[NA] Streaming TV?

CJones

CJones

Final Approach
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uHaveNoIdea
I'm tired of paying crazy prices for cable when I don't watch 3/4 of the channels that I'm getting charged for.

Has anyone kicked the cable habit and been able to successfully set up some sort of streaming/downloadable computer setup? We used HULU a few years ago when we were getting caught up on previous seasons of LOST. Are there any services out there that have more 'up to date' episodes of shows? I wouldn't even mind paying a reasonable monthly fee for a good service - there's no way it could cost as much as cable.

I wouldn't even mind buying or building a beefy media server to manage things - at least I would have something tangible for my money.

Any suggestions?
 
Hulu has a lot of good programming. But my connection is too slow to watch them. They're all herky jerky.
If anyone knows a way to download from them to watch later, I'd sure like to know how you do it. So far I've had no luck.
 
Chris - since you're not running Linux, I have the best example of how to do exactly what you want to do, EVER!

You'll want to check out TVersity. It integrates with Hulu, YouTube, and a number of other options, AND.....

You can use it to stream movies from your PC to your TV, AND.....

You can use it to stream television shows from your PC to your TV, AND.....

Its either free, or cheap, depending on which features you want.

TVersity rules....I just wish there was a Linux option that didn't rely on Wine.

Edit: Wow, that read like SPAM. I might need to change my writing style....
 
There's a ton of services like that, the most popular is Boxee. There's also a number of boxes doing that in case you don't want to fiddle with a computer, e.g. Roku.

P.S. Apple cultists can just use Apple TV.
 
CJones said:
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Have you tried to see what you can pick up over-the-air? One thing I like about the "digital" transition is that a lot of stations now have subchannels that ups the amount of free content. Whether that stuff is of any value is up for debate, but depending on how close you are to a good size market and your dwelling arrangements, you can snag the free stuff for just a few bucks.
 
Trapper John said:
Have you tried to see what you can pick up over-the-air? One thing I like about the "digital" transition is that a lot of stations now have subchannels that ups the amount of free content. Whether that stuff is of any value is up for debate, but depending on how close you are to a good size market and your dwelling arrangements, you can snag the free stuff for just a few bucks.
Click to expand...

Agreed, although what the feds call "local" is an interesting twist. I am well within the boundaries of Dallas, north-ish (transmitting towers are just south of downtown Dallas). With analog TV, I could pick up all local channels well using rabbit-ears. Digital? Gotta have a roof-top antenna for all but a couple. Bad deal.
 
SCCutler said:
Agreed, although what the feds call "local" is an interesting twist. I am well within the boundaries of Dallas, north-ish (transmitting towers are just south of downtown Dallas). With analog TV, I could pick up all local channels well using rabbit-ears. Digital? Gotta have a roof-top antenna for all but a couple. Bad deal.
Click to expand...

Some stations dropped their transmitter power in the transition. Good for them, not so good for some of the people trying to pick up the signal. Chalk it up to progress, being green or whathaveyou.

If all of the transmitting towers are in the same general direction, you might be OK with an antenna in your attic, which saves the ugliness, weather damage, grounding issues, etc. associated with an outdoor antenna.

One of our TVs is a low-end Samsung plasma that acted like it wasn't getting enough signal that was actually getting swamped by too much signal. Once we figured that out, smooth sailing.
 
Chris,

What do you watch?

There are a LOT of shows that offer full episodes on their own web sites. That is how I watch things like South Park, The Daily Show, etc.

ABC has an excellent "ABC Player" app on the iPad that you can use to watch all of their shows. Quality is excellent.

For other stuff - Hulu, iTunes, etc. pick up the slack for me.

If you absolutely HAVE to watch what's going on on American Idol TONIGHT so you can gossip about it with your coworkers tomorrow morning - You're stuck with cable, I think.
 
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