We've cut the cable (3 Viewers)

[paz1]

So all you cable cutters...what do you do for internet SPORTS?!?

Watch any and every game that I want with my Chromecast

Talk me through this, please.

You can get any game with betting sites like Vipbox but video quality isn't HD by any means.

You can cast those streams to a TV with Chromecast?

You can cast anything you view within the Chrome browser to the Chromecast. I've tried a few games but they seem to lose some quality in the process.

but not amazon prime video?

I don't have Prime but as far as I know, if it's viewed in Chrome, you can cast it.

 

[paz1]

So all you cable cutters...what do you do for internet SPORTS?!?

Watch any and every game that I want with my Chromecast

Talk me through this, please.

You can get any game with betting sites like Vipbox but video quality isn't HD by any means.

You can cast those streams to a TV with Chromecast?

You can cast anything you view within the Chrome browser to the Chromecast. I've tried a few games but they seem to lose some quality in the process.

Yeah, chromecast is terrible for casting. You have to downgrade it so much to get it to play smoothly.

I assume you mean casting sports? Youtube and Netflix cast nicely but those have casting "built-in"....

 

[Mister CIA]

Getting real tired of paying $100+/month for cable. <_< Really love HBOGo, wish they offered it stand-alone instead of through a cable company. Are we ever going to get to the point where providers can offer a la carte channels or do cable companies have too strong of a hold on things for the foreseeable future?

I'd cancel my cable immediately if there was an easy solution for HD sports and just a couple channels like AMC and HBO.

I believe that Comcast/NBC owns HBO, so I would not hold my breath for HBO GO streaming subscription.

 

[Chaos Commish]

but not amazon prime video?

I don't have Prime but as far as I know, if it's viewed in Chrome, you can cast it.

I looked into this. It doesn't support Amazon streaming. More accurately Amazon won't support Google. I watch Prime instant video from a chrome browser and my kid watches it on Ipad. For $15 more Roku will put iy on the TVs.

 

[belljr]

I pay 200 for cable, Internet and phone. I have all the movie channels... no complaints here

 

[Ted Lange as your Bartender]

Getting real tired of paying $100+/month for cable. <_< Really love HBOGo, wish they offered it stand-alone instead of through a cable company. Are we ever going to get to the point where providers can offer a la carte channels or do cable companies have too strong of a hold on things for the foreseeable future?

I'd cancel my cable immediately if there was an easy solution for HD sports and just a couple channels like AMC and HBO.

I believe that Comcast/NBC owns HBO, so I would not hold my breath for HBO GO streaming subscription.

Time Warner owns HBO (which is not the same company as Time Warner Cable)

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

So all you cable cutters...what do you do for internet SPORTS?!?

Watch any and every game that I want with my Chromecast

Talk me through this, please.

You can get any game with betting sites like Vipbox but video quality isn't HD by any means.

You can cast those streams to a TV with Chromecast?

Yes.

There is loss of quality, but it works for me Can watch anything/everything I want at no cost. I have no plans to go back to Directv/Dish/etc..

 

[Christo]

 

[mquinnjr]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

 

[Drifter]

Getting ready to do this and have the wife on board.

Question - if I buy a Mohu (more likely an AmazonBasics knockoff) and install it at one of my TV points, can I just split the signal to that TV and send the signal back into the wall via amplifier to "power" the rest of the TVs?

If so, what amplifier would you recommend?

 

[Drifter]

bump

 

[culdeus]

If you are going to the effort of routing coax everywhere you would be far better served with a Db2 or db4 system.

 

[Drifter]

If you are going to the effort of routing coax everywhere you would be far better served with a Db2 or db4 system.

I'd be taking advantage of the existing coax

 

[culdeus]

If you are going to the effort of routing coax everywhere you would be far better served with a Db2 or db4 system.

I'd be taking advantage of the existing coax

Oh. Well this is still something few do. The Mohu isn't a whole house system. Whole house antennas are usually cheaper than the Mohu anyways or are actually free(coat hangers). Most people,you find doing cable cutting are cheap first and technically savvy soon after.

