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Same here. My wife and I decided to get rid of this time-consuming and brain-flattening device of mass control years ago.
Now, if only there was a way to cut down on sleeping, I would have some spare time at last.
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I just cancelled my DirecTV about a couple weeks ago. I was paying over $100 per month. After analyzing the shows I watch, I figured I can get by with Hulu Plus and Netflix on my XBox; a comibed total of about $16 per month.
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You recommend chromecast over Roku?
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This is getting advertised at the moment in France ( Unfortunately in a way that 99,999% of people probably do not understand what it is all about). Do you use it ? What is your feedback ?
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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I have done just that. I am using cable as my internet provider but I don't have any tv channels. My tv consist of what ever comes over the air and my Roku. I do have a subscription to Netflix and have had Hulu but not any more. Works good for me, most of the time. Over the air gets 'staticy' (sp?) this time of year when we have storms coming round.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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Does Roku get any of the following ESPN/Football, AMC, LMN, Food Network, Disney, teen nick?
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I'll have to check to be sure, but I think that Disney is the only one, and that will be subscription based. I am sure that there isn't any ESPN or AMC channels. Although you could probably attach a pc to your tv and watch online, I do with my laptop sometimes. Hulu has a lot of current shows from everyone but CBS, iirc. They only keep the last 5 so you can't watch a whole series. You would have to check and see if Hulu offered the specific programs you want.
I'll try to remember to look tonight and get more definitive.
I did find that the Syfy channel was on netflix and it was free, but when I went to check it out, it was all ads about their shows. No real content. Others might be the same.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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I did find a WatchESPN channel. I doubt that it shows games in whole, but it does claim to let you watch sports. There was also an A&E channel but it too required a subscription.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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Thank you for the follow up.
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I would dump the cable TV part and keep just the Internet part if my wife would let me. The kid and I only watch Netflix -- XBox360, Wii Uh, Kindle, phones, etc.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Yeah, keep the cable (the internet part) then put a splitter on it, one to the TV, one to the router.
You get basic TV (local channels). Good for when interference blocks "over the air" TV
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Couldn't be happier. I still go to the movies and stream the occasional Netflix but my life is so much better. Just ditch it. My decision wasn't entirely altruistic, however, I was just too tired of all the GD commercials. A few ads are fine but television has become one constant commercial interruption. Sadly, discovery is almost the worst, in the before the before they might make an anthology show with 4 things occurring in 30 minutes not they stretch that one thing into an hour. Literally, watch something on the discovery, after every commercial break it is a 2 to 3 minute recap of what happened before the break. Maybe, 10 minutes of content for the hour! (but 22 minutes of commercials or more)
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There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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This is one reason why I record most things I watch these days: I can skip the adverts and leave just the program.
They are way too intrusive - I understand the channel needs them to pay the rent - but when it becomes nearly as much advert as program, I don't watch it "live".
US shows are a case in point: "Cougar Town" runs about 20 minutes without adverts, and 45 with...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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If I click on a link that takes me to a video that starts with a commercial I close the browser.
Die in a fire.
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This in one reason I use FlashBlock - sadly it doesn't work on HTML5 - but I understand that a little careful Googling will find you a number of "YouTube downloaders" which while probably violating YouTube T&C's and thus nothing I would recommend you look for at all, but which would probably enable the discerning viewer to skip the damn "your video will start in 1 minute" advert completely. And you would get to find out what the product it was advertising was and make sure you never buy it.
But I wouldn't do that, and I'm sure you wouldn't either...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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That you for that warning.
I'll be sure to avoid those products/services.
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Going OT: Adblock Plus blocks those youtube ads (and pretty much everything else), but it's only for chrome and firefox.
Looked a few times for an IE equivalent, but gave up on that after a few days.
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I have a WDC - World Domination Centre - consisting of a 40" tv plugged into a dual Xeon box as a monitor. It's Linux-based (14.04) and I use a USB dongle to play free-to-air channels over Kaffeine. Nice thing is, I can record TV programmes I like, such as Sherlock and Montalbano, or watch DVD's; obviously the whole thing is ported into 5.1 sound as well, and I have about 80GB of music on the drive also.
I don't watch much tv though. 
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OriginalGriff wrote: This is one reason why I record most things I watch these days: I can skip the adverts and leave just the program.
Yep, same here. I used to watch programs in "replay" 5 years ago, as it was still something brand new nobody knew about (meaning servers were still accessible). Now they have put ads in replay services as well, at the beginning of eahc program. Worse : Replays are streaming videos (no news, I know), e.g. not so stable, especially when everybody replays at the same time, so if you lose connection or it gets interrupted for whatever reason, you have to escape and re-enter, and there goes another 3min ads ( the same you had already watched earlier  ).
So recording is the way to go. Even better : I can start watching a program while it is still being recorded, meaning that if I start watching 15min after the live start hour, I have enough buffer to skip the three or four ad breaks in the evening without interruption.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Sadly, I would miss tv a bit. I reckon I need some non brain-consuming activities after work/kids/dinner/kids/dishes/kids-bedtime-stories, so tv is perfect for that. And I enjoy watching series.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Commercials are easy to avoid, just don't watch anything 'live'. I've got home built DVRs on our TVs so anything the wifey is watching was recorded. She almost never watches live TV. I don't watch TV except for the talking heads on Sunday morning (This Week with George Stepanopoulos).
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I quit watching TV 20 years ago.
Because of this my tolerance for commercials has bottomed out.
When commercials come on the radio I change the channel - I will NOT LISTEN TO THE HORSE SH*T!
If a show gets really good reviews over a few years I'll pick it up on DVD.
Save tons of money and I've a nice DVD collection.
Plus, no commercials.
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When I moved to the USA (from England via Germany) I was shocked at how many commercial breaks were in the shows having been used to the BBC (no commercials). We do have commercial TV channels in the UK but the frequency and length of the breaks was much reduced compared to the US (at least it used to be on ITV & Channel 4).
For the last few months, possibly a year or two now, I have been obtaining an increasing number of shows and movies via non-cable TV methods, Netflix, HULU, etc. and my wife, who is disabled and bed-ridden 90% of the time and therefore watches a lot of stuff, has found that the consumption of TV directly has dropped to the point where when we watched a show the other night, the TV had not changed channel, or even been looked at since the same show was on the previous week! We are now considering saving a lot of money by changing the FIOS deal to only have internet access. We don't watch or have interest in sports.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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