internet tv--help me through this

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hornet driver

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First off, treat me like I'm 2 years old. I'm sick and tired of paying Time Warner 200 bucks a month for Cable tv/phone/internet! I don't need a phone in the house--and I don't need 900 channels most of which are duplicated as I click higher-I sure as hell don't need the Spanish channels or the Hungarian bear hunting channel. I know there are some downsides to internet TV--there seems to be few. We only watch a few programs. Most of them we can see the next day or week online so that's not a problem--I do watch NASCAR and that seems to be a hitch---hmm. The high end service seems to run about 65 to 80 bucks a month depending on the provider so I'm cool with that and I know there are some small monthly fees for things like hulu and such. Can you guys point me in the right direction? Any really bad downside to doing this? Thanks in advance---H
 
I get my standard network channels in UNCOMPRESSED HD using a 30 year old UHF/VHF antenna. I picked up a used HD Tivo box with lifetime service for $200, and now I have NO monthly bill. I only got the Tivo so I could have the DVR functionality. For the occasional movie, I can get via Amazon or others. None of the cable or dish companies can claim uncompressed HD. All depends on what you want to watch and where you can get it.
-Ken
 
I like new2hpr's idea. We are basically trapped with Comcast to get high speed internet. DSL throughput dropped so bad in our neighborhood about 5 years ago, that our only option was Comcast. Some better competition in broadband services is really needed here, and probably most places.

We want to ditch our DishTV, just because we have so much money flowing out for communications/entertainment -- cell phones, internet, landline phone (via Comcast -- my wife is finally ready to give that up) and TV. The one service we really like is Netflix, which has added so much content I cannot shrink the size of my Play List,. And some TV shows have moved or are moving to Netflix. My wife likes Longmire, which I believe was AMC, but got cancelled. Netflix picked it up. for the new season.

I bought a Chromecast dongle last year, and it is great for use on multiple TVs (moving it around is required, kind of like a flash drive). But you do need a modern TV with HDMI to use it. You can use your PC, tablet, or smartphone to control it. Cost is only $35. It will also cast a Chrome bowser to a TV, so I use it in my shop when I have to look up something, and maybe play a YouTube how-to video.
 
I cut the cable TV cord in 2009 and haven't looked back since.

At the time I also cut the cable internet cord, switching to lower cost DSL. Eventually I went back to cable for internet and house phone, because DSL was just too dang slow. Over the last six years, I've saved something like $4000, even factoring in expenses (a home theater PC, Netflix subscription, etc.) along the way.

My current setup is as follows. And, for the record, my household isn't interested in sports, so access to live sports isn't a requirement.

We've got two TVs. Both are smart TVs that can access Netflix etc. The TV the kids use has an Xbox 360 that lets them play their library of DVDs. They can also access the kids account on Netflix.

The main TV currently gets Neflix streaming ($8/month grandfathered in I believe), Amazon Prime (the cost of prime is driven by our use of Amazon for shopping, and we see the streaming as thrown in for free), and we are now trying out Hulu's commercial free stuff ($12/month). We also get all the main OTA network programming for free. So, content cost so far = $20.

Now, Netflix's streaming library is very very small, maybe 15% of their overall library as relates to content I like. So we also subscribe to their DVD+bluray service for several discs. This runs I think $20/month, wrapped up with the streaming for around ~$30 total). On a big screen, the difference between DVD and BluRay is very apparent, so I hate watching DVDs on the big TV. So content wise we're in for about $40/month, or more like $30 / month if we give up Hulu after trying it for a while.

To get the most out of my disc subscription with NF, I buffer them onto my home theater PC. I have software (with a lifetime license) that lets me rip the movie content off the DVD/BluRay discs and store it on my HTPC or server until I watch it. Before anyone starts thinking I'm a pirate, note for the record that I just buffer it temporarily until I watch it, then I delete it. This is just like DVRing content from the cable company, legally. I'm not sharing the content with anyone out of my household, and I don't keep stuff long-term. But I buffer a bunch of movies so I've always got about 10-15 movies and a couple TV series ready to watch. So if there's an internet glitch or whatever, I've still got plenty to watch, not even counting the stuff I record off the air from local stations on the HTPC.

The HTPC (home theater PC) is a 2009 era machine I built myself and have upgraded lightly (video card and SSD for the operating system), and it runs Windows 7 like a champ. The interface is Emby (used to be called Media Browser). From the HTPC I can play back my OTA recorded network shows or any of the content I've ripped from discs, all with full metadata support. Though it's a computer, it's essentially an appliance.

My only angst is that over the last few years the cost of cable internet here has gone from ~50/month to about $90/month. I have no practical alternative that gives reproducible speeds sufficient for streaming content in HD.

All in all I'm quite pleased. I get any content I want (NF disc library is huge!), and much of it is available instantly via streaming, and whatever cool movies I want in full HD without streaming compression I get on bluray. Life is good with an HTPC.

That's how I roll. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Marc
 
Thanks guys, I've already pulled the trigger on this and have a smart TV on the way. Your input was much needed and appreciated. I think the only problem might be the NASCAR thing and after a little digging that might not even be an issue. It looks like this is the way to go until this gets priced out of the market. By that time , it's rabbit ears for me anyway!--Thanks again --H
 
With Time Warner this might not be an issue, but with Comcast I had a surprise. We cut the cable TV out and just kept the internet which saved us a bundle. Then we found out we had an internet cap of 300 GB a month. This showed up shortly after we got a couple of Amazon Firesticks and an email from Comcast showed up letting us know we'd used 90% of our 300 GB and anything over would cost extra money.

After checking around a bunch we found out that the Firesticks were likely burning through the GBs, so we replaced them with Roku and the usage dropped dramatically. Problem solved. We are able to maintain under 300 GB a month so far.

The point is, make sure you bother to ask your ISP about a data cap when you switch to streaming all your TV and movies.
 
My Internet is through Comcast cable at $70 a month (20Mb download speed paid for, 60Mb observed). Our town is putting in their own fiber optic service and it will be 1Gb up/dn for $50 per month. Will switch as soon as the fiber is pulled. They're putting in the conduit behind my house right now! Can't wait to dump the cable company.
-Ken
 
My Internet is through Comcast cable at $70 a month (20Mb download speed paid for, 60Mb observed). Our town is putting in their own fiber optic service and it will be 1Gb up/dn for $50 per month. Will switch as soon as the fiber is pulled. They're putting in the conduit behind my house right now! Can't wait to dump the cable company.
-Ken

I'm so envious of your fiber future... my community doesn't yet have it available for love or money.

In part it's because I hate paying so much for slower cable, but the other part is my upload speed limit basically prevents me from streaming video to my house to other locations if I travel or want to show off for my friends...
 
,l,, TV. Haven't had it for years and don't miss it at all. 4G Clear Wireless @ $35 a month, Magic Jack phone @ $2.50 a month. Clear is going down in November and the new wireless will be $2 more a month.

You want local news get a newspaper...
 
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