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How do you consume network TV?
- Thread starter rlu929s
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I'm considering something similar as our UK Freeview (OTA) DVR is getting more and more unreliable and I'd rather not be tied into a proprietary device if possible.
How soon after a program ends does it show up in iTunes/aTV?
Does EyeTV not populate the metadata itself from the EPG though?
I just need to wait for it to support a DVB-T2 tuner so we can get the HD freeview channels here in the UK.
Why not just add the shows to iTunes and watch them from your ATV? Well, I guess if you only plan to watch them once then you don't need to go through the trouble of encoding and tagging. Makes sense now that I think about it.
I did some number crunching last week to see if I'm REALLY saving money buy not having cable. I calculated the cost of ALL the shows I want to watch, whether it's through Hulu, Netflix, or an iTunes subscription. I do not use bittorrent--I like to keep it legal.
The most expensive option per year BY FAR is having cable. We're talking hundreds of dollars difference for having a zillion garbage channels, when all we really watch is Fox and NBC. The middle option cost wise is killing Hulu and Netflix and watching all our content through iTunes. It's not as expensive per year as you would think, especially if you just get the SD versions. The cheapest way by a long shot is the monthly fees of Hulu and Netflix, a few iTunes subscriptions for the shows we can't stream (Breaking Bad, Deadliest Catch), and the antenna for sports and news.
My wife was a little upset about our move from Roku to Apple TV because of the loss of a native HuluPlus app. She didn't like to have to jump through hoops to get it playing on the TV. But in my eyes, AirPlay and access to iCloud made it a no brainer. The addition of Hulu a few days ago just made things that much easier--we were very happy. I though Apple kept it off of their box because it competed with iTunes content.
Forgot to mention: It also looks/feels super cool to just have a small black box underneath your TV handling all your content for you. I felt that way with the Roku too, but the Roku felt and looked cheap and plasticy. The Apple TV is a rock solid piece of hardware and looks really nice under the flat panel.
I don't think so. Yes, there are a lot of "channels" on Roku, but 99% of them are absolute crap. I had the Roku XS and the top model of the first gen one as well. Both had USB ports to hook up external drives. I had trouble playing most files, even though they were on the list of supported file types. I have a hard drive literally FULL of movies in all kinds of formats (all officially supported by Roku). Almost none of them would play when I hooked it up to the USB port on the Roku box. Almost all of them play when I HomeShare that same drive to the Apple TV or just hook it up directly via USB.
Where the Apple TV lacks in quantity of channels, it fills the gap with AirPlay, as long as you have a device that can do it, or at least do wireless mirroring. All the Roku channels are are feeds from a website, so as long as you can get to the site, you can still play it on the Apple TV without some janky channel.
Don't get me wrong--I think both boxes are great. Apple TV and Roku are the only two streaming boxes I would recommend to anyone. But with all the iTunes and iCloud content we have, Roku simply doesn't make sense for us anymore.
EDIT: The first gen Roku also lost wifi connection a lot and eventually completely stopped working. I wanted the new one for some of the gaming capabilities so I replaced it with the new one, but I soon was lured over to the other side.
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Netflix streaming doesn't sound like a match for you. But an alternative: switch Netflix to disc, get movies in a better format. Hulu offers better recent shows. Some of them are on Plus, some free Hulu.
I use Hulu+, Netflix streaming, and Tivo. I got in on the $10/month antenna-only deal for Tivo (unfortunately no longer available), so my "TV" bills total $26/month. We watch basically the same shows we did with DirecTV, which was $94/month. Actually, it was ~$18 more since I had Netflix for discs at the time. I've now dropped the discs because of their price gouging in 2010. Nearly dropped them entirely, but we do like watching some older shows.
I dropped Netflix discs BEFORE the price gouging actually. We had the one bluray at a time plan, and we would get blurays in and not have time to watch them for a long time. I figured, why pay this monthly fee for a service I don't use monthly? So we just rent movies on iTunes. It's actually better and cheaper that way. You still get them in HD, you don't have to deal with a 30 day waiting period for new titles, and you don't end up paying as much if you don't watch that many new movies.
We use Netflix mostly for the shows our kids watch (there is a metric ton of kids programming on Netflix) and for past seasons of shows we are trying to catch up on. The streaming does mostly suck for movies. In fact, if I were to give up one pay service I have right now--it would be Netflix. I could totally live without it. Not sure my kids would like it too much though.
We're now on our first full day without DirecTV. For our needs, we're using an ATV2 with a Hulu+ subscription. I'll hook up a Leaf Plus indoor HDTV antenna next week. Previously we used a 2.7Mb/s download connection. We now have a 5 Mb/s, and it works great. $96/month with DiectTV vs. $21/month w/ Hulu + and a faster connection. This will be great!
It's for sure the way to go. Eventually they'll catch up and the pricing gimmick will hit us....but until then
Spider you hit the nail on the head. We used to do discs with Netflix and although nice to arrive at home....we just didn't watch them enough. I hated the feeling pressured to watch them to "get my money's worth".
I tried Redbox for a bit while McD's had the free coupon in Happy Meals. That got annoying having to return it.
For the most part I can tell that Netflix is for Kids. There's so many kid shows my kids have been in heaven the past 3-4 weeks.I just canceled it today before my free trial is over, so we'll see if the kids notice. They are young enough we can switch back to my Ripped Kid collection.
Really the only snag with the ATV has been Home Sharing. It's kind of flaky at times. About once a week I have to restart iTunes and the router to get it working.
