Alternative TV

[Dwayne1m]

I have been with DirecTv since 1998. For years they were great to deal with. Recently they've been bought out by AT&T and they really went downhill. Tech help SUCKS. It took 3 visits to fix a problem so I was without TV for a week yet they did nothing to adjust my bill. I just found an email today where they said I agreed to a $7.99 monthly service plan. Nothing could be further from the truth. I never agreed to it, in fact it was never even mentioned to me, but they slipped it into my bill without telling me. Years ago they tried to slip the $300 NFL package into my bill too. Anyway, it's time for a change and I've seen this thing called Sling, and PlayStation has some kind of TV package, but I know nothing about any of them. They all seem to get mixed reviews. Anybody familiar with any of this alternative TV programing? An antenna won't work for me. Terrible reception, and cable doesn't come my way.

[Zundfolge1432]

We had problems too in fact after two visits they were unable to correct the problem. The last call I made I told them to just get all their shit, we don't have a contract and pay month to month. They sent two supervisors and completely rewired the house, all new including the dish. That was over two years ago and slowly over time jacked bill up over 100 a month. We again told them to come get their shit. They knocked bill down to 66 a month and provided HBO,Cinemax,etc for free. They are feeling the heat from Roku and others that let you design your own programming. I'm tired of paying for channels I don't ever watch, that seems to be the complaint. It was so much easier when folks pirated the cards and programming ran wide open including all the pay channels, circa 1998.

[Dwayne1m]

I don't have a contract and can cut the cord at any time. I pay almost $130 a month just for TV and I don't have any channels like HBO or Cinemax or any sports packages. I could live without TV but the others in the house can't. It just pisses me off the way they've treated me for being a long time customer. I work with a guy who has Dish and he says they are the same way, so I don't feel as if I would gain anything by switching to Dish.

[cdennisg]

I have a digital antenna for free local programming (a dozen channels), and a Netflix account for live stream programming @ nine bucks a month.
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nothing

[Q-Dog]

We have Apple TVs for movies and non-broadcast programming. Up in the attic I have the same TV antennas I've used for about 30 years and receive about 30 local broadcast channels.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[jwp67]

Most of the antennas now come with a signal booster. You may find with the booster you can get good reception. I have Netflix and Hulu, then what is free in the air. Once the dish or cable is gone, you don't miss it.

[OB Bus]

We have two homes. One in metro San Diego and another in the remote Sierras. San Diego is Cox Cable for TV (no pay channels), internet and our old school land line phone. After threatened to leave they dropped the monthly cost to around $170. Up North we have Dish Network for TV (top-120, no pay channels) and a local ISP for internet. After threatening to leave Dish they agreed to $45/month. The internet (which is really good) is $50/month.
I'd love to cord cut, or at least cord trim. The possibilities are so many that my head starts to pivot every time I think of changing. I'm 64 and starting to feel like those grumpy old folks who can't quite keep up.
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Larry in OB
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!
69 Westfalia and 2002 Eurovan Camper.

[Dwayne1m]

These alternative programming options like Sling, Apple, etc, how do you get the signal? Thru the internet, a land line phone connection, antenna? All this stuff is new to me and makes my head spin. Sounds to me like technology is going faster then what the public can keep up with. I really want to tell Directv to shove it but I want something to replace it first. Where is a good place to go to ask about antennas and boosters?

[cdennisg]

Likewise, I am far from tech savvy. But, my wife has a really good IT guy and many students that know their stuff. Without them, I wouldn't get it either.

Apple TV, ROKU, SLing, Smart TV stuff, all of them work from WiFi internet use. Gotta have that or nothing else works. A quality antenna works great in metro areas, and you will likely get more channels than you can watch for just the cost of buying the antenna. I got mine at the Evil Mart of Wal, for $40 several years ago.
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nothing

[Dwayne1m]

I stumbled across a website that uses your coordinates to test your signal strength for an antenna. I live in a valley so my signal strength was fair to poor, so I don't have much hope that an antenna will be advantageous.

[cdennisg]

[Dwayne1m]

I still live in the house I was born and raised, I'm 54, so I remember when we had an antenna we got 4 channels, NBC, CBS, ABC & PBS. We would get 2 UHF channels but they were very cloudy. We also had a party line with 4 houses on it. How many remember those?

[Q-Dog]

I'm 53 and live about 1/8 mile of the house I grew up in. I remember having to go outside and rotate the antenna to get better reception on a couple of channels ... and getting yelled at for moving it too far. A LITTLE MORE ... STOP ... NO, GO BACK ... TOO MUCH ... THE OTHER WAY ... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! ... GO BACK ...

Seemed like the party line was always busy.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[OB Bus]

[Dwayne1m]

We also had the electric motor to turn the antenna. It wouldn't hold it's position though. Try getting it to turn "just a little".....forget it.

[Q-Dog]

Oh, at one time we had the electric rotator, but the wind seemed to always move the damn thing around.

Actually, I think the folks just liked yelling at us!
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[Zundfolge1432]

[Dwayne1m]

[cdennisg]

[Cusser]