Here's a "Talk About Anything" thread

[D&D Farm]

We have Dish, Netflix, and Amazon Prime...........The Dish has been OK and with several calls out to move our dish or replace them over the past years I can't really complain......When they come out they often replace the remote and or recievers with newer models. We watch a lot of movies most nights on Netflix and Amazon seems to have newer ones and many HBO and Showtime series like 24 hours, Boardwalk, The Soprano's and currently the Americans........We watch those series things at supper and get hooked on them for sure........The Prime comes "free" with our Amazon "free shipping" Prime that I use a LOT for a starting point for most of my shopping now adays........

I do like the Netflix and Amazon for travel. A couple of times a month I end up in Nashville or Murfreesboro due to the VA. In the hotel or waiting it's great to hook up to their network and watch a movie as I never can figure out where the channels are and get tired of going through then endless parade of commercials trying to find Fox News or Discovery..........
I read to put myself to sleep or when I wake up in the middle of the night, do my bathroom act and then cant go back to sleep.......Got my wife one of those Amazon Kindle things a few years ago and now for Christmas or such I get her an "unlimited" package......I discovered a few months ago that I can use MY Amazon account to get books to read on my tablet or even the phone. They have LOTS of free books to download and MANY for like 99 cents or so.......Anyway, for me, it works.........

 

[Doc]

Good idea Dennis. I have Amazon Prime but never have watched their TV offerings. I had Netflix and canceled it when the price when up last spring since I rarely watched anything on there.

I had not even considered using either of those when in a hotel. Like you said once you are used to a DVR watching regular TV without any idea of what channel is what is worthless. Netflix or Amazon Prime would be perfect for those occasions. Do you take a HDMI cable and hook it to the TV or just watch on your laptop? I will take advantage of this my next trip for sure.

 

[bordercollie]

Never had DirecTV but have heard plenty of horror stories.

I do have a Roku and really like it. As for changing the resolution, I've only been able to do it when I sign-in using a computer (Can't set it on the TV/Roku itself). Be careful using the highest resolution. As I recall, it can burn through 3 gigs of memory watching a 2-hour movie. You may want to check with your ISP to see how many gig you get per month before they start charging you. When we got the Roku and Xbox, we definitely had to upgrade our data. We now have a 500 gig/month plan and even with that, sometimes we need to buy more for the month.

Thanks ya'll.I am keeping an eye on it for sure. Bil has a huge package with att but I will still be carefu. According to a notice we got in May, even a gigantic package is reasonable. I can look that up if you want to know exactly though. I agree it is impossible to even think about this if you are on a cell plan.
OK, if you need to delete this moderator please feel free to.. To see the bandwidth options on your r oku, turn on r oku, put on the home page , then wait just a second: Then hit the home button 5 times, quickly hit rewind button 3 times, quickly hit forward button 2 x. then a screen should pop up to pick from. do this all fast and remember it has to be done again if the roku is turned off. It has worked with both my roku 3 and sis's roku 3. I make sure that I put roku on home before the tv is off so I will know that it isn't playing a show anymore.
I don't see why the designers don't make this easier to adjust and stay permanent till changed by owner.. It would make the difference on a purchase of one to a lot of us. and why is it a "secret?" collie

 

[ovrszd]

Usually secrets are to hide the complete truth.

 

[bordercollie]

Dennis, if you choose the slow ship on prime, sometimes you get a dollar digital credit for books etc .. and you can collect them for several months before the expire. I have gotten quite a few free books that way.

 

[D&D Farm]

Dennis, if you choose the slow ship on prime, sometimes you get a dollar digital credit for books etc .. and you can collect them for several months before the expire. I have gotten quite a few free books that way.

Thanks for the idea........I usually just ship the "free" way and don't even check out the options......Gotta open my eyes a little wider I guess. One could easily log up MANY dollars in the coming months with Christmas and all......THANKS.......God bless.......

 

[D&D Farm]

Good idea Dennis. I have Amazon Prime but never have watched their TV offerings.

It costs NOTHING if you have Prime. Just click on it in your "EXTRAS" channel on your remote or whatever and I bet there is Amazon. Go through the register BS and there you are.......It is different from Netflix in a lot of ways but sometimes difference is good.......



