I am actually thinking of trying to drop pay TV in 09. With netflix now on the TiVo, I get a great selection of older movies and some recent TV shows that should satisfy most of my demands.
The biggest question/issue for me is OTA reception. Due to my sports allegiances, I need the NY stations, but antennaweb only says I can get philly stations where I live. I have read reports of people getting NYC channels via antenna in my area, but usually that involves a large directional antenna that doesn't have a high WAF (wife acceptance factor). So I need to experiment to see what kind of reception I can get.
The other issue is general content WAF. How can I get access to the content of HGTV, TLC, etc. on my TV? I know hulu has alot of that content, but that isn't easily streamable to my current stbs (TiVo & PCH). I know playon can proxy the stream to the PCH, but that program taxes my old desktop too much to make it practical. I do need to upgrade that computer though. Also boxee on an old macbook is also an option.
Dropping pay TV should save me at least $40/month. I'd like any expenses I incur (antena, new STBs, computers, etc.) to be recoop'd within the first year (so less than $480). It will be an interesting experiment.
“Getting too close completely blurred what we saw to the point of incomprehension, but again, this shows a whole heap of potential that's fascinating to us.”
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I am actually thinking of trying to drop pay TV in 09. With netflix now on the TiVo, I get a great selection of older movies and some recent TV shows that should satisfy most of my demands.
The biggest question/issue for me is OTA reception. Due to my sports allegiances, I need the NY stations, but antennaweb only says I can get philly stations where I live. I have read reports of people getting NYC channels via antenna in my area, but usually that involves a large directional antenna that doesn't have a high WAF (wife acceptance factor). So I need to experiment to see what kind of reception I can get.
The other issue is general content WAF. How can I get access to the content of HGTV, TLC, etc. on my TV? I know hulu has alot of that content, but that isn't easily streamable to my current stbs (TiVo & PCH). I know playon can proxy the stream to the PCH, but that program taxes my old desktop too much to make it practical. I do need to upgrade that computer though. Also boxee on an old macbook is also an option.
Dropping pay TV should save me at least $40/month. I'd like any expenses I incur (antena, new STBs, computers, etc.) to be recoop'd within the first year (so less than $480). It will be an interesting experiment.