Have any of you successfully cut the cord to your cable/satellite provider? If so, what setup(s) are you running? I'll start with mine below...
...Living Room...
- Apple TV3 - used for iTunes Match, Hulu Plus, and general media purchase/rental from iTunes. Also used for Home Sharing.
- Roku HD - purchased primarily for Amazon Prime Instant Video, Pandora, and its robust arsenal of kid-friendly programming.
- Wife's old laptop stripped of everything but iTunes and TeamViewer (for remote access). This iTunes holds all my movies and the few TV shows I download because I have missed their airings on OTA. System is set to go to sleep at 1am and wake back up at 6am. Reduces power consumption and wear on the machine and keep itself automated. Windows is set to do nothing when the lid closes, so it's just tucked away in my entertainment center.
- Cheap $15 OTA HD antenna I picked up at Walmart - grabs all the major network channels in HD.
- Samsung Bluray player (for the few times I use physical media)
...Bedroom...
- Apple TV 2 - same as above.
- same model of cheap antenna.
- Memorex Bluray player (see above)
All in all, functions great. Might get a second Roku for the bedroom at some point, but most media consumption is in the living room so I'm in no rush. I wish there were a way to run iTunes Home Sharing without actually having an entire computer running to do so, but I'll take what I can get. Savings-wise, I went from spending $70-90 per month on my satellite bill down to $8 a month for Hulu. Yearly savings of $744-$984. Not too shabby.
...Living Room...
- Apple TV3 - used for iTunes Match, Hulu Plus, and general media purchase/rental from iTunes. Also used for Home Sharing.
- Roku HD - purchased primarily for Amazon Prime Instant Video, Pandora, and its robust arsenal of kid-friendly programming.
- Wife's old laptop stripped of everything but iTunes and TeamViewer (for remote access). This iTunes holds all my movies and the few TV shows I download because I have missed their airings on OTA. System is set to go to sleep at 1am and wake back up at 6am. Reduces power consumption and wear on the machine and keep itself automated. Windows is set to do nothing when the lid closes, so it's just tucked away in my entertainment center.
- Cheap $15 OTA HD antenna I picked up at Walmart - grabs all the major network channels in HD.
- Samsung Bluray player (for the few times I use physical media)
...Bedroom...
- Apple TV 2 - same as above.
- same model of cheap antenna.
- Memorex Bluray player (see above)
All in all, functions great. Might get a second Roku for the bedroom at some point, but most media consumption is in the living room so I'm in no rush. I wish there were a way to run iTunes Home Sharing without actually having an entire computer running to do so, but I'll take what I can get. Savings-wise, I went from spending $70-90 per month on my satellite bill down to $8 a month for Hulu. Yearly savings of $744-$984. Not too shabby.