HELP me ditch cable!!! What device/setup?
#22
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Awesome responses guys. The wife is threatening an override on my "ditch cable" plan. The *** deal is like $80 which gets decent internet and basic HD channels. Of course it's more for a DVR and for additional receivers and for the retarded channel "packs" you have to buy. I'm gonna try to make her hold on a few months while we try other options.
I'm pretty set on getting an antenna and a Roku3 to start out. Being on base, there are plenty of spouses groups that get together for the more popular girl shows on a regular basis if there's something the wife has to see that we can't get.. Maybe get Chromecast too and try it out... for $35, can't hurt.
I'm pretty set on getting an antenna and a Roku3 to start out. Being on base, there are plenty of spouses groups that get together for the more popular girl shows on a regular basis if there's something the wife has to see that we can't get.. Maybe get Chromecast too and try it out... for $35, can't hurt.
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But basic channels are mostly what you get with the antenna. You should be able to use one of the antenna websites to tell you what stations are in your area and what antenna you need to get the signal from them. A quick one from my parents house shows the 43 channels they get, I think they get a couple more than that, 26 of which are in full hd the last time I checked. With the digital OTA service you get sub stations of a single station like you night get abc on channel 9.1 but you can also get ME TV on channel 9.2.
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PLEX media server, combined with MakeMKV + Handbrake is a powerful thing. Also watch more Netflix than "pay TV". I would love to get rid of direcTV, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to pick up live sports outside of the very limited broadcast networks or spending my weekends and Thursday nights at the nearest BW3s from September through January. As far as I'm concerned, the TV in my living room exists for the sole purpose of watching football. Anything else that is played on that TV is a side benefit of it's existence. There are periods where it isn't turned on for weeks at a time, just because there are better things to do.
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Currently chilling in air conditioned workshop streaming the Blancpain 24hrs of Spa on the YouTube Nismo channel... downing my 5th Lagunitas Little Sumthin'. God I love Saturdays, Chromecast, and beer. Soon to be posting in the Drunken debauchery thread :P
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Admittedly, I do tend to download all of my media and play it from a local server rather than streaming from the various services like Hulu and YouTube, so perhaps Chromecast does those things significantly better. When I'm watching YouTube in the living room (which is rare) I use my phone or Android tablet as a remote (running the YouTube app) and send the video straight to the TV without any devices in between.
Also, fios ftw. They actually deliver what they advertise. I signed up for 15/5, and that is exactly what I get, no matter what time of day or what day of the week.
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Admittedly, I do tend to download all of my media and play it from a local server rather than streaming from the various services like Hulu and YouTube, so perhaps Chromecast does those things significantly better. When I'm watching YouTube in the living room (which is rare) I use my phone or Android tablet as a remote (running the YouTube app) and send the video straight to the TV without any devices in between.
Not sure I understand how you are watching youtube on your WDTV??? Can you explain further?
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Originally Posted by rmcelwee
Not sure I understand how you are watching youtube on your WDTV??? Can you explain further?
If I want to watch youtube in the living room, I just use the app built into the TV. But since the UI in that app is horrible (very slow to search and entering alpha on the remote is worse than texting on a 90s vintage phone), I use either my android phone or android tablet, running the YouTube app, as a remote for the TV. They are all paired via the network, so I search for what I want to watch on the tablet (using the good keyboard / UI) and then tap the icon which says "send this to my TV." If you have a network-connected TV which has the youtube app built-in, this functionality (send to TV) is natively supported by the youtube app on your android device. You just pair the two, and then anything you pull up on the phone/tablet can be sent to the TV.
In theory, I don't really need the WD box at all, since I could just play everything directly on the TV itself. But I prefer it, as the UI is vastly superior, both in terms of the software (browsing is done directly in the windows filesystem, it's fast resresponsive, etc) as well as the remote being very nice.
Edit: to be clear, the WDTV box does have a youtube app (and a hulu app, etc), I just don't use them. To access them, you select "services" from the top menu where the horses are.
Last edited by Joe Perez; 07-27-2014 at 01:16 PM.
