Dumping Cable, getting an HTPC

[ew2x4]

Anyone else dump cable to save money? I'm making the transition. I got an antenna (there is no such thing as HD or SD, btw). I'm currently building an HTPC. Just ordered this motherboard/CPU combo. Will order a cheap decent looking case, memory, and a tv tuner card. Reuse an old hard drive. Will cost me $250 total. I'll use it as a DVR, and be able to watch all my regular shows that are on cable, or download what ever I miss.

All in all, I expect to save $100 a month with this. Comcast has good service, but I'm sick and tired of their price hikes.

[BigCat]

Hate my cable bill but I'm still learning the functions of my remote and DVR box three years later. I doubt I have any business trying to hook up some computery thing and expect to use it like a normal TV.

I do get a kick out of people trying to subvert the system with a little DIY. Seems like the same lot who have converted their SAAB to run on used cooking oil. Yeah it's a pain in the ass but holy cow free fuel guys!!

[steve dave]

Your BWW tabs are going to eat into your profits when you want to watch sports bro

[ew2x4]

Your BWW tabs are going to eat into your profits when you want to watch sports bro

This is the only real down side I can come up with. It's not like we have a ton of football games on tv, and almost all basketball games are on 360. Besides, this is the slow season of sports. I'll probably change my mind come August.

[michigancat]

Your BWW tabs are going to eat into your profits when you want to watch sports bro

This is the only real down side I can come up with. It's not like we have a ton of football games on tv, and almost all basketball games are on 360. Besides, this is the slow season of sports. I'll probably change my mind come August.

That's a pretty big downside.

[Saulbadguy]

Wyatt Thompson with the call!

[pissclams]

my elgato tuner works great.

[ew2x4]

Wyatt Thompson with the call!

Like I said, I'll probably change my mind in August. In the mean time, I'll save a few hundred bucks.

[mcmwcat]

Wyatt Thompson with the call!

Like I said, I'll probably change my mind in August. In the mean time, I'll save a few hundred bucks.

 

what are you going to do for the FIFA World Cup 

[Johnny Wichita]

I haven't had cable or any tv stations for six months now.  And I love it. 

[goldenticket]

i havent had cable since like 2000. for a while i just did without and it wasnt a big deal, the last few years i use computer (hulu, download torrents etc) and i dont really miss much. there for a while i would download a lot nowadays i only download if i cant hulu it and really want to see it. between hulu, netflix streaming, downloading shows im fine plus i have a 32" samsung that has the built in digital tuner or whatever so i can get abc, cbs, nbc, fox, pbs and the cw over the air.

[nicname]

Only really need cable during cfb and cbb season.  other than that it is kind of a drag and when you dont have it you end up doing a lot more interesting things.

and yes one trip to a sports bar for a game = 1 month of cable

[michigancat]

Only really need cable during cfb and cbb season.  other than that it is kind of a drag and when you dont have it you end up doing a lot more interesting things.

and yes one trip to a sports bar for a game = 1 month of cable

And NBA Playoffs. 

So you really don't need cable for July.

[slimz]

Just bought a semi-HTPC.  Going to get double use as a desktop and as a part of the entertainment system, thanks to a long HDMI cord. With a quad-core processor and 4 GB of RAM, it streams the crap out of Hulu and Netflix.

[pissclams]

Why don't any of you "men" start listing some specs, huh? Ya that's what I thought.

[ew2x4]

Why don't any of you "men" start listing some specs, huh? Ya that's what I thought.

I finished my build tonight. Currently installing Win 7 Home Premium.

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition, hopefully will be able to unlock the other 2 cores.
Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2H (came free with the CPU)
2 GB DDR2 800
160 GB
N wireless

I'll see how the onboard video does before I get a video card. The mother board has HDMI out, so hopefully it's ok. Will update later. I hadn't built a PC in a while. I missed it.

[slimz]

Why don't any of you "men" start listing some specs, huh? Ya that's what I thought.

 

Already did.

[pissclams]

Why don't any of you "men" start listing some specs, huh? Ya that's what I thought.

I finished my build tonight. Currently installing Win 7 Home Premium.

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition, hopefully will be able to unlock the other 2 cores.
Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2H (came free with the CPU)
2 GB DDR2 800
160 GB
N wireless

I'll see how the onboard video does before I get a video card. The mother board has HDMI out, so hopefully it's ok. Will update later. I hadn't built a PC in a while. I missed it.

no blue ray?
160 GB isn't much room to store OTA HD.  assume you're just going to network to your main PC for music and crap?

[Saulbadguy]

Agree w/ clams.  get a bigger hard drive. You can get a 2TB for 149.99

[pissclams]

also what tuner card?

[ew2x4]

I have a windows home server down stairs with 1.5 TB. Windows media center streams all recorded TV to it, and even transcodes it to whatever format you want. That way I can watch it where ever I want remotely. I was thinking about getting a 120 GB SSD just so it's completely silent.

I have a dedicated bluray player, but may get a bluray drive eventually. I just reused an old dvd burner from my old pc.

Haven't gotten a tv tuner yet. My case will only take low profile cards, so I was going to look into it.

[pissclams]

sounds cool, ya those SSD's are the lickety schiz.  definitely don't get a raptor.

[ew2x4]

http://dealnews.com/Lenovo-Multimedia-Remote-with-Keyboard-for-42-free-shipping/356479.html

Just picked this up for $35. Giggity.

[06wildcat]

Cable is exactly like tobacco. The first month you don't have it makes you want to kill yourself about every five minutes. After that though you wind up with much more free time. As for sports, justin.tv will give you about everything in about analog quality, which beats the BWW tab. Just don't expect to get NFL games online. They're anal about shutting streams down. If you're anywhere near KC though and really want to watch the chefs just sign back up for the limited basic package, which should be about $15/ mo. I'd also suggest subscribing to whatever the minimum Netflix package is allows unlimited movie streaming. Lots of movies and TV shows on there. I cut my $120 cable/internet bill in half last year by just keeping DSL and getting the Netflix subscription.

[ew2x4]

We cut cable and now our bill is 19.99 for 12-15 mbps cable internet. I had to talk them down to it, but I'm not complaining. I'll probably go back to Netflix when they add HD streaming on PC's. How big is their streaming selection? I had it when they first started it and it was pretty lackluster. How new is their stuff?