[C_A_Braun]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Hmmm. I disagree. It's much easier for me to DVR what I want to watch or watch in real time than try to hunt it down on the internet.

The beauty of technology today is that you don't have to do all that much hunting. You spend $50 on a Roku box and it is all right there. Subscribe to your favorite shows on Hulu+ for $8/mo, turn on your Roku and open your Hulu+ channel and viola! there are your shows.

It really is so easy that a caveman could do it.

True, you probably wont get all the shows you love today but you should get most. And for $8 - $22/mo it might be worth it for you vs your likely $100+/mo cable or satellite bill. That's an average $1000/yr savings.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by C_A_Braun

The beauty of technology today is that you don't have to do all that much hunting. You spend $50 on a Roku box and it is all right there. Subscribe to your favorite shows on Hulu+ for $8/mo, turn on your Roku and open your Hulu+ channel and viola! there are your shows.

It really is so easy that a caveman could do it.

True, you probably wont get all the shows you love today but you should get most. And for $8 - $22/mo it might be worth it for you vs your likely $100+/mo cable or satellite bill. That's an average $1000/yr savings.

Maybe once I move I'll consider it . Right now I have a roommate to pay half of the $70 a month Directv bill.

I do see that I can get Hulu Plus thru my Wii, though. But what if I want to watch one of my other TVs?

[C_A_Braun]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Maybe once I move I'll consider it . Right now I have a roommate to pay half of the $70 a month Directv bill.

I do see that I can get Hulu Plus thru my Wii, though. But what if I want to watch one of my other TVs?

I don't know how much of a pain it is to move the wii around, I don't have one. But if you have a Roku, it fits in the palm of your hand is very easy to move from room to room. Just 1 wire for power and 1 HDMI cable for A/V.

Or you can have multiple Roku boxes all tied to the same account which is like whole house DVR where you can watch a show in 1 room, pause and turn on the Roku in another room and pick up right where you left off.

I have 3 Roku's in my Calif. home and always bring one with us when we visit our Henderson home. There is no reconfiguration needed or anything. Just plug it in and there is my netflix, hulu+, amazon prime etc. all in the palm of my hand. Oh, plus Angry Birds on my TV is great!

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by C_A_Braun

I don't know how much of a pain it is to move the wii around, I don't have one. But if you have a Roku, it fits in the palm of your hand is very easy to move from room to room. Just 1 wire for power and 1 HDMI cable for A/V.

Or you can have multiple Roku boxes all tied to the same account which is like whole house DVR where you can watch a show in 1 room, pause and turn on the Roku in another room and pick up right where you left off.

I have 3 Roku's in my Calif. home and always bring one with us when we visit our Henderson home. There is no reconfiguration needed or anything. Just plug it in and there is my netflix, hulu+, amazon prime etc. all in the palm of my hand. Oh, plus Angry Birds on my TV is great!

The Wii isn't too complicated. Plug it into the wall, then into the aux jacks on the TV. To do that every night when I want to go to bed and keep watching TV would be a hassel, though. Wonder if I can have the Wii and a Roku linked to the same account? It would be silly to buy a Roku for the TV the Wii is generally attached to.

Hmm. You have given me something to think about. Thankfully I am long past any contract agreement with Directv so I can dump them anytime.

The only thing is I like to switch channels and see what's on rather than search for specific shows. It's the same in the car. I like listening to the radio rather than a CD or whatever because it's more random than me looking for something specific.

[delgadobb]

Originally Posted by StaggerLee22

My 'bundle package' {TV $30/internet $30/phone $30} ended and my bill went up almost 80 dollars.
I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED THE INCREASE if I had a DVR capable of more than 20 hours of HD recordings.
That's all that DVR could hold.
20 crappy hours.

That's why I use my own - 3 DVRs, each of which hold 300 hours of HD & close to 3000 (yes, thousand) hours of standard definition TV. Rarely do I watch anything live anymore - the occasionall sporting event is about it. We still have about 100 HD movies strewn across the DVRs that we haven't watched.

Cox keeps trying to sell me on their DVR & how great it is - nope, ain't gonna happen. The odd time I've had to have a tech out they're asking me about my setup, once they see it they understand why I'm not using Cox's hardware.

If it weren't for Comedy Central (Daily Show/Colbert/etc) for my fiancee & ESPN/MLB/sports channels (baseball) for me, we'd ditch cable & go OTA supplemented with streaming video. When I explain this to Cox, I get the equivalent of a blank stare along with "We're raising your rates ... again." They don't understand their business model is decaying & they're trying to squeeze all they can out of their monopoly.

Scoop, I saw you mention Windows Media Center - how does it handle encryption so that it can do its own tuning? That's what kept me from using it in the past, there was no elegant way to interface a cablecard (or similar) for encryption/decryption. I sure as heck don't wanna use someone else's proprietary box.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by delgadobb

Scoop, I saw you mention Windows Media Center - how does it handle encryption so that it can do its own tuning? That's what kept me from using it in the past, there was no elegant way to interface a cablecard (or similar) for encryption/decryption. I sure as heck don't wanna use someone else's proprietary box.

It doesn't. It uses your current box, and shoots remote control signals at it with an IR blaster. It's never misfired and botched a show. But this means a computer needs to be somewhat close to your box.

[SoCalCpl2]

Cable user here for quite a few years .... Just moved and got Direct TV.. NOW if these few months are any indication of Direct TV, I will NEVER go back to cable for watching TV..... Now my Bundle with cable was $213 a month.. Cable, Phone, Internet... and only 3 cable boxes...And only 1 of them HD
Now I had to keep Phone and Internet (although I have been seeing commercials for Direct TV doing phone and internet) and that costs me $55 a month.. And Direct TV is $63 a month for 4 HD boxes with DVR... So it is costing me less for more with having Direct TV.....

I have the NFL Channel, NASCAR Hot Pass NBA Channel and other Sports channels...Not really a Sports fan but we have them......And the Premium channels as well....

So like I said so far I am pleased and am not paying as much either.....

[jet757f]

Is there anyway to get the internet just by itself at a reasonable price?

[modhatter]

yes, I would like to know that too. Anyone know cost and approx. speed for just internet?

[gvc8]

Originally Posted by jet757f

Is there anyway to get the internet just by itself at a reasonable price?

here is page for internet service from cox. I dont think there is a premium for just ordering internet and no tv from them. there used to be a $10 discount on internet if you did subscribe to tv but they quit that a couple of years ago:

Internet Pricing & Plans serving Las Vegas | Cox Communications