I had not even considered using either of those when in a hotel. Like you said once you are used to a DVR watching regular TV without any idea of what channel is what is worthless. Netflix or Amazon Prime would be perfect for those occasions. Do you take a HDMI cable and hook it to the TV or just watch on your laptop? I will take advantage of this my next trip for sure.

Most often, I watch it on my Microsoft PRO 3 tablet which has a decent size screen......Your idea of playing it on the TV is good as one can purchase a gizmo that whatever is on your screen on the tablet can/will be on the TV. I think the audio goes over there also through the cable..........For audio I use my hearing aids that have a blue tooth connection with the tablet/laptop or one can get better audio with headsets of course..........

 

[bordercollie]

OK, if you need to delete this moderator please feel free to.. To see the bandwidth options on your r oku, turn on r oku, put on the home page , then wait just a second: Then hit the home button 5 times, quickly hit rewind button 3 times, quickly hit forward button 2 x. then a screen should pop up to pick from. do this all fast and remember it has to be done again if the roku is turned off. collie

I have had the roku revert to HD without being turned off so be sure to check that it is adjusting the bandwidth as you asked. collie
Dennis you would't believe how much I have saved using that feature and sometimes they off you a free prime pantry shipping .
edit: I also found this : http://help.sling.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/How-do-I-set-up-bandwidth-controls-on-my-Roku

 

[rlk]

I have decided to ditch direct tv. I will be dropping the hammer in a week or so- The thing that broke the camel's back was when I was asking for a standard receiver to replace one damaged by the lightening. The csr insisted I had a wiring problem even though I told him the receiver that had been on a coax surge protector worked fine when I tried it in that room. I told him I had put my system in 22 years ago and that the damaged receiver had been in service 8 years Then I mentioned how much I had been paying a year lease on it x 8 years. He argued with me about that too. . He was insisting I pay for a service call . I said to just cut that one off and I save the extra $7 a month. He said fine.. I said ha.
I had already streamlined my dtv bill down the first of the year. This smart alac, eating while talking to me, made me start thinking about it...

Collie, I had an almost identical experience as yours a few weeks ago. The CSR insisted I had a wiring problem even though I kept telling him when I take the DTV receiver box from another room and move it to my office everything works. He kept insisting it was a wiring problem and my switching the boxes did not matter.

He also wanted to charge me for a service call but I refused. He eventually agreed to forgive the service call.

After talking to the CSR for close to an hour and getting nowhere, I demanded to speak to a supervisor. It took about 10 minutes but finally a supervisor talked to me. After explaining my problem, he agreed it was a bad box and one would be delivered to me the next day by a technician.

The next day I waited and waited. I kept getting text messages telling me to hold on that the technician was running late. Around 4:00 pm, I checked DTV's web site and saw my appointment had been moved to the next week. Of course this was done without my knowledge.

I called the supervisor back and explained that I had been a customer since 1995 and did not appreciate being treated like this. He checked the files and saw the appointment was rescheduled with no notes. He apologized repeatedly and told me this was unacceptable and would guarantee a new box would be delivered the next day. I wanted one that night but he insisted they did not have "emergency deliveries".

The next morning a technician showed up with a new box. He was a contractor to DTV and laughed at the problems I had - he had heard my story many times before.

He replaced the box and was gone within 15 minutes.

The supervisor called me back that afternoon to see if my service had been restored. I appreciated that even though I felt I had been treated very badly, especially after being a customer since 1995.

I think since ATT bought DTV, DTV's customer service has deteriorated to the level of ATT's, which, in my opinion, has always been horrible.

I was hoping to get a customer survey from DTV, but no such luck.

When a company is as large as ATT, I guess they don't have to worry about customer service.

