[poledaddy]

Question for guys on here who have ditched cable but have a TV in their place and have people over every so often - cookouts, house parties, whatever.

For my personal use, I am happy with just an internet subscription and netflix. I don't watch sports and can get any content I need online. But I've had people over for a cookout at my place with friends and family a couple times this summer, and I found myself still wishing I had cable -sports, MTV, etc, just to have it in the background...

The way my place is set up, the TV is the main focus of the living room and the couches surround it - which is great for me if I'm watching a movie or documentary. But when people are sitting on the couch the natural thing is to turn on the TV. I didn't want to have them browse netflix (they could see all the titles I've recently watched, something I don't really care to show everyone)

For the guys who have cut cable, do you ever entertain people at your place and wish you still had it? Have you found something to replace it or is turning on Netflix, etc working for you? Are there websites out there that I can get streaming sports 24-7 (again I don't really watch sports so I'm ignorant there)

In college my roommates used to put on a hour-long music music video mix DVD he created that worked really well for pregames. I was considering looking into something along those lines.

Anyway, you get the idea- I was thinking through this and wanted to see how other guys that have cut cable have adapted when having people over to your place and they try to turn on the TV, etc.

Please spare me with "i never have large groups at my place" or "find new friends that don't like TV" trolling.

[jamaicabound]

I think tv is way overrated. I remember back in college we never used to watch tv. I was kinda in a hippyish stage back then a bit but we'd sit around, smoke weed, talk, listen to music, alot of my buddies played guitar and stuff so we'd jam sometimes. Anyhow, tv was like the last thing we were ever doing unless we were having a movienight or something like that. Who wants to watch tv at a party.

I'd say just put on some pandora or slacker radio or a good mix or something like that. You may even want to consider not making the tv the focus of your living room. I have one room in my house thats more of a chill room, got some beanbag chairs, some floor pillows, was wanting to build a conversation pit type deal but havn't gotten around to it. The only scenario I can see having a tv for groups of people for would be if some sporting even was on people wanted to see but even then I'm not huge into sports so probably wouldn't bother. Really the only time I would have the tv on is if I had like one buddy over hanging out or if I was having like a movie night or something. Tv definately sucks the vibe from a room moreso than providing any benefit. People then just zone in on the tv and dont talk

[tallandblonde]

Buy cards against humanity

[WestIndianArchie]

don't know about sports, but Roku/Chromecast is the truth.

30 bucks to stream whatever you want to from your laptop on to your big screen.

WIA

[jamaicabound]

(09-24-2014 04:15 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  

don't know about sports, but Roku/Chromecast is the truth.

30 bucks to stream whatever you want to from your laptop on to your big screen.

WIA

I was under the impression Roku was basically like the media device replacing your laptop or xbox as the platform to play your youtube, netflix, amazon, etc. If I can just hook up my laptop to my tv with a $4 HDMI cable why do I even need roku?

[NovaVirtu]

People still buy cable?

Do you have an xbox or something? I think they have NFL and UFC apps and whatnot if you want to have sports playing.

[Seaver]

(09-24-2014 04:52 PM)NovaVirtu Wrote:  

People still buy cable?

Do you have an xbox or something? I think they have NFL and UFC apps and whatnot if you want to have sports playing.

Yes they do. In my case, not buying cable would actually cost me more than buying it does.

cable is less than $100 a month for me, which is about 2 hours of work a month to pay for. It would take me way more than 2 hours to find and acquire the content via the internet.


In response to the OP, playing concert videos works pretty well. I think you can also setup a separate profile in your Netflix account so people cannot see the history with your main account (there might also be parent-child controls for this as well)

[Cattle Rustler]

Hook up your laptop/PC to your TV, youtube/torrent.

Twister is nice to play with bitches.

[samsamsam]

Get a TV antenna. If you are doing this stuff during the Fall plenty of football games on regular channels.

[kaotic]

Yup,

Wifi/Internet....smart tv. Or apple/roku stream from that.

I have a PC that's connected directly to my tv via hdmi.

[TheSlayer]

(09-24-2014 05:47 PM)Seaver Wrote:  

Yes they do. In my case, not buying cable would actually cost me more than buying it does.

cable is less than $100 a month for me, which is about 2 hours of work a month to pay for. It would take me way more than 2 hours to find and acquire the content via the internet.

