Need advice on cutting cable cost.

[Bump]

I cut the cord on DTV and just use netflix and hulu. I'm thinking about watching stuff on project free TV, but I dunno...feel like I might get a virus.

But the way I look at it, DTV was great the first year, paying $40 per month. After that, without any sort of changes to my programming. The bill always ranged from $90 - 120 per month after that. Just for the regular cable channels, no HBO or anything like that.

I ended up cancelling 2 months early and gladly paid $40 to do so. Netflix and hulu cost me $16 per month. So the way I look at it, I've already saved around $350 since I have cancelled and feels great.

Now if I can get an alternative to comcast internet and their $80 per month price, that would be great. But the only other option here is RCN or Verizon. So, which would be the lesser evil? I don't know.

[NewChief]

Here's the dumbest XBMC "brick" story ever:

I installed Aeon Nox skin because I thought it looked cool. It has a "splash" boot screen on it, though, that it goes to before putting you into the main menu. The only problem with that, though, is that my MX2 remote control "home" button only causes the splash screen to reload instead of going to the actual main menu. No worries, though, because the XBMC remote app on my iPhone/Pad would navigate it to the main menu without any issues. All was well... until my XBMC remote app stopped connecting.

Now I'm stuck on the splash screen, unable to access my settings to change anything just because I installed a skin. I can't work on the box and troubleshoot it (I think all that's happened is that my box isn't hitting my wireless network now) because I can't get past this screen. XBMC was really running awesome up until then.

I think I'm going to have to do a fresh install from SD card.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Here's the dumbest XBMC "brick" story ever:

I installed Aeon Nox skin because I thought it looked cool. It has a "splash" boot screen on it, though, that it goes to before putting you into the main menu. The only problem with that, though, is that my MX2 remote control "home" button only causes the splash screen to reload instead of going to the actual main menu. No worries, though, because the XBMC remote app on my iPhone/Pad would navigate it to the main menu without any issues. All was well... until my XBMC remote app stopped connecting.

Now I'm stuck on the splash screen, unable to access my settings to change anything just because I installed a skin. I can't work on the box and troubleshoot it (I think all that's happened is that my box isn't hitting my wireless network now) because I can't get past this screen. XBMC was really running awesome up until then.

I think I'm going to have to do a fresh install from SD card.

Can you boot the device and browse files in the Android OS? If so, you can manually switch back to the default Confluence skin.

Navigate to ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml You can edit that file to change back to Confluence, or simply delete the file and let it be recreated. You'll lose your other XBMC system settings if you delete the file though.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Fish

Can you boot the device and browse files in the Android OS? If so, you can manually switch back to the default Confluence skin.

Navigate to ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml You can edit that file to change back to Confluence, or simply delete the file and let it be recreated. You'll lose your other XBMC system settings if you delete the file though.

Nope. I can't get into the Android files. I boot into the Android Recovery screen, and it has four options:

From there I can do a factor reset/restore (which I'm assuming will wipe XBMC from the system), reboot, or restore from SD card or network drive (I think).

[Fish]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Nope. I can't get into the Android files. I boot into the Android Recovery screen, and it has four options:

From there I can do a factor reset/restore (which I'm assuming will wipe XBMC from the system), reboot, or restore from SD card or network drive (I think).

Have you tried the toothpick reset by pressing the little hidden button on the AV port?

Have you tried this: http://matricom.net/forums/#/discuss...tricom-screen-

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Fish

Have you tried the toothpick reset by pressing the little hidden button on the AV port?

Have you tried this: http://matricom.net/forums/#/discuss...tricom-screen-

Yeah, that's how i get the Android boot screen up (the toothpick trick). My next step is to do the firmware reinstall from SD card.

[durtyrute]

You wanna cut cable cost, cut cable.

[the Talking Can]

I use playon to stream, paid a one time $50 fee..w/ a roku

I can get most cable channels live through various plugins, plus the whole archive of movies and tv via channel1 and some others.

Best part is they just released a browser plugin the lets you stream any video you are watching to your tv w/ the click of a button. It's how I watch all sports now.

plus netflix and aero for $8 each a month

never ever going back to cable, saving $100 a month

[ragedogg69]

quick question regarding the advancedsettings.xml file. I have been copying and pasting code from pastebins and code sections from forums, but I notice they are not tabbing out the spacing. Does that matter?

advancedsettings
network>
cachemembuffersize>104857600/cachemembuffersize>
/network>
/advancedsettings>

or should it all be tabbed like an outline? Does it matter?

(forum will not let me start the < command)

[Fish]

Spaces don't matter with the code. It ignores spaces, as well as some other characters.

If in doubt, take a look at your xbmc.log file. If your advancedsettings.xml file is working/interpreted correctly, it should be visible in your log file. If there's a problem with it, it will tell you in the log file.

