We've cut the cable (6 Viewers)

[flapgreen]

Are you planning on having anymore?

 

[pizzatyme]

For the booster, is there a best kind or best place to get one? And for multiple TVs, where does it need to go.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

For the booster, is there a best kind or best place to get one? And for multiple TVs, where does it need to go.

Highly recommend the Leaf HD antenna http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Paper-Thin-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B004QK7HI8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1384633218&sr=1-1&keywords=leaf+hd+antenna

I have a Panasonic, 1 year old so the indoor was all I needed to pick up the major networks plus PBS, some local and a few others like ME, Cozi, etc...

I would try that first before you start rigging a big antenna to the roof or climbing up into the attic. They make an amplified one that is about double in price, the basic one worked great for us, we live in Miami so pretty metro area.

You are going to need a high speed internet connection so even cutting the cable you will need to deal with someone for internet unless I have overlooked something.

There are sites dedicated to cutting cable if you google, I linked one in the last 2-3 pages.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/2013/10/16/how-to-cut-the-cord-cable-tv/

How to from Forbes written last month…pretty simple.

Amadou has a lot of good quick tech articles if you search him on Forbes here

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/

And finally Gomohu's website has a quick and easy zip code finder for all the TV stations you can get. http://www.gomohu.com

My fav local station is Create which is a PBS sub-affiliate and IMO is better than many of the cooking shows on cable. It's not all cooking shows but they have America's Test Kitchen, the BBQ Bible dude, Pepin, Martha Stewart(wife not me), Nick Stellino...

I hate the news so losing Fox, MSNBC, CNN, best thing to happen, life isn't so bad without those folks constantly trying to remind us all how bad we have it. BBC on PBS offers a better World perspective. The nature shows on PBS are outstanding, ME TV is kind of like TVLand on cable, there are several stations that carry a lot of 50s, 60s, 70s TV shows which might not be interesting for everyone but there are some good shows from back then. That's about all I got other than I would invest in a newer TV that has the streaming already on the TV. I do keep my U-Verse box near the TV and use a cable but it is not necessary. We also (don't pass out) only have 1 TV in our house so we have everything in 1 location. If you are trying to outfit 4 or 5 TVs in the house you might have different issues.

 

[-jb-]

I bought a hacked AppleTV on ebay that has XBMC and all of the add-ons. Lots of people in this thread have raved about it, but I kind of think it sucks. Frequently unavailable during peak viewing hours, difficult to navigate, snarky message boards.

Am I just doing it wrong?

 

[-jb-]

What's the deal with simple.tv?

 

[OC Zed]

 

[Ted Mullins]

FWIW, I have used the WatchESPN app through the xbox to watch every MNF game so far this season and have been really happy - rarely ever have any lag or stutter, although I think my internet speeds are pretty good. The WatchESPN app has also recently been made available for Roku I believe. I just use a friend's Comcast info and haven't had any issues. Only downside is there is probably a delay of 10 seconds or so - not a big deal at all though. With WatchESPN and access to your local channels, you can actually get a game in every typical slot other than the Thursday games. NFL.com has a stream they run for the Thursday games, but it only shows limited action, a lot of time in studio with their internet broadcast personalities, and the stream seems to lag a lot. It is definitely NOT just a typical stream of the game, although I have watched it whenever the Thursday game intrigues me.

I bought the Madden deal and watch Red Zone with that and have ran that from my laptop to my TV via Chromecast - the WatchESPN app via Xbox comes through much smoother for me than the DirecTV platform, though I definitely have been happy with the Madden deal.

 

[17seconds]

ESPN is the killer for me. I watch a lot of it. But I've got a Roku so I'm going to try out WatchESPN through that using my cable login. Next step would be to get a Leaf ultimate antenna and try that. Not sure if OTA will work well for me since most towers are 50mi away and we live in a valley (cell signals bad at home). Will return to Amazon if it isn't effective.

If I can clear those 2 hurdles, I'll cut the cord. If I can get a cable login from somebody afterwards, that is.

 

[RUSF18]

ESPN is the killer for me. I watch a lot of it. But I've got a Roku so I'm going to try out WatchESPN through that using my cable login. Next step would be to get a Leaf ultimate antenna and try that. Not sure if OTA will work well for me since most towers are 50mi away and we live in a valley (cell signals bad at home). Will return to Amazon if it isn't effective.

