I cut the cord, and it feels so nice

[Teunis]

I wanted to watch a football game (not that American variety) .

If I ever were interested in the outcome of a football game I would read the next days' court pages.

I haven't had cable in nearly forty years, at the time it was a local initiative and they had 3 Dutch and 4 German stations, because it was my business I had a rather nice private antenna that could receive the 3 Dutch, 6 German plus 2 Belgian stations so I asked the manager of the cable system if they would add the two missing German stations and then I could take down my 18 meters (~55ft.) mast.

The asshat told me people were already spending too much time in front of a TV so he wasn't going to add any station.

In Europe there are plenty good free to air satellite stations and I also have DVB-T (Digital terrestrial TV), the rest comes in via the net.

[SteveRiley]

Come on! What kind of world do they live in? One that's got an inside view of the descending colon?

Yuk yuk yuk! Gonna reuse that one fer sher

[Qqmike]

NickStone, whatthefunk, et. al., yep, that's it for me, also. Not a hermit, don't live in a cave or under a rock, but, hey, we can still think for ourselves, as humans. There's more to life than paying monthly fees for data, even if it is HD data, streaming, on-demand, recordable, whateverTF data it is. Data masquerading as entertainment? Not only does it make sense to budget one's money on it, it makes even more sense to budget one's time sitting in front of the Data Presentation. I know people who are on welfare or earning $8 an hour, and yet spending $100-$150/month on media/data/communications. Some studies have shown it is more important for some younger generations to have a decent smart phone than to own their first car or own a home (sorry, I don't have the links of it). I know people who feel it's the end of the[ir] world if they can't pay for, watch, record, and playback at will various and many HBO series. Come on! What kind of world do they live in? One that's got an inside view of the descending colon? Of course, if everyone thought like I'm suggesting, the economy might collapse. As our dearly beloved ex-President George Bush would say, get out there and shop!

A busy thread, indeed.

[whatthefunk]

I gave up on cable/satellite TV years ago. 90% of it is crap and the other 10% doesnt justify the cost. My six channels are more than enough for me. I dont honestly know where people find time to watch TV. I watch it during breakfast, and usually for half an hour or so before I go to sleep and thats about it. I still rent DVDs, although the selection at the shop down the road has gotten worse in the last few years.

[SteveRiley]

Here in the UK most (if not all) pubs/bars have access to premium sports channels so if I wanted to watch a football game (not that American variety) I get me'self off to local pub have a few pints and watch t'game.

What? Communal watching of television with friends and strangers? What the hell planet are you from?

[oshunluvr]

Wow, busy thread!

I cut the cord a couple years ago. Put a big old-school looking antenna on the roof, wired the house and told the fam to get used to it - didn't take long.

One problem with the Fire (and most of those devices) no DLNA which means watching your home based content is difficult. If you have modern TV's many of them support it directly though. I use serviio to serve DLNA to my devices/TV's. Works pretty good and just about right out of the box. I just hate to carry around thumb drives just to watch something I downloaded.

We had Hulu Plus for a year or so, but I found myself hardly watching it. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are great. I even "rent" from Amazon once in awhile.

The most difficult thing to easily replace is the DVR. There are few-to-none OTA (over-the-air for you people still slaved to the man ) options. I bought a TVIX M6620 a couple years ago but it's hardly a TIVO. The Korean company that produced it stopped supporting it years ago and refused to release the code - even though it's linux based. It has too many problems to list, but works for a simple record-to-watch-later device and it does stream from my server.

I bought a couple HDHomeRun tuners last year and can watch TV at my desk with them, but I haven't had the time to rig a dedicated DVR/XBMC system with them yet. The one feature I'd love is the ability to pause a playback on one TV, then pick up where I left off on another. The software to do these things easily just doesn't exist. It seems most attempts - like MythTV - are too complicated for most users or fail early in their lives. MythTV seems to have a growing base, so maybe it will get easier. Another newer option I've been playing with is a dedicated distro called OpenElec. I hope to pick up a couple NUC units and install OpenElec on them to regain most if not all of my previous capabilities.

For sports, my son resorted to a foreign VPN service so he could pay for an NHL streaming subscription and watch the season on his laptop. Worked pretty well most of the time, and I don't think technically illegal. Despite what they wish, sports franchises and other entertainment groups don't write laws.

Yeah, in all the research we did, the only people who for whom cord-cutting wasn't recommend were fans of live sports.

Even for live sport fans you don't need to subscribe to the sports channels for your home. Here in the UK most (if not all) pubs/bars have access to premium sports channels so if I wanted to watch a football game (not that American variety) I get me'self off to local pub have a few pints and watch t'game.