 

[pizzatyme]

So, I was thinking of going with the new chromestick and a whole house antannae. However, my son thinks that Apple TV is the way to go. Can someone summarize the advantages/disadvantages to both?

 

[lloyd christmas]

So, I was thinking of going with the new chromestick and a whole house antannae. However, my son thinks that Apple TV is the way to go. Can someone summarize the advantages/disadvantages to both?

And now Amazon Fire TV...how does it compare to existing options? I'm getting blasted with ads from amazon, and my cable company chooses this month to raise my bill by $30. RCN is truly clueless.

I like the idea that the Fire has dolby audio, but not sure how much content would be able to use it; we watch a lot of netflix but I don't know if they even offer anything with dolby audio. One general question: is there an easy way to get DVR functionality for over the air broacasts? I assume a PC would be required, just not sure how this work when integrated with the streaming options from Apple/Google/Amazon. I understand these questions are probably answered somewhere in these 20+ pages, but I've got a lot of TV to watch befoe we consider cutting the cord.

 

[culdeus]

Ok, I tried the combo of:

MLB.tv

Unblock-us

WDLiveTV

This was total fail. At first I thought unblock service was the issue, but it wasn't. The WDLiveTV box simply doesn't have the graphics horsepower to stream live sports. I had to move to the Xbox to do this and it works perfectly.

Xbox has some limitations in what offline video formats it uses so I'll still have to use WDliveTV for that purpose.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[Tiger Fan]

Just got the following from Cox

Thank you for choosing Cox, we appreciate your business!

Your Cox High Speed Internet package includes a data plan of 250 Gigabytes. As of April 10, 2014, your household has used 274 Gigabytes of usage data in the current billing cycle. Some common factors affecting data usage include the number of Internet-connected devices in the household, Wi-Fi network security, the amount of streaming video watched, and the presence of viruses and spyware on one or more home computers.

If you're interested in learning more about data usage and the factors affecting it please visit:
http://www.cox.com/DataUsage

You can view your data usage by logging into your account and checking your data usage meter in Internet Tools:
https://myaccount.cox.net/internettools/datausage/usage.cox

To learn more about how to prevent spyware and viruses and download a free copy of Cox Security Suite (a $199 value) please visit:
http://www.cox.com/security

We're happy you're getting so much value from your Cox High Speed Internet service. We have several Internet package options offering speed and data plans to meet a variety of needs. Based on your recent usage, your online experience would be improved by moving to a package featuring even faster download speeds and a larger data plan. To learn more about special offers for all Internet package levels and to find the one which best fits your needs, check out our current upgrade offers at:
http://www.cox.com/chsiupgrade
Or please call us at 1-877-840-2777 for assistance in selecting the option that best fits your household's needs.

Thanks again for choosing Cox High Speed Internet.

Sincerely,

Cox High Speed Internet Team

 

[mquinnjr]

Ok, I tried the combo of:

MLB.tv

Unblock-us

WDLiveTV

This was total fail. At first I thought unblock service was the issue, but it wasn't. The WDLiveTV box simply doesn't have the graphics horsepower to stream live sports. I had to move to the Xbox to do this and it works perfectly.

Xbox has some limitations in what offline video formats it uses so I'll still have to use WDliveTV for that purpose.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I just got MLB.TV as a throw-in to my MLB EI subscription on DirecTV for $80 out the door for the season (they charged me full price, and gave me $10/month for a year to net off the total), signed up 2 days ago. Tested it on WDTV Live and Apple TV, with my entire network wired via powerline adapters I picked up about a week ago. Worked flawlessly, almost as good/better than via my DVR.

Tonight is the test of my unblockus for Phillies games, since DirecTV doesn't carry them for the first 1-2 months (long story about CSN Philadelphia broadcast rights) and geographically, MLB.TV sees me in the Phillies market, I configured unblockus up on my router and changed the DNS there so it applies to all my devices, wired and wireless, on my network. Will report back on that.

