at a lot of things . so hang on i'm gonna kind of go off on a minor rant .... the wife complains all the time about cell phone bills and phone bills . well who do you think is on the dain phone more , and nonetheless for union business so they should be paying some of it . somehow or another i become the **** as i am on my laptop a lot which is on my cell account , but i still have way less charges than her . i have made the comment many times that she should pare down the cable bill as she has this big fancy package , that includes our home phone . why do we need the home phone when most of the time peeps are reaching us on our cells ? now also about the cable . 200 plus a month for cable tv . yep it has the high speed internet on it , but they say you have a wider variety of channels to choose from etc. . since when does having 4 or 5 channels of the same damn network count as a wider variety ????? so what if it has the ability to record programs etc . with ease . get rid of it go with basic cable and get a seperate high speed interverse provider , it would be so much cheaper !!! comcast you and your services SUCK !!! now then a final rant . i was watching a program on discovery about some boneyard in arizona that restores , a loosely fitting term mind you , old cars . they were doing a 55 ford truck so i was interested . who writes these damn scripts and such ? you don't have a damn clue about anything remotely involving our hobby !!! talking about shtuff that made no sense , how this was rare or parts were different tween a six and v8 when in actuality they werent other than a v8 emblem and a damn bracket , and the parts you were saying was rare , hades i got i don't know how many of several of these items in my black hole and you can buy 'em rpopped from vendors at really cheap prices !!! chriminy all you film and tv people take note : get some real car guys in before you start making yourselves and the people involved look like ***** and idiots !!!! kinda like that dumba$$ fast and the fartcan series of movies , HEY MAN HE'S GOT NAWWSS !!! and he lives his life ten seconds at a time . i puke every time i hear those movies being played as they are such bullcrap !!! ok i'm done for now . gotta back into the dock and pretend to go too work now so ........ later !!!!!

 

You can buy an HD antenna or build your own very easily. The number of channels you will be able to pull in will depend on your location. But the picture quality is much better and more reliable than the antennas we used in the old days because the broadcasts are all in digital. If you're frustrated with cable bills, I would put together a homemade HD antenna just to see what's available in the area.



There are subscription-free PVR units you can buy. These will allow yout o record Over-the-air(OTA) HD broadcasts, with the same features as your cable company PVR (pause live TV, record two shows simultaneously, etc)


You can probably dump the expensive cable package and possible the home phone. And any shows or movies you can't get OTA you can download over the internet.

 

I'm using Comcast Xfinity, and aside from horrific customer service it's been pretty good. I chose an internet only package, decent speed for $50 a month. I haven't had home phone in four or five years, just the cell phones, or TV service but I use Netflix and get a default basic handful of channels with the internet plan.
Packages are a waste of money, they are just what they think the majority wants, and they charge extra for the "convenience" of just one bill.

 

I have Charter service (and I use the term loosely,) because they have the cable monopoly around here. I like to watch the Speed Channel, and I like to see boxing. My wife watches a lot more than I do. My viewing is limited to six or eight channels. And like you said, a thousand channels doesn't mean crap. Most of them are repeats, many five channel groups showing the same things and then scads of infomercials and shopping channels. And it's not a thousand because there are no channels in the six hundred range, the seven hundreds are only a few and show the same stuff that is in the five hundred group, Blah, blah, blah etc

But it does have a very good (not the best in the world) cable internet hookup. But my wife has a couple of phone lines in the package. Costs a fortune but we don't have a lot of choices. Many people around here have tried satellite but it's very unreliable. We looked into it but the sales person said we couldn't even get it installed because there are too many tall trees.

Bottom line for me is, first it is a fraud, not at all what it is advertised to be. Also It's a monopoly which sux, and it's also like having a financial hemorrage!

 

Try Hulu. I have an unlimited data package still on my Verizon phone and haven't turned the television in in a week.