Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Need TV Watching Advice (Please offer a comment)

So how much TV do you watch?  How much are you willing to pay for it?  Do you watch it live?  Do you record and catch up? Do you stream?

This is how we were feeling.  We have always felt very attached to our shows.  We thought it was a must.  TV is an essential, right?  I know that sounds silly but we thought so.  The idea of letting go never crossed our minds.  We are not one of "those" families that hates all things of the world.  I do not believe that TV is evil.  Our family has bonded over our love of certain shows.   J and I have found it to be a crucial part of our parenting.  We have watched TV with our kids.  When things come up in the show we talk.  We have always had a world full of lessons on had as we start our evening family time.

There have been a couple of things that happened lately within the shows that we love that pushed me into cutting the cord.  I see it as a new adventure and the rest of the family sees it as a punishment.  I really am not sure if we will make it.  I do admit that calling and canceling our service was fun. Our budget will enjoy the changes I am sure.  I am embarrassed to say that we have been spending about $130 a month for the convenience of turning on the TV and having a show there all ready.
I am writing this after one day of switching.  Dad was out of town last night and texted me about a cool show he watched from his hotel room last night. Ouch, we don't how to use this new thing yet and he was rubbing it in.
Roku, we went this method but I am not sure why. I am beginning to wonder if a disk player with the streaming options would have worked just as well.  This is where you come in.  Do you stream? How do you do it?  What channels or apps do you think it is important to pay for?  Give me a list of great shows that you have enjoyed as a family. 
This little box (about the size of two hockey pucks stacked) has a lot ridding on it. (It was a great deal for the one time purchase of $79 so I am still ahead for the first month if we can make this work!)  So this might be the right decision.  We might still be able to have TV without the high costs and crazy shows that we don't want to support but we are not opposed to TV?  Where does that leave us?
 
I was lost last night trying to decide what to watch and how to watch it.  We have Netflicks ($7.95 a month) and have enjoyed that for years, it is wonderful for older shows and movies.  We are also Amazon Prime ($79 yearly) members so that gave us more options.  Honestly we joined Prime because of the free shipping for Amazon.  I was amazed at all the shows that does open up to us.



 
BUT, neither are great for the latest TV shows and we discovered that many of the channels are subscription only.  So what do you watch, how do you watch it?  We love all kinds of shows from SciFi to Period Pieces to the latest Disney.  So I need recommendations to search out.  I would also love to know what channels or apps you subscribe to.  (Is Hulu Plus worth the minimal costs?)
 
This picture might show all that is possible but to win my family over I am going to need some help.  I don't want to be so old that I refuse to learn new ways of doing things, but help!  I feel lost when it comes to TV.  How do you watch sports?  How do you catch up on the news? I know this is all possible, but I am lost.

After you stop laughing at me - go ahead I deserve it - please leave me a comment and help me out or at least recommend your favorite movies or shows! 

4 comments:

  1. We ditched cable 3 years ago. We have "rabbit ears" antenna (although it's more modern looking than the rabbit ears of olden days) and we are able to pick up 4 of the major networks. You are closer to the big city than us so you might get more than we do! We are able to watch one of those channels live if there's a show/game we want to watch. We also have the ability to connect our laptop to our tv so if I want to watch something online (free Hulu shows, EWTN through their website, or an Aggie football game on ESPN), it's just a few cords and we can watch it on TV. Our tv is a "smart" tv, so if we chose to subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix, or Hulu, we could choose shows through aps on the tv. It's pretty cool, but we haven't done that as of yet. We considered Roku but this system works for us for now. There are SO many ways to watch tv these days- once you figure it out you won't miss the cable- or the bill!

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  2. We haven't had cable for several years. We have Roku with Amazon prime. We also subscribe to netflix and hulu (less than $9/mo each). I honestly do not miss cable at all. I keep up with all my current TV shows via Hulu (they are available the next morning). The kids watch movies and shows on netflix. We rent movies via Amazon Prime. I watch Downton Abbey via the PBS app on Roku. We also have a Mohu leaf antenna that we only use to watch sports events that are on the major networks. I haven't missed cable at all, and I love that the kids don't get bombarded with commercials. I can always tell when they have watched TV elsewhere because they come home wanting things they saw on TV. George does miss some of the sports events (things on ESPN and fox sports aren't available through Roku), but not enough to go back to cable.

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    1. We have hulu plus. I think it is definitely worth the small fee if you watch current TV shows.

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  3. We have cable. I hate it…b/c even though I try to set limits it is so easy to just "give in" and "turn on". I'm so impressed with families like yours that cut the cable cord!!! Good for you. And I agree with your above commenters that there are so many TV viewing options these days that don't require cable. Sorry I can't be more help…we have Netflix, but that's it. With 1000 cable channels who needs more???!!! LOL I will say that we pretty much don't watch anything "live" anymore…I feel that we really need to monitor the commercial watching with our three…and I love the ability to fast-forward through those!

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