For your situation, it's either your wireless network speed or your internet speed, since just speaking from personal experience with a WDTV live, Apple TV, and 25/5 Comcast internet connection, it worked beautifully for me last night. Had MLB.TV over wireless in the past with the same 25/5 internet connection and Wireless N router configuration, and the picture quality definitely is not even close to a wired connection for MLB.TV.

ETA: Looks like it could be YMMV based on your home internet infrastructure.

ETA2: unblockus is freaking glorious, watching in-market Phillies on my WDTV without a hitch. Definitely subscribing after the trial

 

[matttyl]

I'm in an area too far away from any cities, so using an antenna wouldn't do anything for me. My high speed internet provider, though, has "clear QAM" channels (just my locals, though).

Does a product exist (maybe an apple TV, roku, chromecast or the amazon fire TV) that will allow me to "stream" those clear QAM channels if I were to get a network TV tuner (specifically a silicon dust product)? Moreover, could that same device stream content from a network attached storage (NAS) device? Does anything exist that can do both of those, as well as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and possibly Hulu? With one of those, I could put a TV in any room regardless of where my home's current coax cable runs are, and pretty much watch 90% of what I watch.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Zasada]

I'm in an area too far away from any cities, so using an antenna wouldn't do anything for me. My high speed internet provider, though, has "clear QAM" channels (just my locals, though).

Does a product exist (maybe an apple TV, roku, chromecast or the amazon fire TV) that will allow me to "stream" those clear QAM channels if I were to get a network TV tuner (specifically a silicon dust product)? Moreover, could that same device stream content from a network attached storage (NAS) device? Does anything exist that can do both of those, as well as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and possibly Hulu? With one of those, I could put a TV in any room regardless of where my home's current coax cable runs are, and pretty much watch 90% of what I watch.

Thanks in advance.

A Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC would be the cheapest way to getting most of this. Requires some setup, but it's the most flexible.

I have one in a spare room and am able to stream from my HDHomeRun with no issues. Also stream from my home server (not a NAS but functionally the same for this purpose). Can't speak for Netflix, Amazon Prime, nor Hulu, but I believe there are XBMC apps for all of those.

If you're looking for more horsepower, you could build a PC with a proper CPU that will function the same as the Pi, but faster (with prettier graphics if you so desire), but also for more cost. I have two HTPCs (one Intel-based, another AMD-based) that also stream from the same HDHomeRun and media server.

There is no off-the-shelf solution that will give you all of the above without some level of customization.

 

[Bucks]

I'm doing something similar as Zasada but using Plex. I installed a Plex plug-in called HD Surfer. It allows viewing of the HD Homerun tuners from any of my devices that access Plex. This includes all the in-house PC's, tablets, and chromecasts. It also transcodes the stream so it works remotely over lower bandwith as well.

 

[matttyl]

I'm in an area too far away from any cities, so using an antenna wouldn't do anything for me. My high speed internet provider, though, has "clear QAM" channels (just my locals, though).

Does a product exist (maybe an apple TV, roku, chromecast or the amazon fire TV) that will allow me to "stream" those clear QAM channels if I were to get a network TV tuner (specifically a silicon dust product)? Moreover, could that same device stream content from a network attached storage (NAS) device? Does anything exist that can do both of those, as well as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and possibly Hulu? With one of those, I could put a TV in any room regardless of where my home's current coax cable runs are, and pretty much watch 90% of what I watch.

Thanks in advance.

A Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC would be the cheapest way to getting most of this. Requires some setup, but it's the most flexible.

I have one in a spare room and am able to stream from my HDHomeRun with no issues. Also stream from my home server (not a NAS but functionally the same for this purpose). Can't speak for Netflix, Amazon Prime, nor Hulu, but I believe there are XBMC apps for all of those.

If you're looking for more horsepower, you could build a PC with a proper CPU that will function the same as the Pi, but faster (with prettier graphics if you so desire), but also for more cost. I have two HTPCs (one Intel-based, another AMD-based) that also stream from the same HDHomeRun and media server.

There is no off-the-shelf solution that will give you all of the above without some level of customization.

