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We've cut the cable (3 Viewers)

Interesting. Though it doesn't seem to have a big selection of Disney / Nickelodeon shows (and the ones I could find would cost me $2.99 and episode).

 
Im intrigued. What kind of antenna would I need? Anyone have a link? Thanks.
Here's a list of reviews:http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/hdtv-antenna-reviews.phpI have an indoor Terk one and it works great.And this link would tell you what you channels you would get:http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29
 
Im intrigued. What kind of antenna would I need? Anyone have a link?

Thanks.
There's a lot of opinion on that. It depends where you are, distance from broadcast, etc. The antenna We ended up with is an indoor antenna that has "rabbit ears" for lower frequency channels and a hoop for UHF signals. This is an indoor antenna. When it warms up I'll put one on the roof and get Channel 3. For some reason, in our area, it just doesn't come in well with the indoor antenna.Antenna

 
Im intrigued. What kind of antenna would I need? Anyone have a link?

Thanks.
Here's a list of reviews:http://www.hdtvanten...nna-reviews.php

I have an indoor Terk one and it works great.

And this link would tell you what you channels you would get:

http://www.tvfool.co...apper&Itemid=29
Im intrigued. What kind of antenna would I need? Anyone have a link?

Thanks.
There's a lot of opinion on that. It depends where you are, distance from broadcast, etc. The antenna We ended up with is an indoor antenna that has "rabbit ears" for lower frequency channels and a hoop for UHF signals. This is an indoor antenna. When it warms up I'll put one on the roof and get Channel 3. For some reason, in our area, it just doesn't come in well with the indoor antenna.Antenna
Thanks guys!

 
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Tried the Roku but one thing its sorely lacking is the ability to connect to a home media server. So if you have a computer hooked up to your home network with all your dvds on it, you can't watch them via roku. I found it shocking that they didn't have that capability. I went with this instead. I don't think it has hulu or netflix ootb, but if you install playon on said media server, you'll get all of those and a lot more. I mostly wanted the ability to connect all my tvs to a media server as i download all non-sports related content via newsgroups.

 
What exactly is Roku? I looked at the website but I'm technologically stupid.Also, how do you use your computer for your TV? :censored:
Roku basically allows you to watch online programming on your TV. It answers your second question, in part. You can watch all the programming on Netflix and Hulu, and you can rent/purchase new movies and TV shows from Amazon On Demand. There's some other "channels" as well, but for the moment those are the big three content sources.
So basically it is a cable box that utilizes those three content providers and uses your internet connection instead, correct?I'm intrigued by this and will start recording what we typically watch and see if it is available (wife is big on food network)Based on previous comments you can't watch sports that are not OTA?Can you get HBO or are you required to use a provider?Why can't somebody break the monopoly these companies have and provide exactly what we want instead of forcing people to get all of this crap.
Correct. It works as an on-demand box for whatever content is there.Yeah, you can't get HBO or the other pay channels. That's a bit of a problem because based on my thirty seconds or research it doesn't appear that they make their current shows available on demand. It takes a while. I guess they think that they'd lose subscribers, but I suspect it's just a tipping point thing. Once more people start getting their entertainment a la carte, their numbers will change because the gains from a la carte sales will surpass the losses from subscription fees. That's why the non-premium cable stations usually make their content available immediately- the equation has already changed for them. Top Chef from last night is already on Amazon.At the moment you can watch the baseball and hockey out of market games through a Roku channel if you pay the subscription fee. No in-market games, though, and no ESPN. This is the biggest problem with cutting the cable for me.Food stuff: I cook a ton and watch the Food Network a lot. There's a ridiculous amount of content between Netflix, Hulu and Amazon (like I said, Top Chef is already there), plus there's a Chow channel on the Roku with a bunch of cooking programming.
 
