And the Devil said, "Is it chilly in here?"

[Mendorah]

Let today be known as a Milestone in the life of myself and my TV obsession in general.

 

Folks, I just ordered cable!

 

For those of you who don't know, I have spent the last nearly 6 years refusing to purchase any cable access excepting the time that I lived in a loft for a year and had to pay $13/month for basic stuff you Should get with an antenna, but the reception was so bad I couldn't even get local channels. 

 

For the last year I've had FREE basic cable thanks to the cable company forgetting to turn the service off in my unit from the last tenant.  But several months ago the new cable company sent a mass mail out to everyone in the city about how it's rolling out a NEW type of service and so everything was going to change.  As I feared, when they got to my neighborhood, my service was cut off.  I'm going to do some rigging to try and remedy this, but as of right now I can't even get local channels.  Nothin' but blue screen for me this AM.

 

Anywhoo, I just ordered expanded standard cable.  AND a DVR!!  It'll be nice to not have to be a slave to the programming grid.  I'll have a ton of channels I don't need, but I will have a DVR, dammit!  And since DVRs rule the world, the new service they rolled out doesn't even Have the super cheapey service anymore.  I think the days of having an antenna are soon to be over.  Just for that they ought to lower the prices.  I mean, how is the average low income family going to afford cable?  They generally can't.  And that's just not fair.  I'm still frowning over my $60 price tag.  Ugh.  I'm such a tightwad over things like this.  hahaha.

[Emperor]

Let me tell you.  I spend somewhere around $150 a month on cable and internet with Comcast.  I have many of the bells and whistles... including Showtime, HBO, high speed, HD channels and DVR.  I can not wait until I move next month and get to sign up with Verizon.  I think with the same combo I will save $50 a month. 

[Barmacral]

Congrats, welcome to Seanchan side of life.

[Cadsuane]

Don't worry, Mendorah, I'll hold to the old ways for you, with my $19 Target antenna and it's fuzzy reception.  ;)

[Emperor]

Grrrr... *points up*.

[Cadsuane]

Grrr  *points up herself*

 

;D

[Emperor]

This is me smiling.

 

*Empy does the brick dance*

[Cadsuane]

Sexy. ^_^

[Paityr]

I'm there with ya Caddy.

 

Um, on the whole $10 Target antenna thing, not the thinking Empy's brick dance is sexy. I'm just bummed we can't get NBC with our crappy reception. That's the only channel with shows worth watching.

 

I'd gladly trade all of the six or seven assorted religious channels we get for just two hours of NBC a week (one for Heroes and one for The Office)

[Cadsuane]

Hehehe, my extras are spanish-language channels, I (fortunately) get to skip out on the religious programming. Well, excepting whichever network channel plays that one show on Sunday mornings. But that's easy to avoid, I just stay in bed until 10am.  ;D

[Barmacral]

Cads, has anyone mentioned just how damn sexy that sig is?

[Paityr]

The girl under the spider isn't bad either, right Barm?

[Barmacral]

There's a spider?

[Mendorah]

Y'all are gonna so hate me.

 

Apparently I DO still have free cable.  And now it's all expanded.  It's not digital, though, so I can't make it work with a DVR.  But, dude, it's Free!  And I now have Sci Fi, FX, Bravo, Food Network, etc.

 

So I'm cancelling my cable subscription.  At this point, I'd only be paying $60/month for a DVR.  And that's just silly.

 

Somebody LOVES me out there!!!

[Cadsuane]

You are one LUCKY chica! I'm jealous. Can I come live with you??  :D

[Karana Majin]

Cads and Paits, I will hold the line with you, as well.  We don't have cable or satellite or anything.  My students look at me like I am insane when I mention that.  We do, however, have a huge surround sound system and like 40 inch flat screen hi-def tv... which we occasionally watch DVDs on, lol.  Mostly it's used by my daughter to play gamecube games.

