I wound up canceling my Amazon Prime account and getting a refund. My internet comes from my cell phone (no DSL and no cable here) and I have a 12 GB/month data limit ($10/GB when I go over). And if I stream videos from Amazon Prime, I WILL go over (17 GB in one month, and I was at about 6 GB with 4 days left in the month before I started streaming). When I did stream, it was through my Nintendo Wii (only device I have hooked up to my TV that I can also get to talk to the Internet) at 480p resolution.
I was going to keep my AP account for the free shipping, but I ran into a problem there, too. Amazon Prime only gives you free 2-day shipping if you ship to a physical address. If you use a PO Box, you can't use the free 2-day shipping. If you put in a physical address, you can use the free 2-day shipping, but Amazon will ship it using whatever carrier they want, which can include USPS. USPS will not deliver to our physical address (unless we pay extra, and we're already paying them for a PO Box), so Amazon's free 2-day shipping became a "2-day shipping, but you might not actually get it" proposition. At that point, the only thing Amazon Prime was getting me was "you can order stuff with Free Super Saver shipping without having to order $35 worth of stuff to qualify for it", which just wasn't enough to justify the $79 I paid for it (before the rate hike).
You can make your own HDTV antenna for amazingly cheap, and it will be better than most of them you can buy in the store. Here is a PDF file that shows you how. We had better luck using a 7" spacing instead of the 5 3/4" spacing they used in the PDF, but the 5 3/4" spacing did work. We also didn't make a stand for ours. Mine is standing on top of a dresser leaning up against my old CRT TV. I think my parents have theirs sitting in the floor in a corner.
I was going to keep my AP account for the free shipping, but I ran into a problem there, too. Amazon Prime only gives you free 2-day shipping if you ship to a physical address. If you use a PO Box, you can't use the free 2-day shipping. If you put in a physical address, you can use the free 2-day shipping, but Amazon will ship it using whatever carrier they want, which can include USPS. USPS will not deliver to our physical address (unless we pay extra, and we're already paying them for a PO Box), so Amazon's free 2-day shipping became a "2-day shipping, but you might not actually get it" proposition. At that point, the only thing Amazon Prime was getting me was "you can order stuff with Free Super Saver shipping without having to order $35 worth of stuff to qualify for it", which just wasn't enough to justify the $79 I paid for it (before the rate hike).
You can make your own HDTV antenna for amazingly cheap, and it will be better than most of them you can buy in the store. Here is a PDF file that shows you how. We had better luck using a 7" spacing instead of the 5 3/4" spacing they used in the PDF, but the 5 3/4" spacing did work. We also didn't make a stand for ours. Mine is standing on top of a dresser leaning up against my old CRT TV. I think my parents have theirs sitting in the floor in a corner.
