The "What's on your mind?" thread

[Mike16]

Originally Posted by Waboman

Anyone here cut the cord from cable/satellite?

We cut the cord last month, only been a month but it feels good to save that $165 a month. We rarely watched TV over the last couple years, with the exception of local channels which we now get for free with an OTA antenna.

We subscribed to Netflix instead. Plenty on there to entertain us, along with my Blu-ray collection.

[BizCat]

Originally Posted by Waboman

Anyone here cut the cord from cable/satellite?

I still use Spectrum for internet, and I have their TV app that I subscribe to.

[Mike16]

Originally Posted by BizCat

I still use Spectrum for internet, and I have their TV app that I subscribe to.

As do I. Hopefully their billing department doesn't continue to screw me like they did when I had the TV+Internet bundle. Overcharged me during the 12-mo promotional period then 4 years later send me a letter saying my promotional period was ending (!??!) and that they were offering me a discounted bundle rate at 5x the regular rate. Oh and these damn Spanish flyers they keep sending me for some reason, oh and now those mobile promos. I wish they didn't have a monopoly here.

[BeastCreatureTrapper]

Originally Posted by Waboman

Anyone here cut the cord from cable/satellite?

Like, 20 years ago.

Never really missed it. Occasionally, there would be that one NFL game a year which would be on ESPN and it would have been nice to be able to see it live...but, seriously, that's nothing, especially now when you can go online and get highlights like a minute after they've been played out in real time.

It also helps that OTA is usually in better quality than the cable/sat feeds....and FREE.

[boringperson]

Originally Posted by BeastCreatureTrapper

Like, 20 years ago.

Never really missed it. Occasionally, there would be that one NFL game a year which would be on ESPN and it would have been nice to be able to see it live...but, seriously, that's nothing, especially now when you can go online and get highlights like a minute after they've been played out in real time.

It also helps that OTA is usually in better quality than the cable/sat feeds....and FREE.

Same. Cable stopped being worth it about 10 years ago. Since then, the programming as been on a steady decline. It is all garbage IMO.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by boringperson

Same. Cable stopped being worth it about 10 years ago. Since then, the programming as been on a steady decline. It is all garbage IMO.

If Walking Dead didn't still air on cable then I wouldn't ever watch it. Outside of TWD, I think the last show I watched on cable was The Legend of Korra in 2014 before they made it exclusive to Nick's website. There's never anything on cable. I can't believe people still pay for it when we've got so many affordable streaming options out there.

[boringperson]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

If Walking Dead didn't still air on cable then I wouldn't ever watch it. Outside of TWD, I think the last show I watched on cable was The Legend of Korra in 2014 before they made it exclusive to Nick's website. There's never anything on cable. I can't believe people still pay for it when we've got so many affordable streaming options out there.

I'm happy with Netflix and Hulu. I tried Disney+ but it was not really worth it.

[sk33tr]

Originally Posted by boringperson

I'm happy with Netflix and Hulu. I tried Disney+ but it was not really worth it.

i've got d+ for a year, free, through my cell provider. i MIGHT keep it after the free year...don't know, yet.

and i've been looking at going with either hulu or youtube tv (although i'm not a fan of google, so that may put yt out of the running). since my mom lives with me, i have to get something that will satisfy her. she pays the satellite bill since she's the one who watches it 99% of the time. i watch 2 shows and football (during the season), so i don't watch it much. but i can get the channels those shows are on and all the sports stuff i need with hulu and an ota hd antenna. and i may be getting her some sort of external box (like a roku) with my tax refund and then guy a couple antennas.

[Member-222782]

The only reason I still have cable is because they convinced me it wasn't worth dropping the landline and cable portion of my service monetarily. They claim it would cost me about the same if I just kept the internet part. I thought internet was supposed to be this great invention that was supposed to be free or low cost for all mankind, not to mention available everywhere.

Anyway, cable is an absolute wasteland. Pay TV was supposed to be a kind of refuge from advertising-heavy broadcast television but it's just as bad as over-the-air TV, if not worse. Virtually any channel you tune to, you're confronted by a barrage of commercials no matter what channel it is. You're far likelier to hit a block of commercials every time you tune to a pre-chosen channel than you are actual programming. It's pathetic.

[sk33tr]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

The only reason I still have cable is because they convinced me it wasn't worth dropping the landline and cable portion of my service monetarily. They claim it would cost me about the same if I just kept the internet part. I thought internet was supposed to be this great invention that was supposed to be free or low cost for all mankind, not to mention available everywhere.

