No TV service for a year.....

re: No TV service for a year.....

Bill Rodriguez — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:42:47 GMT

Hey Chris I also live without cable.. I have an HD antenna which gives me all the local channels in HD for FREE.. This works great and then we also use Netflix to catch those shows that we can't see.. If you need any more info let me know..

re: No TV service for a year.....

chrisavis — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:26:33 GMT

Thanks for the offer! I used to do OTA HD when I lived near San Diego. Worked like a champ! But where I live now, I am on the wrong side of a hill and I am surrounded by 150 foot tall pine trees. So getting OTA HD would be problematic at best. Same applies for satellit services since line of sight to the satellites is obstructed by trees. I don't wish to sut anythign down and I don't want to run 50-80' mast up in my yard. My experiment is to go without cable service, leverage the broadcaster sites and rent/buy DVD's for things I want to watch beyond that. Should be an interesting year!

re: No TV service for a year.....

Jeremy Smith — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:13:21 GMT

Hey Chris,

I have been looking into moving my DVD's onto a Home Theater PC/Server for a little bit now. Can you give any recommendations on the server hardware requirements as well as software for riping DVD's to disk. I'd like to see something with enough quality that I take advantage of my HDTV.

Thanks!

re: No TV service for a year.....

jweston — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:40:23 GMT

But where is GH3 on the honey do list? Put down the guitar. Walk away, do you know it's Daylight for 15 hours up there this time of year!! :)

John Weston

re: No TV service for a year.....

chrisavis — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:46:44 GMT

@jeremy - From a server hard3ware perspective, you don't need much. Just make sure you have enough storage and a Gigabit network connection. My experience with streaming even lower res movies over wireless has been less that satisfactory. My Home Theater PC is hardwired to the network now as a result.

On the client side, multi-core/CPU is king. Some HighDef streams require lots of CPU. My new MCE machine is a Quad Core 64 bit box and it hasn't missed a beat in the past few days of testing.

DVD ripping is a touchy subject. I would stick to commercial packages for supportability. Check out avsforum for lots of tips on what to rip with and how to encode.

@john - practice makes perfect (except on Through Fire and Flames....I will never perfect that one!)

re: No TV service for a year.....

kai axford — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:53:28 GMT

I haven't given up my DirecTV, but I did cancel NFL Sunday Ticket, now that Brett Favre has retired. That was sucking up over $300.

My wife and I joined NetFlix over 2 years ago and it's amazing! Now they have the ability to stream a ton of content, for no additional cost or fee, unlimited. It's great. It also allows you to stream the movies to your laptop when you're on the road.

Good luck in your year long quest. I'm sure your Dallas Cowboys won't make it to the Super Bowl, so you'll be okay. :)

- Kai

re: No TV service for a year.....

chrisavis — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:17:03 GMT

@kai - I will miss the live football in the comfort of my own home on the big screen, but that is what friends and sports bars are for. We cancelled our NetFlix too because the streaming would not work on the big screen (because I don't have a HDCP connection from PC to TV). It worked fine on my laptop but I am a big screen guy.

Cowboys.....new stadium....new Bowl Rings!

re: No TV service for a year.....

Brigette — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:50:29 GMT

We did the same thing: killed the cable.

As far as your trees and stuff, you might be surprised what an old-fashioned, fishbone-style antenna will do for you. (I was skeptical...and tried all the "amplified" antennas...and then returned ALL of them before trying the fishbone wonder.) Now, I get all local HD channels with the old, plain-jane antenna in the attic.

I installed a six foot version (you can get bigger ones too) in our attic space and spliced it into the existing coax. Just remove the path back out to the cable box from your equation. (I set it up so that I can reconnect the cable line to the path if, at a later date, I change my mind....) And be sure to put terminators on all cable ports in the house that are NOT attached to a TV. Even on the TV that is furthest down the daisy chain, I get crystal clear HD.

Good luck!!! And have fun camping.

Brigette

Ker-blah....

chris e. avis - blogstrocity — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:43:48 GMT

Nothing particularly exciting to post about today. Lots of busy work around the house. The peak of the