Primer for TV over Internet?

General discussions and other topics.
15 posts Page 1 of 2
by virtualmike2 » Thu May 26, 2011 1:25 am
With my fast Fusion connection, I'm interested in seeing what I can do with TV via Internet.

Before I start wading through the pool of Google results, I thought I'd see if anyone can recommend some particularly good resources or primers so I can educate myself about options.

Our cable provider (not Comcrap^H^H^H^Hcast) is pretty good, and we've been generally satisfied by the service, but if we can cut some costs,

We have four TVs on cable (not Comcrap^H^H^H^Hcast), two of which are digital with HD. The household has three computers and one Android smartphone. We'd probably be satisfied watching some shows on computers, but there are some we'd like to see on the large screen HD.

Apologies for what may sound like a trivial question, but this is an area of technology where I've not had the personal bandwidth to explore until now. ...thanks!
by ultramookie » Thu May 26, 2011 6:39 am
we cut the cord (from dish network) with a few changes:

1) ota antenna + hdhomerun + windows media center + xbox frontend
2) roku streaming box + amazon + crackle (substitute netflix + hulu if you wish)
3) blockbuster by mail

you probably want to explore a roku box or boxee box or just putting together your own htpc running boxee. that'll get you a lot of content via the internet.
by darrylo » Thu May 26, 2011 6:56 am
These are old articles, but they're still fairly valid:

http://lifehacker.com/5475091/how-can-i ... ies-online
http://lifehacker.com/5667680/ditching- ... reaming-tv

One thing to note is that clicker.com is less useful these days, because its database of shows seems to have shrunk.
by kentrak » Thu May 26, 2011 5:50 pm
If you are interested in a cheap device to supplement what you have with a good smattering of online options and
ultramookie wrote:we cut the cord (from dish network) with a few changes:

1) ota antenna + hdhomerun + windows media center + xbox frontend
2) roku streaming box + amazon + crackle (substitute netflix + hulu if you wish)
3) blockbuster by mail

you probably want to explore a roku box or boxee box or just putting together your own htpc running boxee. that'll get you a lot of content via the internet.
Boxee is supposed to be pretty good now as a general media player since they've gotten some kinks worked out.

Roku is good as a dead simple internet streamer. They have some USB and local media (through extra channels) support, but the codecs supported are VERY limited compared to other devices. That said, they have an active, vibrant developer community (I developed a few channels for the device with a friend), and it's CHEAP. The low-end offering is $60, and still does 720p. You get 1080p for $80. Here's a comparison of their products from their site

Obviously I have much more info on the Roku because I'm much more involved, so feel free to consider that when reading my thoughts on the devices.
by dane » Sat May 28, 2011 3:08 pm
I posted reviews of the Roku and Boxee on my blog a while back, you may find them interesting. I am now using an AppleTV as well, and I plan to write that up too.

Find the postings here: http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/?s=Review%3A

-Dane
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by dane » Sat May 28, 2011 5:03 pm
AppleTV review is published: http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/2011/05/28/re ... -the-show/

-Dane
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by virtualmike2 » Sat May 28, 2011 9:34 pm
Thanks to all for the responses.

Christopher, yours disappeared for some reason... can you repost?
by aidandunne » Tue May 31, 2011 3:24 pm
We have an xbox360 with kinect that streams netfix and hulu plus ( HDMI, plus it has an optical out );
Some netflix/hulu streams are HD; Certainly not bluray quality, but hard to quantify as the streams are reported as 1080p on the TV. I do see some artifacts ( color-banding ) etc. that you won't usually see on a bluray, and the streams will adjust quality if your bandwidth fluctuates, but I think it's close to digital cable, and sometimes the quality is exceptional.
I've been using netflix instant streaming and hulu for a while now and I do notice the volume of decent content is increasing, but I don't think it competes in this arena with DirectTV/Comcast yet; and certainly not with the more expensive packages, but I only pay about $15-$20per month for the 2 streaming options ( and we get 1 bluray at a time from netflix) .
You could just sign up and give these a shot for a month and see what you think; it's a reasonable investment to test-drive it. You could just hook up one of your pcs to your tv for a while and check it out before you make any extra investment in a console or streaming box etc. If you have a pc with hdmi out then you should be all set; if not then you can get a DVI->HDMI cable from amazon ( http://amzn.com/B001TH7T2U ); you'd just need to route the audio some other way.

good luck.
ad
by tikvah » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:19 am
Would love some input. I have an ordinary 30 some odd inch TV. No HD or anything like that. I actually get better picture quality (and widescreen) on my iMac but don't want to watch TV sitting at my computer when I could be on a comfy couch. Also want my daughter to be able to watch shows she likes on the TV while I have my computer free.

(in order of importance)
1. We have Netflix and want to use the instant watch feature.
2. We would like to be able to watch various things from the internet/computer such as TV episodes we forgot to set the DVR for, longer videos, etc. Maybe some home videos/pix.
3. We have Sonic's Direct TV and want to use the On Demand feature.

We do not have iPods/Pads/smart anything/laptops/game units/Wii. We have an Apple Time Machine providing wireless service but our computers are wired with regular (not fast) ethernet since they're in the same room. We have Macs and use Fusion.

I'm thinking I want the cheapest Roku and that's it. And maybe we'll have to run an ethernet wire under the house to set up Direct TV On Demand. Money *is* an object.

If anyone thinks another option is better for this configuration, please speak up!

Thanks,
Cyndi
by sabenson » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:09 pm
What is the Forums stand on Piracy? :p
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