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Tried the Roku but one thing its sorely lacking is the ability to connect to a home media server. So if you have a computer hooked up to your home network with all your dvds on it, you can't watch them via roku. I found it shocking that they didn't have that capability. I went with this instead. I don't think it has hulu or netflix ootb, but if you install playon on said media server, you'll get all of those and a lot more. I mostly wanted the ability to connect all my tvs to a media server as i download all non-sports related content via newsgroups.
There's a channel for that now.My link

 
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Tried the Roku but one thing its sorely lacking is the ability to connect to a home media server. So if you have a computer hooked up to your home network with all your dvds on it, you can't watch them via roku. I found it shocking that they didn't have that capability. I went with this instead. I don't think it has hulu or netflix ootb, but if you install playon on said media server, you'll get all of those and a lot more. I mostly wanted the ability to connect all my tvs to a media server as i download all non-sports related content via newsgroups.
There's a channel for that now.My link
Yeah, its a private channel and there appears to be an ongoing battle between playon and roku to get that channel officially supported but that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Even so, you still can't connect to a media server from the roku. There's a playon 3rd party plugin, but its flaky at best.
 
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Oh, I thought you were talking about the playon channel. The roku channel you're referring to is just for external harddrives and thumbdrives that would connect to just that one box. What I'm talking about is an actual computer that the roku could connect to. That way, all the tvs in my house could have rokus that could connect to that same computer. That's what's missing.

 
Tried the Roku but one thing its sorely lacking is the ability to connect to a home media server. So if you have a computer hooked up to your home network with all your dvds on it, you can't watch them via roku. I found it shocking that they didn't have that capability. I went with this instead. I don't think it has hulu or netflix ootb, but if you install playon on said media server, you'll get all of those and a lot more. I mostly wanted the ability to connect all my tvs to a media server as i download all non-sports related content via newsgroups.
Oh yeah, thats why I went with the WDTV Live Plus. It connects wirelessly to your home PC and plays most all media files on the TV. Netflix is nice on it too, but it doesnt do hulu (or other streaming TV like MLB, NFL, etc) unless you roll back the firmware and use PlayOn and then the quality sucks. Too bad one device doesnt do everything as well as provide DVR capabilities.
 
Dropped the Dish 3 months ago and couldn't be happier. Using my htpc for Netflix, Hulu, and to record shows off my antenna.

 
Roku Channel Database

The Roku has many private channels including:

Chaneru streaming home media file manager for the Roku

CNN

Food Network

HGTV

JustinTV - All sports

MLB.TV

NBA Gametime

NHL GameCenter

RocksBox - Stream media from your network

And a few Pron channels

Of all the above mentioned the only one I've downloaded is JustinTV to watch the occasional MNF game. The quality wasn't great but it'll get you by in a pinch.

 
Roku Channel Database

The Roku has many private channels including:

Chaneru streaming home media file manager for the Roku

CNN

Food Network

HGTV

JustinTV - All sports

MLB.TV

NBA Gametime

NHL GameCenter

RocksBox - Stream media from your network

And a few Pron channels

Of all the above mentioned the only one I've downloaded is JustinTV to watch the occasional MNF game. The quality wasn't great but it'll get you by in a pinch.
Quick look at HGTV (again, my wife would kill me if I took this away) and it appears that only the shows they make available on their website are there. and they don't put squat on their website.
 
Is the Roku redundant if you have a internet tv?

Would a PS3 work as well if you pay for the services?

Also what is the price for subscribing to all of these services like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon?

 
Is the Roku redundant if you have a internet tv? Would a PS3 work as well if you pay for the services? Also what is the price for subscribing to all of these services like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon?
I assume it's redundant, but I don't have an internet TV so I can't say.Hulu and Netflix are like $8 a month I think. You can skip Hulu IMO. I keep meaning to cancel it but I've been too lazy. Amazon is mostly a la carte, although they recently made a bunch of stuff available for free (but I think you have to be a Prime member).I don't know about the PS3, but the Xbox has Netflix. If the PS3 does, no reason to get a Roku unless you want to have that capability on more than one TV- or if you really want to buy a la carte programming from Amazon.
 
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Interesting. Though it doesn't seem to have a big selection of Disney / Nickelodeon shows (and the ones I could find would cost me $2.99 and episode).
Don't worry, Dora the Explorer is on Netflix.Kids don't care if its new or old.
Must have TV shows for my kids are; iCarly, Spongebob, Phineas & Ferb, Victorious, Suite Life...
All 5 available on Netflix.
Wow, just searched Netflix and did not realize they had so many streaming TV shows (always thought it was just for movies).Now, the only problem is the HGTV shows... the wife is going to want her House Hunters.

