We have a bedroom in our house that is used as a computer room/office/library so we bought a used projector for $400 (only 2 years old), an older 5.1 surround sound system for about $100, and I built a screen out of white blackout cloth and black velvet with a pine frame for under $20. Went out and got a couch (thanks to the craigslist FREE section!) and spent around $100 in micro suede fabric (on sale of course) and reupholstered it and put nice new wood feet on it. Some short curtains ($10 in fabric always on sale!) in front of the screen gave it a finishing touch. Threw our old TV away and haven’t missed it.

So we upgraded (took around 6-7 months to buy/fix/build all of it) for around $600 including furniture.

We also stopped watching cable (although we still have it, since Comcast would jack up our ‘net rate without and we’d be paying the same anyway) but seeing commercials on a big screen is pretty depressing, so we end up watching Netflix DVDs, Netflix WatchNow (projector is wired to the computer as well), and our DVD collection. Its really curbed our watching time. Quality over quantity.

You can have an impressive system. It won’t be state of the art, and it may take time and creativity, but it won’t cost you thousands of dollars either!

With that little story, I find it easy to not have a TV. While I do watch a few TV shows via bittorrent, I limit myself to only 2 or 3 shows (LOST, Heroes, Prison Break). Also, having the lowest Netflix (1 at a time, unlimited) keeps me from watching too many movies. It is all about self-control and how much control you want to put on yourself…

A VCR being as good as a DVR is like saying a your 1998 computer is as good as a new one today. They’ll both get the job done, but one does it so much better than the other that it’s just not worthwhile to waste your time the old way. You can obviously live without either. Also studies show that people with DVRs watch less TV. It’s almost like a TV diet… you consume more quality and it means that you desire less quantity. It’s the same way with your cheat foods on a diet. You consume a little of the foods you like and you don’t end up gorging on a variety of foods that aren’t quite as desirable.

Radio Shack has a very good return policy unless they’ve changed it recently… It should allow for “testing.” I bought a $20 one at Wal-Mart for “testing” and it didn’t work well (I think because I went cheap). I may try to test a better version of theirs, but I will return the old one.

Shawn: Tivo is a glorified VCR. I do agree it makes viewing and re-viewing convenient, but I don’t agree that you can’t live without a Tivo. A VCR is an adequate substitute. And in my case, I want to watch LESS TV, not more, so to have a Tivo is to just support a bad habit.

Also, I have thought about an HD antenna. I purchased 2 regular antennas (different brands) but neither got good reception in our TV room. The $50 price tag on the HD antenna at Radio Shack was a bit high for just testing.