Why the he!! did I just do that?!?!?!?!?

ManglerYJ

ManglerYJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Lexington, NC
We built an addition to our house that is now our master bedroom suite. We said up front that we were going to do this once and we wanted to make this exactly what we want, but do it with no debt. We had the foundation poured and built it a little at a time. We finally got our certificate of occupancy a year and a half ago and have been saving for a flat screen TV to hang on the wall in the bedroom and I also built the walls and ran cabling so I can put a smaller flat screen in the bathroom so my wife can watch her soap opera while relaxing in the tub. Her bathroom is her little "resort" to get away from me and the kids.

So after a year and a half of scrimping and saving and eating peanut butter sandwiches, we finally had enough money to get my flatscreen tv. We actually had enough to order a 42" plasma with wall mount for the bedroom AND the 22" LCD and mount for the bathroom. They should be arriving sometime this week for me to install.

To celebrate, I went into the living room to sit back and relax and guess what....... THERE'S NOTHING ON TV TO WATCH.
 
Reason why I got rid of my cable over 3 years ago. Now I spend more time in the garage:driver:
 
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OnlyOneDR said:
You are surprised?!?!? That's why I rarely watch TV. Back to the garage...
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20 years ago, I could sit for hours - scratch that - DAYS just watching TV. As time went on, I got busy with family responsibilities always hearing about people watching their favorite shows and wondering how they could keep up with them. My brother would always talk about the latest episode of whatever he was into at the time, LA Law, Moonlighting, CSI, Law & Order, Walking Dead, Burn Notice, etc. and I would sit there clueless.

Now I'm still clueless, but now with a lighter wallet.
 
13bullets said:
The Walking Dead. AMC. Right meow.
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I sat and watched about 10 minutes of it. Premise is cool, and maybe I'm missing something, but there seemed to be a lack of urgency. If there were zombies trying to kill me, I don't think I'd be worried about fixing a chicken wire fence.
 
Outside of an ESPN channel perpetually being on in the background, I bet I only actually watch an average of 3 hours of tv a week. I'd be just fine only having ESPN, FX and History channel.
 
History, Science, Military, and Adult Swim are my channels. I can watch anything on any of those channels. Their shows are pretty good and I normally get to learn something (except for adult swim) while watching the tube. Punkin Chunkin was on last night on the Science channel so we watched that.
 
I don't have cable. I can't justify paying that much to watch TV. There are three channels that I love to watch though RTV, Me-TV and Antenna TV. All old programs. Watching Perry Mason right now.
 
I finally ditched Directv about 6mos ago, never looked back. Set up my computer to handle all the multimedia needs I have. My family and I watch everything when we want to for free. Everything broadcast I we care about is usually HD and most of what I get online is too.
 
Rox&Mud said:
I finally ditched Directv about 6mos ago, never looked back. Set up my computer to handle all the multimedia needs I have. My family and I watch everything when we want to for free. Everything broadcast I we care about is usually HD and most of what I get online is too.
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OK.... now you've got my attention. What do I need to accomplish this? I have to have TimeWarner for Road Runner since it's the only thing in this area that has any reliability for high speed internet (I build websites on the side from my home). We also have our digital home phone through them. I am not above ditching cable as long as my wife can watch her soap opera. (although the show has been cancelled, so once she catches up on the DVR's episodes from August, that's a moot point).

I have a server set up in the house running Windows NT Server 2003, so I can use it for storage if I need to. It has 100 gig free space on the hard drive array, so it would hold a decent amount before needing an additional drive.

Suggestions as to how to start?
 
ManglerYJ said:
OK.... now you've got my attention. What do I need to accomplish this? I have to have TimeWarner for Road Runner since it's the only thing in this area that has any reliability for high speed internet (I build websites on the side from my home). We also have our digital home phone through them. I am not above ditching cable as long as my wife can watch her soap opera. (although the show has been cancelled, so once she catches up on the DVR's episodes from August, that's a moot point).
I have a server set up in the house running Windows NT Server 2003, so I can use it for storage if I need to. It has 100 gig free space on the hard drive array, so it would hold a decent amount before needing an additional drive.
Suggestions as to how to start?
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Way too many variables. PM Sent
 