 
Wow, just searched Netflix and did not realize they had so many streaming TV shows (always thought it was just for movies).
It's really only good if you've missed out on a program entirely. It can be a good two seasons behind current. We started Dexter on it, but needed to eventually move back to the DVD in the mail environment. We're now onto Damages, but catching up fast.
 
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Why do you need a home phone line if you have a cell phone?
It's a work phone. I try not to use it unless I have to outside of work.
Use google voice and you can get rid of the land line for free.Google voice will forward any calls made to any other phone for free. I have a google voice # that I use and it rings both my cell phone and my wife's cell phone whenever anyone calls it.With Google voice you can record phone calls and even use it with your gmail account, also you can call block and even listen to voice mails live.Also I get 2 cents a minutes calls to Holland and most of Europe,but you have to prepay - which is actually good for us for budget reasons.All you phone calls are listed on your account and you can even set up groups with permissions.
 
I write off my internet bill during tax time.

My directv bill is around 180 a month. We have every imaginable channel known to man.

Tell me how I would get the following if I dropped directv:

Dexter

Big Love

NFL Sunday Ticket

East Bound and Down

 
Would love to do this, but I've got phone, internet, and HD cable with a DVR for $100/month. I have no need for the phone, but the internet by itself would cost me $65/month. For $35, cable is worth it, but if I could get internet for, say, $40/month, I'd probably pull the plug.

 
I write off my internet bill during tax time.My directv bill is around 180 a month. We have every imaginable channel known to man. Tell me how I would get the following if I dropped directv:DexterBig LoveNFL Sunday TicketEast Bound and Down
For the TV shows, you could just wait a few months until they come out on DVD or stream on Netflix.For NFL games just watch them on the computer. :)
 
Would love to do this, but I've got phone, internet, and HD cable with a DVR for $100/month. I have no need for the phone, but the internet by itself would cost me $65/month. For $35, cable is worth it, but if I could get internet for, say, $40/month, I'd probably pull the plug.
See. They've got you. Everything bundled into one package. If you ask, you will get it. $65 for internet alone is ridiculous. You can do better.
 
We are cheap and poor, not your typical FBG. We've finally done it. 2 months ago we turned off our TV cable service, got an indoor OTA antenna, and used our Wii for Netflix, which we had been using for sometime. Then got a Roku (HD version much better than Wii) for another TV in the house. Got the cable bill the next month and the phone portion was still $62 a month including taxes. So I went out and got the MajicJack at BestBuy last week. Had to tweak my host PC a bit to get it to run well all the time. It worked great, but the one place (so far) that couldn't call my new number was every phone from work. I had to contact the phone carrier that my work uses because they did not have the new prefix working. I think what happens is YMAX (MajicJack)has some prefixes in area codes and they do no get setup in certain telecom's exchanges, for whatever reason.So that's over $100 a month saved, and really more over time because they are always upping the charges (and taxes) Now that I no longer use phone or cable, I can shop internet service. Looks like I can get that for $20/month for 8Mbps, which is $10 a month cheaper that we are paying now.I know the MajicJack seems a little chintzy, but it works! Plus we still have our work cell phones.Who else?
I haven't had cable in years and my wife loves the MajicJack.
 
Netflix is trying to make a deal to be able to stream TV shows sooner. Right now the shows you see mostly on Netflix are from the previous season programming. That's good if you want to watch season one of The Office. But what if I want to watch last night's episode of Modern Family? Netflix doesn't have it.

Pretty soon ABC.com will stop posting their episodes the next day. It seems if Netflix pays more to be able to post new shows, the price to join will go up accordingly.

OTA is a good picture. I'd like to get an Xbox for netflix and just watch network shows/sports on OTA antenna. My problem is catching up on missed shows the next day without having to watch on my laptop. DVR was good for this reason.

 
Would love to do this, but I've got phone, internet, and HD cable with a DVR for $100/month. I have no need for the phone, but the internet by itself would cost me $65/month. For $35, cable is worth it, but if I could get internet for, say, $40/month, I'd probably pull the plug.
See. They've got you. Everything bundled into one package. If you ask, you will get it. $65 for internet alone is ridiculous. You can do better.
Full disclosure: I agreed to a two year contract when I got this package. It's set to expire in October, and it'd be $150 to get out of it early. Not worth it right now, but might be worth revisiting come October.
 
