Diary Of My Switch To Internet TV

[subsammy]

MythTV

What are people using to add IR capability to their systems? I've been playing with Boxee and XBMC iPhone/iTouch apps that work via WiFi. But the end game may require using a Harmony One.

BTW, anyone notice that the D-Link Boxee Box remote is RF? Another complication we don't need...

I have been following the cutting cable and am here to put in my $.02. Starting down the road you are on, I can give some tips. Try MythTV. Mythbuntu or Mythdora work well and are easy to set up if you have good computer knowledge. Don't be afraid of Linux. I have learned it as I have installed my system. I got a aspire revo in December and attached it to the existing MythTV backend. All went smooth. I set it up to dual boot and had intentions of using Boxee with my Netflix and Hulu under Windows XP and have been happy with Netflix but Hulu leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The revo is not quite enough to run Hulu well. When booted in Linux MythTV and using VDPAU acceleration for the video processor load is very low. I run 720P and audio over the built in HDMI. Connecting this computer to a TV is the easiest one I have ever connected. I bought a MCE remote and USB receiver from Newegg and replaced the remote with this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Univers...mote/7978183.p?id=1153999180455&skuId=7978183 to get better ergonomics and other device functionality. There was a MCE code in the remote and it worked out of the box. I added a small antenna to get free HDTV (it looks better than my cable) and added a HDHomerun receiver to my network. The MythTV backend runs on a FlexATX Jetway Atom 330 board and is nearly silent. It has enough power to commercial detect in real time. It also acts a file server for the rest of the house. The WAF on this setup is very high. She prefers to watch the MythTV setup in the bedroom to the cable DVR in the den. A little tweaking to the MythTV setup and you can play music from a server in the house or other videos stored on a NAS or other computer.

 

[AlterEcho]

I am a Verizon FiOS customer and am very happy with their service. So my goals are a bit different than probably most of those here. I wanted the ability to watch programming when and where I wanted to. So streaming to my laptop, or iPhone, was a big concern. As well, as allowing the wife to navigate to the various programming.

Adding to my system will be a Tivo and sling boxes. The DVR, that Verizon offers, just does not cut the mustard. Though, the DVR will stream to the other boxes in the house (best move that Verizon could make), the lack of space and non-streaming to a remote user leaves me wanting. Due to certain agreements, I have made, do not count out the streaming across IP...enough said!

Anyway, so I will be adding a Tivo and sling boxes for streaming throughout the house and to my iPhone. The Slings' will allow me to watch pretty much anything I desire (OTA, HBO, etc...). And my iPhone has been modified (wink wink) to allow the Slingplayer to stream across cellular connections. Also, I will be swapping out the ATI 4850 for either a 5670 ($90) or 5450 ($45), for it's bitstreaming abilities and cooler temps.

As far as IR
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006LSINO/?tag=snbforums-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JPGQ4U/?tag=snbforums-20

Good luck, in your quest for IP viewing. There are so many solutions that I am sure you will find a suitable candidate.

 

[cscotto]

I purchased an AVS Gear GP-IR01BK Windows Vista Infrared MCE Black Remote Control from Newegg to add IR to my Acer Aspire Revo 3610.

It works well enough on its own, but I really just bought it for the IR receiver to use the Harmony One.

I haven't totally tweaked the Harmony One but there are some pretty handy functions available using the "Windows Media Center SE" and "MCE Keyboard" devices in the Logitech database. I can close programs (Alt+F4) and open programs in the quick launch bar (Win+ "whatever number the program is in the quick launch bar"). It's a bit cumbersome because it takes three media center devices to have all the available commands in one activity, the 2 above and "MCE Remote." But, I really do like being able to open and close iTunes, Hulu Desktop, Boxee, or WMC from the touch screen.

Here are 2 links with cool Harmony remote codes for Windows Media Center.
from the logitech support site and from a really helpful user's site

 

[BiggAW]

Thanks for the tip. But is this $31 in addition to what I'm already paying? Or is this offer for new subscribers only? I'm not really interested in anything that puts me on another two-year commitment.

The basic package is $31 total, although I just looked, and there isn't much of anything on it. The flip side is that you get satellite locals and an HD-DVR for nothing up front. Their normal introductory package is $46 with HD-DVR, and $56 with 70 satellite HD channels. For $61, you've got that plus your RSN in HD. If you really want to go internet only, then it probably won't interest you, but if you want to cut that $100 bill by 40% and get a better DVR, then DISH is a better option.

