Below is an email exchange that shall interest you.

———— Original Message ————
Subject: Re: i knew but i didn’t know how much
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:38:32 -0500
From: tcr!
To: jimithesaint

Yep, we pay only for high-speed Internet through Comcast, the big cable TV provider. We used to have cable for the TV but dumped it a few years back.

We have two main online services for TV shows and movies:

- http://www.netflix.com/
- http://www.hulu.com/

The former we pay the $8 a month to watch as much as we want as often as we want. They have a good selection of old shows and movies.

The latter we go with the free plan and watch current episodes of shows as they become available. A good selection of “aired yesterday” shows. If you wanna pony up another $8 a month, you’ll get a nice archive of older stuff and full seasons.

Between the two of those, we have plenty to watch and so do the kids. Plus there’s always YouTube for quick comic relief or whatever. It took a little while for me to get used to “not” channel surfing but I think it’s better because when we do watch something, it’s because we want to watch it and just not because it’s on.

You can also buy TV shows and movies from iTunes and on Amazon.com to watch instantly. I never use either of those just because Netflix and Hulu do me just fine.

For radio, I use http://tunein.com/ and they have boatloads of stations. Most radio stations also stream their music, shows, etc. online and TuneIn basically puts them all in one easy to find/listen place. And it’s free. I listen to WBEZ, the local Chicago NPR but then also New York’s NPR and Minnesota’s. :-)

We have a couple of laptops and those are nice for putting on the bed to watch a sitcom or something. For movies, we have a Mac Mini hooked up to the TV in the basement. When we bought our big TV, that was one of the criteria — it must be easily connectable to a computer and most are now-a-days.

JZ has a Roku hooked up to her TV in her room — http://www.roku.com/ — and she can use our Netflix account to watch whatever as well. It can play other stuff, too but I don’t know much about it since it’s her thing.

So nuking the cable TV wasn’t a bad thing. And even better is that since over-the-air TV went digital a couple years back, just get an HD antenna and you’ll probably get 20 or so channels for free, just like the rabbit-ear days, but these channels will be crisp and clear. I’d wager that your ballgames and presidential debates will be on there.

I’d suggest giving Netflix’s free month trial a go and using Hulu’s and TuneIn’s free service and see how it works for ya. Plus, if you can’t find your must-see-it movie, just go rent it for your Blu-Ray.

Any other thoughts?

———— Original Message ————
Subject: i knew but i didn’t know how much
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2012 02:47:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: jimithesaint
To: tcr!

i was watching francis ford coppola’s “dracula” and started reading a comments page about it. it’s obvious that it was on cable this month due to the recent dates on the posts.

i was completely entertained by how serious everyone takes their opinion. all with the safety of anonymity behind them. it was ridiculous. how ambitious and proud they were of their wordcraft. and how sensitive some were to the opinions of others.

i knew this kind of thing went on, IE: chat rooms, but it was such an eye opener. one person would offer an opinion and someone would respond as if it were IMPORTANT to correct the first one. and then it exploded.

i’d like your advice on the whole cable thing. we have our phone and internet bundled, so we have been pretty tied up. we just bought the blu-ray box and are moving toward less cable. we don’t watch too much network programs, and the only sports i watch are baseball. mostly what i watch are old movies or old tv shows. elaine likes old tv shows, ones that are on A&E or USA type networks.

anything you think and how to go about it. i remember you telling me while i was at your house that you get it all or most off the internet. i assume you must pay for an internet connection. are you then able to get network tv and/or radio off the net?

please advise.

#email #tv