BLUE RAY

My Buddy's wife, just spent more money, they Didn't have on some fancy Blue Ray player. Main reason is to watch NexFlic?, on line, at a so-called bargin price. Unit also hooks to any multiple TV sets, for viewing. She is going to try getting TV,also
online=free?:confused:
 
Here's my setup and my wife is happy with it and she wasnt really on board with this at first:

Ditched DirecTV.
Bought one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Dire...YG9K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322615735&sr=8-1
and a mount:
http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Dire...VD1Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322615735&sr=8-3
Check what channels you'll be able to get here:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=ec12d7f765f0fc
Look at the headings on the rotary display on that website and angle the antenna towards where you want it with a compass.

Now, that'll get you the basics such as fox, abc, and similar in crystal clear HD.

Xbox360
Hook the xbox up to your network and go in to the media center settings. Link the xbox360 to your pc with the given extender code. Then follow the instructions.

Next, to watch whatever shows you want just download them using torrents and put them in whatever folder you have linked to the xbox.

Download utorrent. www.utorrent.com
Now go to www.thepiratebay.org and search for tv shows and download them. The files will be around 300MB or so each.
Here is an example of what it looks like when you search:
http://thepiratebay.org/search/mythbusters/0/7/0

Once the file downloads into the folder then you can open up xbox media center and watch it. good enough quality.

Other parts of my setup:
Netflix on xbox360 (self explanatory)

Playon http://www.playon.tv/index.php
The live channels are iffy but I can get what I want most of the time...i.e. spike or espn live.
The addon to get is the TV Channel Pack 2 but there are other good ones as well.
Playon is mostly good for accessing videos listed on network television sites, hulu, and a host of others.


Before I switched I had a $100 directv bill and a $60 internet bill. I called to cutoff the directv and they would not let me off the phone offering deal after deal after deal. The final deal was Loaded directv and AT&T internet for...get this $45 a month for a year.

That left me scratching my head. So...I called Time Warner (roadrunner) and let them know that AT&T internet was of comparable speed (its not really) and was $20/month on their website. http://www.att.com/dsl/#fbid=MQkhTbxq8BW (now $14.95). It took about 5 seconds for them to knock my bill down to $29 for the next year.

I then called back directv and cancelled all the tv.

I cut a $160 total bill to $29 and have had it for about 6 months. Not complaining.
Hope this helps.
 
I built two of those antennas. Gained 2 channels which brings my total to 3. (But then I live in a dungeon. The bottom third of my apartment is below grade and it's at the bottom of the hill with a huge berm along the back of the building.)
 
my setup is similar to russ0943. except I made my uhf antenna for about 5 bucks. it looks kinda butch but it works much better than the best hd antenna radioshack had to offer. all kinds of "how to" vids on youtube about that. and my xbox and internet on my computer pretty much handles all of the media streaming. if you want its $16 a month for netflix and hulu+ together and you get all the newest episodes right after they come out on tv and all the movies and other shows you could want for cheap. my biggest expence is the internet itself but until other providers come to my area Im kinda stuck paying $68.5 a month for minimal internet and a land line.

almost forgot you don't need xbox live to get netflix and hulu on your tv, it costs me an extra $60 a year for xbox live but I play games online, you only need your computer or a tv that will stream from the internet itself to get the online shows.
 
I got some time now to discuss my setup, my wife had another, minor, surgery this week so I have been fairly busy.

My desktop computer was about five or so years old so I upgraded it as well but it wasn't necessary since the video card handles the video processing. All I did was add the below to my computer.

VisionTek All in Wonder MC edition 512 MB PCI-E $49
(Handles all video processing and has one tuner which takes the load off system memory and CPU)

VisionTek MCE PCI-E x1 Dig/Analg TV Tuner $44
(Additional tuner to allow two channel recording)

RCA DIGITAL FLAT PASSIVE Antenna $10
ULTRA 2 WAY COAXIAL SPLITTER 2500 MHZ $4
PATRIOT SIGNATURE 16GB MICROSDHC CARD CLASS 4 $24
(Added to get digital audio out ports for my A/V receiver)


This gives me access to all the local broadcast channels in full HD. I live in Raleigh and pull in channels all the way from Goldsboro.
Windows media center provides a guide, DVR capacity and the ability to record series automatically.
For any cable shows I'm interested in I use http://www.sidereel.com/ to track and link to whatever I want to watch.