If I can clear those 2 hurdles, I'll cut the cord. If I can get a cable login from somebody afterwards, that is.

How much would your broadband bill be?

 

[17seconds]

ESPN is the killer for me. I watch a lot of it. But I've got a Roku so I'm going to try out WatchESPN through that using my cable login. Next step would be to get a Leaf ultimate antenna and try that. Not sure if OTA will work well for me since most towers are 50mi away and we live in a valley (cell signals bad at home). Will return to Amazon if it isn't effective.

If I can clear those 2 hurdles, I'll cut the cord. If I can get a cable login from somebody afterwards, that is.

How much would your broadband bill be?

I think it would be $60/mo and I get 28Mbps.

I'm assuming the cable company won't let me do WatchESPN if I still have broadband through them?

 

[Tick]

ESPN is the killer for me. I watch a lot of it. But I've got a Roku so I'm going to try out WatchESPN through that using my cable login. Next step would be to get a Leaf ultimate antenna and try that. Not sure if OTA will work well for me since most towers are 50mi away and we live in a valley (cell signals bad at home). Will return to Amazon if it isn't effective.

If I can clear those 2 hurdles, I'll cut the cord. If I can get a cable login from somebody afterwards, that is.

How much would your broadband bill be?

I think it would be $60/mo and I get 28Mbps.

I'm assuming the cable company won't let me do WatchESPN if I still have broadband through them?

They won't.

 

[NutterButter]

ESPN is the killer for me. I watch a lot of it. But I've got a Roku so I'm going to try out WatchESPN through that using my cable login. Next step would be to get a Leaf ultimate antenna and try that. Not sure if OTA will work well for me since most towers are 50mi away and we live in a valley (cell signals bad at home). Will return to Amazon if it isn't effective.

If I can clear those 2 hurdles, I'll cut the cord. If I can get a cable login from somebody afterwards, that is.

Is the espn app better than watching espn 3 on the computer? The quality of that was horrible any time I've tried it.

 

[mquinnjr]

ESPN is the killer for me. I watch a lot of it. But I've got a Roku so I'm going to try out WatchESPN through that using my cable login. Next step would be to get a Leaf ultimate antenna and try that. Not sure if OTA will work well for me since most towers are 50mi away and we live in a valley (cell signals bad at home). Will return to Amazon if it isn't effective.

If I can clear those 2 hurdles, I'll cut the cord. If I can get a cable login from somebody afterwards, that is.

How much would your broadband bill be?

I think it would be $60/mo and I get 28Mbps.

I'm assuming the cable company won't let me do WatchESPN if I still have broadband through them?

They won't.

I can confirm this. I have Comcast internet and DirecTV for my video service. DirecTV doesn't have an agreement for ESPN3. When I login with my Comcast info, I get an error that ESPN is not part of my package (which it is not, since I no longer have video with them).

 

[LAUNCH]

Does chromecast allow you to stream what you have on your ipad browser to the tv?

 

[17seconds]

Does chromecast allow you to stream what you have on your ipad browser to the tv?

I don't have a chromecast but have seen some reviews.

The important thing to know is it is simply a wifi dongle, controlled by your ipad. It's not displaying what is on your ipad. For example, to play a youtube video your ipad givess chromecast the URL of the youtube video and then everything gets streamed between youtube and the chromecast. Pause/play/ff/rw control is done at the ipad but it is not involved in the stream.

Because of that, sites need to support chromecast to work. So it's quite limited. It supports youtube and netflix and a few other sites. The only uses of chromecast I can think of today are to throw a youtube video up on to your TV or add Netflix to your TV. If your TV or other component in your system already does that, I don't see why you'd want a chromecast.

 

[MattFancy]

Does chromecast allow you to stream what you have on your ipad browser to the tv?

Pretty sure just about anything in the Chrome browser can stream to your TV

 

[BeTheMatch]

Does chromecast allow you to stream what you have on your ipad browser to the tv?

Pretty sure just about anything in the Chrome browser can stream to your TV

Nope. Not on the iPad. You can't cast your browser from your iPad - even in Chrome.

 

[MattFancy]

Does chromecast allow you to stream what you have on your ipad browser to the tv?

