[Spridgets] No LBC.........Cable TV Corporate Greed

[Wm. Severin Thompson]

OK, let me pipe in here. Digital antenna works great if you get one suitable
for the distance to the transmitter. I'm at least 75 miles in any direction
to any of the towers, requiring the best(most expensive) antenna.

One thing to consider is the media convergence that's accelerating... Roku,
Logitech, Boxee, Apple TV and Popbox all are delivering streaming media, via
your internet connection, in HD, to your TV. The one I like currently is the
Logitech Revue. $99 at Best Buy (reduced from $299). Logitech and Google had
some legal battles with some content delivery providers that have been
solved. The Logitech Revue turns your TV into a Google Smart TV, with Google
apps, etc. You get a wireless "querty keyboard" that also controls your TV,
AV receiver, cable or satellite box, etc. It allows you to use your TV as a
browser to surf the web. Get yourself a $7.95 Netflix streaming account, and
Bob's your uncle.

WST

-----Original Message-----
From: spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of bjshov8 at tx.rr.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:53 AM
To: Spridget list
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] No LBC.........Cable TV Corporate Greed

My understanding is that FCC rules require cable providers to give you the
local broadcast channels.  I don't know if that means they can charge you
for it or not.

I have Time Warner cable, in our case Time Warner bought the franchise from
Comcast some years ago, who had bought it from someone else over 10 years
ago.  Our original cable TV provider did not have internet access, when
Comcast bought it we got internet access.  Until this past January we had
only analog TV's and we picked up the analog signals off of the cable with
no need for converter boxes of any sort.  Now we have a digital TV and it
picks up the digital channels below 100 off of the cable with no need for
converter box, but many of the high def cable channels and a few others such
as NatGeo are above 100 and require a cable box to receive them.  Digital or
not, a lot of the channels come in very poorly through the cable.

We have contemplated switching from Time Warner cable to Verizon FIOS fiber
optic.  This would save us some money by allowing us to integrate our phone,
TV and internet into the same 3-in-1 account.  Plus there is a savings for
the first 2 years for a new subscriber.  OTOH we would have to rent set top
decoder boxes for several old tv's which would increase the bill.  EVERYONE
I have talked to says the quality and speed are far superior to any cable
company, I want to switch just for that reason.  Right now our TV + internet
+ telephone is about $170/month, and all 3 of these are the basic services.
We could get FIOS plus a lot of extras for less than that.