I have one HTPC currently, but don't want to go through the cost of building 3-4 more.

 

[cr8f]

I signed up for MLB TV to watch Brewer games after cutting the cable cord.

I live 350 miles from Milwaukee in Duluth, MN and they blacked me out both from Brewers and Twins games because they said I live in both viewing areas. Even if I had cable I would not get Brewers games here. No negotiating with them helped at all.

As far as I'm concerned this is protecting cable from cord cutters.

 

[BlueDredSo]

I'm confused as to what unblock.us actually is. You'd only need it if content is blocked in your region, correct? So if for some reason Hulu Plus was blocked in your region, you'd use unblock.us as well as your Hulu Plus subscription?

Sorry, haven't read up lately. I'm assuming this has been mentioned mostly for sports because that'd be very regional.

 

[gethugefast1]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

 

[culdeus]

I signed up for MLB TV to watch Brewer games after cutting the cable cord.

I live 350 miles from Milwaukee in Duluth, MN and they blacked me out both from Brewers and Twins games because they said I live in both viewing areas. Even if I had cable I would not get Brewers games here. No negotiating with them helped at all.

As far as I'm concerned this is protecting cable from cord cutters.

Of course it is. This is why we have gigantic contracts in sports.

Unblock-us is the best way around this.

 

[culdeus]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

A ton of cooking shows are on amazon prime and netflix. Is there some show in particular she wants?

 

[culdeus]

I'm confused as to what unblock.us actually is. You'd only need it if content is blocked in your region, correct? So if for some reason Hulu Plus was blocked in your region, you'd use unblock.us as well as your Hulu Plus subscription?

Sorry, haven't read up lately. I'm assuming this has been mentioned mostly for sports because that'd be very regional.

Yes, that is mainly correct. If you lived in Mexico for instance, you would want to get access to US Netflix. Netflix region blocking is the primary use of unblock-us. Second is to avoid regional sports blackouts.

 

[gethugefast1]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

A ton of cooking shows are on amazon prime and netflix. Is there some show in particular she wants?

all of them, have AP & netflix, lucky to get any of the shows from this year yet alone within the last few weeks

 

[culdeus]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

A ton of cooking shows are on amazon prime and netflix. Is there some show in particular she wants?

all of them, have AP & netflix, lucky to get any of the shows from this year yet alone within the last few weeks

Well, not sure what to tell you. This could be a similar situation to college football for us I guess.

 

[Sinn Fein]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

None of these are recent shows?

I don't watch the channel, so I don't know.

 

[gethugefast1]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

None of these are recent shows?

I don't watch the channel, so I don't know.

wifey would tell me they're a couple of months old, to her it's like watching the superbowl in april

 

[snogger]

unfortunately my wifey watches the food channel 24/7, if it's a repeat she's seen a few times, it's over to the cooking channel... these 2 channels and their 'live' shows are impossible to get anywhere else but where they are contracted with my local cable

if anyone who has any other options that are available, please let me know and i will cut the cable :IBTL:

None of these are recent shows?

I don't watch the channel, so I don't know.

wifey would tell me they're a couple of months old, to her it's like watching the superbowl in april

Hulu plus should have more then enough.

 

[Dippa]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

I found your post in a search for XBMC. I just got this Android box from Amazon, which is probably pretty similar to a jailbroken ATV, except that it's Android, and already rooted with XBMC pre-loaded. I had no experience with XBMC prior to this, and I'm amazed at the content available on 1Channel alone, and that's just barely scratching the surface. Definitely

Also, I'm having trouble getting Navi X installed. Is that still working for you?

 

[32 Counter Pass]

What doesn't make sense to me is DirectTV's strategy to the cable cutting movement. Between the local stations, Netflix and a minimum cable connection ($30) I am getting most everything that I was receiving thru DirectTV. When I explained why I was cutting my service, no price reduction was offered of $120 per month. That didn't include any NFL packages.

Then about a month after I cancelled service I started receiving DirectTV promotionals: FREE NFL Ticker, FREE DVR Box, 3 months Free HBO / Showtime for 12 months, FREE installation. It is so price effective at this point I may be hard pressed to resist.