OTA will be explored later in the series. I manage to get all the Networks, some better than others. I suspect I need to upgrade from Winegard SS 2000 SquareShooter panel antenna to a real UHF reflector.

If you're getting those, check out antennasdirect.com, using the right setup, you should be able to get rock solid locals.

I'm fine with paying for access. But, it needs to be convenient, cover most/all the content I use today, reasonably priced $30/month) and good quality.

If I end up with a bunch of $6/month subscriptions and a bunch of players, that's not what I call convenient.

You're just not going to get the same content online that you can from a cable, IPTV, fiber, or DBS provider. It depends on what content you watch. If it's all movies and network stuff, you don't need to pay for TV, but if you're looking for specific content that's only available on a multi-channel video provider, forget going totally online.

A compromise might be to build an HTPC with OTA and lots of internet content options, but put Dish Network on one TV with the modulated feed going throughout the rest of the house.

 

[thiggins]

I am so confused. Does the boxee box allow you to watch internet content on your TV?

Yes. That is one of the things that it can do.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks, Alter. A slingbox was part of our setup for awhile to watch TV on the kitchen laptop. But my wife tired of futzing with it.

Thanks for the tips on IR dongles.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the tips on remotes, cscotto.

 

[thiggins]

The basic package is $31 total, although I just looked, and there isn't much of anything on it. The flip side is that you get satellite locals and an HD-DVR for nothing up front. Their normal introductory package is $46 with HD-DVR, and $56 with 70 satellite HD channels. For $61, you've got that plus your RSN in HD. If you really want to go internet only, then it probably won't interest you, but if you want to cut that $100 bill by 40% and get a better DVR, then DISH is a better option.

Unfortunately, DISH's sats sit too low for me to get a shot at them from my heavily wooded lot. And taking down trees isn't an option. Besides, that just trades one ball and chain for another.

If you're getting those, check out antennasdirect.com, using the right setup, you should be able to get rock solid locals.

Yup. That's where I got my current Winegard.

You're just not going to get the same content online that you can from a cable, IPTV, fiber, or DBS provider. It depends on what content you watch. If it's all movies and network stuff, you don't need to pay for TV, but if you're looking for specific content that's only available on a multi-channel video provider, forget going totally online.

That's pretty much what I'm seeing. Although I haven't explored what's available on Torrents yet.

 

[derek_k]

Until the day I can order IPTV service, pay for only the channels I want (3 or 4) and watch it via any IP device of my choosing, I refuse to pay to watch annoying commercials and most of the garbage that passes for TV these days.

My setup of choice now is WDTV Live + NAS + torrents. Inexpensive, reliable, silent and, most importantly, high wife acceptance factor.

 

[convergent]

For Windows, this is the remote that I used - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W5GK5C/?tag=snbforums-20 . Its a shame that you have to buy the remote, to get the USB FOB. I actually use a Harmony One remote, but there isn't an IR port on the Revo, so this package gives us the FOB.

For Mac, there is already a built-in IR port, however it only supports 6 functions. That seems to be enough to drive most things, but if you want the full Harmony support then you need to do a little more configuration, and it seems that getting the correct "wife friendly" remote experience is the biggest challenge with Windows or Mac. For Mac, I have found that adding an application called Remote Buddy helps to complete things, and gives you the tools you need to make it do whatever you want... remote automation wise. I still have a lot to do here, but there is a light in the tunnel.

On the comment about Hulu on the Revo, I found that Hulu did OK on the 3610 IF you do all the tweaking described here... http://www.pauljroberts.com/my-personal-revo-3610-set-up-that-works-well
Boxee, on the other hand didn't seem to like my Revo no matter what (video not looking great), however Paul says he's fine with it so I may have missed something.

On the question about whether Boxee box would let you watch internet TV on your TV... was answered Yes already. That said, its good to know that Boxee and Plex (Apple only) are both forks of the XBMC (Xbox Media Center) open source project... so there is much similar in them. They basically do the same thing in other words. But, they have separate teams and so the plug-ins available on them are slightly different. For example there is a great Tivo plugin for Plex that lets you mount your Tivo and stream anything you want from it, while that doesn't exist on Boxee. I am planning to run one of these as my main home for media, and then also enable running the others as well to get at the special plug-ins that are unique... like MLB.TV on Boxee. Its easy enough on Windows or Mac to navigate between them.

