Re: electrical deaths

On 2024-12-01 21:24, Don Y wrote:

On 12/1/2024 6:49 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 2024-11-30 23:28, Don Y wrote:

On 11/30/2024 2:11 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:

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I get somewhere around the same 60 to 70 channels on my tv with the
outside antenna. Have to devide that by 3 or 4 as each station has that
many sub channels.

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Yes.  Not to mention the channels that seem to actually be clones of
each other:  "Wait, wasn't this show on that OTHER station just two
seconds ago as I channel surfed past it?"

>
On fibre TV, on the other hand (we did not have cable TV till nearly year 2000, and when we did it was a different system), we have a new nuisance. To watch this or that serial that you possibly want, you have to subscribe to a new offering. Say Disney, Showtime, Skysomething, etc. You have to be rich to be able to choose the program of the moment.

 I don't believe in paying for "broadcast" TV -- even if it is over a
constrained medium (e.g., "Cable").

Me neither, but life is boring outside of it.

What little we watch (now), we do with a DVR so we can time shift as well
as skip through the commercials.  SWMBO has fallen in love with it as
it trims 30% off of her viewing time!

We also have time shift, on all channels. The tiny box at home sends a command to the server farm, and the time stops or goes backwards. Of course, the response time is sluggish, but it works, with relatively dumb hardware at home.
Reminds me. Over a decade ago I bought a Gigaset M740 AV terrestrial digital tv tuner. It could record or time shift using an external usb hard disk (not provided) or a Windows or Linux computer sharing a directory.
It had two tuners. It was capable of recording from two stations at the same time as playing a previous recording.
And it had a community of developers, so that there were alternative firmwares more powerful than the original.
Unfortunately, the digital broadcasting system in Spain has been improved to HD (high definition), and the machine does not work any more (as a tuner/recorder). I have not found a modern replacement with similar capabilities.

Most of our "viewing" is in the form of movies.  Our local library is
pretty good at keeping current with titles -- though you may have to
wait for the title you want.  We typically have 10 titles out at a
time to cut down on our trips to the library.  You can each it for
4 weeks, then renew for 3 weeks -- up to 4 times -- then be a month
late returning it without a fine.  Far too permissive, IMO, but it
seems to work reasonably well.  (and, they did away with fines,
recently, so what incentive to return titles??)

On DVDs?
I don't think there are DVD libraries here. I should ask.
--
Cheers, Carlos.