I finally killed my TV

posted by The Vidiot @ 8:32 AM Permalink

Having a teenager in the house, one of the most frequent arguments usually starts with 'turn off the g-ddamn TV.' Also, the programming, sans a few bright spots, has just gotten worse and worse. I mean, I can't even watch "The Simpsons" anymore. All the subtlety is gone and all the characters are doing things their characters shouldn't do. Hell, one episode I watched and Mr. Burns doing something benevolent! I mean, what the hell?!

Anyway, we just got sick of it. We really only want the TV for a few things. Two of the biggies are football and a few series we like. By killing it, we save like nearly $100 a month! I mean seriously, what a rip-off.

Turns out, almost all of what we want to watch can be had either via a Roku or through the computer. We happen to have the TV and the computer right next to each other and they're both are big screens so either/or is fine.

Here's our plan: for broadcast shows we like, and there are only a few, there's Hulu and Justin, for the cable channels, you can pay a little bit through iTunes ("Walking Dead" on AMC, "Being Human" on BBC.) and for movies and some TV shows, you can do Netflix on the Roku. The only issues are football and HBO/ Showtime. There are a few shows I like ("True Blood" I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Fuck the authority!" Russell) HBO is totally retarded with their marketing strategy. They've totally avoided the whole streaming thing for non-Comcast people. They we're supposed to work out something with either Netflix or Roku but they refused to do it. They don't understand that if people are willing to pay $9/month for a Netflix account, they'd be just as willing to pay $10-15 bucks more a month to watch HBO on-demand over the internet. NFL is just as stupid. It seems they have some sort of broadcast monopoly so, you have to go to justin.tv to get a poor quality of the game. Or just go to a sports bar. Or buy one of those satellite tv things for your computer, but most reviews I've read of similar products really slam the whole concept.

Any suggestions for the football?

That's the only stickler and Dr. Vidiot is going to wish we kept the TV for one more week so he can watch the Saints on Monday. (I already kept it an extra week so I could watch the season finale of "True Blood." He's not all that aware I did that however. Shhhhh.)

(Notice I didn't once mention watching the news.)

Labels: television