Cutting the Cable TV

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

That wouldn't be a problem for us, as we usually record what we want to see, and are about a year and a half behind
...

Yep. As long as you don't have to have/watch the minute it is broadcast, not much reason to have Satellite or Cable as far as I'm concerned.

(Guess I better find a new job since the company I work for is the one who manages the accounts and bills for the major Cable/Satellite companies in the use and many around the world. )

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Yep. As long as you don't have to have/watch the minute it is broadcast, not much reason to have Satellite or Cable as far as I'm concerned.

But I do love my Histories, Discoveries and NatGeo's, so I won't be cutting my cable yet

[kennyc]

The only thing I've missed is NatGeo because they have the new season of Alaska State Troopers and it's interesting to see the work my son does and the people he works with.

[pilotbob]

Does anyone here have a Roku XDS? I have been looking at this device but it isn't clear to me if it will play videos that you have stored on a NAS or Network share?

BOb

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Does anyone here have a Roku XDS? I have been looking at this device but it isn't clear to me if it will play videos that you have stored on a NAS or Network share?

BOb

I do. And no, it doesn't. Its not a box-connection to the PC. If you want one of those, you should look perhaps at a Western Digital media box. The Roku will play files off a USB (works well with my 500gb HD), but does not connect to a network share.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I do. And no, it doesn't. Its not a box-connection to the PC. If you want one of those, you should look perhaps at a Western Digital media box. The Roku will play files off a USB (works well with my 500gb HD), but does not connect to a network share.

Good to know. That's the way I was interpreting the specs, but like Bob, difficult to tell for sure.

[chainring]

The wife and I have been cable free for a couple of years now. With an almost 3 year old daughter, we just don't have time to sit and watch, nor would we want to. We do, however, enjoy movies of which we have bunches. Lots of HD movies stored on a Western Digital TV Live Hub with 1 TB hard drive built-in. Only thing I don't like about it is the music browsing interface. There's no option to browse by Artist, then see the individual albums. I can browse by folder mode and that works, but I'd like to see it narrowed down when I select an artist. Oh well, can't have everything.

[markbot]

I guess you people aren't into sports, cable news, and reality TV. Neither am I, which is the reason I haven't paid for cable TV in several years. I am like the cable/satellite/telco operator's worst nightmare. I only subscribe to broadband and wireless voice/data (no cable tv or landline). At sometime point in the future you might be able to go all wireless. Time Warner tried to raise my broadband rates recently but I found out that Earthlink is reselling the SAME service, literally...I didn't even have to reset my modem, for cheaper and I recently switched (plus they have a discounted promo period). It was pretty amusing that they let me do this.

I mainly get my video fix via Netflix or Amazon Video on Demand (they recently made 5000 videos available for Prime members). I don't regularly watch TV shows except for Mad Men (great show BTW). I also have a TV tuner in my desktop connected to an antenna that gets great reception (I live in NYC, conveniently located by the largest broadcast transmitters). Windows Media Center is my DVR. My desktop is connected to a projector via HDMI cable. My blu-ray player is also web-enabled with various apps like Netflix and VUDU. And I have an iPhone, which acts as a personal video consumption device anywhere.

With the digital TV transition the broadcasters need less empty space between the channels and we will be able to use this freed up "white space" spectrum for unlicensed devices, like super wifi. This white space is really prime spectrum and has excellent propagation properties. Thus, in a place like NYC I might even be able to stop both my cable broadband and cell phone service (use Skype over wifi)...and just use white spaces wifi for everything....since an ISP could cover the entire island relatively easily.

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

3. I set up uTorrent's RSS downloader to pull down TV shows that I can't record from the antenna. I found a great web site that custom creates an RSS feed for you with the shows you want. It is called showRSS. BTW: Only the Windows version of utorrent has the RSS Downloader. But... there are Mac RSS d/l'ers you can get too...

Thanks for this info. I went to that site and RSS's "Harry's Law" with BitTorrent just to see how well it worked. It downloaded fast, and now I'm watching "Harry's Law" streaming from my computer on my TV, which is and LG w/ Netcast.

[/QUOTE]
4. I have been using pyTivo running on my Mac so I can watch the downloaded shows on my TiVo attached to my HDTV. This works pretty well but is one item I want to upgrade.[/QUOTE]

Is that similar to Nero MediaHome?


[/QUOTE]
3. Plex 9.
This is also media center software like Boxee. It has an even nicer UI than Boxee's. The biggest advantage with this one is that the Plex software is client/server. So, the Plex Media server runs on 1 pc and this is where all the metadata and watched statues are stored. Then a client on another PC/device can access the media server and stream from it. NICE.

They have also announced that LG Netcast TVs and Blu-Ray players will include the Plex 9 client in them. I don't yet have a Blu-Ray and I do want to get one... so this might fit right it.[/QUOTE]

I can't find where it says it has this on the LG.

I'm trying to go cableless as well. Cable prices are just ridiculous w/out some sort of special deal.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

I can't find where it says it has this on the LG.

I'm trying to go cableless as well. Cable prices are just ridiculous w/out some sort of special deal.

I don't think LG has the devices out yet. Here is the announcement:

http://www.plexapp.com/press_LG.php

Although, they are not to be found so far. I am highly reconsidering Boxee Box again. At $169 it seems to support pretty much everything I need.

BOb

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Although, they are not to be found so far. I am highly reconsidering Boxee Box again. At $169 it seems to support pretty much everything I need.

Just when I figure something out, I get confused again. Is Boxee and Roku the same? Are they the same as Netcast and Samsung's Apps?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

Just when I figure something out, I get confused again. Is Boxee and Roku the same? Are they the same as Netcast and Samsung's Apps?

No. They are similar. But not the same. I have most of the same apps (netflix, amazon, vudu) on my TV that are available on them.

I have Boxee running on my PC (and you can buy a device). I installed it to be able to use Vudu which is available on my Vizio TV

This is all very confusing to me as well.

[jkeene]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Does anyone here have a Roku XDS? I have been looking at this device but it isn't clear to me if it will play videos that you have stored on a NAS or Network share?

BOb

Natively, no, but with software installed through the private channel feature it will work. There are a few options, roksbox may do it best at the moment. A couple guys at work have various versions of the Roku, I'll ask around.

I've been following the Roku since before I turned off the satellite subscription and may pick one up over the summer. What do you think of the XDS?

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by kennyc

No. They are similar. But not the same. I have most of the same apps (netflix, amazon, vudu) on my TV that are available on them.

I have Boxee running on my PC (and you can buy a device). I installed it to be able to use Vudu which is available on my Vizio TV

This is all very confusing to me as well.

I have a Samsung & LG with WiFi; would I need Boxee as well or can I just use the PC? Right now I wifi video files from my PC.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

I have a Samsung & LG with WiFi; would I need Boxee as well or can I just use the PC? Right now I wifi video files from my PC.

You can run Boxee on PC or Mac or Linux device. So, if you want to go with a build your own you certainly can. I just think for $169 I get a set top box with HDMI outputs and digital audio... why bother building your own. The Acer Revo is one option, but it is $350 and doesn't come with a nice remote control.

BOb