Comment 14 years without traditional TV (Score 1) 697
I moved to northern Michigan in 1997 to get married. Up there the only option for TV was satellite. We decided to try and do without because I had a huge VHS collection. We've never had TV since.
Right now I have 1000+ DVDs and 20,000+ MP3s (and elsewise, all legally purchased) ripped to an HP MediaSmart Server. I stream these movies to our three TVs using WD Live TV Plus (one for each TV). The WD has Netflix which we use constantly, and Pandora, which we use frequently. The living room TV and our bedroom TV have Rokus attached so we can use Hulu Plus. My mom (who lives with us, being disabled) watches Hulu on her laptop instead of on her TV.
Watching commercials on Hulu Plus is bizarre. We only just set up our account, and before that we've been commercial-free for 14 years. Very jarring.
The only real downside is the WD boxes because the UI is so bad, and they won't play Columbia Tri-star iso files (and some others). Dude. A DVD player is digital, and they can play any type of DVD. VLC plays Columbia Tri-star just fine. Why can't WD do it? Why can't they fix the little niggling UI issues that drive their users crazy?
I would love to use Boxee because the UI is beautiful, but you have so little control over your Cover Art, and that's a deal breaker for me. From what I've seen, no one has yet nailed a digital streaming box.
Oh, and I have a friend who records F1 races using a Tuner card, writes them to DVD and lets me borrow them.
The only thing I miss from traditional TV is watching football.
I just this week got an iPod and had it hooked up to my car stereo.
I love digital media.
Right now I have 1000+ DVDs and 20,000+ MP3s (and elsewise, all legally purchased) ripped to an HP MediaSmart Server. I stream these movies to our three TVs using WD Live TV Plus (one for each TV). The WD has Netflix which we use constantly, and Pandora, which we use frequently. The living room TV and our bedroom TV have Rokus attached so we can use Hulu Plus. My mom (who lives with us, being disabled) watches Hulu on her laptop instead of on her TV.
Watching commercials on Hulu Plus is bizarre. We only just set up our account, and before that we've been commercial-free for 14 years. Very jarring.
The only real downside is the WD boxes because the UI is so bad, and they won't play Columbia Tri-star iso files (and some others). Dude. A DVD player is digital, and they can play any type of DVD. VLC plays Columbia Tri-star just fine. Why can't WD do it? Why can't they fix the little niggling UI issues that drive their users crazy?
I would love to use Boxee because the UI is beautiful, but you have so little control over your Cover Art, and that's a deal breaker for me. From what I've seen, no one has yet nailed a digital streaming box.
Oh, and I have a friend who records F1 races using a Tuner card, writes them to DVD and lets me borrow them.
The only thing I miss from traditional TV is watching football.
I just this week got an iPod and had it hooked up to my car stereo.
I love digital media.
