larry@ihuxf.UUCP (08/02/83)
Cable TV is just being installed at the apartment complex where I live. Being the video junkie that I am, I can hardly wait to get the three movie channels (HBO, Cinimax, and Showtime) plus all the other assorted goodies. The question I have is: How to does one figure out WHEN to watch all these programs??? At first I sat down with the cable guide and a yellow high-lighter and started marking the movies that I wanted to see on the day-by-day schedule. This turned out to be rather time consuming and not very accurate, as I had to keep flipping around thru the movie descriptions to if "Not Over" (for example) was one of the movies I did want to see. My next approach was to start at the movie descriptions (which gives the DAY it plays but not time) and then the time slot in the day-by-day listings. Perhaps because I was already tired, this didn't seem to good either, as it was hard to scan thru the days listing of movies and try to spot all occurances of the name I wanted. Does anybody have any suggestions? I do have a VCR so I can ``time-warp'' and watch some of the movies at a different time, but surely there must be some intellegent way of figuring out what day to watch a list of movies (that is why tape a movie at 4am if it plays the next day at 7pm --or-- what if it never plays at a reasonable time, then I MUST record it) Am I being to much of a fanatic about this? Do most people just sit down and look at what's playing TONITE and then make their decision?? ----- Speaking of cable, I've initially taken all three of the movie channels, if you now have cable, which do you take?? Why? So far the three all seem to have *about* the same movies, but having all three would seem to maximize the chance of viewing at a ``good'' time (not to mention one more channnel to watch and one less chance of a boring nite of tv!) -- Larry Marek ihnp4!ihuxf!larry
dce@tekecs.UUCP (David Elliott) (08/04/83)
I get home at 3:30 pm, which is a good time for cable TV watching, if there is anything on at the time. The problem is that there is only one good week of cable viewing in any month; the first week. I get HBO, Showtime, and the Movie Channel. All three have basically the same movies, but HBO and Showtime have some special shows that are not on the other two pay movie stations. I hate this and I am going to get rid of at least one of the extra channels. What really gets me mad about the stations is that on certain nights, you can watch the same movie on all three channels at the same time, though you get to see different parts (HBO : Rocky vs Mr T first time, SHOWTIME : Rocky training for second fight with Mr T, Movie Channel : Rocky vs Mr T second time). I would like to see movie networks that specialize. For example : The Comedy Channel, The Science Fiction Channel, The Love Channel, The Stupid Teenager Sex Channel, The Kiddie Channel (my personal favorite), and The Blockbuster Hits Channel. At least that way, I wouldn't have to buy what I would never watch, and I would not be at the mercy of the cable companies (I know, no body is holding a gun to my head to make me subscribe, but I pay the same amount each month, and out of the last six months there have been a couple of really good months, a couple of OK months, and a couple of really bad months, but not in any kind of pattern I can see. I would understand if the quality had gone down each month due to the summer months when people watch less TV (?), but this month seems better than most to me, even if one of the channels is showing "The Best of ... Storybook Romances".) David