Re: Cable tv ... utility?
Troy....@gmail.com
it. A huge waste of money for very little return.
Most of what I want (note I did not say need) to see can be had for
FREE with a simple antenna.
Troy Heagy
Ken from Chicago wrote:
> Overhead last week when a co-worker was discussing her utility bills and she
> listed water, gas, electricity, cable, telephone and I had to interject that
> cable is not a "utility". She paused, and countered well, it kinda was. As
> much as I think much of broadcast tv can be boring--especially this season
> of the year, do most people think of cable tv as a "utility"?
>
> Now, of course, the number one reason I've found for people arguing is that
> they are defining the same terms differently, so allow me to illustrate what
> I mean by "utility":
>
> WATER
>
> Drinking water (cold water to, you know, drink), utility water (for
> cleaning, washing, rinsing)and waste water (for bathroom sinks and toilets,
> or more from bathroom sinks and toilets) are probably the first "utilities"
> in civilization. You really can't oversell the value of indoor plumbing when
> faced with the prospect of having go Number 1 and especially Number 2
> outdoors. You can't live without water. You "gotta" have it.
>
> GAS
>
> As in natural gas (as opposed to gasoline for your car), as in heating and
> cooking, is as old as Rome (that's right, blame them for inventing
> centralized air ducts to pipe hot air to homes from a central fire--leading
> to modern days of characters crawling thru air ducts to break into or out of
> a building in movies and tv shows), and before electricity was the main way
> powering public lights in the 19th century. You can probably live without
> natural gas in the home now with electrical stoves, microwaves, and electric
> heat, but in many places, that's not an option. It's a quasi "gotta" have
> it.
>
> ELECTRICITY
>
> Lights, tv, clocks, radios, computers, cell phones, air conditioners,
> microwaves, some ovens and stoves, this king of the utilities ... at least
> in the industralized world. Nothing's worse than a black out. That's when
> you really see how hooked we are on. If you are reading this message, then
> electricity is the lord and high master of "gotta" have it utilities.
>
> TELEPHONE
>
> A common enough utility in industrial countries, but its fallen on hard
> times with cell phones encroaching on ye olde POTS (Plain Old Telephone
> Service) of the landline, wired phone. Moreover VOIP (voice over internet
> protocol) is making the telephone a dying utility, but once it was queen
> ("Ma Bell"), with ye olde black phones "rented" from AT&T that could be used
> as weapons (often were in old movies and tv shows), smash concrete, probably
> survive nuclear blasts. And yet, when power goes out, the precious cell
> tower goes dark, it's the lowly phone line that still stays on connecting
> people and places (assuming circuits aren't overloaded by everyone in an
> area trying to all dial at once), and while many gen-x-ers and gen-y-ers
> have dropped or never even gotten a landline phone service, for older
> generations, it's still seen as old reliable "gotta" have it utility.
>
> CABLE
>
> What? PAY for tv? Who'd be fool enough to pay for tv when you can get it for
> free? That was the thought 20-30 years ago. Cable was just a passing fad or
> gimmick (like video phones). Shirley no way it would catch on. Right? Still,
> now with the majority of American homes having cable (as of 2001, almost 2
> thirds of households making less than $15,000 yearly had cable, up 87
> percent for households making over $75,000), it would seem cable has made
> the transistion from luxury to utility.
>
> Or can the argument really be made that cable is not a "gotta" have it
> service that has become a "utility", but is more optional (like cell phone
> service, internet service or broadband internet)?
>
> -- Ken from Chicago
>
> P.S. "The future is now! Soon every American home will integrate their
> television, phone and computer. You'll be able to visit the Louvre on one
> channel, or watch female wrestling on another. You can do your shopping at
> home, or play Mortal Kombat with a friend from Vietnam. There's no end to
> the possibilities!"--Jim Carrey, THE CABLE GUY.
>
> P.P.S. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/appliances/appliances.html
© Flipper Mike ®
> No cable's not a utilty. I don't "need" it and that's why I canceled
> it. A huge waste of money for very little return.
Just like your mother didn't need tampons, asshole!
Troy....@gmail.com
Why the animosity?
Barnabas Collins
>> listed water, gas, electricity, cable, telephone and I had to interject that
>> cable is not a "utility". She paused, and countered well, it kinda was. As
>> much as I think much of broadcast tv can be boring--especially this season
>> of the year, do most people think of cable tv as a "utility"?
therefore the local and state government classifies them as
a "utility."