 

[mquinnjr]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

I found your post in a search for XBMC. I just got this Android box from Amazon, which is probably pretty similar to a jailbroken ATV, except that it's Android, and already rooted with XBMC pre-loaded. I had no experience with XBMC prior to this, and I'm amazed at the content available on 1Channel alone, and that's just barely scratching the surface. Definitely

Also, I'm having trouble getting Navi X installed. Is that still working for you?

Yep, I was able to get it installed, it is incredible - when their servers are up and running. You will find it under Programs, and not video add-ons in the XBMC dashboard. It has had some crashing issues, and it is related to server upgrades that they are doing currently, which crashes my Apple TV when their servers are down. I reset the ATV and it's fine, but annoying and temporary for the time being. Check their twitter account https://twitter.com/Navi_X as they update the server upgrade status periodically. When it is working, stellar program for watching live TV and movies.

Between 1Channel, ice films, and Navi-X, I'd be hard pressed to try to pinpoint content that wouldn't be available on at least one of those sources. Makes for a clean dashboard too, don't need 100's of add-ons, those will do the trick.

 

[Tiger Fan]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

I found your post in a search for XBMC. I just got this Android box from Amazon, which is probably pretty similar to a jailbroken ATV, except that it's Android, and already rooted with XBMC pre-loaded. I had no experience with XBMC prior to this, and I'm amazed at the content available on 1Channel alone, and that's just barely scratching the surface. Definitely

Also, I'm having trouble getting Navi X installed. Is that still working for you?

Yep, I was able to get it installed, it is incredible - when their servers are up and running. You will find it under Programs, and not video add-ons in the XBMC dashboard. It has had some crashing issues, and it is related to server upgrades that they are doing currently, which crashes my Apple TV when their servers are down. I reset the ATV and it's fine, but annoying and temporary for the time being. Check their twitter account https://twitter.com/Navi_X as they update the server upgrade status periodically. When it is working, stellar program for watching live TV and movies.

Between 1Channel, ice films, and Navi-X, I'd be hard pressed to try to pinpoint content that wouldn't be available on at least one of those sources. Makes for a clean dashboard too, don't need 100's of add-ons, those will do the trick.

can you explain how this works getting new shows? (i.e. how can one watch last night's Mad Men w/o actually subscribing ot cable)

 

[mquinnjr]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

I found your post in a search for XBMC. I just got this Android box from Amazon, which is probably pretty similar to a jailbroken ATV, except that it's Android, and already rooted with XBMC pre-loaded. I had no experience with XBMC prior to this, and I'm amazed at the content available on 1Channel alone, and that's just barely scratching the surface. Definitely

Also, I'm having trouble getting Navi X installed. Is that still working for you?

Yep, I was able to get it installed, it is incredible - when their servers are up and running. You will find it under Programs, and not video add-ons in the XBMC dashboard. It has had some crashing issues, and it is related to server upgrades that they are doing currently, which crashes my Apple TV when their servers are down. I reset the ATV and it's fine, but annoying and temporary for the time being. Check their twitter account https://twitter.com/Navi_X as they update the server upgrade status periodically. When it is working, stellar program for watching live TV and movies.

Between 1Channel, ice films, and Navi-X, I'd be hard pressed to try to pinpoint content that wouldn't be available on at least one of those sources. Makes for a clean dashboard too, don't need 100's of add-ons, those will do the trick.

can you explain how this works getting new shows? (i.e. how can one watch last night's Mad Men w/o actually subscribing ot cable)

Once setup, these programs "site scrape" websites that can be accessed from a computer like icefilms, 1channel, etc. Meaning, the programs "scrape," or gather the link information, etc. that is needed to watch the videos linked to by icefilms, 1channel, etc. on your jailbroken ATV or other device running XBMC. Once the repo is downloaded/instaled for icefilms/1channel/Navi-X and you're all setup to go, the ATV does the rest and just plays the content with no downloads, etc. B/S to deal with.

