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Post by Clipper on Jul 10, 2019 13:24:36 GMT -5
wibx950.com/brindisi-calls-on-cable-company-to-end-blackouts/We have had the same thing happen here on several occasions when we had Charter cable (now spectrum cable. The provider DOES need to have some sort of leverage when it comes to being able to negotiate fairly and in good faith. However for the price that a subscriber pays for their service, it is unfair to the subscriber to black out local stations where people get their news, as well as weather and weather warnings. On that same note, local stations also need to negotiate in good faith, knowing that the costs of providing the service by Direct TV or any other provider DO rise and an appropriate raise in the price of service IS fair, as long as it isn't a rapacious rise in cost. Some sort of legislation may be necessary to address the problem and set reasonable limits. Probably by the FCC regulation.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Jul 11, 2019 12:00:05 GMT -5
Barb was in negotiations with Spectrum yesterday. Our latest deal had run out and our bill had jumped. The last time that happened we dropped Spectrum and went with Dish who gave us a new customer deal. Six months after that Spectrum offered to buy out our Dish contract and offered us a new customer deal.
Barb then told me to get 2 more Chromecasts. We already had one which she uses to practice her church music. Chromecasts are $35 each from several different sources. I found that if I ordered it online from Best Buy with in store pickup I could get 2 for $55. I placed the order and 15 minutes later I got an email that my order was ready.
Each cable box that we replace will save us $7 per month so the break even time is short. The next time the rates go up we will drop our land line. Most of the calls on that are from telemarketers.
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Post by Clipper on Jul 11, 2019 13:10:24 GMT -5
With chromecast can you stream your local channels to get the local news and network programming? Would my desktop pc be able to efficiently provide dependable uninterrupted TV? I don't understand much of that sort of thing. I have never paid much attention to how Roku, Vulu, and that sort of thing works. I assume that I would still need a cable service of one kind or another to get the cable channels like food network, nat geo, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2019 21:13:54 GMT -5
I noticed my internet coverage with Spectrum/TWC went up. A whopping 70 cents. Better not go up again. We get a cable TV group rate for the building and so far it has remained stable at $36.00. You get all the channels except HBO and those things but nothing is on that is worth my while anyway except for Big Brother, MASH, Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, King of Queens, Food Network, PBS, CREATE TV and Lester Holt with a few more news broadcasts.
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Post by Clipper on Jul 12, 2019 7:08:53 GMT -5
One of our local channels is blacked out by Direct TV right now. It doesn't affect us as we have cable through the local utility company, but for people in the rural areas with no cable available, taking one of the local channels away is significant.
They interviewed a person last night that lives in the mountains, out in the coal fields of SW Virginia. The made mention of the fact that even without satellite tv, while they cannot watch all the normal network programming on the blacked out channel, they are fortunate to be able to stream the local news using their cell phone internet access.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Jul 12, 2019 11:04:07 GMT -5
Probably the easiest way to determine what is available is to use a tablet or phone and look. Locally WKTV has a website which has most of the news stories from the last couple days available. The major networks also have the same thing for national news. I usually use Google News as a general news source.
My daughter cut back to basic cable and uses the internet for anything beyond that. There is also the possibility of using an antenna plus the internet. It just depends on what is available in your area.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Jul 12, 2019 11:23:06 GMT -5
One more point, Chromecast, Roku and Firestick are just widgets that allow your TV to talk to your router. If you have a more up to date TV, it may have that capability built in. In that case your phone or tablet should be able to find other devices on the network and stream directly to the TV. Barb does that regularly to practice her church music.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2019 15:35:33 GMT -5
When the cable guy was here last week to replace the digital adapter for me he was telling me that in pretty soon these cable boxes will no longer be needed. He said that one would use a Firestick to pick up the channels that you are subscribed to through their service. I cannot wait for that to happen. These boxes and digital adapters are crazy and take up to much room plus they get dusty and add to the many wires already being used.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Jul 12, 2019 16:07:25 GMT -5
Plus you get charged a monthly fee for the boxes.
