View Full Version : I cut the cable - now what?


Alan Brady's Hair
05-04-2015, 09:16 PM
I got rid of my cable package, as I usually do for 6 months or a year after my 2-year commitment is up. Right now I have over-the-air TV, with MeTv, Cozi, AntennaTV, Movies!, This TV, and some other retro movie channels. I also have Netflix and the major league baseball package streaming through my blu-ray player. Unfortunately, youtube just stopped supporting my blu-ray player, so I can't play episodes from youtube on my TV.

My only recorder (since the cable DVR is gone) is an old VHS VCR. I'm not even sure if it works anymore, or if they still sell blank tapes. What do you get with a basic DVR now? I'm more interested in recording things for prompt playback than recording things to disc. Is there anything smart out there that has TV listings and such? I don't think I've bought a new recording device in the 21st century.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Patty Duke
05-04-2015, 11:18 PM
I got rid of my cable package, as I usually do for 6 months or a year after my 2-year commitment is up. Right now I have over-the-air TV, with MeTv, Cozi, AntennaTV, Movies!, This TV, and some other retro movie channels.


Wow, you are so lucky! :D Those are my dream channels!!
I can't get crap with rabbit ears or an antenna unless I install a huge tower which is not affordable for the size required. If I could get MeTv, Cozi and AntennaTV I wouldn't need anything else but it would be nice to have at least one local channel to get local news and weather.

IF we are able to put our home on the market in a year or so and move we want to cut the cord and buy a TiVo Roamio for OTA, I think that one works with an antenna. In the area we are planning to move to we'll get This-TV, Me-TV, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS, WB for sure, maybe some other sub channels and that works for us. The TiVo would enable us to watch the shows on while at work and at night. :)

http://www.tivo.com/

mets82
05-05-2015, 04:44 PM
I got rid of my cable package, as I usually do for 6 months or a year after my 2-year commitment is up. Right now I have over-the-air TV, with MeTv, Cozi, AntennaTV, Movies!, This TV, and some other retro movie channels. I also have Netflix and the major league baseball package streaming through my blu-ray player. Unfortunately, youtube just stopped supporting my blu-ray player, so I can't play episodes from youtube on my TV.

My only recorder (since the cable DVR is gone) is an old VHS VCR. I'm not even sure if it works anymore, or if they still sell blank tapes. What do you get with a basic DVR now? I'm more interested in recording things for prompt playback than recording things to disc. Is there anything smart out there that has TV listings and such? I don't think I've bought a new recording device in the 21st century.

Thanks in advance for any advice!


You can still buy blank tapes. They still sell them at Best Buy or a Target. I dont blame you. This new technology isnt for me. I just have a VHS VCR and thats it.

treky
05-06-2015, 12:29 AM
but they don't make movies and TV shows on VHS anymore; they stopped making them years ago.

mets82
05-06-2015, 04:04 PM
but they don't make movies and TV shows on VHS anymore; they stopped making them years ago.


I dont think they ever made tv shows on VHS. The first time I heard you can get complete series of a show was on DVD.

Regulus
05-06-2015, 08:45 PM
They may not make Movies on VHS anymore, but you pick them up for as little as a dollar a dozen while "Garage Saleing" on weekends! :D Nearly 500 of my movies are on VHS, and I have a perfectly good VCR to play them on. :cool:

JamesG
05-06-2015, 09:36 PM
I dont think they ever made tv shows on VHS. The first time I heard you can get complete series of a show was on DVD.

Not true, some shows do have VHS releases.

I think Star Trek: TNG was one of the first shows to get complete season releases on VHS, but you had to order them on catalog at the time.

I know "Highlander" and the "Raven" spin-off is on VHS.



"Sex and the City" is one of the more recent shows to have its complete series on VHS.

Some HBO shows have their earlier seasons on VHS before they decided to go exclusively on DVD: "The Sopranos", "Six Feet Under", "Oz" ...

OH Nuts!
05-06-2015, 11:04 PM
I never had cable - who needs it. Between Antenna TV, borrowing DVDs from the library, and You Tube I have plenty of great stuff to watch.

treky
05-06-2015, 11:41 PM
I dont think they ever made tv shows on VHS. The first time I heard you can get complete series of a show was on DVD.
I think MASH was the first series to have all the episodes on VHS, although they weren't released in order. Instead they were grouped together by category under themes like "BEING MEAN TO FRANK", "PLAYING PRATICAL JOKES", etc.
Also episodes of STAR TREK, THE ODD COUPLE, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, THE BEVERLLY HILLBILLIES, GREEN ACRES , THE HONEYMOONERS and a lot of others were all on VHS.

mets82
05-07-2015, 05:12 PM
I guess I should have clairified. What I meant having a whole series on VHS.

JamesG
05-07-2015, 05:15 PM
I guess I should have clairified. What I meant having a whole series on VHS.

I know of "Highlander: The Series", "The Raven" and HBO's "Sex and the City" for complete series on VHS.

The short-lived "Clerks" cartoon also has a VHS release (6 eps.)

JSP
05-07-2015, 05:42 PM
Anybody that can get both Antenna TV and MeTV over the airwaves will never have a need for cable TV.

MrCleveland
05-07-2015, 11:26 PM
Anybody that can get both Antenna TV and MeTV over the airwaves will never have a need for cable TV.

I now have Cozi and Laff...I'll also buy a show on amazon prime.

mets82
05-08-2015, 04:43 PM
I have Antenna, ME-TV, Cozi, LAFF and ThisTV. I'm very underwhelmed with LAFF. But at least they seem to be showing Empty Nest uncut, which is good.

Regulus
05-08-2015, 07:15 PM
I have LSN, I don't need any station or network, OTA or Pay! :D

LittleRickyII
05-20-2015, 02:06 PM
I dont think they ever made tv shows on VHS. The first time I heard you can get complete series of a show was on DVD.

I Love Lucy came out on VHS in 1985. The "lost" Honeymooners, discovered by Jackie Gleason in 1984, were also released on VHS somewhere around that time, and then "Classic 39." Some episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show were on VHS by the '90s, and the entire X Files came out in the '90s as well.