I've got both some good news and bad news too, when it comes to my TV: The good news: I finally cut the cord and got rid of my DISH, this move will save me $110.00/month by doing this. I just got tired of being gouged by TV providers for a 300+ channel package when it ends up in me only watching 5-10 of them, and with my trust fund running low on money, this was a great move on my part. My financial coach over at Skookum Contract Services here in Port Townsend, Robin Burdick, is trying to get me to live on a strict $20 in gas/$40 on groceries per week and to save the rest, I hope you guys will be OK with that. Bad news now: By cutting the cord I no longer have any TV, but it really doesn't matter even though I will be missing out on Arsenal matches as well as any LA Kings or The Oakland Raiders games on TV, but, I DO have a DVD and CD collection of movies, shows and music, this includes all of my select VHS-to-DVD-R and CD-R transfers and my Atari 5200 and the 2600 adapter and my Harmony Encore 2600 and Atarimax 5200 SD-card multicarts for both that I can always go to if I ever wanted to play a game or watch something, at least I get to pick and choose what shows and movies I watch and what music I listen to, and what game I play from my over 650-titles for my 2600 and over 250 titles for the 5200. Another thing, ever since Alice left last year, the only shows I ever watch on TV are KING 5 News, and the three sports teams mentioned earlier, and I still have my internet to enjoy things on as well. I even might have plans to get a Roku box as I have one eyed up on eBay and then I'll explore my options after that. Thanks guys, Ray Jackson
So sorry to hear that man. Didn't know about your lady having left. Hang in there. Maybe you can take solace in having already survived quite a few serious curve balls that were thrown at you along the way. As for being able to watch sports live, including Arsenal, you should be able to watch at least some of that legally by streaming. Either direct to your computer or with a Roku. Rokus are pretty cheap and work well. And AFAIK, even without your old Dish subscription you are entitled to watch stuff that is broadcast to the main NBC channel and other traditional over-the-air channels. I know you have been reluctant to stream in the past, after you got infected from copious steaming of Wolfsburg years ago. But if you keep your streaming to official sources/providers like NBC, you should be safe. Also, don't forget that you can watch publicly available NBC match highlights of Arsenal, shortly after the match ends. For example in a week's time, you'd just type into Google "Sheffield United vs Arsenal" and the top link will likely be NBC's nifty extended highlights... usually 8-12mins worth. Last but not least, to do all of this you have to have some minimum Internet speed/bandwidth. If you have the lower-speed DSL ("phone company Internet") it might be a little painful/choppy. The only way to know how good or bad it'll be is to just try. Hope that helped a little. Good luck!
As painful as they are, these are the right priorities to have, Ray. Hopefully things improve soon and you start to return to some "fun" splurges in the not-too-distant future.
I HAVE been eyeing up a Roku box on eBay for quite some time, and it won't be long before I'm back to watching my Gunners tear it up on the pitch. https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Sealed...-HDMI-Composite-Video-RCA-Output/312533066508
You can get a Roku stick for much cheaper than that. New ones are $27? That's what I did. Even cheaper in eBay. Edit: oh but if your TV is older and you need composite connectors then I see why you'd be looking at that other one. However I think there's another cheaper model with composite video... the Express+?
Nah, but it is always nice to have options, as it also has the modern HDMI connector as well I just wanted something I could be proud to put on my home theater shelf alongside my Atari Flashback 9, my Lonpoo LP-099 worldwide DVD player (I highly recommend you get one @NorthBank if you want to watch "89" on DVD only available in Region 2 PAL but it will play it even here on US TVs) and my HD Media Player I picked up out of China on eBay that even plays MP4 videos (such as ones downloaded off of YouTube/Dailymotion/Vimeo, etc.) without a hitch. and also by it having composite video I avoid the anti-copy guard with the HDMI jack (most HDMI gear is HDCP-2-compliant, HDCP-2 is that infamous anti-copy encryption that is on mostly every HDMI port to prevent recording, such BS), so I can hook it up to my DVD recorder to archive things if I have too
I added a comment to my previous post about the Express+ which seems to have composite out, and is only like $40 new.