Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

[bruceb58]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

I got scammed into playing golf. Since I like it so much, I am now forced to buy nice golf clubs and join a golf club.

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Ya have a 6 pack. Get a DUI and a free ride to the slammer

If we're watching our entertainment dollars, I'm sure $3.00 a bottle beers are out.

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Yep. At least I am consistent!

Yes you are

 

[jkust]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

In the United Kingdom any household watching or recording live television transmissions as they are being broadcast (terrestrial, satellite, cable, or internet) is required to hold a television licence. Since 1 April 2010 the annual license fee has been ?145.50 for colour and ?49.00 for black and white. That's about $250.00 a year just for the right to receive TV signals.

Not surprising but completely new info to me. Is this like paying a Use Tax when you don't pay sales tax on an internet purchase? Meaning nobody actually pays it?

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

If we're watching our entertainment dollars, I'm sure $3.00 a bottle beers are out.

You're paying for the Bars Cable bill and then some Doh!

 

[eavega]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

A question on the streaming boxes. (Roku / Apple / Etc.) I looked at several ads and the thing I don't see is a description of what video formats are supported. What happens when a new or "improved" codec comes out? Or a network decides to use their own proprietary schema? How do you update the players to handle them?

The Roku does do periodic updates, where they add new channels and update firmware. So far I have not thrown anything at the Roku it hasn't been able handle. Since the Roku's value proposition is being able to access online content, and content providers still have to keep their content compatible with current web technology, my assumption is that they would be very responsive in finding a way to continue to deliver content even if a provider somehow manages to change its content format.


Rgds

Eric

 

[sam60]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

I've liked this site for many years, but I am easily entertained.....Beeline TV - Watch Online TV - Free Internet TV - Live TV Channels

 

[colbyt]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

So if I want to play a streamed *.mkv video I'm out of luck? What about the hundreds of movies I have stored on my local server or it is really all about the internet?

Roku sucks for stored files and pictures from a NAS (free standing HD with a DLNA mini server built in).

You may want to take a look at Neos Max if that is what you want to do.

Roku updates itself once per day and works with anyone who has created a channel for it. That includes all paid services and about a 1000 others.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Heard all those statements before, like 10 years ago.

I've heard them even longer before that. But 10 years ago we didn't quite have a way built up to deliver. It's gotten a lot closer since then. Content development and production have gotten WAY easier to do in the last 10 years. You can do a decent indie film a LOT cheaper now than you could in 2003.

Also, the digital pipeline has really expanded - and it's still cookin' along. 10 years ago who would have been worried about bandwidth to support streaming or downloading a GB of information? Only the super-geeks were keeping TB drives at home.

iTunes wasn't really launched until 2000 (I think) and the store wasn't online until about '03 - it took Nashville and LA another 4 to 6 years to figure out how to deal with it. The digital revolution in the music industry (I think) has actually expanded the market - and it hasn't killed radio. Though, radio is having to change how it deals with content delivery.

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Now it looks like DTV is going to drop The Weather Channel. I thought something was up when there was a new type weather channel next to the old one. I am guessing WTC wanted more money from DTV? WTC has gotten away from its original 24/7/365 weather format. Now it is into reality TV with the dreadful series Highway to Hail and other junk. The new channel is back to the basics and not so hot looking women forecasters LOL . I won't really miss WTC all that much but it highlights the pressure from these shows for Cable/dish to increase customer rates

 

[eavega]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Sounds cheaper and simpler to pick up a cheap PC (nothing proprietary) and connect it. Just sayin...

While Roku does have a Roku-labeled local media skin now, it did have a previous "channel" for local media called "My Media" which is actually a stripped down component of the PlayOn server. I run the full PlayOn server on one of my workhorse PCs. Rather than relying on the Roku to have updated codecs to play media files directly, PlayOn does on-the-fly convert and stream of locally stored content. Another server that does this very well is Plex. Plex is free (I think) and has a VERY nice interface for Roku, where it displays cover art for DVDs, television shows, etc. Keeps track of unwatched items, popular (i.e. you watch them a lot) items, and again has an on-the-fly transcribe and stream scheme which will handle any format (.mkv, H264, basically anything that lives in a .avi wrapper as well as QT format). One additional step, but the end result is as long as I maintain the updates, my locally stored media is presented to me as just another channel on my Roku.

