Anyone not have a TV?
 

Just wondering if anyone on here doesn't have a TV or Cable. We have one guy in my FD that has no TV. He says he has no interest in one. Says tv is nothing but trash. He dont care about the news. Dont even read the newspaper. If we get into any political talks at the firhouse, he just walks away. Says he just goes about life as it is and deals with it. Says why be concerned about things you will never change. Has plenty of hobbies and interest to keep him busy Married, middle age guy in his early fifties.

Happiest person I ever met. Never complains about anything. Always has the rose colored glasses on. So content it makes me sick. Really envy him sometimes.

I don't think you will have any takers. How about this, if you had a choice of one, computer with internet or cable tv? and you cant watch tv on your computer!

I can't even fathom that in this country

If it was up to me, we would not have television in our house. I hate it.

Could I get Pelican on my TV? :D

We have a TV but no cable.

We do have cable internet, and we can get a few stations that they don't/can't filter out.

Have TV, but no cable or SAT service. Using the good old roof aerial antenna.

Recently we set up with net-flix on the Wii.

I don't have cable...or any Dish, whatever variant of cable TV. I just don't watch it much. Network shows in the evening here and there, and the Bears, and other notable sporting (or other) events on either Sat/Sun...if there are any. In the summer, I rarely watch TV. The wife and I watch movies from time-to-time on DVD (Netflix).

I haven't had cable for 15 years, nor have I lived in a residence that had any broadcast reception. I have a tv and a dvd player, and a netflix subscription. No interest in ever having cable, but I do enjoy reading here, books and periodicals. If I lost internet access, I would not get cable, nor mourn the loss of the web.

Haven't had a TV in years.

+1

Although I'll amend it to be "if it were up to me we'd drop satellite and just watch netflix and dvds"

I grew up with out a TV... about to turn 40... when we did get a TV it was because I got a game console for my birthday when I was 12...

+2

The situation now is that phone companies, cable companies and internet providers have all become the same thing - bandwidth providers. They're really selling bandwidth now, not necessarily phone, TV or internet per se. Because they all know this, they all compete in all three markets now (hence the constant annoying onslaught of junk mail ads for "bundles" you get from all of them).

I really just want a blazing fast web connection. However, the pricing structure (regardless of who I go with) makes it such that I get the TV and the phone for the same cost of the high-speed Internet, so there's really reason to not take it.

I never watch (hell, I didn't even watch the superbowl - I think the last thing I watched was 20 minutes of a Top Gear episode last month) but whatever... My flat screen 50" works great for CAD drawings and displaying home movies...

I don't have a TV. I miss being able to watch movies in 5.1, but for the most part, it's better without one.

I'll have to differ. I enjoy TV. It is part of the matrix of things; a small segment, but one I like.

+1. Sunday Morning with Charles Kurault, Family Guy, CNN in the background when getting up in the morning. Super Bowl, Austin City Limits, etc. Not sure what there is to complain about. If you don't like what's on...don't watch it.

I think it's trendy to dislike TV...but trendy isn't reality. I like it.

I like T.V. but I hate "reality" T.V. It's like anyone can get their own reality show these days...

Since my two computers crapped out, the only source of TV/Computer/Internet I have at home right now is my Droid smartphone. I sit in front of a computer all day at work, so I really don't miss having a computer.

Sometimes I come home and feel like watching a movie. Instead I turn on some music and read a book. It's kind of cheesy, but it actually makes me feel better than watching tv... i guess because my brain is actually doing a little bit of work.

I do enjoy some TV shows when I visit with friends, but I don't really have any active desire to have a TV in my house. The noise, especially commercial advertising, really bothers me.

I lived without a TV for several years. There is a lot of garbage on TV, but I sure as heck don't have to watch it. I enjoy a few programs.

We have a tv but no cable/Dtv provider, not that I really care most of what's on tv is just crap. We use it to just watch the occasional movie. If I want to watch tv I'll just have my gf record it on her dvr, mainly Top Gear and Always Sunny

I have not had a TV in my house since 1994.

Yes, Im "normal" otherwise, I have electricity, running water, and don't mail bombs to people.

If I watch a movie I go out and see one or watch one on the computer. I get my news from multiple online sources. The "news" on TV is useless sensationalism geared toward short attention spans. Your perspective of American culture and politics will shift when you are without a TV for an extended time. You will really notice how much it affects the culture and politics of the people you interact with in a way you didn't before. It's amazing how much you don't miss having it when a year or so has gone by of not having one. I went to a friends house to see the super bowl so I could see some folks I had not seen in a while. After the game they made me watch Jersey Shore because 30 people could not believe I had never seen the show not even once even though a lot of them knew I did not have a TV. It was like a social experiment. I felt like I was in the movie Idiocracy as I sat there watching the most rItaRdud "reality" show in existence. Its amazing to think that this room full of people all of which went to college and or grad school would watch that kind of shyte on purpose without bamboo splinters under their fingernails and superglue holding their eyes open. It was entertaining to be watched by these people for my comments and reactions to the Idiocy unfolding in "real life" right before our eyes on TV. We all had a good laugh, just at different things.

TV connected to the DVD player. Thats it.

while stationed overseas..
we sometimes did without..
so you read ..you talk to each other..
don't know about 'now'..
but then it was kinda fun..

Rika

My old business partner used to like to brag he didn't have one,, although they did have one for viewing DVDS.. Funny thing was when he was around one he was like a monkey with a mirror when you had the remote in his hand

I have two houses both with a TV but no service provider. I watch DVD's occasionally and use the TV as a monitor. I don't miss TV in the slightest and get my news from the internet or from colleagues.

