What is so good about TV.

[PerryCox]

Something Macabre said in another thread...

Originally Posted by Macabre

Or maybe have a life and take the kids out during the afternoons instead of being TV Junkie ?

What is it that you lot love so much about TV? Is it that your mental capacity is so minimal you actually believe spending your free time watching CSI - Delaware is the best use of it*? I can understand having a few shows that are of particular interest to a person, but the reactions on TW when a system goes down is massively out of proportion - you'd think the box under the TV was a life support system.

Putting aside my own prejudices, I accept that someone may truly love TV, and get massive fulfilment from watching it. OK, I think that's a bit pathetic, but it's not up to me to dictate how someone wastes their life. But if this person exists, and really does love TV so much, why wouldn't they choose the most stable, reliable method of delivery, even if it does cost a few bob more? Why go for the unreliable, potentially short lived CS boxes?

The argument that really winds me up - "it's for the kids", "the kids are going mental" "there's nothing for the kids to watch"...Are there really people who are willing to make such an admission as if it's normal and to be expected? May I suggest you actually try some parenting instead of sitting them in front of a TV to keep them quiet whilst you sit in front of a different TV? I can't think of one kid who'd rather watch Nickelodeon than go out on the park to kick a ball, or ride a bike. Even if you're busy and the kids are hassling you - point them to the bookshelf, or the massive pile of overpriced plastic tat they call toys. The parents who think the TV is a viable alternative to spending time with the kids are the same ones who rage against Rooney as a bad role model, or blame their kids bad habbits on TV. He're some free advice for you people - take responsibilty for your own children. Don't feed them soley on a diet of Hollyoaks and MUTV, and then you won't have to get indignant and outraged when the role models you forced on them appear on the front page of the Sunday papers.

Sorry about my Sheenesque rant from my tall pony, but when I see people raging on the internet because their KV doesn't work, I wan't to gouge my eyes out. It's not as if the TV is totally failed, it just means they only have 40odd channels to choose from (including 3 x kids channels)! Really, is their anyone out there who thinks only having 40 channels available is something to get wound up about?

TLDR - Get a life you sad cases.

PS - It's even more pathetic to think you have a bragging point because your SV works when someone elses KV doesn't. Honestly, it's like bragging that your genital warts are bigger and more widespread than your neighbours.

*SPOILER - In CSI, there will be a few twists and turns, but fortunately an obscure method of linking a crime to a perp will be found, and the bad guy will go to jail. There, you never need to watch it again.

[Macabre]

*SPOILER - In CSI, there will be a few twists and turns, but fortunately an obscure method of linking a crime to a perp will be found, and the bad guy will go to jail. There, you never need to watch it again.






Quality.

[Robbo]

My kids tend to do various activities including playing down the park with a ball,riding their bikes,trips elsewhere, martial arts,drawing, reading, fighting with eachother,going to school, doing homework,playing on the PS3,Nintendo DX,Wii,using their Laptops AND watching Nickelodoen. Nothing wrong in my opinion letting the kids watching their fav progs on the TV, in addition to all the other activities that they get up to. And I would complain if the channels went off, but I pay Virgin for them.

[PerryCox]

Originally Posted by Robbo

My kids tend to do various activities including playing down the park with a ball,riding their bikes,trips elsewhere, martial arts,drawing, reading, fighting with eachother,going to school, doing homework,playing on the PS3,Nintendo DX,Wii,using their Laptops AND watching Nickelodoen. Nothing wrong in my opinion letting the kids watching their fav progs on the TV, in addition to all the other activities that they get up to. And I would complain if the channels went off, but I pay Virgin for them.

Snap! Other than a PS3, you've pretty much described my son's week

Don't get me wrong, my kids watch TV too (although nothing directly paid for, the BBC provides plenty of quality content). Thing is, if my son were whinging at me because he wants to watch spongebob and the channel has gone off, I'd laugh at him for being bored, then distract him into doing something else. I would be ashamed to use it as justification for whining about a server being down, or for not actually paying for the service in the first place!