Pretty sure just about anything in the Chrome browser can stream to your TV

Nope. Not on the iPad. You can't cast your browser from your iPad - even in Chrome.

Well that's a bummer. Good to know. We just go ours in yesterday and I haven't had too much time to play around with it. Wife has an iPad so she'll be dissappointed.

 

[BeTheMatch]

Does chromecast allow you to stream what you have on your ipad browser to the tv?

Pretty sure just about anything in the Chrome browser can stream to your TV

Nope. Not on the iPad. You can't cast your browser from your iPad - even in Chrome.

Well that's a bummer. Good to know. We just go ours in yesterday and I haven't had too much time to play around with it. Wife has an iPad so she'll be dissappointed.

You can cast Netflix from your iPad to your TV through the app, but not through the browser.

 

[Blood Farmer]

Is it possible to connect a wired desktop to a Chromecast?

I have Chromecast synced to two of my iOS devices but I cant connect to my desktop.

 

[Kool-Aid Larry]

So if I purchase an XBox and one of the Madden NFL Sunday Ticket codes off ebay, will I be able to watch all the NFL games through the XBox? If no, is there a way to get sunday ticket (or similar) on the TV without dish, directtv, or cable?

No not the games that are broadcast locally. You can't do that with any internet option, but you could get an over air HD antenna and watch your local stations, which would have all the MNF, SNF, and locally broadcast games.

I wouldn't have a clue about xbox, but you can watch the games on a computer

nfl offers a 'gamepass' thing overseas, which is all the games, nfl network, and game rewind, and it's free in a few countries like the netherlands.

so, all you need to do is make them think you're in one of those countries.

 

[Osaurus]

Anyone here checked out the Matricom Gbox 2? Like Apple TV, but 1,000 x better on Android. So much streaming content out there that is easily available. Highly recommend it

 

[Quez]

Anyone here checked out the Matricom Gbox 2? Like Apple TV, but 1,000 x better on Android. So much streaming content out there that is easily available. Highly recommend it

Any idea if you can access redzone or NFL games free on this?

 

[Osaurus]

Anyone here checked out the Matricom Gbox 2? Like Apple TV, but 1,000 x better on Android. So much streaming content out there that is easily available. Highly recommend it

Any idea if you can access redzone or NFL games free on this?

Haven't seen RZC, but SportsDevil has pretty much everything else

 

[NutterButter]

Anyone here checked out the Matricom Gbox 2? Like Apple TV, but 1,000 x better on Android. So much streaming content out there that is easily available. Highly recommend it

Looks promising. Is there an Amazon on demand app for it? Can you play videos from other computers connected to your home network?

 

[Osaurus]

Anyone here checked out the Matricom Gbox 2? Like Apple TV, but 1,000 x better on Android. So much streaming content out there that is easily available. Highly recommend it

Looks promising. Is there an Amazon on demand app for it? Can you play videos from other computers connected to your home network?

Don't know about Amazon on demand, but you can stream from pretty much any source. XBMC is able to see all kinds of network devices. That's the reason I bought it. I have a poor man's NAS which basically is a 2nd router with a HDD attached with all my media. XBMC sees it no problem. Unlike ATV3 needing iTunes to run, this does not. ETA: XBMC looks like it does Amazon

 

[Sinn Fein]

Hulu Plus v. Netflix - which would you choose?

 

[Balco]

Hulu Plus v. Netflix - which would you choose?

Netflix and it's not close.

 

[Bucks]

Funny story, sort of, and warning to all you other cable cutters.

First some background info. I cut the cable a couple years ago and everything has been going very well. We have attic antenna, HDHomerun network tuners, HTPC, free NEXTPVR DVR, netflix, chromecast,etc. Wife is watching more movies then ever. Only issue is occasional challenges with live sports and constant complaints from teen about no Disney, MTV, etc.


This morning while still at home I ignored a mobile call coming from a toll-free number. I listen to the voice mail and hear that it's the cable company confirming an appointment to come out and complete an installation. I'm shuked and am wondering are they so messed up they don't realize they already installed my Internet weeks ago or are they coming to pull the plug after monitoring my video streaming/downloading for the past month? I tell my wife about the message and then she comes clean.

