How I chose to cut my cable - Part 3: Decision Matrix

In searching for the perfect solution, I came across this great resource.  It let me filter a wide field of competitors and narrow it down based on my requirements.

There were none.

A Boxee Box came close.  However, you couldn't customize the streaming experience like you could on a Roku.  It came with a fixed set of popular streaming services (Netflix, Vudu, YouTube) but that was it.  Furthermore, the Boxee box had undergone a revision between the publishing of that matrix and when I was looking for a box to replace my cable TV service.  The new boxee touts itself as the first cloud DVR (for a $9.99 a month fee in limited areas - not available where I live).  Essentially, instead of recording your over-the-air (OTA from here on out) on a local hard drive, you upload it to a boxee server.  I suppose on the plus side you don't have to ever worry about running out of space.  And you could watch your shows from anywhere.  However, while I have a screaming download speed, my upload is S-L-O-W.  How long would it take to upload a 5 gigabyte 1 hour HD program at 1 Mb/s?  And I really didn't want to bump into my ISP data limit and get charged again for my DVR habit.  It just didn't seem worth it to me when a one time cost of $50 for a local hard drive would suffice.

The other option was a Tivo.  But that was quickly ruled out due to 3 factors:  1) to avoid the subscription service you can buy one for $500.  It was more than I wanted to spend.  2)  It has limited customization of the streaming experience, and 3)  I can't put my own movies (mkv's) on the thing and play them back.  But you could easily combine a Roku and a Tivo to accomplish my goals.  In fact, in polling some friends of mine, one of them highly recommended a Tivo combined with a Roku.  I suppose that could have got us what we wanted...but again, I wanted to avoid any subscriptions, and $600 seemed like quite a bit to drop.

I soon realized I'd have to do something else to get what I wanted.  But it involved building my own system.

How I chose to cut my cable - Part 2: The Roku 2 XS

My first choice was the Roku 2 XS.  It lets me stream everything that I wanted in my list.  In addition, the XS version has a USB port that you can plug in an external hard drive and it will play MKV files.  Over the air television broadcasts, we would have just hooked up our TV directly to an antenna.  So the only compromise would be the DVR function.

And the Roku 2 XS sells for anywhere from $75 to $99.  ($75 was the price I had found on the Roku site for a refurbished Roku 2 XS, but it seems that deal is no longer available.  But you can find used ones on ebay as well.)

In fact, I had bought one off of ebay to try it out.  And honestly, I was pretty impressed with the little box.  (I still am, actually.)  There's an amazing amount of content available.  Unfortunately, at the time when I ordered it we only had a 10 year old analog TV.  Which normally wouldn't be an issue as it comes with the standard analog RCA video out.  However, on the one I ordered 2nd hand on ebay, the jack on the back of the Roku was shot, and it would only work if the cable was partially inserted.  And I didn't have a TV with an HDMI input.  So I was obliged to send it back.

But from what I could tell from the brief time I had it was that it's a neat little box.

Even more impressive (and eventually frustrating) was what they were able to cram in that little box.  All I can do is point you to this article to see for yourself.  There's just not much there, but the thing can stream Netflix in HD (more on that later too).

But after I sent it back, I started wondering if there was a way to have all that functionality, but somehow incorporate a DVR into the equation, and I held off getting a Roku.  During that time, I started observing my wife's television viewing habits.  It was at this time, that I realized the real value of the DVR function in our home was during prime-time television:  usually we were too occupied getting our kids ready for bed to watch TV.  But as soon as our kids were in bed, we'd watch the show we recorded an hour ago. And skip the commercials.  I also queried my wife on what shows she liked to watch.  For the most part, we could get quite a few of her favorite shows from an antenna and broadcast television.  And what we couldn't get that way, we have since been able to find online.

It was settled then.  I still needed a better solution than just a Roku (despite being a close competitor.)  The hunt continues in the next post.

How I chose to cut my cable - Part 1

I had been reading quite a bit about people cutting their cable and the concept greatly appealed to me.  I had become increasingly aware that I was paying quite a bit of money for TV.  And I started wondering why?  Why must I pay $90 a month for 200 channels the majority of which I never watch?  When I have spare time, I found myself watching less and less TV, and instead working on my various projects (computer or otherwise), playing video games, or simply reading a good book.  What was I doing throwing all this money away for something I wasn't using?

Most of it was my family.  My wife enjoys television.  When she gets a break, her preferred form of entertainment is to enjoy some television.  And for my kids, it's admittedly nice to put on a show every once and a while to occupy them so either my wife or myself would be free to get done what we couldn't with kids  hounding us or getting under our feet.

So I provided that to my family.

But as time went on, things changed, and the more I read about cable cutting, the more I realized we could still accomplish these basic ends, without much effort.  And I'd get to build a computer as well.  I'm always up for that.

When I first started seriously considering the idea of cancelling our cable, I was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to still do.  I came up with the following:

1) It must stream internet television, including BYU TV, Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix.
2) It must receive over the air television transmissions
3) It must record over the air television transmissions (DVR function)
4) It must play mkv file formats

To meet these design criteria, I first explored off the shelf options which I'll discuss the pros and cons of each in my next post.