[NewChief]

I'm trying to put the new firmware on an SD card, and I can't get it to extract.

It either says the .zip file is empty or that I need the last volume in a multivolume.


Edit:
Finally found a firmware update that seems to be valid and work. Currently have the icon that indicates that firmware is upgrading, so I'm hopeful. The other files listed in the youtube videos and message boards didn't seem to actually have anything in them (they downloaded super fast vs. this one which was about 4gigs).

[NewChief]

Yes! Thank god. I'm up and running again. I wouldn't say that was an exactly fun way to spend an evening, but I learned a few things hacking around with the box... and I now have xbmc up and running with 1channel currently downloading.

[NewChief]

Question (sort of dumb and lazy, but whatever...):

Is there a universal movie app of some kind that will save movies that I'm wanting to watch into a list? What I'd like to do is, when I'm at my PC at work or talking to someone with my mobile device handy and run across a movie I'd like to watch... I'd like to be able to add it to a list that will automatically show up in my 1channel app.

My problem is that I'm always sitting in front of the TV and end up browsing around because I can't remember a movie that I've been meaning to watch (pathetic, I know).

Alternately: something along the lines of Goodreads, but for movies, would be great. An online community where I can browse movies, flag movies as "watched/to-watch" and read reviews (I know IMDB has some of this functionality), preferably they'd also have a mobile app.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Question (sort of dumb and lazy, but whatever...):

Is there a universal movie app of some kind that will save movies that I'm wanting to watch into a list? What I'd like to do is, when I'm at my PC at work or talking to someone with my mobile device handy and run across a movie I'd like to watch... I'd like to be able to add it to a list that will automatically show up in my 1channel app.

My problem is that I'm always sitting in front of the TV and end up browsing around because I can't remember a movie that I've been meaning to watch (pathetic, I know).

Alternately: something along the lines of Goodreads, but for movies, would be great. An online community where I can browse movies, flag movies as "watched/to-watch" and read reviews (I know IMDB has some of this functionality), preferably they'd also have a mobile app.

I'm not aware of a solution like that which would work with 1Channel. But I'll take a look.

Probably a good opportunity to pimp my very favorite XBMC plugin again, which does exactly what you're requesting.

What the Furk

What the Furk is a plugin used in conjunction with a subscription to the Furk.net website($7-8/mth). Furk is a torrent aggregator. Meaning it will search all available torrent sites for the media you're looking for, and download it from the torrent site to its own servers. Then you can direct download the media safely without ever having to go through the torrent process, including being tagged for copyright violations and such. WTF can stream 1080p content with no problem as well. You can set your desired video quality so it will only display results that match it, etc.

The WTF plugin can also incorporate IMDB watchlists. So you go to the IMDB site and create different watchlists. You can create them to suite your family needs such as Kids Movies, Kids TV, Wife Movies, My Movies, My TV, etc. Then add the titles to each. In the plugin, it will show up as a list. It works very well, and it's been my go to solution for quite a while. IMDB has a smartphone app as well.

Once you start using WTF, you'll likely only use 1Channel for stuff you might not be able to find on WTF. The only downfall of WTF is that new TV episodes usually take a few days to get added. So generally I only use 1Channel these days when I'm too impatient to wait another day or so to watch on WTF.

It's a little confusing setting it up, but once it's setup it's bad ass.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Fish

I'm not aware of a solution like that which would work with 1Channel. But I'll take a look.

Probably a good opportunity to pimp my very favorite XBMC plugin again, which does exactly what you're requesting.

What the Furk

What the Furk is a plugin used in conjunction with a subscription to the Furk.net website($7-8/mth). Furk is a torrent aggregator. Meaning it will search all available torrent sites for the media you're looking for, and download it from the torrent site to its own servers. Then you can direct download the media safely without ever having to go through the torrent process, including being tagged for copyright violations and such. WTF can stream 1080p content with no problem as well. You can set your desired video quality so it will only display results that match it, etc.

The WTF plugin can also incorporate IMDB watchlists. So you go to the IMDB site and create different watchlists. You can create them to suite your family needs such as Kids Movies, Kids TV, Wife Movies, My Movies, My TV, etc. Then add the titles to each. In the plugin, it will show up as a list. It works very well, and it's been my go to solution for quite a while. IMDB has a smartphone app as well.

Once you start using WTF, you'll likely only use 1Channel for stuff you might not be able to find on WTF. The only downfall of WTF is that new TV episodes usually take a few days to get added. So generally I only use 1Channel these days when I'm too impatient to wait another day or so to watch on WTF.

It's a little confusing setting it up, but once it's setup it's bad ass.

That looks pretty awesome, and I may pull the trigger on it before long.

Hey, do you use a wireless keyboard/mouse with your box? Considering buying one and stopping using my iPad/iPhone with the remote app.