Also in Salon (or "on" — I can never decide which preposition I prefer), a brief guide to getting TV without paying for cable. As I detail in my mildly indulgent intro, my family and I have been doing thusly since we moved last spring. I'd been boiling over Comcast's obscene rates for some time — upwards of $100 a month for basic cable with digital and high-def add-ons and a DVR "rental" — and the specter of inviting them to drill holes in our brand-new walls was more than I could bear. Combined with the (then-)upcoming digital transition, which promised over-the-air HD broadcast and the arrival of the (now-discontinued) DTVPal DVR, that was all we needed; as long as we could get Lost in widescreen and hear that 24 "whoosh" in surround sound, paying a la carte for the rest didn't seem so bad. (The latter, incidentally, is what sold my initially skeptical wife on our flatscreen in the first place. 42 inches of plasma TV seemed like an absurd luxury until the added thrill of high-def Jack Bauer kicked in.) It's not an easy process, as some commenters have been quick to point out, but it's not as complicated as you might think. I've been surprised at how little my otherwise much smarter-than-me friends know about alternatives to cable and satellite, taking advantage of which only gets easier as new TVs and DVD players come with built-in tuners and internet capabilities. There are some up-front costs, and a significant investment in time, to be paid up front, but once you've got it humming, there's a special thrill in watching CSI: Miami in all its glorious absurdity while silently telling your former cable provider to go fuck themselves with each indrawn breath. Or maybe that's just me.
