[drphoto]

I cut the cable about 6 months ago. Still watch a few things like The Daily Show on Hulu on my computer. I'm assuming there is a way to get internet TV onto an actual TV. I know there's "AppleTV" but looks like it requires one to purchase programming from iTunes. I'm guessing this approach would involve a download, and not live streaming. How is the quality? I'm not looking for much beyond conventional TV rez.

Apologies if discussed previously. Please point me to the appropriate link.

thanks

[satfrat]

I cut the cable about 6 months ago. Still watch a few things like The Daily Show on Hulu on my computer. I'm assuming there is a way to get internet TV onto an actual TV. I know there's "AppleTV" but looks like it requires one to purchase programming from iTunes. I'm guessing this approach would involve a download, and not live streaming. How is the quality? I'm not looking for much beyond conventional TV rez.

Apologies if discussed previously. Please point me to the appropriate link.

thanks

What are you using for a video card? And what type TV are you looking to use? Thanks. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[drphoto]

I'm running a last gen Mac PPC dual G5 w/ a Radion 9600XT card. Current TV is a last gen Sony Trinitron XBR. Great TV for std broadcast. Thinking of giving to Mom, and getting a fairly cheap Panny 42" 720i plama (can't remember the model #) that will at least have some 21st century inputs. As nice as the old Sony is, it only has S-video, as it's highest level input.

I've still gotta go see that Panny to decide. (only thinking about it from online research) My old Sony is hard to beat. My ex girlfriend had an expensive top of the line Samsung plasma and I thought my set killed it on std broadcast (inc DVD) The plasma only had an advantage on true HD, and even then I thought the color was a bit over the top.

Heck, I can always watch Jon Stewart on the computer if needed. Off topic, but I think he's not only the funniest guy on TV, but maybe the most 'spot on' when it comes to the news. I don't think he's pulling his punches on this administration

[Len_Dreyer]

Jon Stewart way    Been recently trying to figure out the Roku/Netflix service. Not enough interesting offerings at this point.

[bunnyma357]

We've been using the Netflix streaming service with a Sony PS3 and really enjoying it. Picture quality seems better through the PS3 rather than streaming to the iMac. Hopefully, the selection will grow.

Jim C

[satfrat]

I'm running a last gen Mac PPC dual G5 w/ a Radion 9600XT card. Current TV is a last gen Sony Trinitron XBR. Great TV for std broadcast. Thinking of giving to Mom, and getting a fairly cheap Panny 42" 720i plama (can't remember the model #) that will at least have some 21st century inputs. As nice as the old Sony is, it only has S-video, as it's highest level input.

I've still gotta go see that Panny to decide. (only thinking about it from online research) My old Sony is hard to beat. My ex girlfriend had an expensive top of the line Samsung plasma and I thought my set killed it on std broadcast (inc DVD) The plasma only had an advantage on true HD, and even then I thought the color was a bit over the top.

Heck, I can always watch Jon Stewart on the computer if needed. Off topic, but I think he's not only the funniest guy on TV, but maybe the most 'spot on' when it comes to the news. I don't think he's pulling his punches on this administration

I know nothing about your card connections but with my older NVidia 6200, I had a video out with an adapter for both component video and s-video. If your card has this type of video output adapter, then you should be able to connect a second tv to your card with the ability to switch between the 2. As an example, my LCD monitor is 1920 x 1200. When I want to watch DVD's, I switch my card over to my 2nd monitor which is a Sony HD-Ready XBR (the 1st 4:3 XBR that also did 16:9 HD) and I have the card set for 1080i.
But even w/o actually switching monitors, both monitors share the desktop so I can actually drag a minimized page to my Sony, then maximize the page to fill up the screen. I do this all the time for network tv shows that I might have missed. Hulu would work the same way. The picture is actually pretty good but then again, I'm using component video cables and my picture is 1080i in the 16:9 format. No doubt in my mind that S-Video in 480i would be an undesirable picture when compared to your monitor. Whether it would be watchable would be debatable. You'd really have to try it to find out.
 
Cheers,
Robin

[eg1]

I am also interested in this concept, primarily to watch stuff from ESPN360 on something other than my laptop.

[srclose]

We nuked Dish and use only internet streaming for content.  Mac Mini video output is converted to HDMI and fed into a projector that serves as our TV.  An Oppo HDMI switch is used to choose between DVD player or Mac as the video source.   

[acresm22]

Take a look at the growing number of media players...WD TV Live, and others made by Netgear, Seagate, etc. Pretty cool devices...

[craig223]

My wife and I have been talking about giving DirecTV the boot.  We pay about $80.00 per month to watch Spongebob, Penguins of Madagascar and HGTV. 

Besides Hulu, can you make suggestions on content providers?

Craig

[Doublej]

There's more to it than simply buying a media player and plugging into your TV. You need to make sure that the content on your computer can be made available to the media player and that the media player has a display format and output connection that your television can accept.

The former is an issue if you are running Itunes as I think the only 'media player' that will be 100% compatible with Itunes will be Apple TV. Apple TV presents a problem on the latter as I believe that it only outputs via HDMI so if you have a CRT TV you'll likely need an HDMI to composite video, component video or S-video converter. I have no clue as to how it will look on your TV when the resolution is downgraded.

There are other benefits of a media center, most notably the ability to access files on the computer wirelessly.

A direct connection from the computer to the television is easiest if your computer supports it but does require a wire.


Craig - go to the websites of the content providers directly (Nickelodeon?, HGTV, National Geographic, etc.) and see if they serve up their shows on their website. Some do and some don't but don't expect the same display quality as DirecTV or cable.

I think most of the content aggregator sites like Hulu are serving up content from the same sources but you can try Fancast.

You might also be able to buy episodes from Amazon video on demand for a few bucks per show.

Or if you are like me you fall far enough behind in watching things that you just request DVDs of  the old stuff from your local library and watch it for free.

[ctviggen]

You can also try out Boxee:

http://www.boxee.tv/

You have to download a program.  This is basically a program that provides easier, simpler access to Hulu and the other sites allowing you to play TV content.

I haven't used it yet (no program for 64 bit Windows, which my HT computer has).

[GHM]

Here's another site for you Clicker.
 I use it and Hulu mostly for watching internet TV ..I cut the cable off over a year ago!
I use the Media Browser plug in along with Vanilla 2.0 to categorize my Movies, Music and TV shows in the Media center.

Here's another sharing software for those interested in that stuff Orb.

[GHM]

Here's some image shots of Media Browser and Vanilla 2.0 working together..very cool stuff! The Media Browser retrieves all the Meta Data for all your media! That includes posters, actor info and movie info. You can also get movie trailers linked in.