Anyway, cable is an absolute wasteland. Pay TV was supposed to be a kind of refuge from advertising-heavy broadcast television but it's just as bad as over-the-air TV, if not worse. Virtually any channel you tune to, you're confronted by a barrage of commercials no matter what channel it is. You're far likelier to hit a block of commercials every time you tune to a pre-chosen channel than you are actual programming. It's pathetic.

yep...more and more there is less and less actual show and more and more commercials.

according to wikipedia (so take with a grain of salt...):
a 1-hour show typically has 39-42 minutes of actual show time
a 30-minute show typically has 18-21 minutes of actual show time
...and i think those numbers are inflated

pay tv services (cable/satellite)
more commercials (from which they make money)
+ they charge more for the service
+ you get less show
= they some greedy-ass bastards, ain't they?

hell, even with internet you have to pay for services...not including the actual internet service.

internet service (the faster, the most expensive)
+ pay sites like hulu/netflix/disney+/appletv+/youtube tv
= still paying more money...albeit it IS less than having cable/satellite service. but how long will that last?

if the cable and satellite providers go away, how long would it be before internet tv providers start charging more?

[Waboman]

Thanks everyone. Seems YouTube TV offers the most for the least. However, Fubo has NickJr (important for the kids) and the most sports in 4K... but... it doesn't have any of the Disney owned channels, ABC, ESPN, etc. Neither one has the NFL Network. *sigh* It's like each one is about 80% of what I want. To get all of what I want you have to bend over and take it, without lube, like I'm doing with DirecTV right now. As it stands, the wife is leaning towards YouTube TV, I'm leaning towards Fubo. So more than likely we'll get YouTube. But I'm gonna go down fighting.

[Scarriere]

I use DAZN for football. It's excellent!

[BeastCreatureTrapper]

Originally Posted by sk33tr

yep...more and more there is less and less actual show and more and more commercials.

according to wikipedia (so take with a grain of salt...):
a 1-hour show typically has 39-42 minutes of actual show time
a 30-minute show typically has 18-21 minutes of actual show time
...and i think those numbers are inflated

Those numbers are about right, but there is fudging in there as well.

Take a reality show, where they leave for commercial break with a cliffhanger. Then, they come back from commercial break with a replay of the cliffhanger that we just saw before the commercial break. Little padding like that adds up to pointless filler.

It's interesting to compare runtimes by decade.

The Walking Dead has an typical runtime of 42 minutes.

Compare that to a show like The Invaders (1967-68), where each episode clocks in at just under 50 minutes.

[sk33tr]

Originally Posted by BeastCreatureTrapper

Those numbers are about right, but there is fudging in there as well.

Take a reality show, where they leave for commercial break with a cliffhanger. Then, they come back from commercial break with a replay of the cliffhanger that we just saw before the commercial break. Little padding like that adds up to pointless filler.

It's interesting to compare runtimes by decade.

The Walking Dead has an typical runtime of 42 minutes.

Compare that to a show like The Invaders (1967-68), where each episode clocks in at just under 50 minutes.

yep

and i suspect that in another 10-15 years, those numbers may go down even more. maybe not by much, but i think they'll go down.

[Member-222782]

Has anyone ever been in South Florida during a cold snap? I was watching the movie Get Shorty the other day and there was a scene where Travolta and some other guy are in a Diner and they're talking about the weather and how unusually cold it was in Miami. I just find that fascinating. When I think of Florida I think of sun and heat - not people walking around wearing parkas lol. I also learned recently that it got to 38 degrees F at one point where my parents are from in Puerto Rico. That blew my mind.

[boringperson]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Has anyone ever been in South Florida during a cold snap? I was watching the movie Get Shorty the other day and there was a scene where Travolta and some other guy are in a Diner and they're talking about the weather and how unusually cold it was in Miami. I just find that fascinating. When I think of Florida I think of sun and heat - not people walking around wearing parkas lol. I also learned recently that it got to 38 degrees F at one point where my parents are from in Puerto Rico. That blew my mind.

They have cold snaps where I live too. I am in a desert. Once the low was 25 F and that is way too cold for me.

[Blu Lemmy]

I live in England. We get warm snaps

[Waboman]

[Dubstar]

tonight's Jeopardy! contestants are all loopy.

[Member-222782]

Is anyone buying that super expensive Star Wars 4K set? $250 is an awful lot for this. A lot of people who hate the prequels are obviously going to skip this but I happen to like those films. Still, it's a LOT of dough. The specs aren't even known yet. Seriously, who's going to drop so much cash on a collection without knowing what the specs are? Disney's been dropping the ball lately with the audio portion of their discs. If this includes the Empire of Dreams doc that might push me into pre-ordering.