Apparently I planted a seed with my excitement level after switching internet providers when immediately after installation I plugged a TV into the cable line to see what, if any, channels were also coming in the clear. I was thrilled to see a long list including disney, mtv, espn, BTN, TBS etc. I was gloating the whole evening only to be let down the next night when everything disappeared. Apparently there was a delay installing a block. My wife was so touched by my emotion that she wanted to surprise me by gifting our family a monthly cable tv bill. She quickly realized I was excited not by cable tv but by free cable tv. Thankfully they screwed up and called me to confirm the installation instead of her. She insists she got a great deal and she wants me to let them install it to use for at least one month. I'm 100% not interested. Told her this would be the most unappreciated gift I could imagine.

 

[MCguidance]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

 

[Ted Mullins]

Hulu Plus v. Netflix - which would you choose?

As best I can tell, the appeal of Hulu Plus is shows that are currently running a day or two later. I have both and definitely prefer Netflix. IMO, better selection of previous seasons of shows, and a better selection of movies.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Hulu Plus v. Netflix - which would you choose?

As best I can tell, the appeal of Hulu Plus is shows that are currently running a day or two later. I have both and definitely prefer Netflix. IMO, better selection of previous seasons of shows, and a better selection of movies.

So its interesting.

We decided to drop directv, and went with both netflix and hulu plus. One of the things I noticed with Hulu Plus, after the fact, is that it seems that many of the shows current shows can't be streamed directly to the TV. Not a deal killer, as we have apple tv, so I can stream something to my mac air, and use airplay to put it on the TV, but a little annoying.

So far, we have definitely used netflix more - but most of the current shows are on hiatus until January, so we may use hulu more then.

 

[Bucks]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

 

[culdeus]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

My plan for mlb is to do this

jailbroke ipad

mlb.com app

airplay

ftw

 

[Bogart]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

My plan for mlb is to do this

jailbroke ipad

mlb.com app

airplay

ftw

Can you get the Ranger games that way? I thought local teams were blacked out on MLB.com.

 

[culdeus]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

My plan for mlb is to do this

jailbroke ipad

mlb.com app

airplay

ftw

Can you get the Ranger games that way? I thought local teams were blacked out on MLB.com.

Yup.

You need to jailbreak the ipad then use a location spoofing client to push your location to Mexico. I use the location of the one of the Zeta Cartel's old hideouts. Then you not only can get every local game, but every ESPN GOTW also.

 

[BeTheMatch]

Funny story, sort of, and warning to all you other cable cutters.

First some background info. I cut the cable a couple years ago and everything has been going very well. We have attic antenna, HDHomerun network tuners, HTPC, free NEXTPVR DVR, netflix, chromecast,etc. Wife is watching more movies then ever. Only issue is occasional challenges with live sports and constant complaints from teen about no Disney, MTV, etc.

This morning while still at home I ignored a mobile call coming from a toll-free number. I listen to the voice mail and hear that it's the cable company confirming an appointment to come out and complete an installation. I'm shuked and am wondering are they so messed up they don't realize they already installed my Internet weeks ago or are they coming to pull the plug after monitoring my video streaming/downloading for the past month? I tell my wife about the message and then she comes clean.

Apparently I planted a seed with my excitement level after switching internet providers when immediately after installation I plugged a TV into the cable line to see what, if any, channels were also coming in the clear. I was thrilled to see a long list including disney, mtv, espn, BTN, TBS etc. I was gloating the whole evening only to be let down the next night when everything disappeared. Apparently there was a delay installing a block. My wife was so touched by my emotion that she wanted to surprise me by gifting our family a monthly cable tv bill. She quickly realized I was excited not by cable tv but by free cable tv. Thankfully they screwed up and called me to confirm the installation instead of her. She insists she got a great deal and she wants me to let them install it to use for at least one month. I'm 100% not interested. Told her this would be the most unappreciated gift I could imagine.

What's this now? The main thing keeping me from cutting the cable is not having a DVR. How does this one work? I haven't heard of it.

 

[Bucks]

What's this now? The main thing keeping me from cutting the cable is not having a DVR. How does this one work? I haven't heard of it.

Here’s the basic pieces I use.

http://www.nextpvr.com/ DVR software for Windows

One or more TV Tuner cards installed in your HTPC or my preferred method is plug your antenna into the OTA model of HDHomerun from http://www.silicondust.com/ and attached it to your network to allow tv tuner shared from the DVR and from any other PC, tablet, or smartphones in the house. You can find the dual tuner model for about $60. Be sure not to get the newer cable card version because it doesn't support OTA broadcast tv input.