This was before Direct TV, before the Internet.
I would add that in certain areas cable TV is a necessity.
In one of the cities I lived in a few years the only way to get
good reception was with cable, broadcast TV was very bad at the
time.
BTW, have a complaint about cable TV? The complaints go the states
"Utility commission." Each community grants a liscense to the local
cable franshise.
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flip wilson
> I would add that in certain areas cable TV is a necessity.
> In one of the cities I lived in a few years the only way to get
> good reception was with cable, broadcast TV was very bad at the
> time.
If you wanted to watch tv, then I agree it would be a necessity, but
people did just fine 100 years ago without cable. They were probably
better off for it :)
Clell Harmon
> No cable's not a utilty. I don't "need" it and that's why I canceled
> it. A huge waste of money for very little return.
Certainly Cable is a utility. Your 'need' is aside the point. you
don't require ('need') any utility. People managed to survive without
them all for tens of thousands of years.
>
> Most of what I want (note I did not say need) to see can be had for
> FREE with a simple antenna.
Until the current spectrum is shut down.
Clell Harmon
Well that's hostile. What do you do when the topic under discussion is
important?
David Johnston
wrote:
>Barnabas Collins wrote:
>> I would add that in certain areas cable TV is a necessity.
>> In one of the cities I lived in a few years the only way to get
>> good reception was with cable, broadcast TV was very bad at the
>> time.
>
>If you wanted to watch tv, then I agree it would be a necessity, but
>people did just fine 100 years ago without cable.
Heck most of them did "just fine" without electrical power itself.
flip wilson
Excellent point! I suppose basic food/oxygen, clothing, shelter are the
only things anyone really needs for survival.
Lesa
"Barnabas Collins" <BarnabasC...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:eroda25mp0cluf9se...@4ax.com...
>>> Overhead last week when a co-worker was discussing her utility bills and
>>> she
>>> listed water, gas, electricity, cable, telephone and I had to interject
>>> that
>>> cable is not a "utility". She paused, and countered well, it kinda was.
>>> As
>>> much as I think much of broadcast tv can be boring--especially this
>>> season
>>> of the year, do most people think of cable tv as a "utility"?
> Around here Cable TV has no "competition," they are a monopoly and
> therefore the local and state government classifies them as
> a "utility."
>
> This was before Direct TV, before the Internet.
>
> I would add that in certain areas cable TV is a necessity.
> In one of the cities I lived in a few years the only way to get
> good reception was with cable, broadcast TV was very bad at the
> time.
>
> BTW, have a complaint about cable TV? The complaints go the states
> "Utility commission." Each community grants a liscense to the local
> cable franshise.
>
necessity. It seems as though you have your defnition of "utility"
confused.
Main Entry: 1util·i·ty
Pronunciation: yü-'ti-l&-tE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
Etymology: Middle English utilite, from Middle French utilité, from Latin
utilitat, utilitas, from utilis useful, from uti to use
1 : fitness for some purpose or worth to some end
2 : something useful or designed for use
3 a : PUBLIC UTILITY b (1) : a service (as light, power, or water) provided
by a public utility (2) : equipment or a piece of equipment to provide such
service or a comparable service
4 : a program or routine designed to perform or facilitate especially
routine operations (as copying files or editing text) on a computer
Ken from Chicago
"Clell Harmon" <c.ha...@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:ZFFpg.809872$084.729726@attbi_s22...
> Troy....@gmail.com wrote:
>> No cable's not a utilty. I don't "need" it and that's why I canceled
>> it. A huge waste of money for very little return.
>
> Certainly Cable is a utility. Your 'need' is aside the point. you don't
> require ('need') any utility. People managed to survive without them all
> for tens of thousands of years.
>>
>> Most of what I want (note I did not say need) to see can be had for
>> FREE with a simple antenna.
>
> Until the current spectrum is shut down.
Oooh, good point. There's that looming switchover this decade to
all-digital.
Altho I think current analog tvs can get a converter box that works pert
near like the rabbit ears of the dark ages.
-- Ken from Chicago (who has a video switcher for cable, cable box, vcr and
rabbit ears to switch from unencoded cable, encoded cable, recorded programs
and in case of storms knocking out cable, broadcast signals)
Clell Harmon
> "Clell Harmon" <c.ha...@mchsi.com> wrote in message
> news:ZFFpg.809872$084.729726@attbi_s22...
>> Troy....@gmail.com wrote:
>>> No cable's not a utilty. I don't "need" it and that's why I canceled
>>> it. A huge waste of money for very little return.
