paying for television. [...]
Cliffystones
July 29th, 2009
at 1:27pm
Leftystrat,
Since no one else has mentioned it, I’ll cast my vote for the “Roku” box. I was already a Netflix customer with broadband. This little thing lets you watch movies on demand through your internet connection.
Netflix is less than $10 a month and the box was $99. There are connections for standard, component and HDMI. And the box will even connect to your broadband through WiFi. And the thing was so simple to set up. “even a Caveman could do it!”
There is quite a collection of classic and newer movies and TV series. My son and I watched every episode of “Jericho” over a weeks time! I’m also becoming a fan of “Warehouse 13″. And no, I don’t work for them :).
Posts about enterntainment as of July 30, 2009 » BLOGVIDEOS
July 30th, 2009
at 9:58pm
[...] [...]
Glenn
August 24th, 2009
at 4:10pm
<I do not like watching TV on my puter. I want to lay on the couch
<in the potato position and enjoy my shows, so watching the
<limited free stuff available on the internet is not good enough for
<me, and if they took away my DVR, I would probably go
<insane……..
Dan, I don’t know how old your computer is (or what you’re using), and I don’t know what type of TV set your using, but both my laptop and my TV have S-Video connections. That might be a good consideration in your case. You could hook your computer to the TV (and surround sound, if you have it) and be able to watch Internet TV to your heart’s delight…right from the couch.
Of course, you’ll need a wireless keyboard and mouse or trackball (for the couch I would suggest a trackball) in place of your remote.