Anyone streaming their TV through the internet yet?

[GenghisTron]

I'm looking for ways to help cut down on costs in my family, and I've been reading about people just plain streaming their TV through the internet, and also doing phone through their internet as well. Cable companies gouge the fuck out of people in my area, and we get really poor service (Yay for oversold suburban broadband), so I've been trying to convince my mom to drop both phone and TV (cumulatively about $80/month) in favor of getting a beefier internet connection and just doing both through the internet.

So what I'm wondering is--has anyone done this yet, do they know someone doing it, as well as how good is it working out, or poorly, etc.

I think what makes the most sense at this point is to get a Roku box, and just get a Netflix (possibly Hulu) subscription. Apparently you get free news channels with the Roku box and a couple other things like MLB.tv, etc. So you get your news channels, and then all the other channels and their shows through Hulu/Netflix. So in other words, it's basically the same as regular digital cable, except you don't get 700 channels from your cable provider of shit you never watch, and half of which are just placeholders for HDTV in the first place.

[Dexter]

yea I was going to recommend Skype and Roku + Netflix. but I dont watch tv so I don't know if its missing LATEST AND GREATEST stuff.

I use skype for work and its super cheap, $3 a month for unlimited. $12 for a phone number every 3 months, so a total of $7/m. You can get standalone skype phones too but they are kinda pricey.

[Iggy]

We've watched a few things on Netflix over the net. That's fine for the occasional movie/tv show, but I don't think I'd like having to rely on that as my sole TV source. As for phone, my best suggestion would be to go to Walmart and get one of thier Straight Talk phones. I get unlimited talk, text and internet on it for $45/month.

[Bully]

http://www.tvcatchup.com/

[Agent Buckshot Moose]

I cut my cable months ago. It's very nice. I have a media center computer, but am "upgrading" to a Boxee Box and turning said media center into a NAS. It's been plagued by constant connection problems over wireless. Maybe it's Ubuntu's WPA supplicant, or maybe it's interference from the surround sound. I dunno. But I am sure the damn Boxee Box will work better wirelessly while the media center is plugged into the router.

Edit: But beware of content providers blocking access.

[Paft]

Originally Posted by Bully

http://www.tvcatchup.com/

Nice!

[GenghisTron]

I guess I should update this thread. For the past couple weeks, we've been testing out Roku boxes. We now have one on every television in the house, and it's great. Netflix alone is a completely viable alternative to regular cable TV on it's own, and that doesn't even include the hundreds of channels/shows that come free with Roku. I don't watch much TV, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but I've pretty much just been watching all the seasons of The Office, and supplementing a few movies I was waiting to see.

As for phone, we decided to go with Ooma, which is just your typical VOIP setup. We haven't tested it yet, but I will be setting it up today. I don't expect it to be a revelation like internet TV was, since it's just plain old VOIP.

And it's totally worth it. So far, we're saving $75/month, possibly more, we'll find out when the next bill comes, and we have the potential to save more if we really wanted to pinch pennies by canceling the internet boost, but that's unlikely. Internet TV is just amazing, you can watch what you want, on demand, and you don't have to endure commercials. The picture is absolutely perfect, and there's so much shit to watch, I struggle just keeping track of it. If you're like me, and you watch a very small amount of shows, but like to watch all the shows in the seasons, Internet TV is the best. I'm unable to sit there and follow a sitcom schedule, and do it consistently. Now, I can just watch what I want in succession, when I want.

[KubeDawg]

So you pay for the Roku box itself, and maybe a subscription or 2, but that's it? awesome!

[GenghisTron]

Yea, pretty much. If you buy an HD Roku box, you get a free month of Hulu Plus, as well. There's also a list of free channels you get with the Roku box on their website. There's everything from CNET, to Nasa, Diggnation, etc. There's so much shit to watch, you'll have no need for TV. It's awesome.

[KubeDawg]

Hell yeah. I see TWiT as well, which was basically the first podcast I ever listened to back in the day. All Rev3 shows! :O Too bad they got rid of FoodMob...

What if I want shows like Discovery or BBC and such? What about HBO or Showtime? Any idea if they have any plans to add channels like that in the future?

[GenghisTron]

That's probably one of the downsides, you don't really have 'channels' like you do on TV. I don't really have a Dicovery Channel or MTV, or any of the stuff you mentioned, but you're able to pickup most shows/series through either Hulu or Netflix. You're able to get most news channels, BBC, ABC, CBS, etc., but it's not in real-time like it is on TV. But most shows you are able to get on Netflix/Hulu.

[Agent Buckshot Moose]

My own little update: After hooking up the Boxee Box I have discovered that my wireless connection problems were actually from my home theater system. It has wireless rear speakers that happen to operate on the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Turn it on and Internet dies. Turn it off, and Internet comes back up. Yeah...

Boxee Box is still waiting on Netflix/Hulu/Vudu--but those should be out in a few weeks. In the meantime, it has its own online content, plus the ability to play pretty much any file format you throw at it. That's the downside of Roku players. If you have a lot of local media, you may not be able to play it all because they only support a few formats. Boxee supports pretty much every A/V format known to mankind.