[TriLUG] cut the TV cable

[C TC via TriLUG]

Been very pleased with our Minix Neo X7

I have all of the above, using external hard drive, synced to media server,
wireless keyboard (logitech 400), phne app remote control,
Kodi w/TV Addons package, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, and so on.

Will be purchasing the X8 Plus.

Hope that wasn;t too salseperson-ish.  :)

I do agree with testing from a Roku though. If you jump in
spending to save money, it's a big risk.






On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 10:46 PM, Ken MacKenzie via TriLUG <
trilug at trilug.org> wrote:

> We did this about a year ago.  It has been great.  We are prime members so
> we get the amazon prime vod included with that.  Plus we have netflix but
> we had to upgrade because with 5 of us more devices were needed at the same
> time.
>
> So a couple things I found in all of this.
>
> One a good wifi router. Not the cheapest garbage off the shelf.
>
> Two, stay away from smart TV's especially if it will need to connect with
> wifi.  Too many eggs in one basket and they tend to have garbage antennas
> and firmware.
>
> Three, decide how you will serve local content.  We used to just use
> minidlna.  However there is no plain DLNA app in a roku if you go that
> route, we didn't but still worth mentioning.  Another option is Plex, I
> might demo that again but for now it seems the best stuff for it you have
> to pay for.  So we use media browser http://emby.media/, seems it is now
> called emby.  It can serve DLNA but you can make profiles and allow those
> profiles to only view content up to a certain rating, like say PG-13.  We
> have 3 kids so this was important.  The app for media borwser on the
> samsung smart tv is a beta though and required putting the TV in developer
> mode to do.  I forget where I got those instructions.
>
> Anyway it has served us well for 18 months so we would never go back.  And
> technically with the cable still hooked to the TV we can see the basic
> channels as we still pay for the cable modem.  But if that went away we
> would hardly shed a tear.
>
> Ken
>
> On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 10:27 PM, Jeremy Davis via TriLUG <
> trilug at trilug.org
> > wrote:
>
> > Your first step should be to buy a Roku and try it. It is a very low risk
> > and high reward purchase decision. Roku is very simple and just about
> zero
> > maintenance. You can buy one or maybe two Roku boxes for the price of a
> > month if cable.  It costs nothing thereafter. You would only pay for
> > channels like Netflix, which if you already have, then just plug in
> > username and password.
> >
> > As you likely already know, Netflix has  many commercial free seasons of
> > good stuff to watch. Pandora is great for music and Amazon typically has
> > most things, for a price, that you might not find on Netflix, such as new
> > movies. The picture and sound quality has always been great with Roku for
> > us. We do have high speed internet though.
> >
> > I tried a few other Roku channels, which seemed a waste of time. So I
> > deleted all the other Roku "suggested" channels to eliminate clutter.
> >
> > If you are a huge sports fan, I don't have much advice for that. Maybe
> use
> > Twitter to keep track or go to local college events. I have a very
> athletic
> > Golden Retriever who provides outstanding ball fetching entertainment.
> Let
> > me know if you need a puppy :-)
> >
> > We gave Chromecast a try but had bad experiences. Maybe we had a bad unit
> > that froze up a lot. Youtube on Roku is not a great experience either.
> You
> > must sign in to your Google account constantly and punch in a code using
> a
> > remote with only arrow keys.
> >
> > I cut the Cable cord a long time ago and I don't miss it. Although,
> people
> > will ask, "hey did you see that commercial...?", it is awkward dealing
> with
> > people who want to carry on a conversation about commercials.
> >
> > I only wish there were competitive ISPs in Apex. TWC will be a distant
> > memory for me when that day comes.
> >
> > Jeremy Davis
> > trianglecareerdevelopment.com
> > On Jun 29, 2015 8:19 PM, "MR-pootr via TriLUG" <trilug at trilug.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
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