Cord-cutting

February 22, 2011 12:39 PM

I want cable TV without the cable! I'm nearly there, but I want the most efficient way to accomplish this. Help me round out my setup make it more efficient!

Here's what I have:

1: XBox 360
2: Wii
3: Roku
4: Old-school AppleTV

Here's what I currently use them for:

1: Netflix (Wii, 360, Roku)
2: HULU+ (Roku)
3: Youtube (AppleTV)
4: Vimeo (Roku)

First off, I have very little interest in hooking up a PC to the TV, I rather like the idea of sticking with little sexy appliances in the living room, thank you.

What I really want to add:

1: Adult Swim
2: Comedy Central
3: Any non-HULU channel feed (CBS, BBC, PBS)

I installed Boxee on the AppleTV, but being a first-gen it really doesn't have the muscle to do the job (Comedy Central always freezes loading South Park)

I'm not afraid to install software on any of these devices (I've already hacked the AppleTV), or perhaps get a new AppleTV if they actually get any apps/channels available for it. I currently use the Apple TV only for YouTube and streaming my iTunes library.

I plan on dropping the XBox Gold account as one year of that is about the same price as the Roku.

I am open to all advice and suggestions now! Thanks!

posted by sourwookie to technology (7 answers total)

Well, if you're willing to buy another sexy appliance, the Boxee Box will give you just about everything except Hulu. The Navi-X application (via a third-party repo for the BoxeeBox) is an app that aggregates all the online TV feeds it knows about, Comedy Central shows are already included in Boxee by default, and I'm pretty sure there's an Adult Swim app via the official Boxee repository. I think you'd have the most trouble with BBC, to be honest.
posted by cgg at 12:48 PM on February 22, 2011

Get a ReadyNAS, which is a NAS enclosure (byo drives) that includes a BitTorrent client and DLNA (stream to 360) server. You can also put Transmission on there, which is a better BT client that has, among other things, the ability to watch a folder for new .torrent files and download them automatically.

There are plenty of places out there to find RSS feeds for torrents of TV shows. There are also a few tools out there to automatically download the latest entry from an RSS feed and put it in a specific folder.

What you do with this knowledge is up to you.
posted by mkultra at 12:58 PM on February 22, 2011

Um, not sure if you considered this, for at least CBS and PBS but have you tried just hooking up an antenna?
posted by d4nj450n at 1:00 PM on February 22, 2011

The Logitech/Google offering look good as does the Boxxee Box. I'm just afraid the content providers will pull the plug as soon as I get one (see the checkered past history of Boxee and Hulu). I wonder how it is Roku outdoes about everyone else for so little money?
posted by sourwookie at 1:03 PM on February 22, 2011

My understanding is that the Roku doesn't play your local media. (I't been rumored to be coming, but isn't here yet.) Boxee Box, on the other hand, plays your local media beautifully; it's probably it's best feature (outside of Netflix, whose Boxee Box support just came 2 weeks ago after a long fight, but it's finally here) If you're going to to the way of a torrent client and store the files within your local network, and want one appliance to handle both this and internet media, Boxee Box will shine. On the other hand, if you have no local media, then Roku is probably your choice. (Canadians be warned however - Roku it doesn't support Netflix up north!)
posted by cgg at 1:19 PM on February 22, 2011

Playing local media isn't so much an issue, the AppleTV does that better than I need. My goal is to primarily stream web content. Perhaps i need to restore my AppleTV and reinstall the latest revision of Boxee. It worked pretty well with Comedy Central and Adult Swim--back when it worked.
posted by sourwookie at 1:45 PM on February 22, 2011

https://owner.roku.com/add/pbs
https://owner.roku.com/add/cnni
posted by robot at 2:09 PM on June 4, 2011