Also, you need a source for tv schedule data. The simplest way is to sign up for an annual subscription with www.schedulesdirect.org $25/year.

Once the shows are captured you can serve them throughout the house just the same as your local media using XBMC, Plex, etc. It takes a little deeper digging to figure out how to enable features like commercial skipping or tv episode naming to enable cool features like the downloading of the episode summaries, artwork, theme music, etc.

You also could always just go name brand and pay $$$ for a Tivo DVR to get a polished solution that works fine with OTA broadcast.

 

[Mister CIA]

About to cut the cord myself (again) now that Red Zone channel is about to end.

Question: Is there any news/speculation that HBO Go is anywhere near cutting the cord with cable providers? I'd cut a $50 check to HBO today, maybe even $75, if I could stream all of their content during 2014 without a Comcast subscription.

Note to NFL: Give me a Roku option for the Red Zone channel in 2014 (I'll pay), otherwise my attention will drift.

Question 2: Anyone dabbled with PlexApp server? Thoughts? I set it up and can play all of my personal collection of music to my TV with an interface which is near identical to Pandora. Even cooler, I discovered I can stream Daily Show and Colbert Report the day after the show originally plays; the ability to play these two shows on my TV makes cutting the Comcast cord all that much easier.

 

[Bogart]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

My plan for mlb is to do this

jailbroke ipad

mlb.com app

airplay

ftw

Can you get the Ranger games that way? I thought local teams were blacked out on MLB.com.

Yup.

You need to jailbreak the ipad then use a location spoofing client to push your location to Mexico. I use the location of the one of the Zeta Cartel's old hideouts. Then you not only can get every local game, but every ESPN GOTW also.

I could hug you, kiss you and give you your choice of one of my kids right now.

 

[culdeus]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

My plan for mlb is to do this

jailbroke ipad

mlb.com app

airplay

ftw

Can you get the Ranger games that way? I thought local teams were blacked out on MLB.com.

Yup.

You need to jailbreak the ipad then use a location spoofing client to push your location to Mexico. I use the location of the one of the Zeta Cartel's old hideouts. Then you not only can get every local game, but every ESPN GOTW also.

I could hug you, kiss you and give you your choice of one of my kids right now.

Can I trade you my 4 year old for anything you got?

 

[Bogart]

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

see pm

I will drop DirecTV after the football season. I have dwindled down and use Plex for nearly everything/my media anyway. The only thing that is keeping me from dropping it is that I will not have Mets games on a whim. Will there be a stream somewhere? It seems ideal for me considering I built a great HTPC anyway.

My plan for mlb is to do this

jailbroke ipad

mlb.com app

airplay

ftw

Can you get the Ranger games that way? I thought local teams were blacked out on MLB.com.

Yup.

You need to jailbreak the ipad then use a location spoofing client to push your location to Mexico. I use the location of the one of the Zeta Cartel's old hideouts. Then you not only can get every local game, but every ESPN GOTW also.

I could hug you, kiss you and give you your choice of one of my kids right now.

Can I trade you my 4 year old for anything you got?

My 5-year old, straight up. No takebacks.

 

[Bucks]

For those who don't want to roll their own DVR here's a basic alternative to Tivo for OTA DVR at a fraction of the cost. Just one tuner but lifetime subscription and hardware for just $90. More of an expense than an investment like the $600 life Tivo subscription. Requires hardwire network connection, addition of your own USB hard drive, and computer or Roku to interace to HDMI tv.

http://slickdeals.net/f/6579130-simple-tv-stv-1000-the-ultimate-networked-tuner-dvr-with-lifetime-premier-subscription-included-89-99-ship-at-woot?src=tdw

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-video-recorders-dvrs/simple-tv/4505-6474_7-35118119.html

 

[Bogart]

Cut the cable this weekend.

Took an hour and a half call with AT&T to make it happen, but I got rid of cable and my landline (I know, should have done it months ago), doubled my Internet Speed from 12 to 24Mbps, and dropped my bill from $220 down to $39 a month.

