TV is Dead

Good news! TV is dead! Don't throw out your big flat screen just yet. You may not have realized it yet but TV as you have grown to know and love is about to become history. So are television stations. Don't believe it then read on and examine the facts. First we start with hardware and move on to programming.

I don't watch TV anymore. It's not that I don't like to watch TV, I just don't need to turn on a device that is extremely limited in what it can do compared to what else I have available. The alternative is, as you have probably already guessed, is your computer. I have been down with the TV for about 2 years now. The cable company let me keep my basic cable for free on top of my high-speed Internet account, but I never watch it.

To use your computer as a replacement of your TV you must have a decent high-speed Internet connection and a fast enough computer. More memory and a better than normal video card is helpful. Another good thing with technologies catching up together is the big flat screen TV's being sold today are usually capable of connecting to your computer with VGA and DVI connections being the most common. Things that make the experience even more up to date is a wireless mouse and keyboard. Wireless headphones connected to your high-dollar stereo in surround sound would also be nice.

Without programming all the hardware in the world would be useless for replacing your TV. Without some sort of conventional TV programming such as Satellite TV, Cable TV or DTV from the air, via an antenna, we could still call this a TV. Without the TV programming connected the screen becomes a computer monitor. You can now do what you may already be doing on the Internet. The browser is quickly becoming the only thing you need to load on your computer for entertainment purposes saved for some MP3, camera, device oriented programs. Even those will eventually move to the browser.

Conventional TV programming shows such as sitcoms and series shows are available on a massive scale for free. One of the best sites is Hulu. Hulu has more movies and shows than you could ever watch in a lifetime and they add more all the time. Granted, if there is a certain show or movie you want to see then it may not be there. Consider that if you watching conventional TV would it be there? Sometime in the near future you will see sports programming move to the Internet. I don't watch sports, so that doesn't bother me. At least , with the Internet, shows are sitting there for your picking. It's like built-in DVR. On most sites when you watch a show and go out of it in the middle it will remember where you are. There are other programming sites, most contain the same programming but less of it.

Youtube.com is also a good site. You can get mega-versions of almost every song and music video ever made, even the newest stuff. The great thing about viewing all your programming this way you are in total control. No longer are you tied to rushing home to watch the latest Twentysixmiles episode. I watched all of the 24 (TV Show) episodes the day after they view on Fox network. I could have watched them on the basic cable the day before, but I am now in control and would rather wait if necessary so I can incorporate it into my schedule as I see fit. There are many sites I don't use or know about yet that may be better suited for what you are looking for.

Using you computer in this way becomes a way of life. I can write this article and with a click or two of the mouse move to a browser and do anything I want on the Internet. I didn't really have to leave the browser to write this document if I really wanted to. With my Google account I can check my email, write documents, create spreadsheets and store the files on their site, also for free. They give you tons of storage. You can upload documents and pictures and let whoever you want on your email list to look at them from their computer and they don't have to have a Google account. Yahoo is by far the best site for about everything including finance, news, weather, etc.

In this new reality TV stations are at risk of becoming extinct or at best less important. What would be the use to transmit programming that is already available on the Internet? The only reason will be so people with the old style TV's can get programming. The same can be said about the satellite and cable companies. As people catch up with technology it will reach a point that it won't be profitable to operate TV stations. Cable TV companies will become Internet providers. Satellite companies will disappear since they have no competitive solution to provide Internet service.

The best thing about using all of this technology is less cost. Things have come full circle with TV programming. It use to be free until cable came along. Now programming is free again. The cable company just gave me a free digital converter box (with remote) where I get free movies and music. They want me to use the pay per view feature but as soon as the cable guy left I unplugged it. I only got it because that it was free with my Internet connection. Maybe in the future we will be able to get free wireless Internet, it is already there in some places. Don't you just love technology?