But John, no matter how you slice it, TV just isn't PC.
Paul
On Nov 27, 2008, at 2:23 PM, John Francis wrote:
On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 07:53:51AM -0800, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
On Nov 26, 2008, at 7:45 PM, John Francis wrote:
Rather an exaggeration. There are ways to watch TV that don't
involve
watching a show at the time of broadcast. They're not free, of
course
(except for shows streamed over the web from the major networks, but
those are even worse - the ads come more frequently, and you can't
skip
over them). I haven't relied on live TV for decades - nowadays I
have
a couple of TiVos, but before that I used to timewshift using VCRs.
And with the TiVos it's loss free - the recorded signal is bit-for-
bit
identical to the original signal when recording from a digital
source
(digital cable, over-the-air digital TV, or digital satellite
service).
Netflix offer streaming video, although not for much current stuff.
But
if you like to watch old TV shows it's a great adjunct to DVD
rental;
you don't need to decide what you want to watch a day or two in
advance.
And if you don't like watching on your computer there are ways to
stream
it to your TV - the stand-alone Roku unit, and now the Xbox. Both
the
PS3 and newer TiVo boxes will be getting the capability this month.
And
there are other providers besides Netflix, although I'm not sure how
many of those will work to devices other than a computer.
This presumes that you a) want to watch television, b) feel there's
enough value there to pay for the equipment, and c) are willing to
invest the time to use it.
It starts falling apart for me at "a)". There's only a very few shows
that I have any interest in (and *none* of them are sitcoms or so-
called
reality shows).
Well, obviously. And if your idea of the TV universe is limited to
the
realm of sitcoms or reality shows then it probably isn't worth it to
you.
(Not that *all* sitcoms are bad - I do watch "How I Met Your Mother").
Other people have already mentioned a couple of the good drama shows
(the original CSI, Boston Legal). There's a whole bunch more, too.
I don't watch much sports - none, really, except for motorsports and
cycling (and the Americas Cup when it comes around). But that's still
only just scratching the surface. And if you want independent, up-to-
the minute news coverage that isn't filtered through blinkers there's
not really a lot of choice other than TV (and not the big networks).
As for equipment costs - I've paid a lot less for my TiVos, etc., than
I have just on digital camera bodies, and I certainly use them more.
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