We're going to try Hulu Plus to see if we can avoid paying the Season Pass rates on iTunes.
We rent off iTunes and even at 2.99 and 3.99 it's cheaper and VERY convenient!
Spider you hit the nail on the head. We used to do discs with Netflix and although nice to arrive at home....we just didn't watch them enough. I hated the feeling pressured to watch them to "get my money's worth".
I tried Redbox for a bit while McD's had the free coupon in Happy Meals. That got annoying having to return it.
For the most part I can tell that Netflix is for Kids. There's so many kid shows my kids have been in heaven the past 3-4 weeks.I just canceled it today before my free trial is over, so we'll see if the kids notice. They are young enough we can switch back to my Ripped Kid collection.
Really the only snag with the ATV has been Home Sharing. It's kind of flaky at times. About once a week I have to restart iTunes and the router to get it working.
We're going to try Hulu Plus to see if we can avoid paying the Season Pass rates on iTunes.
We rent off iTunes and even at 2.99 and 3.99 it's cheaper and VERY convenient!
If your goal is skipping the commercials using an Apple TV, here are your options. I do each of these methods depending on the show.
1. Purchase the shows on iTunes (expensive, but for some shows it's the only reasonable way. For example AMC only puts the first episode of a season on their website. Since we don't have cable, we do a seasonpass for Breaking Bad and Mad Men.)
2. Jailbreak an Apple TV2, install XBMC, install the "Hulu" plugin and the "FreeCable" plugin. (The former gives you Hulu/Hulu Plus access, the latter streams TV shows from the network web sites straight to your ATV2). Both plugins have options to eliminate the commercials. We watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for free every night this way, and never have to watch an ad.
3. Purchase a tuner (like the HD Homerun) and the EyeTV software. Use EyeTV on your mac as your DVR. EyeTV has a setting that will auto-export the recorded shows to iTunes so you can watch them on your Apple TV. Then just fast forward through the commercials like you would on your DVR.
(There is also an Applescript plugin called "ETVcomskipper" which you can install in your EyeTV software. It will automatically remove the commercials from an EyeTV recording before exporting the show to iTunes. Such that the final version of the show that gets into your iTunes Library has already had all the commercials removed before you even press play. This works for some networks, like NBC, but not for others, like ABC, for some reason having to do with how ETVcomskipper identifies commercial start/end points.)
Yes, EyeTV DOES populate the metadata itself from the EPG, and that metadata is automatically included when EyeTV exports the recording to iTunes. You can see the title, date, and description for the show on your Apple TV without having to use iflicks or any other tagging software.
1. Purchase the shows on iTunes (expensive, but for some shows it's the only reasonable way. For example AMC only puts the first episode of a season on their website. Since we don't have cable, we do a seasonpass for Breaking Bad and Mad Men.)
2. Jailbreak an Apple TV2, install XBMC, install the "Hulu" plugin and the "FreeCable" plugin. (The former gives you Hulu/Hulu Plus access, the latter streams TV shows from the network web sites straight to your ATV2). Both plugins have options to eliminate the commercials. We watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for free every night this way, and never have to watch an ad.
3. Purchase a tuner (like the HD Homerun) and the EyeTV software. Use EyeTV on your mac as your DVR. EyeTV has a setting that will auto-export the recorded shows to iTunes so you can watch them on your Apple TV. Then just fast forward through the commercials like you would on your DVR.
(There is also an Applescript plugin called "ETVcomskipper" which you can install in your EyeTV software. It will automatically remove the commercials from an EyeTV recording before exporting the show to iTunes. Such that the final version of the show that gets into your iTunes Library has already had all the commercials removed before you even press play. This works for some networks, like NBC, but not for others, like ABC, for some reason having to do with how ETVcomskipper identifies commercial start/end points.)
Yes, EyeTV DOES populate the metadata itself from the EPG, and that metadata is automatically included when EyeTV exports the recording to iTunes. You can see the title, date, and description for the show on your Apple TV without having to use iflicks or any other tagging software.
Stick in there and give it a try. Hulu+ is very cool. Most of the issues that I have found is most people are so used to having so many channels at the push of a button, they get used to channel surfing. Using Hulu+ forces most people out of their comfort zone and actually look for something to watch. Most people have a hard time changing their viewing habits. But, trust me, it will be worth it in the long run. On a side note, my wife and I actually found a small local movie rental store that is still in business and signed up to rent movies. Walking into a movie rental store is very strange. It is like flying to the moon to play golf. I forgot how much fun it is to hang out in a store looking to rent a movie.
....
We've 'cut the cord' here for over 6+ month, and still going strong
Netflix + Itunes on two Apple TV 2 devices in out place....
Thinking about adding Hulu Plus, to the mix, but i havan't seen any comelling advantage over Netflix nor Itunes for that mater.
And from the forums i hear ..... its a waste of money...
I was trial it and see.
Any advanage in doing this ? Is there anything "different" on Hulu Plus, that you *can't* get on Netflix or Itunes ?
neat.... someday that should be a reality.
We've 'cut the cord' here for over 6+ month, and still going strong
Netflix + Itunes on two Apple TV 2 devices in out place....
Thinking about adding Hulu Plus, to the mix, but i havan't seen any comelling advantage over Netflix nor Itunes for that mater.
And from the forums i hear ..... its a waste of money...
I was trial it and see.
Any advanage in doing this ? Is there anything "different" on Hulu Plus, that you *can't* get on Netflix or Itunes ?
neat.... someday that should be a reality.
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