Getting rid of cable...

The drug pushers at Comcast finally got to me. I couldn't resist an offer to cut my bill by 35%, boost my Internet speed AND give me the digital package AND HBO.

The price only lasts for 6 months. Then six months of 7 bucks more than a pay now (still less than the price for just the High Speed Internet) and then after a year it goes back to regular price (although no contracts so I can just switch to another provider, or down to my current package/price).

I've already got my Roku boxes. My HTPC comes later this week. I'm using Plex as a media server and SABnzbd/SickBeard to download the shows that aren't on Hulu. I'm going to try the VPN route to get around MLB.tv's blackout restrictions.

I'm just about set to call the cable company & cancel (I'll keep their internet; it's the fastest around here). I'll see what kind of deals they throw at me.

A bump for some new info. One is that I had forgotten that my el-cheapo Blu-Ray DVD player from LG has a YouTube option, and I can watch youtube vids on my TV using it. I tried it out the other night, and its not perfect, but given how rarely I watch things on youtube that I want to see on the TV, its not that big of an issue. I mention this, because its apparently a common feature on Blu-Ray players, so folks might want to check to see if they have one that's got it. If not, you can pick up one with that capability for about $50.

The big news, however, is that there are "private" channels on Roku boxes. These are channels that, for one reason or another, don't show up in the Roku Channel store, however, you can easily add them, via the Roku site. This site has a listing of many of them. Here's another. And I haven't checked over the sites to see if they duplicate one another or if one is more accurate as I just found out about them. BTW, a couple of the private channels do allow you to watch YouTube videos via your Roku.

And here's the listing for the PORN channels you can add!

What about this:

https://www.rabbittv.com/

?

I see commercials for it on MeTV. I can't help but be cynical & skeptical about it. I guess I can't help it that I have an Inner Penn & Teller

There's no annual fee for a Roku (though you do have to pay for some channels), and I'm guessing that the bulk of the channels it offers are ones which stream freely over the web (and are probably available on Roku), so someone signing up for that is getting ripped off.

Iirc, it's only $10.00 a year according to the commercial on MeTV hosted by the hot blonde babe, but yeah, WHY get ripped off unnecessarily & for no reason?

DVR support.

Adding the private channels has become the best thing I've done. One of them, Nowhere TV has the complete Connections by James Burke PBS series on it! BTW, the first episode opens with Burke walking around the WTC.

Connections?!?! Holy shit, I am so there. Good update!

But will it rule them all and bind them?

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...h-iring-motion-controller-to-launch-this-year

Ya that's what we all want. A remote that is even easier to lose.

Cool to see so many adopt Roku or Roku-like devices so quickly with good results. IMO, it pays for itself within a few months.

I was talking about the iRing in evenflow's post.

But what she said is awesome. I know a woman who refuses to go to a smart phone because she doesn't want to "live by it". control yourself and make your life easier and less complicated.

I use my iPhone as my remote already. I have no interest in a gay iRing.

Yeah, I can't see too many people being interested in such a thing.

I turned my phone into a remote and had a blast messing with the kids. I was changing channels left and right while they were watching cartoons.

They were flipping out. "DADDY THE TV IS BROKEN!!!!!" Then arguing with each other. Getting the other remotes.

Wife ruined it though when she ratted me out.

I did it as soon as we bought the Roku, didn't even have it set up yet.

Maybe if the ring looked like this...

I love my Roku box. She's 4 years old now, and starting to really age, but I'll keep using it until it explodes, or until the hardware isn't sufficiently capable, what with their increasing need to update the software to the point where my v1.0 chugs along just to keep up.

Update: I've signed up for Play Now, one of the private apps that Tuckerfan told us about. We had to pay a small fee, but this one might have potential. I'm currently watching the episode of Elementary that I slept through last Thursday, we had been paying a couple dollars to watch it via Amazon if we missed one. Plus, this channel supports ESPN, but I haven't been able to make it work. It might need info from a cablr provider. :/

Oooh, I checked this listing of the Roku private channels to see what's been added and discovered that they now have a Nanotech Channel!

We are so glad we got Roku first. For some reason the Apple TV is incredibly slow where the Roku is fast. Roku will stream an HD movie where Apple TV can't do one Bourdain episode download in 3 hours. We have to download to my iPad then mirror to the TV. What's up with this?

No clue. My AppleTV works like a champ.

Go to speedtest.net and see what your connection speed is. If you've got a speed of less than about 5 mps, that might be your problem. Roku can handle fairly slow connection speeds, and if you're streaming something from the iTunes Store and then to your iPad and then to your Apple TV, what's happening is that Apple's sending a smaller version of the video to your iPad, so on a slower connection, you'd be able to get the file faster. Otherwise, I'd suggest doing a full reset of your Apple TV to see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't then I'd bug Apple's tech support. The Apple TV should work as seamlessly as the Roku does.

That's how it goes, now. Such companies have figured out that if you cut their connection, you'll just go to Hulu, Netflix, and other content providers, so they block that avenue by upping the costs of your data connection. I hate that there are so many near monopolies in the cable industry. Hell, in the telecommunications industry as well.