At home I just have access to terrestrial tv (tv through an aerial) and get what we call over here freeview channels. I have also built up quite a collection of favourite tv shows and films on DVD boxsets so I do not need the services of those premium tv channels showing movies and popular tv shows.

[SteveRiley]

Interesting that you were automatically bumped through a couple menus to the Customer Loyalty dept! This is a health hazard -- gotta watch the blood pressure, too.

Thing is, I didn't actually have to yell at anyone. Just mashing a phone button isn't enough to boil my blood.

Since most of us use a KDE distribution; i.e. Kubuntu, we would be remiss to not mention Plasma Media Center also.

Right! Should we decide that we need a fourth streaming source, I'll check this out before XBMC.

I would cut cable and go the internet / antenna route in a heartbeat if there was an economical way to get live sports.

Yeah, in all the research we did, the only people who for whom cord-cutting wasn't recommend were fans of live sports.

Let us know how you like the Amazon Fire - I hear it will also play games w/ joystick support!

Well, I'm not telling the kids. We have a Wii, an XBOX, a PC per kid, a phone per kid. That's enough gaming! But they'll probably figure it out anyway. As a TV streaming thing, Fire is cool on many levels. It's smooth, intuitive, and very tiny.

[vinnywright]

Since most of us use a KDE distribution; i.e. Kubuntu, we would be remiss to not mention Plasma Media Center also. Although a newer project and not extremely robust, the commits are coming regularly and it's looking hella-good w/in Kubuntu. I would recommend compiling yourself to get the latest features and improvements. Worth a look!

ya ,,,,so how did you compile it (plasma media center) I got rid of the cmake boost error but cant get rid of this one

CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:108 (message):
Could NOT find QxOrm (missing: QxOrm_LIBRARIES QxOrm_INCLUDE_DIRS)
Call Stack (most recent call first):
/usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:315 (_FPHSA_FAILURE_MESSAGE)
cmake/FindQxOrm.cmake:35 (find_package_handle_standard_args)
libs/mediacenter/CMakeLists.txt:2 (find_package)

I have a QxOrm_1.2.6.zip that I got hear http://www.qxorm.com/qxorm_en/download.html but dont know what to do with it so it's usable ,,,,,,

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

Sounds like you are living in a metro environment, or very close to a large metropolis. Out of the channels I receive, either by my DIY antenna or via "Starter TV" it all boils down to ME-TV (oldies and goldie), the local news and weather channels (10-11 and 8), and the two PBS stations, which have by far the best offerings.

[Qqmike]

GreyGeek, thanks for the feedback on the Mohu's. I haven't yet tried them, but when I do, I may try just one! (I have 4-6 TVs here at any one time.) In fact, I'm simply using some $25 RCA or Phillip antennas I got at Wal-Mart, and I'm getting more sharp channels than I care to watch, 35+. A lot of that is junk (religious, shopping, etc.), but some are old movies/westerns/TV shows, four are PBS, several Spanish.

[GreyGeek]

...
As for television, I wonder how many consumers would disconnect cable/satellite if they were to try an indoor antenna and find how how well it can do (depending on your location).

http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Pape...Z2P6VMJJ7GGSKS

I purchased two of those and gave them a try. Of the 17 best channels that my DIY HD antenna brought in with clear crisp reception, the Mohu Leave gave clear pictures on about 12, digital breakup on a couple and couldn't bring in the two Omaha signals. I sold them at the yard sale when I sold my house.

[dequire]

I would cut cable and go the internet / antenna route in a heartbeat if there was an economical way to get live sports. At least for hockey season. I may look at streaming but (a) it isn't cheap & (b) I'd be shocked if the quality was any sort of decent. Otherwise, SR's decision is likely the right one.

although

Remotes are still a P.I.T.A. no matter what. There's just no easy way to unify both online and O.T.A. / cable experiences that I've found.

Let us know how you like the Amazon Fire - I hear it will also play games w/ joystick support!

[dequire]

Ummmm.............many years a Tvtorrents.com member.......
Then there is icefilms on XBMC...................
and popcorn time.................though that is not embedded in the media center.

XBMC is the best media center I've tried for my uses, though as a f/oss project, it may require customization to fit each user's needs. I think more addons, repos themes, etc should be included or integrated by default. But it is stable

Since most of us use a KDE distribution; i.e. Kubuntu, we would be remiss to not mention Plasma Media Center also. Although a newer project and not extremely robust, the commits are coming regularly and it's looking hella-good w/in Kubuntu. I would recommend compiling yourself to get the latest features and improvements. Worth a look!

[jpenguin]

I pay around $70/month for 6mbps net. No choices here either; Northland Cable is it. They charge $5/month more if you rent their modem/router, of coarse I own my ounces modem and 2 routers

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