>> Certainly Cable is a utility. Your 'need' is aside the point. you don't
>> require ('need') any utility. People managed to survive without them all
>> for tens of thousands of years.
>>> Most of what I want (note I did not say need) to see can be had for
>>> FREE with a simple antenna.
>> Until the current spectrum is shut down.
>
> Oooh, good point. There's that looming switchover this decade to
> all-digital.
>
> Altho I think current analog tvs can get a converter box that works pert
> near like the rabbit ears of the dark ages.
The Converter boxes exist, but I don't know how many stations are
bothering with actually transmitting the new Hi Def signal...
RobertVA
> Troy....@gmail.com wrote:
>> No cable's not a utilty. I don't "need" it and that's why I canceled
>> it. A huge waste of money for very little return.
>
> Certainly Cable is a utility. Your 'need' is aside the point. you
> don't require ('need') any utility. People managed to survive without
> them all for tens of thousands of years.
>>
>> Most of what I want (note I did not say need) to see can be had for
>> FREE with a simple antenna.
>
> Until the current spectrum is shut down.
While there will be a reduction of spectrum dedicated to over The air
broadcast television, the digital services operate in a subset of the
bands currently used for analog TV. Many US television stations are
already broadcasting free digital programming. Broadcasters are licensed
to use a band of spectrum which allows for various combinations of
simultaneous high definition and standard definition digital programs.
The manufacturers of larger televisions are already required to include
digital tuners IF the television doesn't require an external tuner for
analog over the air reception. this requirement will be applied to
progressively smaller televisions before the over the air analog
broadcast cutoff.
Most cable and satellite providers are already distributing content in
digital formats that are converted to analog by set top boxes for
customers that need it. Those companies will be permitted to continue
doing that after the over the air analog cutoff date.
The agency charged with distributing up to two coupons per household,
each coupon worth $40 off the retail price of a converter allowing
people to view digital programs in standard definition on analog
televisions is scheduled to begin operations in 2008. The choice of
including features like battery powered operation or zooming into the
center of letter boxed programs will be left to the manufacturer of the
particular converter the customer purchases. Analog broadcasting is
scheduled to cease in February of 2009.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Lobbyists for motion picture and television production
organizations are pushing HARD for restrictions that will seriously
degrade picture quality for high definition programs that are relayed
from a video player, cable converter or satellite receiver to high
definition televisions that are not equipped with an input that enforces
digital rights management technology. Apparently many high definition
televisions currently in homes and stores aren't equipped with those inputs.
Brian (aka Zod)
many over the air channels, and what you do get isn't very good.
that being said, i download the tv shows i want to see. Not really
legal (not really illegal, as its ignored in Canadian law).
cable is becoming obscelete, only a matter of time before tv channels
realize they can just stream over the internet and cut out the middleman.
- Brian
RobertVA
>
> The Converter boxes exist, but I don't know how many stations are
> bothering with actually transmitting the new Hi Def signal...
A lot of the affiliates of the major over the air networks are already
broadcasting a mixture of high definition and standard definition
digital programming. As far as high verses standard definition goes,
it's often a matter of the network's choice in equipping the particular
TV studio or show's production crew with high definition cameras. EVERY
TV station in the US automatically acquired a digital TV broadcast
license in addition to their analog license when the transition started.
In most cases the only delays were equipment availability, obtaining the
building permits and the considerable amount of funds to purchase and
install the new transmitter, antenna and antenna masts.
But remember that a lot of the syndicated programming, especially reruns
of years old series, were recorded in analog and are going to be
continue to be broadcast in standard definition digital. When their main
program is standard definition the station will have an opportunity to
(and some already are) broadcast a second program (in some cases a third
and FOURTH!) like a local access channel or continuous Doppler radar
image. A few might even "sub-let" the secondary program stream to things
like shopping channels or an out of state super channel (CHING!!). Of
course there ARE those pesky payments on the loan they used to buy that
fancy new digital broadcast equipment.
Ken from Chicago
"Brian (aka Zod)" <bria...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
news:jg3qg.112239$S61.6540@edtnps90...
The internet is cable--at least for most broadband users, at least that's
how it's delivered.
-- Ken from Chicago
Ken from Chicago
"flip wilson" <righ...@cha.com> wrote in message
news:Q8ednRG9ULojoDrZ...@comcast.com...
... he said on the internet.
-- Ken from Chicago