Every few months I come back to entertaining the idea of dumping DirecTV for a couple of Roku players.

But as others have mentioned, if I want last night's episode of a show, I'm SOL.

 
Every few months I come back to entertaining the idea of dumping DirecTV for a couple of Roku players. But as others have mentioned, if I want last night's episode of a show, I'm SOL.
Simply not true (for most shows). Subscribe to Hulu+ ($8/mo) and your shows are available immediately after they air.
 
I also got rid of cable. I had decided to go from a basic channel (60 channels at $55.00) to regular basic (12 channels) until I saw that was 16 dollars a month. Bought an indoor antenna which picks up all the major networks in HD quality (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX), and some local channels. Good enough for me, the rare time I want to catch local news on tv.

I have a roku player which is awesome.

Of the pay channels offered on the roku, I currently subscribe to:

Netflix Streaming (7.99 per month)

Hulu Plus (7.99 per month)

Amazon on Demand (I am an Amazon prime member so I have access to their streaming database. I pay 79.00 a year)

This gives me more than enough content.

 
Every few months I come back to entertaining the idea of dumping DirecTV for a couple of Roku players. But as others have mentioned, if I want last night's episode of a show, I'm SOL.
Simply not true (for most shows). Subscribe to Hulu+ ($8/mo) and your shows are available immediately after they air.
I stand corrected. On the Hulu site, many of the TV shows have a description like "1 Season - 17 Episodes" which led me to believe that (for instance) Modern Family only has season one on there. So I drilled down and did see that the season is the current one. Yeah Apparently I'm new at the innernets. :rolleyes: That said, I just grabbed a Roku XD and 6ft HDMI cable from Amazon.psyched
 
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I did this right after the superbowl, but with appletv instead of roku. If you have an iphone or ipad, the interface and the new airplay feature make it better than roku imo. I love being able to stream my entire mp3 collection directly to my home theater system with just a few swipes on my phone while laying in bed in the morning.

You can control all of apple tv including netflix with your iphone. You can type with your iphone/ipad keyboard instead of going to each letter and clicking the remote. Everything is so streamlined.

Cons:

-only 720p. not that huge of a deal imo as there isn't a lot of streaming 1080p content out there yet.

-having to convert every downloaded video file to a mac compatible format before streaming it to apple tv. Handbrake makes it pretty easy though.

I bought this RCA antenna, but I only really got two channels to come in clearly so I returned it. Did I buy the wrong antenna? Can anyone recommend one?

I live near downtown so I wonder if there is just too much interference for it to work for me.

I don't know what I will do during football season. I may have to get cable again just for September - February. There are a lot of sites that stream nfl games, but it just isn't the same as watching it in HD on the big screen.

 
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Has anyone cut all the cables? Phone, home internet, and tv cable, and gone with a mobile internet provider like ClearWire? (Using an internet based phone service?) I've still got 9 months on my phone contract, so I'm not rushing to do this, but I started thinking about it after I bought an ipad.

 
Jesus H. Christ are we in the Great Depression 2 here?

I'm expecting someone to start a thread in the FFA on how they pick through barrels on trash day looking for cans/bottles

 
I bought this RCA antenna, but I only really got two channels to come in clearly so I returned it. Did I buy the wrong antenna? Can anyone recommend one?
I bought this one:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Terk+-+Omnidirectional+Amplified+UHF/VHF+Indoor+Antenna+-+Gloss+Black/9415215.p?id=1218101178216&skuId=9415215&cmp=RMX&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=9415215

It's not perfect, but I get about 20+ channels. I live in the city though.

 
Jesus H. Christ are we in the Great Depression 2 here?I'm expecting someone to start a thread in the FFA on how they pick through barrels on trash day looking for cans/bottles
It's not that I'm trying to pinch pennies. It's just that I only really watch about 1-2 hours of TV a night and everything I watch is available free online somewhere, so I figured why not save $85 a month? Most of the cable channels were junk and I would only really focus on a few non network ones. And I don't know if you realize how much is available out there via netflix, hulu, etc. I have no regrets getting rid of cable.
 

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