To get a tangible hold on the content that would be available under this setup, check out icefilms dot info or primewire dot ag (redirect for 1channel dot ch). I'd be fairly comfortable saying that media-wise, it's pretty limitless. When True Detective was on, I was watching it within the hour of original airing time.

It's not a slick as an actual cable box, but as a FREE 1a option, it's fairly incredible.

 

[Dippa]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

I found your post in a search for XBMC. I just got this Android box from Amazon, which is probably pretty similar to a jailbroken ATV, except that it's Android, and already rooted with XBMC pre-loaded. I had no experience with XBMC prior to this, and I'm amazed at the content available on 1Channel alone, and that's just barely scratching the surface. Definitely

Also, I'm having trouble getting Navi X installed. Is that still working for you?

Yep, I was able to get it installed, it is incredible - when their servers are up and running. You will find it under Programs, and not video add-ons in the XBMC dashboard. It has had some crashing issues, and it is related to server upgrades that they are doing currently, which crashes my Apple TV when their servers are down. I reset the ATV and it's fine, but annoying and temporary for the time being. Check their twitter account https://twitter.com/Navi_X as they update the server upgrade status periodically. When it is working, stellar program for watching live TV and movies.

Between 1Channel, ice films, and Navi-X, I'd be hard pressed to try to pinpoint content that wouldn't be available on at least one of those sources. Makes for a clean dashboard too, don't need 100's of add-ons, those will do the trick.

Thanks for the info. I did get Navi X installed, but hopefully their servers will be up soon. I've been using 1channel and icefilms and they have had everything I've searched for so far.

And just to reiterate what you said about how quickly you can access shows, last night Silicon Valley aired at 10:00, and I was able to watch it by about midnight.

 

[Tiger Fan]

I've had an ATV 3 for over a year. Worthless IMO. Never use it. If I could jailbreak it, I would probably use it.

My personal project this weekend was to JB my Apple TV 2 once and for all to see what the hype was about.

(in a good way)

I have XBMC running on there with 1Channel, iceFilms, and Navi-X. Can also play any media off of my media server to the Apple TV. This is seriously the greatest thing ever, and I'm mad at myself for being too lazy to do it sooner. I never understood why JB ATV 2's were selling for like $300+ on eBay...now I do. I dare say the breadth and actual content of video available via the above sources not only provides you access to just about any movie or TV show you could reasonably think of, but also alleviates the need to VPN or worry about torrenting files, downloading and storing them. The quality is not top notch in all cases, but is good (in some cases is really good), and I was shockingly surprised at how high the quality was on Navi-X channels that folks live stream.

I know the other boxes/configurations are good in their own rights, but if you have an Apple TV 2 and the patience/time to investigate a setup like this, it's worth your time. I had some learning curve snags with the JB/learning XBMC's quirks for the first time, SFTP vs. repository installs, testing video quality on wireless vs. wired, etc. to tinker with, but it's completely worth it.

I found your post in a search for XBMC. I just got this Android box from Amazon, which is probably pretty similar to a jailbroken ATV, except that it's Android, and already rooted with XBMC pre-loaded. I had no experience with XBMC prior to this, and I'm amazed at the content available on 1Channel alone, and that's just barely scratching the surface. Definitely

Also, I'm having trouble getting Navi X installed. Is that still working for you?

Yep, I was able to get it installed, it is incredible - when their servers are up and running. You will find it under Programs, and not video add-ons in the XBMC dashboard. It has had some crashing issues, and it is related to server upgrades that they are doing currently, which crashes my Apple TV when their servers are down. I reset the ATV and it's fine, but annoying and temporary for the time being. Check their twitter account https://twitter.com/Navi_X as they update the server upgrade status periodically. When it is working, stellar program for watching live TV and movies.