God knows what point I'm trying to make...Maybe I should retire to the garden with a herbal cigarette and sign today off Got to be more fun than ranting utter crap on the internet whilst pretending to write code!

[G77]

<---- outdoor person

[TheCoder]

I've always maintained the only thing of any interest on either Sat or cable are the encryption systems themselves. There's nothing much else of interest - you can only handle so many repeats of the Simpsons !

[leeds6]

in the beginning it was underground it was about using proggers and burning cards lots of interesting stuff it was fun and it was about satellite tv didnt even know there were other sats up there besides sky or how to find them using a dish but learned and that was the buzz ,not so much watching tv but learning how to do it .Then came the cable hack and it became mass participation and boring 24 hour tv cant be anything else.
Now its cost there is noway i'm ever gonna pay 60 or 70 pounds a month for tv so i get it as cheaply as possible wether i watch it or not

[welshcake]

Well I am 30 now and will say growing up we always had the channels, I spent many many hours watching Sports, Being an extremely active and without being big headed talented sportsman It was watching many hours of the top professionals in Football, Tennis Golf you name it I watched it and leanred from it. I was never that good at learning in the class room but can honestly say my general knowledge and even keen interest in world affairs and politics is because of TV. Don't get me wrong nothing beats the great outdoors and having 4 boys we like nothing better than a kick about and BBQ , But I have a lot to thank the vast amounts of TV channels for I share in my kids lives by sitting and watching films and sports with them and explainng what things mean etc.

For our family the TV is a big part but for the right reasons

[GanzeeGeezer]

There's a purity and magic about TV.
It was, initially, for the privileged and fed their egos and was also designed around the egos of the initiators, pure indeed and magic as far as almost everyone else was concerned.
As the masses began to realise its potential and bought into the dream the purity remained although diluted by the appeal of the aspirant minority. With the aspirations of the minority pulling on the majority, eventually proliferation ensued. A propaganda tool of titan proportions was waiting in the wings.
Yet, the propaganda was regulated in a way only the British could achieve. Not for us the oppression of the majority in favour of the minority, society would not tolerate this and the hierarchy had the sense to realise this. They maintained TV as educational and informative, many benefited from the wisdom and it was good.
It was also dull and patronising at times.
TV struggled through the Betamax/VHS wars and popularity in the pure medium declined, music videos, personality and big screen stars reigned supreme and TV made do with Morecambe and Wise repeats and Top of the Pops.
The pure and magical medium died.
The future was left to entrepreneurs to pull the Great TV from its depression and they worked with all their might to provide service to the masses which would be replete with quality, vision [sic], verve and acceptance.
They failed miserably and have produced the bastard son of The Great Dictator. A proliferation of choice watered down with mediocrity; The indifferent choosing for the indolent.
Think of the timeline of TV as a great river, flowing pure from the source, long and true for many miles, pleasing those who had the fortune to live near the banks or who could afford the transport that was a prerequisite to join the flow. Once the river delta is reached, the purity is lost, the magic dissipates into many varied channels, contaminated with the foetid waste of the varied untalented contributors, producing a brown homogeneous clag (look that word up) that has limited appeal to the appealingly limited. The river eventually runs to the sea and is lost in all but memory.
There are arms of this delta that still remain pure, unadulterated joy. They are few and I for one am saddened that the river is not filtered through to a lake where the purity and magic of the medium is collected for all to savour without condition.

You really don't know what good TV is.

This belongs in Post When You're Pissed.

[waqasahmed]

The magical box gives us shows like this:
BBC iPlayer - Wonders of the Solar System: Original Series: Dead or Alive

In all fairness, the main channel I do watch is BBC 3/VIVA/Sky 1(and I don't really watch Sky 1 a lot)

The rest is on iplayer, and I don't watch that much TV at all