So they are changing all the broadcast to digital. All the TV channels are going 'digital' Whoop dee f'n doo. It seems a good target date to plan to off the TV for good. Kill their fear mongering news, off their celebrity chasing paparazzi, snuff the reality shows, execute the 'game shows', eliminate their chattering talking heads, (dont even get me started about the year and a half of political cr@p for election coverage) and blow up the TV for good. I will be using some of the uncoded ammunition to target practice with my old tvs with. Death to TV, you can join if you want. Hell I might even video it for YouTUBE Besides maybe its time America got in touch with a good book or two.
I only have the dish on one television. The other two (bedroom and garage) are on antenna. I hooked up the digital box just last weekend and was pleasantly surprised. I have at least twice as many channels if not more. Albeit I only had five before now it's between 10 and 15. One of them is 24 hr. local weather and one is a full time radar sweep which makes it nice not to have to wait on the news. We don't watch a lot of TV, heard just last week the average was 4 1/2 hours a day, can't say I would want to watch that much. Probably watch more now that it gets dark at 5:30 but that'll change. I did see someone do something like you are talking about, It was in 1988 I believe.
Your "entertainment center" should be where you find it: a scuba diving boat, a mountain road, the workshop or other things where you can actually INVOLVE yourself with PEOPLE and do ACTIVITIES (I know some of you older folk remember what "activities" are).
If I weren't an atheist, I'd say that TV has been put here by SATAN because fat people die sooner.
(GEEEZ... it's not even 2 cups of coffee, and it's 06:30 and I've had my first RANT today already)
Me and the little lady are probably going to cancel our cable. always had it and just the other day as we realized the only station we EVER watch is a free one. we watch an okay amount of movies, probably one a week. But other then that we are just wasting money that doesnt need to be spent.
Joe - that's a GREAT idea: for those of us who have no need for a conversion box or anything else like it, we should be able to donate a voucher to the charity of our choice for an equivalent dollar value of food or goods.
Steve - that actually *is* a pretty good idea, I hadn't thought of it. You made the connection in my post above
Only problem is, our shortsighted politicians haven't set up a mechanism for us to do anything like that. Watching TV is "important" to them because TV folks pay them to make it important. Folks who need food, or shelter...they're on their own. THAT is the real problem in my eyes.
Lol my friend tried to tell me it was because a star was getting to close to the earth and it was going to mess up all the tv signals and they thought it would be better if they just switched instead trying to explain it!
What I can't believe is, in our difficult times, our government is offering to "help with the conversion" for people who can't afford a digital box.
We weren't in difficult times when this course of action was set in motion. Revoking the vouchers and telling the citizens they need to come up with $40 to watch TV might set off a revolution. j/k
Bird beat me to it....that's the link I was looking for. This transition was suppose to happen years ago though.Stations felt there was not enough time or money to get the change done. (So I've heard.) Just like most everything else that has been "upgrading", digital TV is much more cost effective to run than analog. This is mostly due to maintaining the towers. Analog towers are a pain in the ass to maintain to where digital towers, as long as you keep your oil levels good, maintain theirselves for the most part.
I've converted quite a few stations across the US to digital. Up front, yes, it's a pretty penny to drop on the change over. In the long run though, it pays for itself.
Don't be scared of digital. It's a sweet thing. Certainly when you get to take the ancient TV out back and blow it up like CityX wants to do...
(Message edited by firebolt32 on December 13, 2008)
Its just a seasonal rant, and that I havent seen anything of quality on TV in so long that I am just fed up with it. The Ads, The Glam, the Paparrazi, the Reality shows, talking head pundit shows, ...
And rather than taking a bat to it, ala Office Space, I think the shotgun will do nicely.
I don't watch TV on the TV much anymore, usually its just my daily dose of Jay Leno at night. Commercials, pop in advertisements, and the fact that an hour long tv show is now down to about 35 minutes just makes me sick of it.
I usually download the episodes of stuff i want to see an hour after it was on TV, and watch it that way. Then I usually buy the DVD when it comes out later. Even then I like my downloads better, they are nicer quality than the DVDs
I haven't had one for years and I don't miss anything I like.
I still watch all the racing I can handle (I actually watch more as I now get all the stuff that's not aired in the US) and all the rest of it is crap anyway. I mean really... every damn time I see a TV I take a look and end up walking away thinking "I can't believe people watch this crap..." The only good channels are the weather channel and discovery. Don't tell me the history channel is good... I won't even go there.
Use your TV to play video games or watch movies but stop being marketed to.
I wish they made a cable plan so that you could just get the channels you want because there are a lot of channels I don't watch but there are channels that I like and you have to have all the other crap to get them. Mostly I like the HBOs, cinamaxes, and some of the other movie channels.
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 01:51 am:
You do realize that if I gave up the internet, I would have no outlet to show off my dirty pics of my filthy nasty bike covered in MUD. (insert pic of bike, they never load from home, I will have one up for lunch tomorrow)
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 02:40 am:
If you gave up the internet, next would be your phone, then your camera, and before you know it you will have a muddy horse and buggy. I hear churning your own butter is fun.
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 10:09 am:
Hey M1, what do you mean by "all the racing I can handle" I would really like to watch a lot more bike racing than that stupid NASCAR channel (Speedvision) puts on. I would really like to watch some of the Real Roads Racing that is so popular in Ireland etc.