Went up in the attic and reconnected the antenna to the wall mounts that for some reason the Cable guy unconnected when he installed the cable a year ago. Got a wonderful picture for the Cowboy debacle this evening. Besides the antenna for the locals, I have an Xbox 360 in the living room for Netflix and YouTube, and a Sony Blu-Ray player in both of the kids rooms for Blu-Rays/DVDs/Netflix/YouTube/Hulu. I have Netflix Streaming plus one Disc (starting watching The Wire, The Sopranos up next). Might look into Hulu Plus, but right now, the kids are happy with all of the Disney shows on Netflix and I use DareWall for any shows that I can't find on Netflix.

Looking into jailbreaking my iPad now and get ready for baseball season. If that works out, I will be hard pressed to ever go back to cable again.

 

[RUSF18]

About to cut the cord myself (again) now that Red Zone channel is about to end.

Question: Is there any news/speculation that HBO Go is anywhere near cutting the cord with cable providers? I'd cut a $50 check to HBO today, maybe even $75, if I could stream all of their content during 2014 without a Comcast subscription.

Note to NFL: Give me a Roku option for the Red Zone channel in 2014 (I'll pay), otherwise my attention will drift.

Question 2: Anyone dabbled with PlexApp server? Thoughts? I set it up and can play all of my personal collection of music to my TV with an interface which is near identical to Pandora. Even cooler, I discovered I can stream Daily Show and Colbert Report the day after the show originally plays; the ability to play these two shows on my TV makes cutting the Comcast cord all that much easier.

Instead of offering to pay a 60% discount on what HBO subscribers pay a year, you'd probably need to offer a 60% premium.

 

[Britney Spears]

I bought a hacked AppleTV on ebay that has XBMC and all of the add-ons. Lots of people in this thread have raved about it, but I kind of think it sucks. Frequently unavailable during peak viewing hours, difficult to navigate, snarky message boards.

Am I just doing it wrong?

I have an older AppleTV with XBMC (upgraded to the new one). People will buy the old one?

 

[TheWalkmen]

Upon cutting the cable, is there a way to "DVR" shows on the local channels that aren't available on Netflix or Hulu. For example, my wife is a bachelor fan, but she wouldn't sit through 2 full hours including the 40+ minutes of commercials.

ETA: or are shows like that on Hulu? Not very familiar with Hulu.

 

[Politician Spock]

Upon cutting the cable, is there a way to "DVR" shows on the local channels that aren't available on Netflix or Hulu. For example, my wife is a bachelor fan, but she wouldn't sit through 2 full hours including the 40+ minutes of commercials.

ETA: or are shows like that on Hulu? Not very familiar with Hulu.

A Tivo can be hooked up to an antenna and record over the air channels, $15 a month subscription, or buy a lifetime subscription on the box for around $400 (or $500... Can't remember).

Or with a windows computer you can use Windows Media Center and USB TV tuner to function as a DVR. To watch it on the TV screen, either connect the computer to the TV via HDMI cable, or an xBox can connect via TCP/IP on the LAN to view the recorded shows. If you dedicate a computer to being a DVR your costs could be as much as just getting a Tivo with a lifetime subscription. But if the PC serves other purposes than being just a DVR, that is a plus.

I have both a Tivo, and windows media center, and. I prefer the usability of Tivo.

 

[belljr]

Upon cutting the cable, is there a way to "DVR" shows on the local channels that aren't available on Netflix or Hulu. For example, my wife is a bachelor fan, but she wouldn't sit through 2 full hours including the 40+ minutes of commercials.

ETA: or are shows like that on Hulu? Not very familiar with Hulu.

A Tivo can be hooked up to an antenna and record over the air channels, $15 a month subscription, or buy a lifetime subscription on the box for around $400 (or $500... Can't remember).

Or with a windows computer you can use Windows Media Center and USB TV tuner to function as a DVR. To watch it on the TV screen, either connect the computer to the TV via HDMI cable, or an xBox can connect via TCP/IP on the LAN to view the recorded shows. If you dedicate a computer to being a DVR your costs could be as much as just getting a Tivo with a lifetime subscription. But if the PC serves other purposes than being just a DVR, that is a plus.

I have both a Tivo, and windows media center, and. I prefer the usability of Tivo.

Ever since the updates about a year ago..... I can play Windows Media Player recordings on my Xbox360 get only sound.

Plays fine on my PC.