I "cut the cable" in 2009. Initially there were some "set up" costs to bring my equipment up to date to accommodate the set up I had in mind. I wanted to only pay for the content I was really interested in. I was tired of paying way too much each month for a bunch of content we didn't watch. When we did watch television it was via the DVR so we could skip right over the commercials. In this article I'll tell you about the set up that I have found that has worked great for me and my family for the past 4 years or so.
We were interested in: Local programming and content on demand. So, we decided to pay only for Netflix because it was and is on demand and commercial free. With the exception of one season of MLS, Netflix is the only paid content we have used for the past 4 years and I don't predict that will change anytime soon. So, what do we watch and how to do we watch it?
We watch our local programming including sports, news, and a few broadcast network television shows in HD using our digital multidirectional antenna from Denny's Antenna for free. Many of the shows we watch are recorded to our Lacie External hard drive with our Mac mini using the EyeTV software which we use as a DVR. We watch cable shows we like such as Duck Dynasty on the network website. Maybe at this point you are thinking that we might have a computer attached to each television. This is just not the case. We only have to have a computer attached to the televisions we use to watch programs that are DVR'd and there may be a way around that but we happen to own plenty of computers. The other televisions use some other device to get Netflix (i.e. PS3, Roku, etc.). Additionally each TV has a coax local signal coming that is received from the antenna for "live" HD local programming.
Here is a simple outline of the set up we have:
We were interested in: Local programming and content on demand. So, we decided to pay only for Netflix because it was and is on demand and commercial free. With the exception of one season of MLS, Netflix is the only paid content we have used for the past 4 years and I don't predict that will change anytime soon. So, what do we watch and how to do we watch it?
We watch our local programming including sports, news, and a few broadcast network television shows in HD using our digital multidirectional antenna from Denny's Antenna for free. Many of the shows we watch are recorded to our Lacie External hard drive with our Mac mini using the EyeTV software which we use as a DVR. We watch cable shows we like such as Duck Dynasty on the network website. Maybe at this point you are thinking that we might have a computer attached to each television. This is just not the case. We only have to have a computer attached to the televisions we use to watch programs that are DVR'd and there may be a way around that but we happen to own plenty of computers. The other televisions use some other device to get Netflix (i.e. PS3, Roku, etc.). Additionally each TV has a coax local signal coming that is received from the antenna for "live" HD local programming.
Here is a simple outline of the set up we have:
- Antenna
- Amplifier
- Professional Splitter
- Each Television
- Silicon Dust Home Run
- Second Silicon Dust Home Run
- Main Television (Media Center Server)
- Mac Mini
- External HD connected via Firewire for storing DVR'd programming
- EyeTV Software
- PS3
- BluRay Player
- Netflix
My hope in (finally) sharing this is that it will help people. Please feel free to post your comments or questions and I'll do my best to respond to them.
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