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Like many people around the country I dread looking at my bank statement and seeing how much of my hard earned money slips through my fingers to pay my bills each month. One of the bigger bills I see is my cable TV and Internet bill. This is especially bad because I do not watch much live television anymore; I generally see most of it on my DVR, on demand channels, or online through Hulu or Netflix. In lieu of this, I have decided that I want to drop the cable portion of my bill and find a cheaper solution. This article’s function is to share some of my research with you in the hopes of helping you cut your cable cord as well.
There are two main ways of going about this task; creating a standard media PC/HTPC (Home theatre PC) or buying a standalone dedicated box. Both options have their pros and cons and picking the right one for you can seem like a chore. HTPCs are a bit more expensive but have the flexibility of being a full PC. Dedicated boxes are generally cheaper and have some slick software installed, but often have limitations on what media streams they can connect to.
One of the first dedicated solutions for internet TV and movies is Roku. The Roku box comes in three flavors (one for standard definition and two for high definition). All three have access to services such as Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu+, and Netflix, as well as Wi-Fi b/g/n. All three have composite video and audio, and the two high definition options come with HDMI ports. This solution is fairly cheap ($59 for the SD only option and $99 for the most expensive box).
Boxee is both a software and a hardware option. The Boxee software is a fork of the XMBC media center open source project which can be installed on a PC. This application acts as a media aggregator across a number of online media sites and has a deep selection of TV shows that are accessible without a subscription. Other services, such as Netflix, are accessed through apps that you install into Boxee. At the time of writing Netflix has an app but Hulu+ is still lacking, but rumored for the near future.
Building an HTPC can be as simple as buying a computer and hooking it up to your TV or as complex as researching individual components and building one from scratch. Lately there has been a wave of computer manufacturers building small form computers for use as HTPCs. A common platform for these is the Intel Atom processor coupled with the new NVidia Ion family of video cards. This allows for a small computer that is very energy efficient while being powerful enough to play 1080p video. Windows 7 professional and ultimate both come with the new Windows Media Center which is a fantastic piece of software for playing and organizing media. There are add-ons to connect Hulu, Netflix, and Boxee directly into WMC allowing you to play almost everything from one application. An alternative to Windows for the money conscious is Linux. There are two flavors of Linux developed specifically for use on an HTPC, MythTV and the Elements OS.
There are other options than the ones described above that I have not yet researched heavily as there are a lot of new contenders entering the arena; two notable exceptions include Apple TV and Google TV. At the end of the day it is up to you, the end user, to decide which option gives you the best choices for media and which ones offer what you specifically want. If any of you reading this have experience with cutting your cable off tell us your story or leave some more tips in the comments below.
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