Cutting the Cable
This is something I've been considering for several months now: dumping satellite/cable television in favor of streaming options. It's absolutely criminal what sat/cable companies get away with charging for their services. Were I single, I'd have dropped it long ago as I have no use for television outside of the occasional football game. The better half, however, will not be happy if she can't get her daily cop show fix.
We already have Netflix streamed to the television and my early investigations reveal that most current network content is available via Hulu Plus. Of course, all major network content is available over-the-air if I want to throw up an antenna...
My question for you Apathetics is this: have any of you kicked the sat/cable leeches to the curb and built a dedicated entertainment PC to consolidate streaming/over-the-air services? And if so, are you happy with the result, (and more importantly, is the Queen of the Castle happy?)
We already have Netflix streamed to the television and my early investigations reveal that most current network content is available via Hulu Plus. Of course, all major network content is available over-the-air if I want to throw up an antenna...
My question for you Apathetics is this: have any of you kicked the sat/cable leeches to the curb and built a dedicated entertainment PC to consolidate streaming/over-the-air services? And if so, are you happy with the result, (and more importantly, is the Queen of the Castle happy?)
posted by Jar(egg)head at 16:09
6 Comments:
I did it 2 years ago, I'm NEVER going back.
Look into mythbuntu (http://www.mythbuntu.org/). You can record your OTA stuff in HD, pause live TV and play downloaded videos in any codec. You'll still need a device for Netflix, bastards won't release a Linux player. You have 'wiziwig.tv' for your Monday Night Football (it will give you Sky Network - London's feed) and you use your smart phone\tablet as a remote. I find the UI and the other features truly awesome.
My Favorites:
* Automatically removes commercials
* Downloads and uses Metadata
* Organizes episodes in SxxExx order
My girlfriend finds it "acceptable". She can use it without my help. Warning, she does complain about the occasional reception issues, especially if its a recording.
-JW
We kicked the cable tv to the the curb this year. We are using a media device from Sony that is wireless or can be hardwired. We have netflix and on the device we can simply go to google and use internet. What we did was get the fastest internet option available and things seem to work. Ultimately, I want to get everything hardwired since most computers I have right now are using wireless as we are still trying to get organized and unpacked after moving in August.
Cool. Thanks for the input, guys. I shall research this further. It looks quite promising.
Curmudgeoness (is that too sexist?) pretty much watches only Netflix. No sat/cable required since she has DSL.
Not sure if our experience would be an apples-to-apples comparison because of our viewing habits or not. :)
We're using AT&T U-verse for our Internet and TV with an Apple TV device (works wired & wireless). No cable, no SAT.
With the Apple TV we watch streaming TV shows and movies via the pre-installed Hulu+, Netflix, iTunes Movies or iTunes TV. We don't watch sports but there is is a sports streaming app of some sort. We watch some web-series that we subscribe to via the YouTube app. We stream the music and video stored on the other computers in the house (as long as we remember to turn them on). There are also a few podcasts that I watch/listen to streamed via the AppleTV as well.
Glaring thing missing for me is Pandora. I have to switch to my BluRay player to stream my Pandora music channels.
Apple TV airplay lets us redirect the audio & video from our iPhone, iPads or iMac to the TV and stereo. So pretty much anything I can display on the screen of those devices can be redirected to the TV. That is my other workaround for Apple having putting Pandora on AppleTV.
That combo accounts for the majority of our TV show and Movie watching as well as listening to music.
We still keep the U-verse TV package because it gives us the DVR function and there are some shows we are too impatient to not see live. If we were willing to wait a few weeks to see the show we might even ditch the TV pack.
Anyway, thats our rig. Very easy setup, virtually no maintenance activity beyond "Click to download latest update".
Having alot of other apple devices isn't a requirement for the core functionalities, but they do allow you a significantly more seamless integration of other content.
Not sure if our experience would be an apples-to-apples comparison because of our viewing habits or not. :)
We're using AT&T U-verse for our Internet and TV with an Apple TV device (works wired & wireless). No cable, no SAT.
With the Apple TV we watch streaming TV shows and movies via the pre-installed Hulu+, Netflix, iTunes Movies or iTunes TV. We don't watch sports but there is is a sports streaming app of some sort. We watch some web-series that we subscribe to via the YouTube app. We stream the music and video stored on the other computers in the house (as long as we remember to turn them on). There are also a few podcasts that I watch/listen to streamed via the AppleTV as well.
Glaring thing missing for me is Pandora. I have to switch to my BluRay player to stream my Pandora music channels.
Apple TV airplay lets us redirect the audio & video from our iPhone, iPads or iMac to the TV and stereo. So pretty much anything I can display on the screen of those devices can be redirected to the TV. That is my other workaround for Apple having putting Pandora on AppleTV.
That combo accounts for the majority of our TV show and Movie watching as well as listening to music.
We still keep the U-verse TV package because it gives us the DVR function and there are some shows we are too impatient to not see live. If we were willing to wait a few weeks to see the show we might even ditch the TV pack.
Anyway, thats our rig. Very easy setup, virtually no maintenance activity beyond "Click to download latest update".
Having alot of other apple devices isn't a requirement for the core functionalities, but they do allow you a significantly more seamless integration of other content.
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