On the last comment about using torrents as your main content... just be careful. They are illegal and I've seen lots of reports lately of ISPs sending legal action letters identifying the content copyrights that were stolen by downloading torrents. I only mention this because if you are doing this for all your programming daily, then you are likely to setup flags with that volume that you may not if it was an occasional thing.

The Boxee box to me is the greatest hope for this stuff to become more mainstream. Lets face it, the average person doesn't have the skills to setup a Windows, Mac, or Linux based media PC and maintain it to get all they can from it. Boxee is pretty simple to work with and so hopefully they'll be wildly successful and cause the content providers to follow MLB.TV's lead and produce plugins to let you cut the cord. ESPN is the biggy for me. They have ESPN360, but you can only use it if your ISP participates and mine doesn't.

 

[wfarid]

I have been trying to switch to internet tv for ages and I even built a decent future proof htpc for it. I have a Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H, its got a built in 9400M chip, I gave it 4 gigs of ram, Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16ghz), 1tb green hard drive, and a Blu-Ray/ HD-DVD reader, all in the cheapest Antec HTPC case (it came with a PSU). Installed Windows 7 on the machine. When I bought it, it cost me $800. The parts now are significantly cheaper so it may be in the $600 range.

Granted nowadays there are better builds and if I had to rebuild I would go for a Zotac Ion board (incredibly small form factor and can handle 1080p with ease). I strongly suggest you look into that as that caries a bit more heft than the sickly atom chips and isn't a power sucker either.

But anyways, I installed XBMC and it runs great. I got a cheapo Media Center Remote and it runs perfectly without any adjustments or 3rd party software. Although I may get a Logitech Harmony Remote so I can simultaneously turn on my tv and htpc (yes I am that lazy). Now XBMC has a lot of nifty features, add-ons, and it can play basically anything you may throw at it. I've played full 1080p mkv rips (around 29gigs) and it played just as smoothly as a 4gig 720 xvid rip. I have a 50" plasma and it looks stunning! I have yet to figure out how to get TV to the darn thing though, so I'm following your lead!


Its not that useful but tversity can be integrated into xbmc via an add-on. I stumbled on a maximum pc article for XBMC and the next months issue (i get them for free) one of the editors is doing what you are and is building and HTPC and ditching cable/direct tv as well. There seems to be a trend.

Another route, although somewhat grey, is to download popular TV shows that are not US (thus you aren't infringing US copyright law) from private trackers that have RSS feeds. I have it automatically setup where the latest tv show comes out and my utorrent picks up the feed and automatically downloads it to Qnap (I have an oldy laptop connected to my ts-209, the nas alone can't handle 30 seeding operations without melting down). Usually it is downloaded in segmented rar formats but XBMC decodes it on the fly. Its pretty neat.

 

[thiggins]

On the last comment about using torrents as your main content... just be careful. They are illegal and I've seen lots of reports lately of ISPs sending legal action letters identifying the content copyrights that were stolen by downloading torrents. I only mention this because if you are doing this for all your programming daily, then you are likely to setup flags with that volume that you may not if it was an occasional thing.

Point taken. I will be investigating Torrents as part of the series, just to see whether they can supply content not otherwise available and what their quality is. But I would not use them as a primary source.

The Boxee box to me is the greatest hope for this stuff to become more mainstream. Lets face it, the average person doesn't have the skills to setup a Windows, Mac, or Linux based media PC and maintain it to get all they can from it. Boxee is pretty simple to work with and so hopefully they'll be wildly successful and cause the content providers to follow MLB.TV's lead and produce plugins to let you cut the cord. ESPN is the biggy for me. They have ESPN360, but you can only use it if your ISP participates and mine doesn't.

Boxee certainly has the buzz. But their ongoing battle with Hulu / NBC Universal (and, I guess, now Comcast) says to me that they either need to get a better content deal negotiator or risk being marginalized. The content owners are expecting revenue streams similar to those that they now get from cable and satellite.

I think Netflix would easily eclipse Boxee, PlayOn, etc. if they could just get the right deal made with content owners. They already have the movies, a subscription based model that doesn't make you buy everything (I'm looking at you, Apple) and excellent quality. They also have a head start on having their apps in multiple platforms. They just need the damned content!

