What IS this left-over from a rental house? Cable, modem, router, alarm system, what?

[Isaac]

I tend to like video disks, tool. Since we're still on cable, we can't search a video library so easily.

Then again, I usually wait until what I want reaches the Wal-Mart "cheapie" rack.

OK, so I'm dirt-cheap, well beyond frugal, and in the general direction of penny pinching.

I've parted ways with disks, but I can't say it's because streaming is so 'great' - it's often a terrible customer experience, they have a long ways to go before the interfaces are smooth sailing. I'm cheapo deapo too, but I find my monthly 'subscriptions' to all kinds of stuff - from gym to netflix to chatgpt to the carwash place - are skyrockteting. every year or two I turn off one of my credit cards to see who complains, try to get a handle on my monthly costs.

 

[BlueSpruce]

I've parted ways with disks, but I can't say it's because streaming is so 'great' - it's often a terrible customer experience, they have a long ways to go before the interfaces are smooth sailing. I'm cheapo deapo too, but I find my monthly 'subscriptions' to all kinds of stuff - from gym to netflix to chatgpt to the carwash place - are skyrockteting. every year or two I turn off one of my credit cards to see who complains, try to get a handle on my monthly costs.

I like disks because there's no adverts and I can buy them real cheap at thrift stores, and borrow them from friends. I used to have several stream providers, now I only have YTTV. My HOA is negotiating with Spectrum for bulk rate broadband and Cable TV that will be bundled into our monthly HOA fee. So I will save another $30 per month. Each morning I select which YTTV programs to record so I can watch them later on. The only live events I care to watch are: local news, stock market, weather and sports.

 

[Isaac]

not sure how to articulate this, but I kind of miss the days of 'live' tv. you turned on the tv and you hoped a channel had what you wanted and you'd surf until you found something with a show you really wanted to see - then you paused your surroundings and sat down to watch it. I realize I just described the least efficient and most inconvenient method possible, but somehow I kind of miss those days of tv watching. now there is no need for 'live' - anything, because you just decide what show you want to watch and you watch it, period. Yet there must be some people like me, because all the streaming services are climbing all over each other to proudly offer a "live tv" feature (despite theoretically having no need for that any more)
am I making any sense
I think I find myself watching less tv overall, since the decision is less "I wonder what is on tv?" which was exciting, to now: "do I or do I not want to watch x-show", the deliberate decision to do so results in less doing, which is probably good for me, of course I've replaced it with a 4" screen so.....lol

 

[BlueSpruce]

not sure how to articulate this, but I kind of miss the days of 'live' tv. you turned on the tv and you hoped a channel had what you wanted and you'd surf until you found something with a show you really wanted to see - then you paused your surroundings and sat down to watch it. I realize I just described the least efficient and most inconvenient method possible, but somehow I kind of miss those days of tv watching. now there is no need for 'live' - anything, because you just decide what show you want to watch and you watch it, period. Yet there must be some people like me, because all the streaming services are climbing all over each other to proudly offer a "live tv" feature (despite theoretically having no need for that any more)
am I making any sense

YTTV has live channels, but they flood you with adverts, that really annoys me. I'm getting Cable TV soon. also not much better with the adverts, but atleast you can quickly scroll through the channels. scrolling stream channels lags really bad

 

[Isaac]

yeah that was one thing i enjoyed about YTTV, was their live local channels. i like to briefly get the local news scoop each day, mostly because I currently live in a not very good area of town, and unfortunately the news around me is often 'exciting'

 

[BlueSpruce]

yeah that was one thing i enjoyed about YTTV, was their live local channels. i like to briefly get the local news scoop each day, mostly because I currently live in a not very good area of town, and unfortunately the news around me is often 'exciting'

Good ole Maricopa County. I got into a bar fight in Scottsdale.