I have mobile wireless internet that I can take with me to either address.

I'm not entirely surprised how many people I find that don't bother with cable. I predict the cable / dish TV business as we know it in for a major change in the next few years. There is a rapidly increasing number of people who don't want to pay for 250 channels of junk.

Several TVs in house and shop...... No cable or sat, just antenna. We get ABC, NBC, CBS, local Fox and two public stations and a few odd local stations. I watch (and curse at) ABC local and national news and whatever is on from 9:00 pm until about 11:00 pm most nights which is OK by me. Before I was married, I rarely watched TV and spent most waking hours building stuff out in the garage when I was not at work.

No TV. gave it away a few years ago. just fine for me.
I look at all the big screen TVs at Sams club, but then I remember that I don't need to watch it. :)

No TV here.

You should consider it. It really is nice especially if you have kids.

G

I get my news and entertainment from the Internet, so I hardly ever watch TV. I watch 2 shows once a week and that's it.

That's what we have here. I quit network tv in the mid 70's. I guess I've missed a lot of stuff.
Jim

Not really.

I watch cooking shows and F1/motogp, a little ski racing. That's all. The rest of the family watches TV a lot more - different series, talk shows, etc. So, I could do without a TV but the family wouldn't.

I am trying to trim my cable bill, but it is interesting how hard that is. To get Speed, I have to buy the sports package. F1 doesnt offer online viewing and motogp's subscription is more expensive than the package. To get cooking channel, I have to buy the digital preferred package. Most of the programs are not online. Vonage is no cheaper than the cable phone. There's no Internet service as fast (I get up to 19Mb/s down), or even tolerably fast, that is really any cheaper. Etc.

We have an ancient GE TV that we use to watch movies. Never had cable or Sat TV. The antenna got donated to a fund raiser for the local animal shelter about 15 years ago. Don't miss it.

One exception: F1 races, although this past summer I was working Sundays and missed most of the races. I go to my Father-in-law's for those. He will often call the day before to be sure I remember.

News from CBC radio and the net.

Les

We only got a TV when my wife was on maternity leave. Even then, we ddn't get cable, just 3 channels on rabbit ears. We watch the news for an hour or so some nights. Max would be 3 hours per week.

My head spins at the idea of PAYING for cable companies to pump hour of trash and paid commercials into our home. Not a %$#ing chance. Sometimes it's a pain when there is a genuinely good show that we don't get, but we can always get it on netflix or DVD.

One night a year or so ago, my wife was still on maternity leave and had a bad week. I had been really busy at work, the baby had been sick, we were ALL cranky and at each other's throats. My wife got into the wine, and was REAL sour and mouthy. Once she was good and drunk, she announced "SCREW YOU, I'M ORDERING CABLE!" Get's on the phone, and slurs through the order until they tell her the price, then she hung up. I stil tease her about the time she got drunk and ordered cable.

I haven't watched network tv in many years and finally had to put up with it for a few weeks when I visited my folks in NJ for Xmas and then got stranded there because of the snow. It was torture. My dad watches MSNBC news all morning and believes it all like gospel. My mom watches network sitcoms and "reality tv." I've never watched a reality show and don't understand them. I watch news, documentaries, Seinfeld reruns and VH-Classic and just about nothing else.

TV but no cable or other reception. I only use it for DVDs but I watch a movie almost every night. I also stopped watching regular/network TV in the 1970s, about the time that "Happy Days" was on. There have been huge shows that I've never seen, like "Cheers" and "Friends". Or only seen snippets of them while at a bar or someone else's house.

Some of the best things made in recent years have been on HBO, (specifically "The Sopranos" and "The Wire"), but they are much better to watch on DVD in sequence. If there is something that I want to see on TV, like the Oscars or the Super Bowl, I can go to a party and see it.

I'd be content with just DIY, Military channel, and Food TV. Most of the time my cable tv is on one of the channels that just plays music.(which is basically the same as my Sirius.) If I watch more than 3 hours a week it is a lot.

I have high speed internet with Comcast and TV with Dish. Even though I'm being screwed paying $12 more for the internet because I don't have cable, I'm still paying less than if I switched everything to Comcast.

If I only made domestic calls, and I combined my Vonage phone and Internet and Comcast, I'd just about break even. But then I'd have a crappy DOCSIS 1 or 2 cable modem and would lose everything if the cable goes out!

So, we have

SBC (AT&T) for a business line with a cheap DSL on top
Vonage running on that DSL line
Comcast Cable Internet
Dish for TV

We'd have to lose power and generator and have both cable and landline go out to lose all phone and internet.

This is what we do. It's much more enjoyable to watch without commercials and in blocks of a couple of episodes at a time. Especially with cliffhanger shows. Besides, by the time it comes out on DVD, we know whether it's worth our time.

Other than that, we watch the 11:00 news and the occasional Seinfeld rerun.

TV is an entertainment appliance. Just because I have a toaster doesn't mean I have to eat toast everyday. I am astonished by people that can't not watch TV unless they get rid of the damn thing.

We have TV's, however I am not too excited about what's on them.
We watch as little as possible. DIY, Military,History, PBS. Just finished the Pacific Miniseries on DVD, TV's are good.

Network programing is a sad commentary on peoples interests, the reality shows are a window in to dysfunction and lost priorities. My kids are even appalled.

I'm just like your friend, firefighter with no TV. But I can recite just about every line to a few movies I own.... use the internet on my phone at home... lol... kinda sucks when I bring a girl over and she wants to watch a movie or tv...