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An AppleTV Experience: A Year Without Cable

I just cancelled my cable service yesterday.

I'm using AppleTV, EyeTV and NetFlix. So far I'm impressed with the EyeTV - however, I need to hone-in the reception issues I'm having which has everything to do with the HD antenna I'm using.

One thing that was most surprising to me is, my "over the air" reception of HD was a much better picture than the HD from my cable provider!
 
I have been Cable free for 15 years now, I was relying on movie rentals and downloaded content. I can't stand Regular TV at all, the few times that I have watched it in hotels or my brother's place, it just reaffirms that I made the right decision, there is just to many commercials, that otherwise ruin perfectly good shows. Many of my friends have also gone the cable-less route, and in fact it's a growing tread.

It's also amazing how much more free time you have for other things.
 
While I agree that OTA tends to be better than cable/sat, I'd suggest the following quality issues:

Netflix - stream now is clearly not better than HD (or dvd). If you wait for dvd, you're waiting a long time. Also, if it's streaming there is no surround.

You can't access Hulu and network sites from the ATV. Even if you can you're losing surround sound.

EyeTV does not support encoding of 5.1, so you're losing surround sound (or am I wrong on this one)?

iTunes HD encondes are probably on part with regular cable/sat, but certainly not HD feeds.

Maybe I'm being picky, but I just don't feel like the level of quality I expect is there from other sources, even if they are available through the ATV. Especially in half of these instance where you take 5.1 out of the equation. To me, that's half of what the experience is about!
 
I think in the US I can really see the :apple:TV being a genuine replacement for cable TV. I was over in the states in June and trying to watch anything on TV was really annoying due to their being an ad break every few minutes. Add to that the fact that the US has a really comprehensive selection of TV shows and Movies (for much cheaper than the UK and Canada) on the iTunes Store and you end up with a great reason to cancel cable and buy what you want to watch on the :apple:TV.

In the UK (and I'm sure it's the same in many other non US countries) this option is less desirable due to a worse (although getting much better) selection of TV shows. An easy solution to this in the UK would be BBC iPlayer functionality.
 
badmac78 said:
As I get ready to buy an EyeTV - what would be a good HD Antenna to buy?
Click to expand...

There's no such thing as an HD antenna. It's either UHF, VHF or both. I'd check with the local stations in your area to see what digital channels they're broadcasting on and make sure they plan to stay on after February's switch. Some stations broadcasting on UHF now will revert to VHF after the switch. The station will let you know for sure. Most, but not all, will be on the UHF spectrum. Depending on how far away you are from each station's broadcast tower will determine the size and height you need for the antenna.
 
question about apple tv, for season like THe Office i know that they just started season five how fast do they get the new episodes in once it shows on TV?
 
I don't understand how you people put up with US cable television in the first place.

Every time I watch an American show on television here, every few minutes the host announces the next commercial (like "we'll be right back"). Luckily, here most of them are skipped and there's just the outro and intro of the program and no ads. But if there would have been commercials as every such break I would give up watching TV instantly.

You must be getting more commercials than content, for SO much money each month!

And if you leave the TV on all day with so much advertising, doesn't it drive you crazy to no end? Especially since TV ads tend to be quite loud.
 
so I'm not the only one who notices that the commercials are so much louder than the show. It's extremely annoying.


I'm wondering if there should be a completely separate topic about going "cable-less" on macrumors. Since it's a combination of ATV other software/hardware. I'm very interested in understanding others setups
 
Superman07 said:
Netflix - stream now is clearly not better than HD (or dvd). If you wait for dvd, you're waiting a long time. Also, if it's streaming there is no surround.
Click to expand...

I just put together a cheap (~$600, but I splurged and got a $230 Lian Li HTPC case) HTPC with Vista for NetFlix & Hulu.

The NetFlix streaming looks better to me than upscaled DVDs on my Samsung player and my 55" Sony (720p TV, though). I am really really happy with the video quality. Hulu is noticeably pixelated, but for stuff like Jon Stewart, I don't care. It's fine for the price.

I've never paid for cable TV, never has been worth it for me. (I do have cable internet.)
 
I've been without cable (Comcast) for over a year. I do have High Speed Internet in my house and get all my TV viewing on my MacPro via either Hulu or directly from the channels, ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX. What I miss most has always been the Sci-Fi Channel, BBC and Home & Garden. I'm about half way through ripping my favorite TV series from DVD and watch them on my aTV but lately been thinking about hooking up a mini because I'm one of those people who love to play music with Visualization. I don't do any purchasing off itunes because I prefer owning my movies and stream my ripped DVDs which is my main use for aTV.
 
My biggest complaint are shows like ESPN Sports Center

gcmexico said:
*
regarding shows that aren't on itunes, you have to search the net to see if they are posted anywhere to watch...hulu.com is a great site...best bet is to go to the shows website, most channels today show the current episode on the web, nbc has episodes of the office, heroes, etc...

I gave up the whole thing!!

but I must say...my set up is different, I have the ATV and my computer hooked up to my flat screen TV on the wall...I have my TV basically as a second display monitor...I have safari, skype and ichat opened on that screen so I do video calls from my TV, have a web cam set up under the TV, and surf safari for tv shows...I love my set up (wish I had a bigger tv though!)...I don't know if I would be able to give up cable if I had to sit in front of my computer to watch shows online

That's why I'm now for ATV to come with safari and a tv tuner...just for local channels
Click to expand...

Why can't ESPN Sports center be a podcast or something to Download in HDTV format, or any format for that matter. Imagine being able down load to apple TV to watch in the AM as you take a shower or take with you on an iphone to watch on the sub, train, or commute. The damn thing replays over and over again every hour for 6 hours.
https://www.mynewsatellite.tv/?n=az&aff=29464&nsrc=az2&click_hash=2117Kzzb
 
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