Rgds

Eric

 

[atx111]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Wow! I haven't been able to check this thread for a couple days, but there is a lot more feedback than I thought there'd be! I guess at one time I thought myself to be pretty tech savvy, but apparently not anymore!

 

[eavega]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Umm, if you are using a PC (server) why do you need the Roku? I checked yesterday and TigerDirect has dual core, small foot print PC's with decent specs, HDMI, Ethernet, Windows 7 for $150 (refurbished). Install VCL player (free) and it a done deal.

Sure a single PC works, unless you want to serve media to more than one TV. My locally stored media resides in one place, I manage my content from one place. The Roku devices simply acts as a client connection into my home network for the 3 TVs I have in the house, plus I have connectivity for my mobile devices to my server if I need it. Since you can get the Roku devices for less than $50, it makes more sense from a cost and management standpoint to have one central server serving up the same media to n client devices.

Rgds

Eric

 

[southkogs]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Umm, if you are using a PC (server) why do you need the Roku? I checked yesterday and TigerDirect has dual core, small foot print PC's with decent specs, HDMI, Ethernet, Windows 7 for $150 (refurbished). Install VCL player (free) and it a done deal.

For me - I realize, not necessarily for others - I make HUGE use of the portability of the AppleTV. It's small enough that I can pack it easily and use it to do presentations, take it on vacation and just plug into whatever TV is there, etc., etc. That's actually the main reason I got mine - screen sharing for groups.

 

[Grandad]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

Sure a single PC works, unless you want to serve media to more than one TV. My locally stored media resides in one place, I manage my content from one place. The Roku devices simply acts as a client connection into my home network for the 3 TVs I have in the house, plus I have connectivity for my mobile devices to my server if I need it. Since you can get the Roku devices for less than $50, it makes more sense from a cost and management standpoint to have one central server serving up the same media to n client devices.

Rgds

Eric

On the advice of my son, we got one of these. You do need one for each TV. It may be similar to the Roku, I dunno.
Raspberry Pi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Can be operated from your smart phone. We opted for a dedicated remote control after finding our wireless intranet frustratingly slow to respond. With the right free software (XBMC?), we can access files movies, TV shows, videos and music stored on any of our several computers. I'm not a computer tech savvy guy, so my wife is the IT person in our house. All I know is it works great. - Grandad

 

[rivermouse]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

I saw a HDTV antenna at costco for 39 dollars..Has anyone tried one of these?

 

[DayCruiser]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

I am going to have to make some kind of change if DTV keeps going up on their rates. Just too many other bills to pay

 

[eavega]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

If you are serving content how do you get around the constant new and improved codecs required? I haven't found a single streaming device that can handle MKV or even the latest version of MOV files in my searching and reading.

The codecs (and updates thereof) are handled by the server, not the devices. The server determines the device it is streaming to and transcribes it on the fly into a format that the device understands. If I am not mistaken, I believe that will work in all cases as long as 1. the SERVER has the required codecs and 2. the target device and server are DLNA-compliant. We are talking about a media server here, not a file server. A simple file server or NAS device won't do the transcoding, and therefore the client device would have to have the proper codecs. Keeping up with that would be a nightmare if you have multiple devices.

Rgds

Eric

 

[eavega]

Re: Getting Ready to Cut the Cord

I saw a HDTV antenna at costco for 39 dollars..Has anyone tried one of these?

I'm sure it will work just fine. I don't think there is really such thing as an HDTV antenna. The signals themselves are transported and received the same as they always have. The difference with HDTV (or rather DTV) signal is that the signal itself is encoded digitally rather than analog. This results in being able to move more information over the same frequency, thus giving the FCC the ability to "slice up" the frequency. DTV signals are really all about location and direction. If you have unobstructed pont-to-point transmission and reception of a signal you are golden. For comparison; my first DTV antenna was an old pair of rabbit ears/bowtie that I had stashed away in a box of "stuff I may need some day". When I cut the cord for the first time due to a job loss, I rigged up the rabbit ears in a tree about 20' off the ground, and connected it back via coax cable into my cable distribution box which had a signal amplifier/splitter in it. I was able to receive clear digital OTA signal to every TV in my house that was plugged into the coax system in my house. When I decided to cut the cord for good, I upgraded to a "HDTV" antenna like the ones that you used to see on everyone's roof before cable/satellite became the big thing. I can honestly say that I don't really get any better reception or any more channels with the HDTV antenna than I did with the rabbit ears.

Rgds

Eric