My Cable/Sat free project (1 Viewer)

[Galvatron898]

So after a discussion with my wife about how expensive Sat has gotten and how expensive cable already is. I decided I wanted to find an Alternative. So we talked about Roku HDTV Antenna, upgrading the HD in our HTPC to a 1TB or bigger and the price of it all. we are currently spending about $70 a month with Dish Network. For a while in the past we used an home made HDTV antenna, and it worked well. The concern we have now is that we have a 2 year old who loves Nick Jr. Programing and we our selves have become used to Food network,Travel Channel, and Bravo programing. My questions are: What do you guys think of Roku? Is Roku worth it, with out Netflix? Is there an alternative to Roku that I should be looking at? Is there a certain HDTV Antenna that I should try to get? Is there a way for me to get any of that programing with out Cable or sat? What about specific HTPC Software? Any recommendations? Recommendation on a HTPC Keyboard? Any other Info?

 

[Sam Posten]

Hi Matt and welcome to HTF. There is a lot of interest in "Cutting the cord" but nobody today has a true end to end solution that is going to 100% satisfy your needs. I'm not a Roku owner but I have found that Boxee and Apple TV complement my cable watching nicely rather than replace it.


HTPC keyboard? Check out Logitech.


Good luck!

 

[Jim Mcc]

I agree with you on the expense. We cancelled Dish about 2 years ago and never looked back. We just use our OTA antenna for the free programming, and $12.60 per month for Netflix(1 Blu-ray or DVD at a time, and unlimited streaming). It is just a GREAT value, and we love Netflix. We stream Netflix with our Blu-ray player, the Panasonic BD65, which is nice because we don't need an extra box like Roku.


As far as the antenna, go to Antennaweb.org and enter your address. It will tell you how far you are from the towers, and what strength antenna you need. Winegard and Channelmaster antennas are very nice.


You should check out Hulu and Hulu plus to see what programming they offer.

 

[Galvatron898]

Jim and Sam thanks for the info I will check out all the suggestions and thanks for the welcome I was looking around and I am totally digging the site. I am DIY type of guy and I really like the all the info here. thanks again!