Bob

 

[bordercollie]

Thanks for the comment Rlk, I think you are right about the change - but I have seen it slowly happening on the past years. I rarely have called them -except for when someone in another state and with another phone number (they said) charged a movie to me. I had that part password protected after the same thing happened many years ago. How it happened, I don't know...
It was probably 6 years ago that I got a package in May filled with popcorn etc to celebrate their anniversary. That didn't happen anymore but my bill kept going way up..
Unfortunately, this csr guy wanted to be the "chief" and also unfortunately , I didn't ask for a supervisor. He even used the "argumentative" word with me.. I wasn't impressed. I did do a "chat complaint" but that was only because I was on hold too long.- It didn't go far, I am sure.
I have to admit that I am going to miss the convenience of flipping through channels to see what is on but hopefully Sling will improve that part -maybe..if not I will still be saving $40 a month and having the channels I normally watch anyway. I think hard times are just about to be here and that I need to be more prepared so conserve and buy dried beans etc.. LOL. Thanks again, bordercollie

 

[squerly]

I was hoping to get a customer survey from DTV, but no such luck.Bob

The problem with customer survey's anymore is that you're not speaking to a real person, but instead you get to select from a series of ambiguous questions that you rate between 1-5.

i.e. Do you find XYZ's programming to be on par with the competitions?

() not true
() sort of true
() possibly false
() absolutely false
() not sure

All of which is BS because the reason you agreed to participate in the survey was because you wanted to tell a "live person" that you're still waiting on the arrival of a promised refund. That the CSR couldn't find any reference to your previous calls, and if the refund doesn't arrive soon you're canceling your service.

I think hard times are just about to be here and that I need to be more prepared so conserve and buy dried beans etc.. LOL.

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[bczoom]

Awfully quiet on the forum today so let's talk about anything.

I bought a new Silverado truck a couple days ago. I thought I wanted a dressed out version (High Country or LTZ) but after sitting in them and looking at the options, I kept going down a level. I ended up 1 step above work truck and that thing still has more "stuff" in it than I'll ever use.

There's a button on the steering wheel basically saying "talk". You then just say what you want from the truck. It could be calling someone or turn on the stereo and go to a certain station or whatever. It has dash readings for the tire pressure at each tire. How much is just too much???? And this is the LT model which I thought was the stripped down model.

The salesman told me to be careful using the "accessory" setting on the key. He said that it fires up so many computers that it may kill your battery in 20 minutes if you don't turn the engine on for the alternator to come into play.

All that said, it is a sweet truck. It's quiet, comfortable and behaves on back roads (my old GMC bounced all over the back roads).

 

[ovrszd]

Congrats on the new truck!!! Of course without pictures it didn't happen!!!!

 

[avantiguy]

My brother showed up monday with a new (2016) Silverado 4X4 LT. Very nice truck and extremely quiet on the road. Probably about what you have options wise. It's a long way from my old 2000 Silverado but I probably wouldn't trade my 14 Ram Hemi for it.

Congrats on yours and I believe the power draw comments as everything in these new vehicles is controlled by computers.

 

[OrangeBuggy]

Congrats.

 

[bczoom]

My brother showed up monday with a new (2016) Silverado 4X4 LT. Very nice truck and extremely quiet on the road. Probably about what you have options wise.

Yes, mine is the 4x4 LT. Mine has the All-Star package, Chevy's version of WeatherTeck floor liners, mud flaps and bed liner. I'll be adding a tonneau cover, seat covers and a few small things.

 

[thunderdome]

Way to go on the new truck!

 

[bordercollie]

You will love it. My bil says his rides better than the car he once loved. collie

 

[bordercollie]

Painting

As some of you know, I have been trying to stay ahead on the old home place in se Ark but it ain't easy. I've been going over every few weeks to mow and prep.. scrape , prime and paint and now summer is about gone. Sad about that but that is the way it is. This is my project, my little getaway. I once got really discouraged about all of it going to pot right before my eyes. Then a thought was injected into my dispairing mind. "do 10 ft at a time and it will get done it -will take a while but it will get done". "So get up and get started." Here it is, and it is getting done thanks to the Lord. bordercollie

 

[shinnery]

I guess I will have to keep my payments. $00.00
1989 Mercedes Benz 300TE
1992 Dodge D250 CTD auto
1996 Dodge 2500 V10 auto ClubCab
1996 Dodge 2500 V10 5-sp 4x4 ClubCab
1998.5 Dodge 3500 24V CTD 5-sp QuadCab
2004 Dodge Intrepid 3.5L police pkg.
Both the '96s and the Intrepid are still well under 100k mi,
Bryce