You are looking at it wrong in my opinion. Let's say your cable bill is $90/month = $1,080 a year. Once you know where to get the content it certainly does not take 2 hours to acquire it via the internet. To find a good, clean, HD torrent takes about 2 minutes for me. I usually download all my torrents during the night because of faster download speeds and I leave my laptop on overnight, so I am not waiting for the content to download. Secondly, who watches shows and programming live anymore? The only thing I watch live is sports. For sports you can get a league pass or watch those for free on online streams and for shows you download torrents.

If you do watch a lot of shows and programming live then it maybe worth it for you but other than it's a waste of money. Buying a league pass and getting netflix for example will reduce some of your savings but you can easily pocket $6-700 a year. I have talked to a lot of people around me and most of them don't realize that they don't even watch live TV anymore. Most of them PVR shows, in that case you might as well wait one day and download a torrent for free to watch the show on your own time without any commercials.

[Basil Ransom]

Hide your TV and put out a tea set.

[Sourcecode]

Minus hooking up my laptop to tv..or just using a smart tv.

I bring out my Ipad and show girls pictures and tell stories and shit.

Theres a million websites to stream music and find already made music playlist.
I also have a bunch of playlist on my youtube.

There are sites to stream movies and tv shows other than netflix.

I think you should say, what kinda stuff you are into.
Make something interesting the focuspoint of your room

[Cr33pin]

I haven't had cable TV in years. Best choice I ever made. When I was living out of state I came back home for about 5 days to handle some business. Stayed at my moms while I was in. It was winter I didn't even have my car there so I watched a lot of TV and the only thing I gained from it was self respect for not having cable TV and watching that shit they call TV.

[LeBeau]

There's really no need to have a TV on for gatherings unless the sole purpose is watching something on TV like Super Bowl.

Music should be sufficient in the background.

You will find yourself developing better social circles if gatherings don't revolve around a need for videogames, cable, etc. but rather people sharing stories, meeting others, catching up, etc.

Think about some of the best parties/meet ups you might have been to, or have heard about, or have seen fictionalized.

How many of them had people sitting around watching TV?

If you must, the laptop-HDMI cable-TV combo works, but once you let the "internet video" theme out of the box, larger gatherings usually go downhill:

[Basil Ransom]

Meant to say, I find people who leave a TV on while socializing to be dull, dim and plebeian.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

(09-24-2014 07:36 PM)Basil Ransom Wrote:  

Meant to say, I find people who leave a TV on while socializing to be dull, dim and plebeian.

Personally, I find it extremely difficult to hang out with people when a TV is on in the background. Maybe it's because I don't own a TV, but I find it really hard not to look at a TV while it's playing. There's something fascinating about the constant motion of colour on a TV that I find hypnotising. I end up ignoring everyone

[jamaicabound]

(09-24-2014 07:30 PM)LeBeau Wrote:  

There's really no need to have a TV on for gatherings unless the sole purpose is watching something on TV like Super Bowl.

Music should be sufficient in the background.

You will find yourself developing better social circles if gatherings don't revolve around a need for videogames, cable, etc. but rather people sharing stories, meeting others, catching up, etc.

Think about some of the best parties/meet ups you might have been to, or have heard about, or have seen fictionalized.

How many of them had people sitting around watching TV?

If you must, the laptop-HDMI cable-TV combo works, but once you let the "internet video" theme out of the box, larger gatherings usually go downhill:

Was laughing at your graphic there, that is so true, you got a group of people together and someone shows a funny or cool viral video and all the sudden everyone in the party has 10 videos they have to show everyone.

The whole thing of everyone having to look up their videos is kinda stupid but I never thought about it but having a show like Ridiculous or some hour long clip of stupid videos actually wouldn't be a bad thing to have going on in the background of a party, with music I wouldn't wanna listen to the video but just as kind of a background visual something that doesn't really suck people in you can glance over and see and then forget about the tv and pickup later not like some show wher you have to be engaged.

[Giovonny]

When my friends are over my house, I prefer to just talk to them, with a little soft music in the background.

Here is a similar thread about "Entertaining Girls with a Laptop"

[poledaddy]

Thanks guys, got some good ideas from here. Just to give further context, I'm talking about having cookouts at my place with like 15-25 people. As opposed to a small group of a couple girls or whatever. I don't watch TV during the cookout personally, nor are most of the people that show up. But when you have a group this size, so far I've found people inevitably want to turn it on the TV. I'm basically looking to let the 1-2 zombies that want to watch TV preselect themselves so they can do their thing, not kill the vibe of everyone else, etc.