Between 1Channel, ice films, and Navi-X, I'd be hard pressed to try to pinpoint content that wouldn't be available on at least one of those sources. Makes for a clean dashboard too, don't need 100's of add-ons, those will do the trick.

can you explain how this works getting new shows? (i.e. how can one watch last night's Mad Men w/o actually subscribing ot cable)

Once setup, these programs "site scrape" websites that can be accessed from a computer like icefilms, 1channel, etc. Meaning, the programs "scrape," or gather the link information, etc. that is needed to watch the videos linked to by icefilms, 1channel, etc. on your jailbroken ATV or other device running XBMC. Once the repo is downloaded/instaled for icefilms/1channel/Navi-X and you're all setup to go, the ATV does the rest and just plays the content with no downloads, etc. B/S to deal with.

To get a tangible hold on the content that would be available under this setup, check out icefilms dot info or primewire dot ag (redirect for 1channel dot ch). I'd be fairly comfortable saying that media-wise, it's pretty limitless. When True Detective was on, I was watching it within the hour of original airing time.

It's not a slick as an actual cable box, but as a FREE 1a option, it's fairly incredible.

thx

 

[Sinn Fein]

I am sure this has been covered, but lets say I jailbreak my ATV 3, and install XBMC - what exactly does that mean?

Will I still have access to the netflix, hulu, and HBO apps currently on the ATV?

As for other content - where is that content coming from? Do I have to "own" it on a local server/hard drive, or am I streaming it from someplace on the web?

 

[mquinnjr]

I am sure this has been covered, but lets say I jailbreak my ATV 3, and install XBMC - what exactly does that mean?

Will I still have access to the netflix, hulu, and HBO apps currently on the ATV?

As for other content - where is that content coming from? Do I have to "own" it on a local server/hard drive, or am I streaming it from someplace on the web?

I used this site http://support.firecore.com/entries/387605-jailbreaking-101-seas0npass to jailbreak my Apple TV 2. I don't know why, but they haven't been able to jailbreak Apple TV 3 as of yet, so you're out of luck with that model. You can buy an Android based model like Dippa suggested for ~ $100 that comes pre-loaded with XBMC and go from there installing XBMC applications. In short, I spent the better part of a week teaching myself how to load XBMC and the apps, it's not flip of a switch easy. For some people maybe, but it's a process with a learning curve for most.

If you did JB an Apple TV 2, it would function just as it did pre-JB in terms of using Netflix, Hulu, MLB.TV, etc., with the addition of XBMC. XBMC is the centerpiece that allows the ATV to install unsigned/unapproved by Apple software to watch all of the things I was talking about in the previous post, in short watch content instantly outside of the Apple iTunes Store. I'd liken it to using one of those sites previously mentioned on a PC/Mac outside of renting/buying movie/TV content via the iTunes store/Amazon streaming, etc. services.

It all streams instantly, no downloading. That's the beauty of it.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

In my office I have my old 40" 1080p samsung hooked up to my ps3, xbox360, and pc. I hate Netflix and amazon prime. No cable. What else should I do/have? How can I watch sports or the nfl draft in there live?

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Like, are there other services or sites I should familiarize myself with? I know crackle. Does espn have the draft on Xbox etc or do I need to look elsewhere?

 

[culdeus]

Like, are there other services or sites I should familiarize myself with? I know crackle. Does espn have the draft on Xbox etc or do I need to look elsewhere?

what is wrong with nfl.com/live ?

 

[Quez]

Anyone have this Aero TV service that is in the news today? I visited the website and it said "coming soon to Tampa."

 

[matttyl]

Anyone have this Aero TV service that is in the news today? I visited the website and it said "coming soon to Tampa."

I think it's mostly in cities at this time. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why there is this level of litigation about them that it has to go in front of the Supreme Court. They are just rebroadcasting things that you can get for free with an antenna, right?

 

[Quez]

That is my understanding, but I suppose someone could also upload stuff from cable providers?

It sounds to me like there will be something similar that will pop up if they try and squash this.

 

[matttyl]

That is my understanding, but I suppose someone could also upload stuff from cable providers?

It sounds to me like there will be something similar that will pop up if they try and squash this.

It's all about who "owns" the cable airwaves I think. The Gov. regulates them, the broadcasters use them, cable companies pay for them....but who owns them, if anyone?