Eliminate Cable/Satellite TV?

[cyberrico]

I have been considering this for some time now. I have Comcast cable which as many of you know sucks but that's not why I want to eliminate it. I use the newsgroups to download my TV episodes so I haven't really been using my SageTV DVR as I have been streaming my videos from my PC.

The quality is better than my DVR can record. Even if I had HDTV and HD cable, it's not as good. Also, living on the West Coast, I sometimes even get my episodes before it airs in California.

My only issue is being able to channel surf. I watch a lot of TV and streaming newer movies and watching entire seasons of downloaded TV shows can meet it's end relatively quickly. I suppose I could use my library of movies when I want to just veg out in front of the tube.

My problem lies with my bedroom TV. I can't run an ethernet cable there so giving it access to my media needs to be wireless. If anyone has a recommendation for something good here, I'd appreciate it. It doesn't need to store anything, just receive streamed media over the network.

Have any of you cut the cable yet? What have your experiences been?

[Sonnentier]

I can't run an ethernet cable there so giving it access to my media needs to be wireless.

Depending on your house, it might also be possible to use power cables to transmit information (PowerLine Communication).

Actually I had good experience with it; especially if there would be a lot of walls / much distance between sender/receiver, it has an advantage.

[wharrislv]

I have had good luck with networking over the coax cable in a friend's house, a few companies make adapters that are like the powerline ones, but they plug into your coax cabling at home. I installed it, and it worked where powerline networking wouldn't. Its $200 for a two node setup, though!

I just use wireless G networking for my streaming, and it works fine. I keep the cable modem, servers, and consoles in the living room so they're all wired, and then run G or N to laptops and other wifi devices. I got a router that does b/g on 2.4 ghz and n on 5 ghz, these are called dual band routers.

For "clients" to receive the stream, I use PS3s, xboxes, laptops, phones, etc. These connect to Tversity, PS3 media server, and mediamall playon.

Tversity is good for files you have, PS3 media server does some neat stuff with subtitles for anime, and playon does hulu, netflix, youtube, and some others by default, but it also supports plugins so you can get content like MTV, BBC iPlayer, NFL, NBA, and lots more.

I haven't had cable for a long time, and don't really see the necessity. Having all the streaming stuff is probably enough by itself, but add that to my largeish library and I've got TONS of stuff to watch that is portable to any device in the house.

I have a pretty beefy server to serve to our 10 or so devices (TVs and laptops, etc.) throughout the house, but the networking should be fine especially if you've got wireless N. My friend uses her wireless N to stream media to 6 tvs with xbox 360 arcades in her house, and she never has issues.

Good luck, feel free to PM me for more information!