I really liked Seaver's idea of concert footage- definitely going to try that next time. I ordered a 30-day trial of Chromecast + PlayOn; I'm thinking that should make it easier access all the steaming options outside of Netflix in one spot.

[Basil Ransom]

" I'm basically looking to let the 1-2 zombies that want to watch TV preselect themselves so they can do their thing, not kill the vibe of everyone else, etc."

If they're really that committed to avoiding people, they'll stop showing up to your parties if you don't put out a TV. If you do put out a TV, they may keep showing up.

Solution: don't put out a TV.

I lived with a big mixed sort of randomly selected group of people for several months. There was no TV because everyone wanted to freeload off the person who would buy it. Instead, we created our own dramas and fracas... It was a lot more fun that way than having an idiot box to pacify people.

[Seaver]

(09-24-2014 06:37 PM)TheSlayer Wrote:  

(09-24-2014 05:47 PM)Seaver Wrote:  

Yes they do. In my case, not buying cable would actually cost me more than buying it does.

cable is less than $100 a month for me, which is about 2 hours of work a month to pay for. It would take me way more than 2 hours to find and acquire the content via the internet.

You are looking at it wrong in my opinion. Let's say your cable bill is $90/month = $1,080 a year. Once you know where to get the content it certainly does not take 2 hours to acquire it via the internet. To find a good, clean, HD torrent takes about 2 minutes for me. I usually download all my torrents during the night because of faster download speeds and I leave my laptop on overnight, so I am not waiting for the content to download. Secondly, who watches shows and programming live anymore? The only thing I watch live is sports. For sports you can get a league pass or watch those for free on online streams and for shows you download torrents.

If you do watch a lot of shows and programming live then it maybe worth it for you but other than it's a waste of money. Buying a league pass and getting netflix for example will reduce some of your savings but you can easily pocket $6-700 a year. I have talked to a lot of people around me and most of them don't realize that they don't even watch live TV anymore. Most of them PVR shows, in that case you might as well wait one day and download a torrent for free to watch the show on your own time without any commercials.

most of the stuff I watch isn't that easily found that its worth being a thief and stealing it

[Cr33pin]

[TheSlayer]

(09-26-2014 07:54 AM)Seaver Wrote:  

(09-24-2014 06:37 PM)TheSlayer Wrote:  

(09-24-2014 05:47 PM)Seaver Wrote:  

Yes they do. In my case, not buying cable would actually cost me more than buying it does.

cable is less than $100 a month for me, which is about 2 hours of work a month to pay for. It would take me way more than 2 hours to find and acquire the content via the internet.

You are looking at it wrong in my opinion. Let's say your cable bill is $90/month = $1,080 a year. Once you know where to get the content it certainly does not take 2 hours to acquire it via the internet. To find a good, clean, HD torrent takes about 2 minutes for me. I usually download all my torrents during the night because of faster download speeds and I leave my laptop on overnight, so I am not waiting for the content to download. Secondly, who watches shows and programming live anymore? The only thing I watch live is sports. For sports you can get a league pass or watch those for free on online streams and for shows you download torrents.

If you do watch a lot of shows and programming live then it maybe worth it for you but other than it's a waste of money. Buying a league pass and getting netflix for example will reduce some of your savings but you can easily pocket $6-700 a year. I have talked to a lot of people around me and most of them don't realize that they don't even watch live TV anymore. Most of them PVR shows, in that case you might as well wait one day and download a torrent for free to watch the show on your own time without any commercials.

most of the stuff I watch isn't that easily found that its worth being a thief and stealing it

What shows or programs do you watch that are not easily found? Give me a break on "thief" stuff. I would gladly pay for the 2 or 3 channels I watch but asking for close to $90/month (in my area) to watch HBO + some sports makes these cable companies the real thief. I am not interested in 95% of the crap on cable and bundling channels where you have to buy 5 useless channels to add 1 specialty channel is the real thievery. I wish I was in that business.

[TheBulldozer]

If you're a soccer fan, fbtz.com is a fantastic board to register for that will allow you to download matches within minutes of them concluding. Best part is that there are absolutely no spoilers on the site.