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Thursday
Sep132012
DateSep 13

Profile of a Cord-Cutter

Recently Jon from San Diego reached out to us to tell us that he had cut the cord and wasn't ever looking back. He offered to write up his experience and share it with our readers:

About a year ago I cancelled my Cox digital cable service (DVR, set-top Box, etc) and converted to all-internet content. I am now completely using streaming services (and occasional live QAM channels). I wanted to share what I learned so others can enjoy the cost savings and great content available for cheap.

Goals

I had the following goals in cancelling my Cable TV and switching to internet-only.

  1. Save Money (cash factor)
  2. Stay legal (Jail factor)
  3. Make it easy to use (Wife factor)
  4. Low Maintenance (Time factor)

Current setup (I omitted basic home theater gear such as TV/receiver/DVD player)

  1. Playstation 3: used for Vudu, Amazon VOD, Games
  2. AppleTV 2: used for XBMC, Netflix and MLB.tv

Infrastructure required:

  1. Gigabit Ethernet home network (WiFi will be frustrating)
  2. Fast Internet connection (at least 10Mbps down, needs to be reliable)
  3. File server to serve up ripped movies/TV shows
  4. Harmony Remote (works for everything including controlling the Apple TV)

XBMC Overview

XBMC is software that can stream media with a nice user interface. It has a large user following meaning excellent support and frequent updates and improvements. There are many scripts and addons. One great script is the “Free Cable” script which “scrapes” media from various legal sites such as CBS.com, NBC.com, USAnetwork.com, etc. You can select the shows you want and watch them commercial-free without ever opening a browser. You never have to remember to setup any schedules to record since all the media is in the cloud. There is also a Hulu script that does pretty much the same thing as Free Cable. Hulu is also commercial free and you don’t need to pay for Hulu plus. Note that the video quality of both of these services is decent, but the audio is only stereo.

I ripped my entire media library (DVDs, TV shows and CDs) and put them all on my Linux file server. To watch content from your LAN, XBMC can use a windows file share or a samba share (and others). XBMC does a poor job of organizing your media so you need to have it organized as recommended on the XBMC wiki (3) before adding the folder share to XBMC.  It is important to get the metadata right too using a good metadata organizer (4).

AppleTV 2 and PS3

I run XBMC on my AppleTV because it is a popular, cheap choice while drawing only 2 watts when operating. The AppleTV2 supports 720p while the new version supports 1080P. I don’t think the AppleTV3 is  jailbroken yet so XBMC is not yet available on that newer model. The AppleTV2 is a little sluggish but generally performs well enough for a decent Wife factor. I use the native Netflix and MLB.tv apps. You can install XBMC as just another app in about 15 minutes (1) including the jailbreak.

I use my PS3 for Vudu and Amazon VOD. Vudu is a subscription-free service. You pay about $2-$5 per rental. Typically Vudu has new releases about the same time as Red Box and is much more convenient. I recently found that Amazon VOD supports “HD” content (unsure of resolution) with 7.1 surround sound. I found the audio and video quality is much better than Netflix. I am a prime member so Amazon VOD is free.

Free live network TV over QAM?

As it turns out, you can get HD local live network channels free if your TV has a QAM tuner and you simply plug in your cable internet coax (or in my case, simply don’t disconnect it). It seems that every cable ISP does this - I think it may be an FCC requirement. This video is the same as ATSC OTA but without the ugly antennas or signal strength woes.

Future Upgrades

I am considering replacing my AppleTV2 and installing XBMC on a low-power computer (e.g. an I3-based Ivy bridge system) or Mac Mini for a little faster menus/video loading. This is hard to justify as my current system is running pretty well.

What does not work well

MythTV deserves a special mention. I have tried several times to get this DVR application running. There is even an XBMC plugin to run Myth from the XBMC interface. Frankly it was a bit complicated to setup. I supposed newer versions are better. Frankly, I can just stream all the content I need and I don’t need to bother with remembering to record a show.

SageTV is a windows DVR application. It is pretty decent but I found that running a windows machine to be high maintenance. Also the application is expensive and the hardware  (in my case) was power hungry.

Windows Media Center is also fairly high maintenance and power hungry as well. It works pretty well and WIndows 7 has a pretty nice built in media center app. Neither Windows 7 nor SageTV competed with XBMC’s plugins and scalability in my opinion. Neither provide access to network shows except by opening a browser and going to CBS.com or Hulu.com (I believe to be clunky).

Conclusion

We have been very satisfied with this setup. I rarely have to do any maintenance. I save a lot of money and can watch the most recent 4-5 shows from all major networks without commercials. I can also access VOD from Amazon or Vudu. I don’t have to remember to program a DVR. If I don’t like the XBMC user interface, there are dozens of other XBMC skins. I am completely legal. One caution is to keep an eye on your bandwidth usage as some ISPs cap your service. I do miss some live sports. I sometimes watch live network TV such as broadcast football using my TV’s QAM tuner to view the network TV from my Cable internet coax.

Monthly cost breakdown:

  1. Netflix $7.99
  2. MLB.tv $2.08 ($24.99/yr)
  3. Internet: $64.99/mo Cox Premier 30Mbps down

References:

  1. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=How-to:Install_XBMC_on_Apple_TV_2
  2. http://www.amazon.com/Apple-TV-MC572LL-OLD-VERSION/dp/B001FA1NK0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347417789&sr=8-2&keywords=apple+tv+2
  3. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Adding_videos_to_the_library/Naming_files/TV_shows
  4. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=50348
Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

If you try to use TiVo and QAM you will not be able to get guide data because of the different freqs.

September 13, 2012 | Unregistered Commentermat

I wrote an articel about my experiences on HomeToys.com (called: "A Year Without Cable"): http://www.hometoys.com/emagazine/2012/02/a-year-without-cable-tv-/1510

September 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMark Anderson

"Windows Media Center is also fairly high maintenance"

I disagree. I haven't touched my WMC PC (other than actaully using it as a media center PC) for months.

I leave auto update on

September 17, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMark Anderson

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