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Get rid of Cable TV

G

gdiddy

Android Enthusiast
I've been reading about services like:

Hulu
NetFlix
Roku 3
TiVo

What is the best way to stream TV from my computer?

Cable TV bills are crazy expensive and I don't watch enough TV to warrant paying so much....IMO.

Do you stream live TV?
If so, what service do you use and how do you do that?

Or maybe I'll go with DirectTV or Dish.
Please share your thoughts.

Thanks.
 
For years I have connected my TV to a computer. More recently using HDMI. I have a choice of what to watch and no cable bill. If I wanted to pay for something there's Netflix and services like it. It also comes in handy when hooking in a stereo receiver and using Google play music or listening to those movies in your flavor of 2, 5, 7 channel audio. Very flexible
 
Your answer is great...Thanks.

But, I'm still a bit unclear.

What do you mean....."listening to those movies in your flavor of 2, 5, 7 channel audio. Very flexible."

Do you use an App?
Can you spoon feed me what you're trying to say?

Please.
I'm clueless. -:)
 
gdiddy said:
Your answer is great...Thanks.

But, I'm still a bit unclear.

What do you mean....."listening to those movies in your flavor of 2, 5, 7 channel audio. Very flexible."

Do you use an App?
Can you spoon feed me what you're trying to say?

Please.
I'm clueless. -:)
Click to expand...

by connecting the pc to your stereo receiver via hdmi, you can use many speakers to enhance the sound. so.......2 speakers, 5 speakers, and 7 speakers, is what bhero means.
 
I (in the UK) just use the free to view channels on Freeview although at some point, I might also add the free to view satellite service Freesat

The system uses mythtv as the dvr.

The mythtv master backed is attached to the tv. This uses an HDHomeRun dual tuner. This is used for recordings only.

Additionally 2 PCs have tv cards in them. TV viewing wise, they are normally used to watch live tv from other locations in the house but they can act as mythv slave backends, giving me a total of 4 tuners I can use for recording (and depending on how channels and multiplexes work out, up to 8 simultaneous recordings).

Android wise, at the moment I'm using skifta and I can only play recordings but using mythweb, the mythtv web front end, I could easily schedule a recording on an Android and watch the recorded stream.

It;s not really much of an issue to me but one thing I can't do at the moment is record HD programs as I've nothing that can record the dvbT2 standard used over here for that. Of course if/when I add freesat, I'll have a few HD channels available.

Mythtv btw does have a Netflix module but I'm only interested in our free to view channels.
 
A drift but sound wise in the living room, we are just stereo. Using a Samson Rubicon 10s sub and Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 pro active speakers.
 
I have been using NetFlix to stream movies and video from my PS3. The good, NetFlix has a large library to choose from. The bad, it takes longer than other services to get new stuff. The future, NetFlix just signed a partnership with Dreamworks Studio to be able to stream original content with Dreamworks and have some content excusive for NetFlix.

Netflix to air DreamWorks animation shows- MSN Money

Another option is Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime seems to have newer content available quicker. Plus you get free shipping and the Prime library if you're a reader.
 
We have a Roku, Netflix and Amazon Prime. In addition a basic digital antenna for OTA stuff. Have done this for nearly 3 years now and don't see any reason to go back. :)
 
Freeview here, too. Also considered FreeSat, but it didn't add enough to be worth Chav-ing up the house with a satellite dish ;)

We occasionally watch stuff via the various catch up services, but usually use my missus iPad for that rather than connect to a TV .. even though one of our TVs has most of 'em built in.

I used to have Virgin (re-branded TeleWest then), but then I discovered that they'd sneaked the price up from
 
SiempreTuna said:
Also considered FreeSat, but it didn't add enough to be worth Chav-ing up the house with a satellite dish ;)
Click to expand...

We'd be OK in that respect. It would be facing a 40 acre field. If I do it, I might have to sort of extend it away from the house though. There is a big apple tree that might block its "view" if attached to the house. Woudn't fell that for 2 reasons. a) it's not on our land but on a bit we rent and b) It's a wonderful tree that makes the most delicious apple juice I've ever tasted...
 
i have several friends that have kicked cable and you're right it's ridiculous in price now. I really want to but i like a lot of shows that i couldn't get without cable...ie Food Network...and the wife and I like Dexter on Showtime and she watches True Blood. There are a lot of options. Do more research maybe on google and see what other options are.
 
We ditched cable nearly three years ago and haven't looked back. We use a combination of Netflix and Hulu to watch everything that we're interested in. We aren't home enough to justify paying what the cable companies watch. The worst part of it is that we have to wait a day for The Daily Show to become available on Hulu, but that's it.
 
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