No TV!

[kington99]

This kindof spawned form a comment made by Uni57 in another thread. I've been living as a student without a TV for four years now. It's the norm here, I don't know anyone who has a TV in their room. I see the occassional chunk of TV in the common room (it's a few hundred yards away) but other than that i rely on BBCi. Anyway, I'm going to shortly be leaving uni and living in a real house, and wondering that now I have the space, and no access to other TV resources, should I buy one?

In short, a pro/anti TV argument. Go to it.

[Jerrick]

Id buy a tv, but I dont know about a service to watch channels and all that.

Id be happy with just using a tv for video games and movies.

If I really wanted to see a show, what ive been doing lately is downloading the series and watching them when I have time on my comp.

[mill_mobile]

I hardly EVER watch TV, my main interaction of my TV is to watch my King of the Hill series' i have on DVD...
I say get one, but not for the purpose of TV... however if you have a computer then you can prob watch DVD's anyway...
If you have lived without one this long i say bail it;)

[Danni]

I think a better investment would be a large and high quality monitor with a powerful computer. The stuff on TV, especially the adds, is shit. Family guy and other of my favs can be watched online legally commercial free. A nice comp also allows so much more to be done than a gigantic flat screen tv.

[Mikefule]

I did not live in a house with a TV until the age of 8. Then from the ages of 22 to 45 I had no TV. I was given one recently and barely use it. It is not a necessity.

[net_hippy]

I was the same in 1st year of uni. I stayed in university accomodation, and took a tv up, but just never watched it. Ended up getting out of the way of it really.

But when I moved into a private flat in 2nd year we had one and I started watching again...I feel it sucks my life away a little.

However, if I was going to move somewhere else I would definetely get one. Can be good to watch with other people if you invite them round. That way you don't have to always watch tv programs/films on your PC.

[forrestunifreak]

Eh, I don't think it's a big deal either way, but I'd say go ahead and get one if you can get some kind of programming service. You can probably find a good used one pretty cheap, they're easy to come by over here at least.

They're nice to have sometimes when you just want to relax and goof off. If I was left to watching/downloading shows off the internet I would never bother with it, I think it's just too much trouble, and I don't really like sitting at the computer more then I already am in the first place.

And yes, the adds and commericals are crap, but who watches those anyway? Ever heard of a mute button?

[1-wheeled-grape]

i hardly ever watch TV, it bores me beyond belief sometimes, id rather be unicycling or on the forum(sad isnt it). my family, expecially my sister, always watch the TV, and they center most of their conversations about it, its pathetic. i mean i see the need to have a tv, to watch programmes every now and again, and movies once in a while, but i could get by without one easily. its my laptop that i couldnt live without, think, no msn, youtube or unicyclist.com... oh the torture it would bring.

[Goats_On_Unicycles]

TV is a brainwashing machine...

[Phil_on_uni]

I would say that there is only one good reason to get a tv, and that reason is the ladies.

You know, you bring her home, you sit on the couch and watch a movie, and then you lay her down by the fire!


if you do get one try something cheap like craigs list

[thejdw]

I think a better investment would be a large and high quality monitor with a powerful computer.
Which would hopfully feature a built in TV ;)

[uni57]

I would say that there is only one good reason to get a tv, and that reason is the ladies.

You know, you bring her home, you sit on the couch and watch a movie, and then you lay her down by the fire!


if you do get one try something cheap like craigs listThe lady or the TV?

[uni57]

For those who didn't read the other thread which begat this one, the TV talk started here (http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1024109#post1024109).

[tobbogonist]

about a year ago, In a spur of creative genuis, i took the contents out of my television and installed glass, it is now supposed to be a fishtank. Although the adhesive i used for the glass has rendered it un-fishtankable. Something to do with toxins it releases into the water. Now it just gets in the way.

[nick]

I just sold my TV yesterday. I'm psyched.

Don't get one.

[harper]

In short, a pro/anti TV argument. Go to it.

Dave-

So you're pitting us against one another for your own entertainment? Obviously you're creative enough not to rely on a television.

[evil-nick]

We only use our TV for DVD's... Well, until we got our gaming PC, 'cause the monitor is bigger (17"). We have cable tv, but we haven't watched it in 5 months, and the only reason we haven't cancelled it is 'cause it costs 28 cents a month with our internet package ;)

[dudewithasock]

We have TVs and FiOS, but I only use it like once a week maybe for the Food Network or G4, occasionally if there's a good movie on TBS I'll watch that.

