Monday, September 14, 2009

Television Frustration

I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but we're not overly fond of the great Digital Conversion. I understand WHY they say it's necessary --- but I'm seriously beginning to think it was all a big scam from the cable company. (Meaning - some cable lobbyist can probably now retire.)

We like TV around here. It has it's uses, honestly. I've always liked TV. That doesn't mean we watch any old thing on TV. We were pretty selective in what we watched, but we still liked it. Like.
I have to remember -- we still LIKE it.

We got the converter boxes like good tv viewers are wont to do when they don't have cable.

We got them hooked to our two tvs and got them operating.

And it all went down here from there.

Viewing some things became an experience in pixel buffering and lag. It was like watching a pod cast that kept stopping to buffer. It was frustrating.

When I was a kid, to watch UHF channels required an antenna, some aluminum foil and creative positioning. Watching TV from our newly acquired Digital converter box and super antenna has brought back all those memories.

Then came the Great switch over. When all public TV Stations were supposed to make the great switch from analog to digital, and the signals would be boosted...

We actually lost all but the UHF channels. and on a good day - Public Television

How ironic is it that after the government switched to digital -- we in this house are only receiving the channels that were once considered 'rebel'. hmmmm....

Really, though, I'm not surprised....I mean there aren't many times when the government steps into take over something that there aren't issues and problems. or that it goes completely bad and becomes pointless.

I've even toyed with the idea of getting cable -- but then a funny thing happened.

We started watching less TV. We buy DVD disc sets to watch when we really want to watch something - and we have oodles of movies..

but those days when we just sat and watched tv because our brains were tired and we wanted mindless entertainment are far fewer.

I do miss it on occasion. I miss not being able to watch NCIS or CSI:NY during the actual season - instead of waiting for the disc sets to come to the store shelves. I sort of miss being able to turn the tv on during a storm. I kind of miss just being able to turn the tv on and get something - anything...

but ... we have to over come and adapt.

Along with the DVD sets, the kids have been watching old TV shows on the internet.
Mini-me's favorites, so far, are Benson (she has actually splurted her drink on the keyboard because she was laughing) and the Jetsons.
The other kids are fond of Batman: the Bold and the Brave, Scooby-Doo and, well, just about anything Mini-Me happens to watch.

The Laundry Pile is not digital -- and apparently, that's not a bad thing.

Most of the time.

8 comments:

Livin' Life said...

We understand. :( We did not even try the converter boxes so we are solely relying on DVDs but I too would love the occasional random TV show here and there. I agree with you fully about this being a conspiracy.

Kelli said...

:) Watch old Land of the Lost shows. We showed them to Scarlett a few months ago and she was rolling. The, um, special effects weren't quite as special as I remembered...

Halfmoon Girl said...

We keep getting calls to switch to digital, but we are sticking with our basic cable. The Skip suggested cancelling that even, which I was all for, but then, all of a sudden, he remembered hockey season starts soon...

Mrs. Darling said...

Yes the switch put us back to the basic channels too and every Tv gets a different combination of channels. Its ridiculous!

jugglingpaynes said...

It was a ploy to get us to buy new TVs and force us to get cable or other services to see local channels. Biggest conspiracy since we were forced to give up our records for the "better" quality of CDs.

In my opinion, of course!

Peace and Laughter,
Cristina

Mother Mayhem said...

Psst... You're not missing a thing. ;o)

(Buy a weather radio.)

The Gang's Momma! said...

We converted when we got high speed internet so it was a non event here. But I am loving the advent of DVR. I can't remember the last time I had to watch a commercial. I choose to watch the Mac/PC ads cuz, well, they're cute. But that's it.

Dapoppins said...

love finding old things on the computer, we were watching Burns and Gracie the other day.

And the digital switch over was not a fantastic transition, but we did get qubo and 5 christian channels and 3 pbs channels.