Does anyone else on here live without a TV?

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AV-geek
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27 Feb 2007, 11:39 pm

I have several TV's around the house, but don't watch any of them that much. I enjoy restoring old vintage electronics, so I've got some old 50's and 60's era TV's that I have restored to working order. In my living room, I have an LCD projector that's connected up to a DVD player, but is not connected up to anything to receive programming. That's where my friends and I hang out to watch movies and stuff.

As far as watching any sort of off-air programming, I have a Dish network box with the basic service in my office, and it's shared between the office and my bedroom. The TV in my office is actually a professional grade TV monitor from a studio. I end up using it to edit camcorder footage on more than watching TV. The bedroom TV gets the most amount of off-air viewing, but even then, it's not much. A little bit of news in the morning to see what the weather is like, and I'll watch some documentaries on it occasionally. I guess I don't get my money's worth out of the Dish network subscription, I only watch probably a few hours of TV a week on it, but it's nice to have when I want it.



maldoror
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27 Feb 2007, 11:56 pm

I went a year and a half with a TV that wasn't hooked up to anything by a DVD player. I like to select movies or shows that look interesting from bittorrent and watch them without any commercials, but I feel that sitting down and watching the tube like a normal person lessens your attention span. On the other hand, I couldn't do without any visual media to get my mind off stuff now and then.



blackdove
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28 Feb 2007, 12:39 am

been tv free for 2 yrs now. ahh, what a relief. i watch dvds or go online as a supplement. it works wonders! online is better then tv, more interactive. the only time i'll watch tv is if i'm visiting someone. then i'm the designated "captive" audience.



hale_bopp
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28 Feb 2007, 6:34 am

Couldn't live without TV. I like it too much :p



Cernunnos
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28 Feb 2007, 10:15 am

I probably watch too much TV, but use it as a means of forgetting the nonsense I've had to deal with during the day.

My sister didn't have a TV for donkey's years and ended up having a visit from the TV Licensing inspector. Conversation went:

Inspector: Madam, we have reason to believe you don't have a TV licence.
Sister: Yes that's correct.
Inspector: But madam, this is a very serious offence - you could get a £1000 fine and a criminal record
Sister: Really 8O
Inspector: Yes madam, you'll have to get a TV licence.
Sister: What really 8O
Inspector: Yes madam
Sister: What really - even if I don't have a TV :wink:

She kept it going much more than that and I wish I had the foresight to wind-up officious people. Even better, she was a lawyer, but just decided to act dumb.


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maldoror
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28 Feb 2007, 10:26 am

Are you kidding me? You have to have a license to own a TV in Britain?



ixochiyo_yohuallan
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28 Feb 2007, 10:38 am

I basically live without it. I mean, my mother owns one but I scarcely watch it. The only thing I enjoy watching are the documentaries on Animal Planet.

I also liked cartoons as a young teen. My parents didn't allow me to watch those most of the time because they considered it "little children's pastime" and I was to be all serious and down to earth, so when nobody was home, I'd just switch on the cartoon channel and watch whatever that was on without much discrimination. It helped fuel my imagination and gave me ideas for the stories I played out in my head. :)



Bart21
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28 Feb 2007, 10:50 am

I've been watching less and less tv as i get older.
The television has been replaced almost totally by a computer.
Most of the time i switch the tv on is when i've rented a dvd.
Because lets face it, there is nothing on tv ever that's worth putting your tv on for.
These days it's full of soap oprahs, reality soaps, and sports.
None of wich i'm even interested in slightly.

The odd 1 hour a day i still watch TV for is southpark and the fresh prince of bell air.
And once a week there is a decent movie on it.
But that's about it.

When i'm moving out of the house though i'm getting some kind of special subsciption with movie channels/discovery etc.
Cable tv is totally not worth the money you pay for it.



SpaceCase
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28 Feb 2007, 1:26 pm

My family has a TV.

I'm not getting one when I move out,though.


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KimJ
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28 Feb 2007, 1:56 pm

Okay, dumb American here, I've never heard of the tv license in Great Britain!! !
Talk about dumb.
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.html



dgd1788
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28 Feb 2007, 2:01 pm

You know, that's wonderful that you live without television; there are better things to do like good books.


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Freawaru
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28 Feb 2007, 2:28 pm

I didn't have one through uni and didn't miss it a bit. When I came back home I'd got out of the habit of watching it, and last July I went 100% TV-free. That said I don't see movies as TV for some reason and I am very occasionally willing to watch one with my computer's DVD drive.

Weird things started happening to me after I quit. I remember that very very last programme I watched, because it was a documentary about one of my interests that my mother had recorded just for me; she kept nagging me to watch it. Eventually I did sit down to watch it, when everyone else was out and I was guaranteed some peace and quiet. The bizarre thing was: I found myself arguing with the TV! Every time the narrator said something I disagreed with I started talking out loud trying to explain to him why he was wrong! XD

I seem to have lost the knack of sitting passively and letting the thing feed me what it wants. That experience brought it home for me, the amount of power that machine can have over people. And the things it teaches you are NOT the things you want to learn from it. I used to watch documentaries almost exclusively, but do I remember anything from them? Do I heck! On the other hand, even after four years I still know that Aquafresh refreshes your breath - naturally/I'd rather just have a McDonalds/Coke Adds Life/Mmm, Danone/*DING!* Intel Inside!/Hovis Really Is Better Bread.



Enigma
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28 Feb 2007, 2:41 pm

Cernunnos wrote:
I probably watch too much TV, but use it as a means of forgetting the nonsense I've had to deal with during the day.

My sister didn't have a TV for donkey's years and ended up having a visit from the TV Licensing inspector. Conversation went:

Inspector: Madam, we have reason to believe you don't have a TV licence.
Sister: Yes that's correct.
Inspector: But madam, this is a very serious offence - you could get a £1000 fine and a criminal record
Sister: Really 8O
Inspector: Yes madam, you'll have to get a TV licence.
Sister: What really 8O
Inspector: Yes madam
Sister: What really - even if I don't have a TV :wink:

She kept it going much more than that and I wish I had the foresight to wind-up officious people. Even better, she was a lawyer, but just decided to act dumb.


That sounds fun,how did it end up?

My family had a visit from one of those inspectors,he was very pedantic and we too were made to feel we had something to hide,it is legal though to have a TV without a license as long as it can't pick up a signal and is just being used as a screen to play videos or DVD's on.



Enigma
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28 Feb 2007, 2:47 pm

maldoror wrote:
Are you kidding me? You have to have a license to own a TV in Britain?


No,you don't have to have a license to own one,but you do if you are receiving a signal and using it as a TV.



Enigma
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28 Feb 2007, 2:56 pm

KimJ wrote:
Okay, dumb American here, I've never heard of the tv license in Great Britain!! !
Talk about dumb.
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.html


Thanks for the interesting link Kim.



Enigma
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28 Feb 2007, 3:40 pm

dgd1788 wrote:
You know, that's wonderful that you live without television; there are better things to do like good books.


Exactly you're right,most people don't read a lot because they would rather watch TV,reading stimulates the mind to think rather than dulling it by passive acceptance which TV tends to do.I'm not saying there aren't interesting programs on it sometimes, it's just that there's such a lot of immorality and violence on it.