Questions about Apple TV

[Willie5566]

I have recently became interested in Apple TV. My main interest in it is to see if I can replace my cable tv. I have been reading some other posts and it appears that a jail broken Apple TV might be able to do the trick. Have any of you replaced your cable with Apple TV? What has you experience been like?

My biggest concerns are losing local channels. I like to watch the news in the morning to stay up on what is going on and get the weather before I go to work. My other concern is sports. I would hate to miss live sporting events which can span many different channels. It appears several sports come native to the the ATV but if the subscription rates are similar to Direct TV's the cost would negate any savings I would get from canceling my cable service.

I have also grown pretty fond of my DVR. What is the best way (cheapest, easiest) to incorporate a DVR type unit to the ATV?

 

[slu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

I don't have cable. I have broadcast TV for local news and network shows and I use netflix for everything else.

Sports is big issue. I've learned to do without or I listen to the radio, but sports is a main reason not to cut the cord, in my opinion.

 

[Willie5566]

Well that is disappointing. It would be rough to not have my sports. How are you getting broadcast TV? Are you just using a DTV box?

 

[slu]

I use an antenna to pick up my local stations. They are not very expensive at all, and if you already have cable, you can hook in to that wiring.

Check out antennaweb.org for info for your house.

 

[darster]

I have both the Boxee box and ATV2. Both are good, but as far as content goes, Boxee wins hands down. If you enjoy learning how to add apps both legit and not so legit, so you can watch just about anything, without having to jailbreak, then the Boxee is a good choice.

 

[Willie5566]

@slu-I thought with the digital upgrade you could no longer use an antenna. Are you using an ATSC tuner with your antenna?

@darster I am a little familiar with Boxee. I thought most of the content on there was subscription based (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) What type of content are you getting through Boxee? Did you get rid of your cable service?

 

[darster]

@slu-I thought with the digital upgrade you could no longer use an antenna. Are you using an ATSC tuner with your antenna?

@darster I am a little familiar with Boxee. I thought most of the content on there was subscription based (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) What type of content are you getting through Boxee? Did you get rid of your cable service?

Although there is subscription based material, Hulu, Netflix, MLB, etc, there is still a lot of free material. The app Navi-X allows you to watch just about any show for free, whether from Discovery channel, History, etc. Plus there are a ton of apps that allow you to watch a lot more for free. Even some questionable sites where you can watch movies that are currently in the theaters. The boxee can be buggy at times because it is more open, so you will have more crashes. I don't even miss cable tv anymore.

 

[rusty2192]

@slu-I thought with the digital upgrade you could no longer use an antenna. Are you using an ATSC tuner with your antenna?

What kind of TV do you have? do you still have a CRT model? Most tv's produced in probably the past 5 years will have the digital tuner built in. You only need the digital tuner/converter box if you have an older tv with an analog tuner built in. If you have an LCD or plasma, you are most likely good to go with just an antenna, but be sure to check out antennaweb like mentioned above to see what you need to get the channels around you.

 

[Willie5566]

Although there is subscription based material, Hulu, Netflix, MLB, etc, there is still a lot of free material. The app Navi-X allows you to watch just about any show for free, whether from Discovery channel, History, etc. Plus there are a ton of apps that allow you to watch a lot more for free. Even some questionable sites where you can watch movies that are currently in the theaters. The boxee can be buggy at times because it is more open, so you will have more crashes. I don't even miss cable tv anymore.

I may give this a go. I noticed it can stream from your iPad. Any reason for a Boxee + ATV? Looks like the only place to get one is Amazon.

What kind of TV do you have? do you still have a CRT model? Most tv's produced in probably the past 5 years will have the digital tuner built in. You only need the digital tuner/converter box if you have an older tv with an analog tuner built in. If you have an LCD or plasma, you are most likely good to go with just an antenna, but be sure to check out antennaweb like mentioned above to see what you need to get the channels around you.

Ahhh...yea I misunderstood that. Frankly I have been in the satellite/cable world for so long I really did not pay much attention to who needed what for the DTV update.

 

[darster]

I may give this a go. I noticed it can stream from your iPad. Any reason for a Boxee + ATV? Looks like the only place to get one is Amazon.




Ahhh...yea I misunderstood that. Frankly I have been in the satellite/cable world for so long I really did not pay much attention to who needed what for the DTV update.

The streaming feature from an iPad to the boxee is kind of flakey. Doesn't work all that well. Do you need a boxee and ATV? Depends on what you want to do. ATV definitely has a lot of strengths. Easily integrates with your computer, itunes, iPad, iPhone, etc. Nothing out there can match that. But if you want to stream movies from netflix, or rent from iTunes on ATV, or VUDU on boxee, either will do. Before you buy the boxee, go to boxee.com, sign up for free and then go into support and their forums and learn about it, as there is a learning curve on that device to get it to do the things you want.

 

[Willie5566]

Good to know Darster. I will continue to research. In the meantime I am going to get the new ATV. I have way too much money in apps, music in movies to not make the most of it.