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Post by chris on Aug 1, 2019 11:45:09 GMT -5
In my bedroom my tv is not hooked up to cable just an antennae...bought for 10.00 at Radio Shack. (guy in store told me start cheap and if it doesn't work return and upgrade...it worked fine) Last week I stopped at Big Lots and picked one up for 12.00. Its one of those flat ones. My old one had rabit ears and I was tired of the ears hanging out and one broke off recently. This one is much cleaner profile and nothing that will poke my eye out. I get 26 channels. In July they had moved channel line up but I just auto programmed it and got the missing channels back.. I get abc, nbc, cbs, 3 PBS channels along with QVC and HSN. CW and host of others I never heard of. If you go to www.titantv.com/Default.aspx?lineupid=93ef2382-5045-4872-a664-c6aefd5272f9 you will get list of channels for your area just add your zip code |
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Post by chris on Aug 1, 2019 11:53:22 GMT -5
When the cable guy was here last week to replace the digital adapter for me he was telling me that in pretty soon these cable boxes will no longer be needed. He said that one would use a Firestick to pick up the channels that you are subscribed to through their service. I cannot wait for that to happen. These boxes and digital adapters are crazy and take up to much room plus they get dusty and add to the many wires already being used. I just bought and returned my Firestick. I bought it for the bedroom but it runs on wifi and was not working how I expected it to. I was not wanting to add to cost and you have to subscribe to channels like Netflix and Hulu. Not too many apps that actually work. Soem people like it and some don't. Have you tried Roku I heard that was better. Or get an antennae and cut the cord on cable (unless you must have those cable channels) |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2019 15:37:24 GMT -5
Chris several months ago I received a package from a company in China. This Company makes an antenna that you stick to your window with the included suction cups. It is probably 12 inches by 12 inches and looks like black plastic. I never ordered this but found out if you ever order something from China somehow your address gets sold and you get free merchandise. LOL. Three week before I got this I bought a brown cardigan sweater through E BAY from China.
So anyway I used the antenna the two days my adapter on my TV decided to stop working. I did not think it would work but it picks up all the non cable on air channels. I was very pleased. I hope to buy maybe a 32 inch flat screen TV for living room and put that in bedroom along with that antenna.
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Post by chris on Aug 7, 2019 19:04:15 GMT -5
In my bedroom my tv is not hooked up to cable just an antennae...bought for 10.00 at Radio Shack. (guy in store told me start cheap and if it doesn't work return and upgrade...it worked fine) Last week I stopped at Big Lots and picked one up for 12.00. Its one of those flat ones. My old one had rabit ears and I was tired of the ears hanging out and one broke off recently. This one is much cleaner profile and nothing that will poke my eye out. I get 26 channels. In July they had moved channel line up but I just auto programmed it and got the missing channels back.. I get abc, nbc, cbs, 3 PBS channels along with QVC and HSN. CW and host of others I never heard of. If you go to www.titantv.com/Default.aspx?lineupid=93ef2382-5045-4872-a664-c6aefd5272f9 you will get list of channels for your area just add your zip code Well the flat antennae I bought to replace my rabit ear one just eent back to the store. I wasnt getting same channels I always had. It went down from 26 to 21. I lost qvc and hsn. Not sure if its the recent realigning of channels on DTV- I ordered another rabbit ear antennae so Ill see if this returns my lost stations. According to Titan TV schedule i should be getting all my old 26 channels. |
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Post by clarencebunsen on Aug 8, 2019 10:31:47 GMT -5
Barb uses our Chromecast for one application I hadn't expected, practising her church music. She uses her phone to to to a YouTube channel which has the week's music and casts it to the TV which has better speakers.
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Post by Clipper on Aug 8, 2019 13:17:07 GMT -5
Is the peeing contest between the local network stations and some of the cable and satellite providers still ongoing? The local stations here are still not being carried on Direct TV here and it is still in the news daily. We went through a similar thing here a few years ago when our Bristol NBC affiliate was eliminated by Charter until a deal was negotiated. We were fortunate enough to be able to get that channel with a set top antenna for the duration of the dispute.
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