Insight vs Dish vs DirectTV

I've had Dish before - several years ago. Good quality. Very serious storms would knock it out briefly (minutes usually) about once every month or two.

My "real-world" (non tv) schedule (family, work, and exercise primarily ) takes up the vast majority of my time, leaving me little need for tv consumption.

Presently, no cable or satellite for me. Internet provides me every show I want and more. (that is, I don't watch that many series - Dexter (12 hrs/yr), Curb Your Enthusiasm (6 hrs/yr ?), and Daily Show/Colbert Report). If I really wanted to watch bunches of movies, netflix is only eight bucks a month, right? Stream them right to your computer which you can hook up to your tv.

Further, you can get fifteen or so channels for free over the air with a small antenna.

My P's had a half hour/day limit for TV viewing. Some exceptions allowed. But seems like a pretty good rule.

If you want to go a bit more rogue, everything is out there - almost all sports broadcasts (even the ones the big guys black out for paying custies), almost every movie imaginable, old tv series etc....it can be a cat and mouse game, but tech savvy people are winning by a landslide.

Idea: try to not watch tv for a week and you'll be amazed at how much extra time you have. You might not go back! Price - free!

[Robin Garr]

Idea: try to not watch tv for a week and you'll be amazed at how much extra time you have. You might not go back! Price - free!

It might surprise you that we often go a week or more without watching television, other than streaming movies from Netflix via our Roku machine.

We never watch sitcoms and rarely commercial TV, and other than special events (like World Cup and the Olympics) seldom watch shows at the time they're scheduled. The DVR makes time-shifting easy.

But all that said, call me profligate, but we can afford HD cable, and I'm willing to pay an appropriate amount to have the option available when we want it.

As it turns out, a call to Insight and a little negotiation resulted in an offer that made things a little more interesting: Cable and Internet for the same price we'd been paying for cable alone before. Works for me!

If you want to go a bit more rogue, everything is out there - almost all sports broadcasts (even the ones the big guys black out for paying custies), almost every movie imaginable, old tv series etc....it can be a cat and mouse game, but tech savvy people are winning by a landslide.

Idea: try to not watch tv for a week and you'll be amazed at how much extra time you have. You might not go back! Price - free!

I have not had a television since the digital conversion. At first it was just an issue of not wanting to get the conversion box, but since then I have moved out of that place, and currently don't own a TV nor the converter box. Can't really afford cable - or would rather not spend my money on cable - so, no TV, no converter, no cable - that's how one ends up with no TV.

I guess in a "me versus the machine" way I'm better off without a TV, but I think I'd actually be more productive with a TV. Nothing quite like the time suck a TV offers. I agree that everything is available online, but there's really two problems there - comfort and the inability to surf. There's very little I actually like watching on TV. But, man, how I do love to surf. My approach to TV is to see how many shows I can watch (or, really, not watch) at the same time. None of it is good. None of it is worth my time. But, after a hard day's work, there is, I think, some value to just staring at (or through) the TV.

And yes, while i know I could just read a book instead, that's what I do professionally, so, there's another argument for TV.

not really worth the cost though. at least at my income level.

Robin,
Good job on talking Insight down. I understand your choice to keep tv options open. Kudos on limited TV usage.

Matthew, yeah, I got one of the free converters from the gov't a year ago. Channel surfing can be good entertainment. I figured you'd be tv-free.

Cheers...