Alternatives to Big Cable

[Ohms Lawbreaker]

Wow, you guys are all most generous, posting such great info and jamming on this thread. Most of my threads have been 1 or 2 post failures, or quickly turn into Troll City.

Just chiming in now for the hell of it: New season of House of Cards! Man, I love to hate those characters!

 

[DaveP]

I was reading ahead to see if someone mentioned this. We've used Chromecast for a few months now, streaming content from Netflix, and really, so far, not as much as a hiccup in performance. No buffering, except for maybe about 4 seconds at the start. YouTube works great too, I watch a lot of instrument tutorials and it's so much better on a 42" screen. My only criticism is the limited amount of apps. They've been saying they're developing more, but I'm waiting still. What I would like is to be able to stream my browser content to the TV. But from my iPad. To do that you need the Chrome browser, and Google keeps telling me my platform doesn't support this just yet, check back later...right.

But, as you said, for $35 you just can't go wrong with this device!

If I bought a Chromecast device from Google, could it install in my wireless router or in a USB port on my Hopper/sling and be accessed from my Hopper? I need to check out the options.

ETA: That doesn't work, apparently. MY 65" Mitsubishi has no HDMI or USB ports and Dish doesn't suport it on the Hopper with Sling. Gonna have to bite the bullet and buy a new 70" LCD. I had planned to wait until the Mitsubishi died ...

 

[Ohms Lawbreaker]

Some variation of that Life Hacker set up will eventually work for me, when I get my lazy .... around to starting the project. Roku box is starting to suck, so is Hulu service. Netflix rarely crashes and the menu always streams fast, don't know why.

Got this Xfinity service now, Comcrap or something. Boy do they all suck, just so fed up with the limited options.

Jacking in from the laptop through an HDMI cable gets me more programs. Can watch from my computer but not the damn Roku box certain shows. All these cables and power cords and e-cig adapters make my living room look like a bowl of spaghetti. Wireless? No such thing.

Hate, hate, hate buying 50 million channels and programs I never watch. I know that streamlining and saving money and really getting what you want are possible, to a large extent. Just such a force of habit to say "Let's get cable and internet" and forget about it.

 

[DaveP]

The Dish Hopper with Sling gets me real time streaming to my phone anywhere. I can run the app and see my home Hopper menus. Anything on the program guide or the DVR is available on my phone. I can elect to record things when I'm out by using the phone app. There's not an app for my Kindle Fire yet, but it's supposed to be coming. Right now, Android phone or Ipad is necessary to use the feature.

That's all cool and I could use it while on vacation through Wifi to watch shows that aren't on in a condo TV cable system, but what I really want is to watch internet TV at home without the clunky interface of the WII, which is about the only way I can get to that content outside watching it on laptop or desktop.

 

[Steamer861]

I run a little Andriod box called My Gica ATV 1200 it comes preloaded with XBMC I added Xfinity and have all the TV anyone could want Free
I have a mouse and keyboard on it and it turns any TV into a smart TV Well worth the money it cost!

 

[Pepsiblast08]

Also, if you watch netflix from. PC, get. Hola Unblocker for FireFox. Let's you watch in other countries with 100x more content! I think Brazil, Chile, and maybe Denmark usually have new movies.

 

[Steamer861]

Hot Spot Shield works good you can chose an IP from any country and watch content from all over the world and it,s free
I use it to get US content here in Canada