Lost interest in TV due to DVDs?
 

The other thread got me thinking.

Since collecting DVDs regularly, my TV watching has gone down by over 90%. I find I no longer have the patience for commercials, or searching for something interesting to watch. I just throw a DVD on. If there is a TV show I like, I find it hard to make a specific time every week available, so I end up recording it and watching it later (the only TV show I do this with is LOST). If I really like the show, I'll buy the seasons on DVD and watch them when I want.

So, am I alone? I am seriously considering cancelling all but the basic TV service, as I never use it anymore.

That happened to me a few years ago... and then along came HDTV. Now, I check the HD listings first, and then move to the DVD collection.

You're not alone. I have not had cable of any kind for about 3 years, I can ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, PBS over the air and have found I very seldom miss getting anything else. The thing that pushed into dumping paytv for all time is all the crap they throw up on the screen during a show - network logo constantly, local logo, animated promos so intrusive that it really prevents me from enjoying a show. Idiot marketing people have pretty much ruined broadcast TV.

Any program I really like, Smallville for instance, I will wait for the DVD set and watch it that way. Since I never go to fan websites or discuss the show with anyone spoilers are not a problem. Most recent stuff worth watching is going to show up on DVD anyway and I can always rent if it's too expensive to buy.

Never watched TV and I don't have cable. Just DVD's and broadcast TV if absolutely necessary..

I lost interest in TV due to TV.

The increase of DVDs and the lack of TV programs I like has caused me to lose interest in TV. Also, I am hate commercials (even though I just flip the channel). I do not like to spend thirty minutes every week watching a show, when I could just wait for the DVD and watch it in less time and at my convenience. I do make exceptions though for shows that I really like.

That is true.

DVDs did cause me to lose interest in TV, especially since I figured any show I was interested in seeing I can catch on DVD. Of course, once I got Tivo I find TV interesting again. Being able to just fast forward through commercials is just great. I just make sure to wait 5 minutes or so before watching any shows. :lol:

I've been without cable for about 12 years now and I do not regret it one bit.

I watch whatever I want, when I want.

Breezing through 24: Season 3 and OZ: Season 4 now.

No. Easier to find time for a 30-60 minute (hell less since I skip commericals on Tivo) show than a 1 1/2-2+ hour movie. So I still watch a little more TV than I do DVDs.

The only TV I watch is news and perhaps a few late night talk shows every once in a while. Dennis Miller's show is pretty interesting and entertaining for me. I also watch American Idol, and actually pretty much that's the only "reality" TV I watch.

So between news and the occasional late-night talk show, maybe with a sports game of some sort, my other viewing is pretty much DVDs. Now I do watch Sci-Fi Fridays on the Sci-Fi Channel and Dog "The Bounty Hunter" on A&E on Tuesdays, but that's it.

Any series that I am interested in, I wait for the DVDs with the exception of Stargate and BSG.

I find myself not worrying about catching certain shows if I know that DVD's will be coming out. For example, new episodes of CSI aren't a priority anymore because I know I can catch them later on DVD.

I agree with PixyJunket. TV caused me to lose interest in TV. I sat down to watch CSI on Spike a few months ago and became addicted. The only other thing that I watch is that train wreck called the Surreal Life. If it wasn't for the three pacifiers on cable (Disney, Cartoon Network and Nick) I'd get rid of cable altogether. But one (or both) of my kids would kill me in my sleep if I did that.

I watch it on HDNet, where it looks far better than it ever would on standard-def DVD.

I make a point to watch shows that have uncertain futures like Arrested Development and Battlestar Galactica.

HBO shows are another matter. I will never subscribe since I can just buy entire seasons. I made an attempt to keep up with the Sopranos this past season, but it became a pain to drive 20 minutes to my friend's house every Sunday. Also, I discovered the show on dvd, so I was unable to adjust from watching an episode whenever I felt like it to waiting a week for each installment.

It used to be The Simpsons that kept me going, but since they're getting to the really good seasons on DVD (and the new seasons on TV are getting progressively worse), The Simpsons have taken a backseat to what I think is the greatest show to be on television in the last 10 years, possibly ever. That show is Arrested Development, and the day that I hear it's cancelled, so is my cable.

Cable
 

I've thought about getting rid of cable but I like my CNN Headline News and Sci-Fi Channel.

never? in your entire life? i find that very hard to believe.
how do you know what's going on with the world?

SCI FI has ordered a second season of its hit series Battlestar Galactica, which has aired five episodes of its first season of 13 episodes. Details of the renewal—including which cast members will return, how many episodes will be produced and when the second season will commence—were still being worked out.

Battlestar Galactica has been a ratings winner for SCI FI since its Jan. 14 premiere. The latest episode, Feb. 4's "You Can't Go Home Again," scored the show's best ratings yet, with 3.2 million viewers.

For the show's second season, creator and executive producer Ronald D. Moore said he has already been working on as many as six new scripts to resolve the multiple cliffhangers that will end season one. Moore added that he wants to delve deeper into the show's religious themes and open up the Cylon world a bit more in the coming season.

id say i lost interest in tv, about 95% of the time when im watching tv its because a dvd is in play.

I've lost interest in TV because FRIENDS was brought to an end last year, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE has been cancelled (bastards) and EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND is finishing up its lengthy run in May...what the hell is left? Quality TV is officially dead to me now...

I have basic cable and still watch as much TV as ever. I record virtually everything I watch on my DVD recorders, so I can fast forward through all the commercials. Saves a lot of time. I'll "chase play" on something like "Lost" that I want to see immediately.

I'm a stickler for watching any show from the very first episode, so in the event I become interested in a show late through word of mouth, I will wait for the DVD release. And of course, that's my only option for the shows on pay stations.

While I'm always trying to catch up on my huge backlog of DVD movies, I find myself gravitating toward watching the TV shows off my recorder first, as it takes more of a settled-down mindset to put a movie on. Sometimes, I just can't decide on a movie, so end up watching a TV show instead.

If I have a two-hour block available in the evenings, there's no contest, in goes the DVD... some evenings when I only have 30 minutes or a hour to waste, I'll flip through the DirecTV channels, usually end up watching a history or military documentary or something similar. My wife watches cable on a little TV in the bedroom for a few hours a week, just to catch Gilmore Girls, Chasing Amy and ER every week.

I've never really been a big TV watcher. Working night shift from 1978 till 1990, late night TV wasn't much to get excited about. When the internet came along I became even less of one. When DVD came along I actually started watching TV a bit more, and now that I own an HDTV I watch more of it than I have in many years, though haphardly.....the networks only for ball games and cable for movies and specials.

Usually when a DVD release of a show I havn't seen comes out, my tivo log gets a little backup (like right now the only tv show i've watched on tv in the last 2 weeks was the gilmore 100 due to charmed season 1 & wonderfalls)

I haven't watched television since Tour of Duty when off the air in the late 80s. If I'm not watching a dvd, then the tv is off. We don't even get broadcast tv, so all the tv would show is a blue screen or static.

Most tv is so awful that it causes me pain, and the stuff that is worth watching will show up on dvd at some point. I have to admit, I'm baffled at some folks' tv-on-dvd viewing habits. It's hard for me to believe that anyone cares about Sanford and Son or Dukes of Hazzard enough to buy season sets.