For internet I use Clear since they are the cheapest service in my area, $50/month. I even use the lowest bandwidth package they have and it still works well.

There was a learning curve and my wife was not on board at first but now she can't see paying $90+ a month for what we get absolutely free now.
 
Rox&Mud said:
I finally ditched Directv about 6mos ago, never looked back. Set up my computer to handle all the multimedia needs I have. My family and I watch everything when we want to for free. Everything broadcast I we care about is usually HD and most of what I get online is too.
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Agreed! I haven't had cable tv in 5yrs. In its place I built a media based computer, configured the OS to look and function like a media center, and use Hulu (free), Netflix (my brothers account), youtube, and a 1500 movie library that myself and friends have accumulated, all pushed through my 42" 1080 flatty. I couldn't be happier.

Every now and then I spend a dollar on a redbox movie or turn on my free digital stations that I get through the antenna. Every morning I watch the news and Today show before work, every night a movie or some episodes of Scrubs or House or something like that. Its nice.
 
Rox&Mud said:
I got some time now to discuss my setup, my wife had another, minor, surgery this week so I have been fairly busy.

My desktop computer was about five or so years old so I upgraded it as well but it wasn't necessary since the video card handles the video processing. All I did was add the below to my computer.

VisionTek All in Wonder MC edition 512 MB PCI-E $49
(Handles all video processing and has one tuner which takes the load off system memory and CPU)

VisionTek MCE PCI-E x1 Dig/Analg TV Tuner $44
(Additional tuner to allow two channel recording)

RCA DIGITAL FLAT PASSIVE Antenna $10
ULTRA 2 WAY COAXIAL SPLITTER 2500 MHZ $4
PATRIOT SIGNATURE 16GB MICROSDHC CARD CLASS 4 $24
(Added to get digital audio out ports for my A/V receiver)


This gives me access to all the local broadcast channels in full HD. I live in Raleigh and pull in channels all the way from Goldsboro.
Windows media center provides a guide, DVR capacity and the ability to record series automatically.
For any cable shows I'm interested in I use http://www.sidereel.com/ to track and link to whatever I want to watch.

For internet I use Clear since they are the cheapest service in my area, $50/month. I even use the lowest bandwidth package they have and it still works well.

There was a learning curve and my wife was not on board at first but now she can't see paying $90+ a month for what we get absolutely free now.
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The biggest concern I would have would be losing Disney Channel. I have a 5 year old, a 3 year old and a 2 year old and it's on pretty much all day even if its just background.

In my house, we have a TV in each of the older two girls rooms, but they are old CRT's. We have a older CRT tv in the living room and one in the "play room" - that ones on all day with Disney. We just bought a HD flatscreen tv (that won't be here until Dec. 21st - LONG story - lets just say me and Best Buy aren't exactly on speaking terms anymore) for the master bedroom and a smaller HD flatscreen for the master bathroom. I don't have the coax cables terminated in either room yet, but that's an easy task for a friend of mine that has the tools.

These HD antenna arrays I've been seeing... can you use them to supply the whole house since it already has coax from the cable? Also, would the CRT's benefit from them, or would I have to get new tv's to replace the old ones?
 
To be honest, we only have one TV, well Projector anyway, so I imagine there would be a lot more involved in pushing signal, especially different signals, to every TV.

Don't be fooled by the HD tv antenna's promoted at most stores, a simple set of rabbit ears, usually just UHF but may also need VHF depending on your area, serves the same purpose as that high dollar "HD" antenna. Indoor vs outdoor also depends on your location. It's sorta like back when CD players first came out and audio equipment was promoted as "Digital Ready", just another way they can get more money for the same thing that's been on the shelves for years.

I spent a couple months researching what would work best for me. Here is a good site for some answers. http://www.antennaweb.org
 
BrianM said:
shoot I don't even have a TV in the house
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LOL

I lived that way for about 4 years until I met my wife.

Only downside was I had to go over to my parents house to watch the SX and MX races I recorded on their DVR.
 
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