 

[convergent]

The irony of the revenue stream situation is that we are actually watching more commercials with internet TV than we do over cable. We Tivo just about everything and so we skip all commercials when watching our cable content. Tivo adds some little pop in ads here and there that don't take time. I honestly don't mine seeing ads, I just don't want to spend extra time doing it. You can watch an average half hour program in about 20 minutes by skipping the commercials. I have enough to do that I don't want to spend 20 minutes of every hour watching ads. If you did this a couple hours each night, that's almost 5 hours of pure commercial watching if you did a couple of hours a night 7 days a week. That's almost 3 full work days per month.

But when we watch internet TV, there are far fewer ads but you can't really skip them. And Hulu, at least, gives you a counter as to when the ad will be over which is very nice. My kids thing that is so cool. I run a few websites that are funded by ad revenue, so I get that. What I have a problem with is paying nearly $100 a month just for cable, and then having them expect me to spend 1/3 of my viewing time watching ads after paying for the content. Then they play game to make my Tivo not work properly, etc. I'm just tired of feeding that model. I want to fund something that is actually caring to serve my needs, not just theirs.

 

[thiggins]

I hear you about commercials, Convergent. My wife and I almost never watch anything in "real time", it's all from DVR queue.

 

[msloane]

Scam?

Does anyone know anything about this?

streamdirecttv.com

This is the sort of thing which, if it actually does what it says, would represent a seismic shift in pay content delivery -- and solve a lot of the issues expressed in this thread.

But with promises so huge -- and a negligible cost -- I have to think that what mama used to say about a "free lunch" would apply.

Smells like a scam...but does anyone have any info?

 

[Lalato]

I can't find any legitimate reviews on this service anywhere on the web.

Sounds fishy to me.

 

[thiggins]

Does anyone know anything about this?

streamdirecttv.com

Maybe not a scam, but definintely crapware.

If it looks too good to be true....

 

[msloane]

Maybe not a scam, but definintely crapware.

Of that I have no doubt...but if they're somehow re-broadcasting these pay-content provider signals (HBO, Showtime, etc.), I'd love to know how they could possibly be legally allowed to do that?

Because even if the signal and quality are sh*t, it's the difference between being able to view pay cable and not.

And if it's illegal, TW and Viacom lawyers would've already put Stream Direct into a world of hurt with C&D letters and lawsuits, and the site would be shut down yesterday...right?

 

[msloane]

From MacRumors.com today....

Per what's being discussed here:

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/23/analyst-continues-to-believe-apple-will-launch-internet-connected-tv/

Looks like Apple could dominate all digital content the way they dominate digital audio content.

If they do it right, $50-$90 a month beats the +$125 I'm paying AT&T Uverse now...and if it inter-operates seamlessly with my Macs and iPhones, I'm in!

 

[convergent]

As an update on my progress... I am continuing to like Plex as a media center hub, although it seems that all the forks of XBMC had different pros and cons. For integration of live TV, I'm still struggling on the Mac. Windows 7 Media Center seems to do that better because its built into the OS. There are some hopeful projects out there, but honestly it needs Apple's interest to get anywhere, and in spite of the last reply, Apple has said that this stuff is a hobby for them. I also believe that if they get in the game, they'll mostly be trying to drive their incremental revenue stream and not be that interested in advertising funding "free" internet TV. This is very important to me because invariably the cable providers are going to start jacking the rates way up on their ISP service if they feel like the cable TV model is crumbling, so if you have to pay more to them, and then on top of it pay a sizable fee to Apple, then at the end of the day you are paying the same thing.. or more. If networks can survive on advertising OTA, then they should be able to do the same OTI (over the internet). Most radio stations now do it, so I don't see why TV wouldn't do it too.

So back to my issues... I have been having drop outs on my HDHomerun setup and haven't had time to do any big movement of components around the house to troubleshoot. If I can get this problem solved, then I'm ready to pull the plug and try it in daily use. My plan B will be to continue to use my lifetime Tivo HD for live TV/DVR, and then just access my recordings on the Tivo from Plex which has a nice plugin for that. Right now its not of much use because Time Warner blocks everything I record from multi room viewing, but once I ditch them and go OTA, the Tivo HD box could make a nice TV recorder/server for the house.... accessed for MRV from my Plex boxes.