Need advice on cutting cable cost.

[NewChief]

Damn you for turning me on to Xbmc. I've probably watched more movies and shows in the last two weeks than I have in the last year. Absolutely love the interface and ability to pop out to main menu and browse through weather and such while movie is playing in background. It just feels cool.

Still need to get Spotimc working properly, and I really hope they get Airplay fixed with ios7 and xbmc soon. Otherwise, just awesome.

[SuperChief]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Damn you for turning me on to Xbmc. I've probably watched more movies and shows in the last two weeks than I have in the last year. Absolutely love the interface and ability to pop out to main menu and browse through weather and such while movie is playing in background. It just feels cool.

Still need to get Spotimc working properly, and I really hope they get Airplay fixed with ios7 and xbmc soon. Otherwise, just awesome.

Honestly, I can't really think how I did the whole streaming video thing before I found (via Fish) XBMC. It's been a complete game changer for my household.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Damn you for turning me on to Xbmc. I've probably watched more movies and shows in the last two weeks than I have in the last year. Absolutely love the interface and ability to pop out to main menu and browse through weather and such while movie is playing in background. It just feels cool.

Still need to get Spotimc working properly, and I really hope they get Airplay fixed with ios7 and xbmc soon. Otherwise, just awesome.

Heh... Glad it's working for you and the family. XBMC is getting incredibly powerful since its inception. I've been running XBMC since the beginning, back when it was called XBMP. Started running it on a modded original XBOX, which is where the name originated. It started as XBox Media Player, and eventually morphed into XBMC(XBox Media Center). Even though it currently runs on any platform, it's still retained the name.

I got an AppleTV2, and configured it up for my Dad and Stepmom a couple years ago. Last visit home over Thanksgiving, the first thing my Stepmom said to me was "If you want your father and I's marriage to continue, you've got to fix that damn movie box."

[ragedogg69]

Originally Posted by Fish

"If you want your father and I's marriage to continue,

reading that gave me an aneurysm, but I cannot figure out what would be proper.


what quality are the shows on tvonline.cc? I cannot watch anything but 720p rips of TV Shows.

[aturnis]

Is XBMC family friendly as far as operation goes?

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by aturnis

Is XBMC family friendly as far as operation goes?

Once you get it set up, yes. The main problem would be if things get glitchy, and you're not around to problem solve (usually involves force refreshing the repository of the buggy app).

That happens to me with my wife and any system though. No matter how many times I tell her reboot the router if the internet goes down, I still get texts "The internet is down at the house, can you fix it?"

[BWillie]

I just got a pretty good deal from Comcast. $104 for the same shit I had. Still get espn1, 2, news, u. CBS sports, nfl network, nba tv. Etcetc. Basically I get all the sports channels except b10 network. Entire house dvr. Faster internet. Same if not better service as I was previously getting for $185. Had to do 3 yr contract but cancellation fee is only $300, and goes down a certain % each month. So if Google Fiber comes in 1.5 yrs itll just be $150 to cancel

[jjjayb]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I just got a pretty good deal from Comcast. $104 for the same shit I had. Still get espn1, 2, news, u. CBS sports, nfl network, nba tv. Etcetc. Basically I get all the sports channels except b10 network. Entire house dvr. Faster internet. Same if not better service as I was previously getting for $185. Had to do 3 yr contract but cancellation fee is only $300, and goes down a certain % each month. So if Google Fiber comes in 1.5 yrs itll just be $150 to cancel

I just signed back up because of that too. $100/mo here with 250Mbit connection. Only a 2 year contract, but rate is guarnteed for 3 years.

[Fish]

There's a new XBMC plugin for TV shows, that's been working really well for me.

TVOnline. It's just TV shows, but it works great and it's really reliable. You don't have to pick sources, it doesn't buffer, and the selection is good. This plugin is new, so future development will make it even better. You can subscribe to shows, and they'll show up in your library and new show will be added to your library automatically when they come available. It's pretty solid.

Info here:

http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/kinkin...-tvonline.html

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Fish

There's a new XBMC plugin for TV shows, that's been working really well for me.

TVOnline. It's just TV shows, but it works great and it's really reliable. You don't have to pick sources, it doesn't buffer, and the selection is good. This plugin is new, so future development will make it even better. You can subscribe to shows, and they'll show up in your library and new show will be added to your library automatically when they come available. It's pretty solid.

Info here:

http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/kinkin...-tvonline.html

Cool. I'll give it a try. I don't watch a ton of current TV but will be helpful when GoT starts back up. How does it choose the source? Just bases choice on most views?

[Fish]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Cool. I'll give it a try. I don't watch a ton of current TV but will be helpful when GoT starts back up. How does it choose the source? Just bases choice on most views?

I believe it's all from tvonline.cc. There's a register process, but you can put whatever you want for email, it doesn't actually check the email and you go straight to the media. Breeze through that thread it has all the info. Would be nice for family to use, pretty simple and reliable.

[aturnis]

But can I watch DuckTales?

[CoMoChief]

So how would you be able to watch like Chiefs games or MU/KU college bball games with these programs?

[ragedogg69]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

So how would you be able to watch like Chiefs games or MU/KU college bball games with these programs?

sportsdevil add on or live stream apps like veetle or Navi-X. Supposedly, Mashup has high quality feeds, but if you install those add ons, it will also install ads and tracking software. I highly recommend you do not support the xunity add on team.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Question for the resident HTPC experts.

I am too long out of the game, but am looking towards cord cutting myself. It seems like a good thing to do over X-Mas break.

I have the following right now in the living room:

HTPC:

AM 3 MoBo, AMD Propus 45nm 3.0 GHZ quad-core chip, 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM, 1.8 TB storage, Windows 7.

It's connected to the internet through a D-Link Wireless Bridge. Our router is a basic Linskys N router.

I want to be able to stream content to the connected TV and do our second LCD TV. I'd also like to function as a DVR.

We current have DTV and 30 MBPS internet. I'm looking to drop the DTV completely. I can build an OTA antenna myself and mount it in the attic.

I'd like to have Dual Tuner capability.

What would you recommend that I add to the setup from a hardware perspective (including STBs)?

It looks like XMBC is the de facto choice on here for software. I'll also sign back up for Hulu Plus.

My wife usually watches generic, dumbass Bravo programming, so I'm sure I can get that via Hulu, and I know I'm likely SOL w/ sports, but what might you recommend if I wanted to watch college basketball and football?

Many rheps to responders.