I sent out the following Twitter today “Finally cut Comcast cord. Watcing HDTV over the air. 15 local channels & Netflix via TIVO, TV, Movies, & internet on HDTV via Mac Mini.”
Why? I’m shopping with my dollars, thats why. Comcast was costing me between $75 and $110 per month, the variance attributed to on-demand movie rental. When something went wrong the service was horrible. A cut cable in the neighborhood usually resulted in a temporary cable strung over neighbors laws, or across driveways in the street. This could last for weeks until it was repaired properly. Picture pixelation was a problem, especially during storms. And finally, no al-a-carte choices, you have to take their ‘bundles’ most of which we didn’t watch, just to get that one channel we did want to watch. Enough is enough. Now I’m down to the $12.95/month for the Tivo TV guide service and Netflix which I was already paying for. The savings will pay off the new gear in about 1 year. Payback could be less for you, it depends on how sophisticated your system is, and how much gear (like a used computer) you have available already.
My Setup
I had a Channel Master HDTV Over The Air (OTA) antenna installed on the roof (actually it is in the attic). It pulls in 15 stations in Atlanta, all the networks plus their “sub channels”, PBS, and a few others. There are actually a LOT more channels in Atlanta, but I don’t speak Spanish or Korean, and I don’t watch the Christian channels. Most stations have sub channels. For example, NBC channel 11 has 11.1 (Network programming), 11.2 (weather) and 11.3 (Universal Sports).
The OTA antenna is connected to a new TIVO box. TIVO provides many services including on screen TV Guide services, recording of shows on a schedule (plus it automatically records shows you might be interested in), access to internet content, and access to your Netflix “watch instantly” queue. Internet access can be either via a hardwired ethernet cable, or the TIVO wireless network adaptor.
The TIVO is connected to an older Samsung HDTV through one of the with several component inputs. This TV also has S-video and composite inputs and a DVI input (not the newer HDMI).
For browsing the internet, playing music, and watching content from HULU, I connected a refurbished Mac Mini to the DVI connection on the TV. I was worried about this connection because the manual for the TV clearly stated that the DVI port would not support a PC (but they must have meant Windows-LOL). It worked almost perfectly. Initially the top and bottom of the screen were cut off, making it impossible to get to the Mac menu, however all I had to do was turn off overscan and the problem was solved.
Why the Mac Mini over Apple TV? Simple, Apple TV requires another MAC in the house to act as a host and store the media you want to play on the TV, which it accesses over the network. That wouldn’t work if the host was my laptop, which is often out of the house, and I didn’t want to fill up the other Mac with the content. Further, apple TV does not let you browse the internet and take advantage of Hulu, and whatever other new internet media may come along in the future. The Mac Mini is just more flexible.
DVI connections and cables can be quite tricky. I found the cable I needed at Best Buy. (Dynex DVI-I Digital Video Cable #DX-DVI2M, “for connecting a PC or Laptop with a DVI output to an HD monitor/projector with a DVI input.”). I opted for BB instead on buying it online because I could return it quickly if it didn’t work.
Next I turned on MAC Universal Access which is usually reserved for folks with visual or hearing handicaps. If you’ve ever tried to read a web page on a TV screen from a distance, it can be very hard to do, so this seemed like the perfect solution. UA has a zoom feature, just hold the shift key and roll the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in on the screen. You can even set it up so the zoomed area follows the mouse cursor. This will make it very easy to navigate the screen until my dream of a 52 inch widescreen TV is realized. and last but not least, I will load our CD collection on the Mini and turn on disk sharing so we have easy access to all our music from any computer in the house.
I control the computer via an Adesso 2.4Ghz Wireless Mini Keyboard with Optical Trackball (as a mouse). The keyboard and trackball allow operation up to 100 feet away from the Mac Mini computer. The optical trackball provides good accuracy with minimal movement due to its 800 dpi resolution. The lightweight keyboard has hotkeys. which give you one-button access to launch programs for common tasks such as e-mail access, volume control, and web browser.
A four out of five star experience. Everything works, but some folks might need help getting it all connected. A company that specializes in home theater could help.
My next project is to figure out how to control it all with one remote.
//Jon