#32
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In theory, I don't really need the WD box at all, since I could just play everything directly on the TV itself. But I prefer it, as the UI is vastly superior, both in terms of the software (browsing is done directly in the windows filesystem, it's fast resresponsive, etc) as well as the remote being very nice.
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Crazy. I have no idea how many different computers, relays, networks, servers, radios, antennas, satellites, countries, cables, whatever it takes for me sitting here in my cave on a warship to be able to type something and you see it. I'm lucky every post isn't a 4hr double after my post circles the world 8 times before it ends up on your screen.
Because of Hollywood, I know for certain exactly the image a civilian has of how a modern Naval warship works... that some young kid at a console can pull up the feed on the main screen of any TV camera, radar, satellite feed, drone, whatever from across the world on zero notice, and we can drop bombs or target lasers just by moving a mouse over.
In reality, I can't even take a cold shower. That's right, our air conditioners are only as efficient as the water we pull from the sea is warm... with 90* water in the Gulf, we can only "chill" the shower water to 90*. So after running on the flight deck for an hour in 100* heat, I can't even come down and enjoy a cool shower... on a modern Naval warship.
Because of Hollywood, I know for certain exactly the image a civilian has of how a modern Naval warship works... that some young kid at a console can pull up the feed on the main screen of any TV camera, radar, satellite feed, drone, whatever from across the world on zero notice, and we can drop bombs or target lasers just by moving a mouse over.
In reality, I can't even take a cold shower. That's right, our air conditioners are only as efficient as the water we pull from the sea is warm... with 90* water in the Gulf, we can only "chill" the shower water to 90*. So after running on the flight deck for an hour in 100* heat, I can't even come down and enjoy a cool shower... on a modern Naval warship.
#39
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The Chromecast for youtube is pretty nice. Sometimes you dont want to dick around with using some custom (i.e. shitty) UI to find and watch a video, you just want the one you find on the net to be on your TV and Chromecast does that. You click the icon and there it is.
In other news, last week I upgraded my ancient WRT54GL beacuse it was not providing me with the ultimate satisfaction.
I was getting about 1/3 of my advertised broadband and just had general flakiness.
I replaced it with the very precious Netgear Nighthawk R7000 AC1900 because it was touted as the fastest router for big houses (not that I have a big house), because I have an 802.11ac laptop, and because newegg had it for $28 off an already rock bottom price.
Advertised is 50/25.
![](https://www.miataturbo.net/attachments/insert-bs-here-4/119161-help-me-ditch-cable-what-device-setup-3651975791.png?dateline=1406511731)
Alls I'm saying by posting this is that if you plan to stream to stuff like Chromecasts, this can be a bottleneck.
In other news, last week I upgraded my ancient WRT54GL beacuse it was not providing me with the ultimate satisfaction.
I was getting about 1/3 of my advertised broadband and just had general flakiness.
I replaced it with the very precious Netgear Nighthawk R7000 AC1900 because it was touted as the fastest router for big houses (not that I have a big house), because I have an 802.11ac laptop, and because newegg had it for $28 off an already rock bottom price.
Advertised is 50/25.
![](https://www.miataturbo.net/attachments/insert-bs-here-4/119161-help-me-ditch-cable-what-device-setup-3651975791.png?dateline=1406511731)
Alls I'm saying by posting this is that if you plan to stream to stuff like Chromecasts, this can be a bottleneck.
#40
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Yeah so we had some cable watching family over. They were astounded at how clear the picture was on our 8 year old LCD tv over the antenna. 1080p uncompressed broadcasts for the win.
Joe wouldnt be getting as much from a chromecast as most people because he's got one of hem new fangledsecurity risk "smart" TVs.
And also getting what I pay for.
Joe wouldnt be getting as much from a chromecast as most people because he's got one of hem new fangled
And also getting what I pay for.
![](https://www.miataturbo.net/attachments/insert-bs-here-4/119162-help-me-ditch-cable-what-device-setup-3651991156.png?dateline=1406512176)