 

 

[Paityr]

*dreams of the day he'll be allowed to splurge on a 40" flat-screen hi-def TV with HD-DVD player*

 

Has anyone bitten the bullet and bought either a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player yet? And I heard a rumor that both of those players are backwards compatible with regular DVDs...is this true? Cuz I've spent a LOT of money on my collection, and I'd hate to have to upgrade all of them.

[SBoydW]

I believe that they are... and if anyone has a PS3 then they have a Blue-Ray disc player.

[Mendorah]

I believe that they are... and if anyone has a PS3 then they have a Blue-Ray disc player.

 

Oooh, I didn't know that about the PS3.  That's actually good to know.  It's always nice to have gadgets that do double duty.

[SinisterDeath]

I believe that they are... and if anyone has a PS3 then they have a Blue-Ray disc player.

 

Yes it does have a Blu-Ray player, Yes it is fully backwards compatable, AND it upscales DVD's to HD Resolution (or near it, so your 480p dvds can be viewed in 720p or 1080p.)

[Emperor]

sin is right... the PS3 is a nice HD DVD player.  Too bad it isn't a gaming system as well. *g*

[SinisterDeath]

sin is right... the PS3 is a nice HD DVD player.  Too bad it isn't a gaming system as well. *g*

 

Sure its a gaming system, but your just mad you have to buy your HD-DVD player for your 360 for $180. :P

[Haxorsist]

I believe that they are... and if anyone has a PS3 then they have a Blue-Ray disc player.

 

Yes it does have a Blu-Ray player, Yes it is fully backwards compatable, AND it upscales DVD's to HD Resolution (or near it, so your 480p dvds can be viewed in 720p or 1080p.)

 

In Europe they're gonna start selling a cheap crap version of the PS3 which isn't backwards compatible and  has a small hard drive. Dunno if they're doing this in the States, but I heard they're replacing the old version with this one.

[SinisterDeath]

I believe that they are... and if anyone has a PS3 then they have a Blue-Ray disc player.

 

Yes it does have a Blu-Ray player, Yes it is fully backwards compatable, AND it upscales DVD's to HD Resolution (or near it, so your 480p dvds can be viewed in 720p or 1080p.)

 

In Europe they're gonna start selling a cheap crap version of the PS3 which isn't backwards compatible and  has a small hard drive. Dunno if they're doing this in the States, but I heard they're replacing the old version with this one.

 

Well, your half right.

There are 3 ps3 models on the market now.

20gb crap version (fully backwards compatability, no wireless?)

60gb premium version, has everything

80gb 'premium' version, that is replaceing the 60gb version when the 60gb is sold out. IT also comes with Motorstorm, for the 'orginal' full price, where as the 60gb is now at teh 20gb price...

 

 

Finally, the version you are talking about, is the 40gb version, Same features as the 60gb, less hard drive space. But it has crap to no backwards compatability. Rumor is they scrapped the chip, to reduce the price. However, there is also a thing called "software emulation", The box art even 'says' its not backwards compatable, but its really hard to say if its 100% not compatable, or not. Otherwise, its just a 'cheap' ps3 that only plays ps3 games, and dvd/blu-ray movies.

 

Before I forget, Europe is getting a nice suprise however, They will be able to use there PS3 as a DVR. (We in america won't see it though) :(

[Samuraiflip05]

Well for a number of years I paid 15.00 a month for Basic cable (22 channels) and recieved Extended Basic (80 channels).  Well early this year they either caught on or were upgrading the neighborhodd, cause that went away.  So we went digital cable (No DVR)and only have a family pack (Kids) and hbo/max.  We get to watch it all on a 42in widescreen HDTV (Gift). 

 

Bad news for the Antenna crowd.  First Best Buy has nixed all analog tv sales.  Everything is digital now.  Also sometime early next year the broadcasters are all switching to digital feeds (Ant won't work any more)

 

Good news, the Gov't is issuing x2 $40.00 coupons for converter boxes that allow you to see the digital signal with analog antennae.  Best Buy is supposed to start accepting these vouchers sometime before the switch.  Saw this in an article on MSN.