Important to have a TV during residency?

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javjo

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I'm going to be leaving my son and wife as I venture off into Psych intern year this summer. I'll be in my own apartment and will be busy, but on my time off, I was wondering if I should invest in a TV. I'm kind of spending a lot of money on the commuting and move in general. I only really watch TV for news anyways. Is there any type of Netflix or subscription you guys recommend getting?

I think it's important to have an outlet everyday. I know I'm gonna be limited in my time as I'll be skyping, exercising, and cooking but I think it would be nice to have something at least.
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javjo said:
I'm going to be leaving my son and wife as I venture off into Psych intern year this summer. I'll be in my own apartment and will be busy, but on my time off, I was wondering if I should invest in a TV. I'm kind of spending a lot of money on the commuting and move in general. I only really watch TV for news anyways. Is there any type of Netflix or subscription you guys recommend getting?

I think it's important to have an outlet everyday. I know I'm gonna be limited in my time as I'll be skyping, exercising, and cooking but I think it would be nice to have something at least.
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I did not have a TV during residency, and did not get one even after I graduated. I watched a lot of Hulu and torrented some things (like Archer). I got my news by reading online newspapers each day. I haven't really felt the need to have a TV and don't miss having one.
 
I agree. I'm living apart from my husband during residency and originally didn't have a TV, and it honestly got kind of depressing at night being so quiet. I like having some kind of background noise as I'm doing notes or whatever. If you don't want to shell out the $ for cable, I'd definitely recommend Netflix and Hulu.
Edit: and/or HBONow for Game of Thrones!
 
Slingbox, Hulu, Netflix, Crackle, Amazon Prime, HDTV antenna, etc.
 
javjo said:
I'm going to be leaving my son and wife as I venture off into Psych intern year this summer. I'll be in my own apartment and will be busy, but on my time off, I was wondering if I should invest in a TV. I'm kind of spending a lot of money on the commuting and move in general. I only really watch TV for news anyways. Is there any type of Netflix or subscription you guys recommend getting?

I think it's important to have an outlet everyday. I know I'm gonna be limited in my time as I'll be skyping, exercising, and cooking but I think it would be nice to have something at least.
Click to expand...

You can always get a small, cheap tv for around $100 if you really want one.
 
I dont know if your question is for tv or cable....

I have a 42" I got for $400 years ago, I hooked up my desktop to it as the monitor (and I have a wireless mouse and keyboard that work great on the living room table), great way to listen to my dl'd music & videos, and made watching Netflix waaaaay better than on a laptop, can listen to Pandora that way, Youtube vids, lots of websites offer their shows for free for a certain time after airing, like Supernatural and The Walking Dead. If someone wants to bring over a DVD to watch or Redbox it up....

I only pay for high speed internet and Netflix
I pay for a VPN so I can download things.... I'm probably not supposed to download
I watch any and everything I want and all ad free

anyway, any computer needs a monitor, mine is just all purpose and huge!

if I pre-round in the am from home it's actually really nice for looking at xrays, EKGs, tele, and I can have a lot of workspace starting notes
 
News and netflix come from my laptop or tablet. I haven't owned a television that functioned as a television in almost 20 years. They are absolutely not necessities of life.

There have been times that I did miss being able to keep up with an interesting show while it is on the air, but if it really matters, there are generally ways to do that online these days, and for way cheaper than paying for cable.
 
The biggest thing you might need a tv and subscription to services would be for sports if you're into that. That's about the one thing you can't get live from other sources for the most part.
 
guess it depends on how large a screen you want to look at

if you're happy with a tablet, more power to you I guess

I think it's nice if you want to have someone over to have something for a movie personally
 
I bought a huge flatscreen intern year. Never turned it on. It sat there like the monolith from 2001 a space odyssey.
 
I'm not a resident, but I can share with you what I do since I don't own a tv. I do own a monitor (24") though and then bought chromecast for like $30. Basically you can find all shows (or movies) on online streaming sites (no downloading or torrenting involved) and even current shows, they'll be posted online within a half hour of airing on tv. So I usually just use my iPad (can use phone though) to stream to my monitor via chromecast using an app called Rocket (no buffering)...I also have speakers plugged into my monitor. This set-up surprisingly doesn't drain much battery from my iPad. Downside is you can't watch live tv (like sports), but I don't really watch sports, so it's not an issue...if you like news, there is a cool app called Haystack that shows clips (3-6min long) on different segments from various sources and you can choose topics that you're interested in so it's more of a customized feed. I usually do that mixed with reading news online. Hope this helps! Good luck with your intern year!
 
I don't think anyone needs a TV, much less a resident working 80 hours per week who is living apart from his family. I didn't have one in residency, and I only have one now because I got tired of listening to my parents gripe about how they had no TV to watch when they came to visit me. (Why they have to watch TV at my house when they watch it nonstop at their own continues to baffle me, but that's just them.) When they're not here, it gets used primarily as a laundry drying rack.

You want to watch the news? Go to the gym and watch the news there while doing some cardio. Regular exercise is a way better "outlet" during residency than watching TV is.
 
There are an ever increasing number of cord cutters out there.

Between Netflix and Amazon Pri.r you don't really need a cable TV subscription.

You will need some good high speed internet without a monthly data cap.

If you have a cable TV subscription at home, a slingbox is a good choice.

Otherwise I wouldn't waste your money on a TV.
 
We have satellite TV because our building has some group deal that the homeowners association negotiated, but it requires everyone to get it. It is a ridiculous expense that I wish we didn't have, but since we have it, I bought a reasonable LCD TV, can't remember the size, probably in the 44" range.
 
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