anybody use a Roku or other streaming device?

[tnguy]

Not sure about he YouTube thing man but I'm telling you, setting your comp up with an HDMI cord to your TV and setting up dual monitors with a wireless keyboard and touch pad (or wireless mouse alternatively) is not a huge investment and gives you quite a bit to do on the TV including YouTube. There is HDMI on Amazon for less than a dollar a foot, just found a 50 footer for 20 bucks and a wireless keyboard with touchpad runs about 20 bucks. Hausbell has a nice one on Amazon for 16, there is also one about the size of a standard TV remote with full qwerty and touchpad for 20.

I know this is repetitive but I don't think enough people have tried this. Everyone I set this up with love it. About time for a new computer for me and I am thinking about making this laptop a permanent feature of my entertainment center rather than pulling out the HDMI when I want to use it.

 

I have an HTPC running mythtv. It's pretty nice though as it's Linux, some things like Netflix just aren't available. It's a pretty solid DVR though. The remote worked out-of-the-box but oddly uses the same codes as the Xbox which sometime causes confusion.

 

Odd thing is, my first few computers would only plug into the TV. Monitors were the things of vague rumors. Now it seems things are coming full circle.

 

 

[tnguy]

One thing to consider. Like with a DVR where it's worth willing to get a little behind to be able to skip commercials, it's also worth getting behind on shows too. (Unless you absolutely have to have water-cooler discussions the next morning or are scared of spoilers). In the first place, you can choose to only watch shows that you know are going to be renewed and therefore not leave you dangling on a cliff-hanger (for another season at least) and in second place, it can be a much better experience to watch a story all-in-a-row rather than have to wait weeks and months at a time before episodes.

[Romad7]

Based on what I'm reading here, what I'm concluding is that it's possible to do away with cable or sat services and get "almost" all of the TV a person might want to see (and plenty of the TV that is actually worth watching) but it's not quite as convenient as actual cable/sat service.
 
For me, I know I like being able to record a program on Wednesday (like Top Shot All Stars, for example) that I'll watch tonight or sometime over the weekend (skipping through the commercials)...that kind of convenience is a bit hard to give up.  Other stuff I want to watch that may have been broadcast months or years ago, yeah...streaming that is no problem (assuming I know the program exists).
 
I guess I'm not ready to make the switch yet...I'm streaming a lot of shows, especially old movies, but I'm not quite ready to give up the convenience yet. ;)

This is exactly why I switched from my Sat/DVR to Apple TV. I get everything that I want, I get news on my iPad and can AirPlay videos to the Apple TV.

To use your Top Shot All Stars example (love the show!), it airs on Wednesday and iTunes has is waiting for me on Thursday. Better than a DVR, I don't have to remember when it's on and set it to record.

No storage limitations, I was always managing my DVR so I didn't run out of space.

The max shows that can be recorded on a DVR is 3-4, not an issue for me.

I don't need any fancy DVR commercial skipping, there are no commercials

I've come into a season of a great show, like Justified for example, and was able to go back and buy the previous seasons/shows and get caught up.

My monthly average cost is still less than when I had satellite (probably by 50%) and I only pay for what I want.

[tnguy]

That is interesting. We cut off paid-for TV years ago (we use OTA&DVR and Netflix and Redbox) but recently got a cable internet subscription because DSL just wasn't cutting it (mostly for streaming funnily enough). Will have to give that a try.

 

Tried this last night. Turned up a bunch of local channels. I'll have to compare it to what we get through the antenna but I think it may actually have been a few less. Interesting though.

 

I think there is a very local channel that is available on cable but not antenna so it may be useful for at least that.

Edited August 2, 2013 by tnguy

[RobertNashville]

This is exactly why I switched from my Sat/DVR to Apple TV. I get everything that I want, I get news on my iPad and can AirPlay videos to the Apple TV.

To use your Top Shot All Stars example (love the show!), it airs on Wednesday and iTunes has is waiting for me on Thursday. Better than a DVR, I don't have to remember when it's on and set it to record.

No storage limitations, I was always managing my DVR so I didn't run out of space.

The max shows that can be recorded on a DVR is 3-4, not an issue for me.

I don't need any fancy DVR commercial skipping, there are no commercials

I've come into a season of a great show, like Justified for example, and was able to go back and buy the previous seasons/shows and get caught up.

My monthly average cost is still less than when I had satellite (probably by 50%) and I only pay for what I want.

How about things like the Pursuit channel, SEED channel, History channel, AMC, etc.?

 

Does one have to go find specific shows or does AppleTV (or one of the other services) give me the option of playing whatever is on a channel (like I can with cable/sat)?

For my, my TV is almost always on "something" even if I"m not actually watching it. I may be SPEED, History, SciFi, or Animal but if I'm home it's likely on.  When I actually sit down to watch TV, that's another matter...then it's usually a program my DVR recorded for me (and generally, I record entire seasons of something or all shows by a specific title (Family Guy, for example ;) ) and let the DVR do the work of finding the show and recording it because it may be a couple of days or a couple of weeks or even months before I go back and watch the shows (if I ever do).

 

I guess I just need to go buy something, use it and see for myself if it can do everything I want it to do. :)

[Romad7]

Sounds like the Apple TV is a pretty decent fit for you. The good thing is once you buy it (look for a used one for around $80) then you only pay for what you use.

There aren't channels, you find what you what you want by show, genre, network, etc.

There are apps like ESPN, NHL, NBA and others that may offer a way to turn on a channel and just play in the background. I haven't used those yet since I'm not a big sports fan and those usually require a small subscription fee.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/whats-on/

I didn't see SPEED on the network list but the others were there.

You'll have to look at what you have and want but it might be feasible to go to a cheaper TV package to get less channels for basic TV and use the Apple TV for the shows that you really watch.

iTunes doesn't have everything but it has plenty for me and I don't like messing with a DVR and cheaper than paying for a lot that I don't use or even want to support with my money.

Also, I travel quite a bit for work and I take my Apple TV with me and so I have all my shows with me. Some hotel network set ups make this difficult so let me know if you do decide to use it at hotels, I'll let you know what I do.

Also, if you download iTunes on your computer the you can see what shows/movies are available for your Apple TV.