Cable TV Alternative
 

Trying to help a buddy out in replacing their cable service with a set-top streaming service like Apple TV, Boxee, Roku, etc.

What would be an ideal combination of on-demand and live TV services? Thanks!

I cancelled my cable service and I'm now using Netflix (American Netflix, to be precise). It's not the same, but I think it's not a bad alternative.

Boxee is pretty good too!

I have boxee and the tv adaptor.... Have had the combo for about a year. Had the bbox since the beginning...its okay. Although it hurts when there is a canucks game but i got my sources...hehe
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What types of programming does he like to watch? Does he always watch the evening news? or does he like to turn on Food Network just to see what ever is on? Does he only watch movies?

There are lots of different use cases, and certain people would find it very difficult to get ride of their Shaw/Telus service... others wouldn't notice a difference.

He likes watching NHL, the Food Network, TV series, and movies. Evening news not so much.

isnt US Netflix only good for movies?

xbmc & navi-x addon, works with boxee, apple tv or even a PC/mac.

Netflix and torrnets for Movie and TV shows. Is quick with a private torrnet and quality is good as well.

My mom mostly use PPS and other chinese TV apps to watch Chinese TV.

this isn't a viable alternative but I have slingbox set up in a family's house down in the states so I can stream DirecTV to my computer, TV (via Google TV) or the paid app on my phone.

99% of the shows I torrent..but it's frustrating not having any private trackers because by the time im done downloading mkv from eztv.it it's like already midnight.

I pay $6 for a premium newsserver. I can max out my 50mbps easily and shows are available pretty much the same time they're available on torrents. No need to worry about seeds or private trackers :)

ted is alsoa good program to use for the lazies...

do you guys know of any ways to subscribe to FairChild Tv without going through Shaw or Telus?

$72 annual is pretty good..cheaper than netflix too...what are the top paid usenet sites?

Selection is great I'm assuming? Does it have music/apps too?

what is this newsserver you speak of? more info..


I pay $45.00USD for 6month for a premium file host generator. Then go to Warez sites for movies, games, etc to download.. I say it was worth it... I only download 720p/1080p versions now.. Speed is great also... they have about 15 different file hosts to choose from.. so its not bad...

I do not really like torrents.. If no one is seeding the speed is slow as hell.. plus virus like crazy.. with a popular warez sites, any reports of virus and the whole thread just shutdown... so its a lot safer.. to an extent

My parents just got telus basic and sports channel.. they have a media player I put movies on to them to watch..

i'm currently using astraweb as my provider and nzb matrix for my index site

a very large selection of content. you can find music and applications as well
i first learned on how to use newsgroups from gizmodo

paid $96 for the year

newsgroups is a little different as it's not based off the amount of peers, it's based of the amount of days the content is available for on the server. downloading is generally fast from the start

Actually, I kept seeing those booths in Landsdowne and Yaohan that were trying to sell some kind of chinese TV box or something along those lines. Anybody here have any experience with those? I wonder if it would be a good alternative for my parents.

I'm using newsdemon. Unlimited downloads with 50 connections allowed. Astraweb is also really good. For the best deal wait till black Friday sales next week.

My setup consists of sabnzbd, sickbeard, couch potato. I add all my tv shows and movies that I want and it scans nzbmatrix and pulls them down the same day they're aired.

What's the advantage of that over conventional methods (Apple TV, Boxee, Roku)?

Is it possible to have multiple simultaneous streams off Netflix with the same account?

Say, my TV, Touchpad and Cellphone are all streaming at once under one account?

^ i'm not sure...i ask my friends they say yes but under the ToS it says only 1 can stream at a time.

Are they strict like private torrent trackers that will ban you if you use your account on differnt IP?

Depends on the provider. Some allow IP sharing, some don't, some don't officially care. However if you or your friend don't use it at the same time then it probably won't matter.

I wouldn't say what i do is a 100% alternative but, I use a website and I have set up RSS feeds on it so that it downloads shows I want to see as soon as they pop up. And most shows are available on it.

reading up on the programs you use, sickbeard and couch potato are same? where it watches for the new tv shows/movies and downloads it...

so you really only need sabnzbd, either sickbeard or couch potato and subscribe to a newgroup.. seems interesting...

does newdemon also have asian content? is this like torrent where it requires people to seed or is this hosted on private servers??

^sabnzbd does all the downloading. Sickbeard is like PVR for TV shows while Couchpotato is PVR for movies. For automation its good to have the other programs but not required.

I'm sure there are some asian content groups I just haven't looked into it much. All data is hosted on private servers generally for up to 3 years.

Astraweb used to be a good provider, then they started becoming far too compliant with DMCA requests to remove content. I think it's become automated. Basically, some of the most popular stuff that's posted gets taken down minutes later. I used to be with them, back when things were good for everyone on newsgroups.

I now use Blocknews for fills, and Shaw's highwind news server as a primary.

Nzbmatrix isn't such a great indexer. They don't allow certain shit to be indexed, because they themselves I believe are complying to DMCA requests. I use a combination of Nzbmatrix, Nzbs.org, and Newzbin.

Newsgroups peaked I'd say maybe a little less than a year ago. Prices were cheap, content was rarely removed, retention was high. It seems to be going downhill now, with people having to use a number of backup providers to get their content.

I tell everyone who's new to newsgroups to read this: http://www.slyck.com/Newsgroups_Guide . It's long, but it's all relevant. If you don't want to be a noob, read it. Jumping right into using Sickbeard, couchpotato, and sabnzbd right away won't give you the whole picture.

it depends on the provider

astraweb doesn't allow sharing

Honestly, if they're into NHL and Food Network, I would just stick to Cable.

You will only find crappy live streams of NHL online.
For Food Network, most people like to watch it, but just to flip it on and see what's playing. Unless you only watch Food Network for one or two specific shows, then you could Torrent them.