Ready to cut the cable

[soonerwings]

After some deliberation, I went out and bought a mac mini to serve as my new "media center" computer. I just can't justify spending nearly $100 a month for cable television when the wife and I only watch 5-6 shows between the two of us and they can all be viewed online for free the day after they're aired. Now I can stream netflix and watch tv online on my living room television as well as browse the net and the big screen will be nice for skypeing the family while I'm deployed. With a little help from a digital antenna, I got all the over the air channels to come in today. The cable company is so fired. Anyone else have any cool ideas for the living room media center?

 

[primeoflife321]

I just got sonos and it is amazing....very easy to set up and has access to all your existing music files plus all the internet music stuff...I added it to my system and Im almost ready to fire the cable co too

 

[soonerwings]

That system looks pretty nice. How's the sound quality on their speakers?

 

[XD-9Guy]

After some deliberation, I went out and bought a mac mini to serve as my new "media center" computer. I just can't justify spending nearly $100 a month for cable television when the wife and I only watch 5-6 shows between the two of us and they can all be viewed online for free the day after they're aired. Now I can stream netflix and watch tv online on my living room television as well as browse the net and the big screen will be nice for skypeing the family while I'm deployed. With a little help from a digital antenna, I got all the over the air channels to come in today. The cable company is so fired. Anyone else have any cool ideas for the living room media center?

My wife and I have been discussing this too. Football and basketball can be found online and nearly everything we watch is on network TV, so like you said you can watch the following day on the web or we also discussed at least cutting it down to the barest of cable service. It would be a big adjustment though I'm sure - we'll see. Good luck to you with it though, it chaps my hide every month when I have to pay Cox. It's absolutely ridiculous what it costs to "watch tv"

Hey give me a breakdown of the channels you are able to pick up with the digital tuner.

 

[primeoflife321]

Their speakers are fine especially in a small room...in the living room I have them hooked to my Def Tech 8040's..amazing sound as you would imagine...

 

[jbarnett]

I think its a great idea but I haven't got my wife convinced yet.

 

[soonerwings]

Well, I only live about 10 minutes east of the city so I only needed an inexpensive indoor antenna to get all the metro stations. I picked up a brand new Terk antenna on ebay for $20 and get 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 25.1, 30.1, 34.1, 34.2, 43.1, 52.1, 52.2, 62.1, 62.2, and 62.3. They're all crystal clear. If you live farther out you may have to go with an attic antenna or an outdoor setup.

 

[soonerwings]

I have an old set of Bose companion series computer speakers that I hooked up to the mini and it's been nice streaming movies with a little bit of oomph to them. Granted, it's not a fancy surround sound system but it works fine for my tastes. Now that I've seen that Sonos system, I might have to give it a shot. I like the idea of having music that follows me around. My wife wasn't too sure about the idea either, but now that she's streamed a few classic movies over netflix she's ready to call the cable company herself.

 

[Jerryinokc]

I'm over a year without cable and loving it. You actually get a much better HD picture over-the-air than you do via the HD cable box. If you want to get creative, buy two Slingplayers and hook both to the same cable converter box (this naturally means somebody has to get cable, but two of you could split the bill). You then get to watch ESPN on your laptop computer, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android, as well as your MacMini at home.

Enjoy that setup!

 

[ZombieHunter]

I actually do something a bit more complex and intuitive yet still very simple,


Led Flat Panel < PS3 ( For Media Server and Blu-Ray!) < Internet Router < Mac Pro Tower


The Mac Pro is used for mass storage and a program called Medialink talks with the PS3, from their it is a matter of putting the ONE folder Marked "Movies" or whatever into Medialink and BAM! you have everything you have "downloaded legally" on your ps3 streaming, seemlessly and clean interface and browsing of everything, everyone might not need it but for me with over 500 Movies and Lord knows how many TV shows on over 2 TB of hard drives it is the only option.

Recently have been thinking of installing a Mac Mini in my Suburban for a Carputer to go with an Ipad. For long trips I think it might be nice to be able to sync up and have more than the allotted amount of movies any one Ipad could handle, that and it would connect to my Stereo Head Unit and I could stream from the computer to the car stereo at the same time, all said and done its looking like $1k will get me the whole shebang (already own 16gb Ipad) including wiring and custom made mounts for the mini to go under my Center Console with a Custom door to access DVD drive, I am getting the mounts made and the center console modified elsewhere, all Install done myself.