Who has ditched their TV?

93gsxturbo wrote: Even my hippy parents have a 42" plasma and love it.

Far out, man!

I haven't had cable/sat TV in over 7 years. I have OTA TV right now, and that works just fine. My boys usually play with their toys while I play on my comp during inclement weather. When it is fine outside, that's where we are. Always something to do outside.

Let me clarify. I love my TVs. They are going nowhere. I just think there has to be a better way of using it than paying huge cable bills.

I've also never understood the anti-TV high horse. We sometimes play board games as a family. We sometimes watch TV as a family. I don't see how playing Sorry with my kids enriches our lives more than watching Wheel of Fortune with them.

Otto Maddox wrote: I've also never understood the anti-TV high horse.

The view is great from up here dude, try it some time.

If you don't watch TV you are going to suck at trivia games and crosswords later in life.

I ditched cable in 1997 - Nothing against TV shows, I just got tired of paying ridiculous sums to a local monopoly. These days, I stream shows off Netflix & Hulu, but my TV/Movie watching is pretty much limited to one night a week.

The unforeseen benefit for me? Since ditching cable, TV has been a social event. If a friend absolutely raves about a show, I go to their place, cook dinner and watch it with them. Often, it's not even while the show is running, it's after it's wrapped up and we do a few marathons watching a season at a time. It's a great excuse to get together for the weekend; a lot of times, the TV ends up as background noise to board games or general socializing.

TV as a social media...it's so retro! :D

mtn wrote: You aren't missing anything. And let me guess, Top Gear?

Guess again. Look left

Otto Maddox wrote: I've also never understood the anti-TV high horse. We sometimes play board games as a family. We sometimes watch TV as a family. I don't see how playing Sorry with my kids enriches our lives more than watching Wheel of Fortune with them.

An excellent point.

I dropped cable at my house a number of years ago in an attempt to make better use of my time. However, I discovered a worse side-effect: the internet. While watching TV, you can 'do' stuff: dishes... rebuild a bike... clean... whatever... when you're on the internet, you're glued to a chair... so I dumped the internet as well (dail-up became unusable and there was no hi-speed available until a few years ago).

Of course, this all went to hell when I started dating my g/f, who now has Direct TV HD and DSL. When I only go to my house I just listen to the radio or watch videos.

I ditched TV senior year of college, there was no time for it anyways between, my school needs, my wifes school needs, keeping care of our young child and working, it was a sucky year.

After things calmed down again I found that the internet had stepped in and become my time waster of choice. Realizing that the habit of wasting time was not the fault of the TV. I went out and got one, along with a Xbox360 and Forza3.

Playing the Forza3 on the Xbox is not wasting time, its race training, at least that's what I keep telling my wife...

TV with Antenna and converter box. Paid nothing, get 7 channels that I enjoy. That's all I need.

The only way I'd justify paying money for a TV is IF/WHEN the networks start going SOLO. That is...when they sell subscriptions to their affiliates on their own, without the middle-man that is the cable company.

I'd like to be able to NBC, Public TV, Discovery HD, and a few other select stations....no more. And I don't want to pay more than $20 a month.

$35 a month for basic cable is ridiculous to me...but then again I am a cheapskate.

Ditch cable, sure. Actually, never had it. Sometimes I'll watch it a bit at the inlaws, but it's just more channels, with still nothing worth watching.

Regular TV, as in free, I have that. Watch it for about 3 minutes a morning, for the weather report. Some british comedy in the evening, sometimes.

Otherwise, it's our weekend video movie. $1 from Redbox and have a cheap date night.

I contemplate a bigger HD tv sometimes. But really, I can't rationalize it.

Our laptop gets more TV type watching streaming old Star Trek episodes and such. But even that only lasts a few days before we get bored with it again.

As long as you have guns and a snowmobile, you've no need of a TV.

So we ditched the TV about a week ago and picked up a new desktop with a 23" monitor. So far it seems like I watch less, my TV watching is usually relegated to evenings now instead of randomly all day. Of course that may also be because of the copious amount of schoolwork I've had lately.

I don't have cable, but I do have a little TV and VCR/DVD player in the garage. It's sometimes nice to have a familiar film playing in the background while you work....I was working on the Datsun last week while Ghost In The Shell was playing. This weekend, it was The Guns of Navarone. A movie can be a nice break from music....

It's been well over ten years for me... I own a TV but it gets switched on maybe twice a year to watch a video with friends. Otherwise... I watch a few things on you tube when I'm taking a break from working (Letterman, Dirty Jobs, music videos).

Hey, easy on the "ditch your TV" talk. Some very nice folks I know make their living in television.

Ditch my TV, no. Cable/sat, yes. My DVD player gets 1-2 hours of use a day, mostly to unwind and fall asleep.