Other than that I just use my TV for DVDs and video games, which I don't use that often. If I just need background noise, I'll usually put windows media player on shuffle all.

[BluntRM]

If you don't have a TV, then what does your furniture face towards? Seriously.

[kington99]

If you don't have a TV, then what does your furniture face towards? Seriously.


Well this is the thing, I essentially live in one room atm, but if i move in to a real house it will probably have a lounge and then there would be the compulsion to buy one. For those of you unfamiliar with the British system you have to buy a yearly TV lisence that costs about £150, so it's not by any means an insignificant amount even if i buy a usb tv tuner for my pc for 20 squid.


This all goes in with my positive/negative purchase philosophy. I believe you can broadly group most large purchase in to either positive or negative long term impact items on your life as a whole. Example:
unicycle: gets me outdoors, gets me exercise, decreases stress levels, makes me meet new people
big subwoofer: makes me deaf, annoys other people, decreases my car's mileage

Now this doesn't necessarily mean I won't buy something if it's negative, it;s just a good comparison method.

A TV is deffinitely a negative purchase as far as I can see.

[thejdw]

A TV is deffinitely a negative purchase as far as I can see.
Some of the stuff you can get even on the basic 5 can be amazing to watch, take planet earth for example.

[tobbogonist]

southpark.. i mean, c'mon!

[dudewithasock]

southpark.. i mean, c'mon!

http://www.southparkstudios.com/

[tobbogonist]

i still have an argument. you cant fob me off with a link :)

[uni57]

If you don't have a TV, then what does your furniture face towards? Seriously.LOL, interesting question. Short answer: each other. Start with the couch or sofa or whatever you call it. It's big, so unless you have a giant living room, it will naturally face a certain direction. Now arrange other chairs so that people sitting in them can easily see and talk to each other. Voilà! A people-oriented living space. The other rooms aren't typically TV-centric -- kitchen, dining room, bedroom, computer room, office, bathroom. Those are easy.

[thejdw]

i still have an argument. you cant fob me off with a link :)
Nice one Tom, lets defend the TV! Can't live with out bbc news :D

[Eddbmxdude]

We didn't have a TV in my house until I was about 13. When ever I used to go round my friends house's, they could never pull me away from the TV!
Now I never watch it, I think its such a waste of time and feel really guilty if I do sit down and watch it, even if it was an interesting program.
I only really use it for watching my DVD's and videos (Remember those?)

Edd

[gkmac]

When I was child we only had 4 analogue channels and I was quite a square eyes back then. But nowadays the quality of TV has gone downhill so much I hardly watch it anymore, even though I've had Freeview (http://www.freeview.co.uk/) since it launched. Most of the time my TV is just a screen for my DVD player.

The only time I ever sit down to watch TV would be to catch the news and weather, and I record the occasional old film that I've seen a long time ago that happens to be broadcast again, which gets watched and then deleted. I've also been known to put music channels on in the background while working on stuff.

I've recently moved to a property with a satellite dish and just got a box to see what was on Freesat (http://www.freesat.co.uk/). If you've got Freeview already, don't bother with Freesat unless you're a music channel fan or you want to get BBC HD. The hundreds of channels that are available are, quite frankly, rubbish.


Despite what I think about TV nowadays, I don't think I could get rid of mine.

[willy]

tv's cost money, and the key to money is having money...

[BluntRM]

LOL, interesting question. Short answer: each other. Start with the couch or sofa or whatever you call it. It's big, so unless you have a giant living room, it will naturally face a certain direction. Now arrange other chairs so that people sitting in them can easily see and talk to each other. Voilà! A people-oriented living space. The other rooms aren't typically TV-centric -- kitchen, dining room, bedroom, computer room, office, bathroom. Those are easy.

Interesting...

My TV recently crapped out and I replaced the empty space it left in the living room with a painting of Miles Davis.

[thejdw]

But nowadays the quality of TV has gone downhill so much I hardly watch it anymore, even though I've had Freeview (http://www.freeview.co.uk/) since it launched. Most of the time my TV is just a screen for my DVD player.
You just need to look a little bit harder for quality ;)