New TV 'networking technology'?

[tapdn]

Yeah David! That's what I'm talking about!  :cool:

[Joe]

Yeah David! That's what I'm talking about!  :cool:

Where I live, all local channels would equal zero with an "air" antenna.

[David]

yes, they are HD. Some are 720, but a lot are 1080.  Even on an HD channel, not all programs are HD, it depends on the channel, some programs are national and some are local  broadcasts.

Free HD, I can't figure out why they have to charge for it.

and, If I'm not mistaken, wasn't HD tv originally only offered over the airwaves?

[youston]

yes, they are HD. Some are 720, but a lot are 1080.  Even on an HD channel, not all programs are HD, it depends on the channel, some programs are national and some are local  broadcasts.

Free HD, I can't figure out why they have to charge for it.

and, If I'm not mistaken, wasn't HD tv originally only offered over the airwaves?

Wasn't *all* TV originally only offered over the airwaves? 

[David]

yes, you are correct. I meant that there were no "converter boxes" that could receive the digital signal, it was only through an antenna that you could receive the signal.

So why don't you have an antenna then?

[Farabomb]

Because I don't want to climb a roof covered in snow right now.  :wink:

[David]

that's why we have this thing called Spring and Summer.
Winter is for watching the free shows on the TV, with your new antenna.

 

[frailer]

The direction this thread has taken is somewhat reassuring to me. I thought I was the only person who wasn't sure about all this stuff.   :laugh:

[t-pat]

If you don't want to go buy a new tv and want the network tv experience, check this out.
80% of my tv watching is done thru Boxee - see boxee.tv
Running on a quad core pc w/ wireless keyboard, and media center remote. It was designed for mac, and the apple remote. Can be installed on an AppleTV even. I've run it on a P4 but that's pushing it too hard for 1080p. Supposedly runs fine on Intel Atom with the Nvidia ION graphics so conceivably you could put together a nice cheap media center box.
They now have a standalone box, shows promise.
Streams just about all online content (hulu with a little tweak, because hulu made a deal for hulu plus on the platform) - fancast, nbc, mtv, Pandora, Netflix, whatever. Local content plays in 99.999% of formats.
True 15 foot experience, the interface is nice and big, easy to navigate. Best of all it is free!

[Joe]

I will check that out. Thanks for the info.

[frailer]

I will check that out. Thanks for the info.

Second that. Naive question, tp; applicable to OZ? I guess so, as it's a 'net connection device.   :undecided:  So, D-Link seem to be behind the hardware device-option.

[Farabomb]

That looks nifty and I will check it out. You say a P4 chokes but an atom with ION graphics doesn't? Interesting, my mini tends to hiccup at times with video so I didn't think it would keep up with something like that. Hmmm, might be a weekend project.

[Joe]

That looks nifty and I will check it out. You say a P4 chokes but an atom with ION graphics doesn't? Interesting, my mini tends to hiccup at times with video so I didn't think it would keep up with something like that. Hmmm, might be a weekend project.

I'm tempted to get a new MB, CPU, RAM, HD, video card and power supply for my old P4 (yeah, basically a new computer except the case, keyboard, mouse and floppy drive) and install some form of Linux and give this a try. I've already got the Netflix streaming but it is going through my Wii and I'm not that thrilled with it there. It works but could be better.

tpatterson, does regular, ie...free, Hulu work or just the HuluPlus?

[t-pat]

...
tpatterson, does regular, ie...free, Hulu work or just the HuluPlus?

Thanks for the interest in this thing, I love it and have been using it since early beta.

Joe, short answer, yes hulu free works, with one very minor text edit to a ini file that says what the "user agent" is - makes hulu think that it's Firefox and not Boxee.

Personally though I like the Hulu Desktop standalone app better, it just works better than thru Boxee (better navigation/skip/rw/ff support). I have keymapping on my remote so that if I press the green Media Center button, Hulu desktop quits and Boxee launches, and if I press the "Live TV" button on my media center remote, Boxee quits and Hulu Desktop launches.

Frailer, should be applicable to OZ as there are locale specific settings (which can also be overridden with varying results) - Take a troll thru their forums for a definitive answer.

Farabomb, p4 with period correct video card (no hardware acceleration support) does not do as well as say an Acer Revo - Boxee or more correctly, the streaming sources, depend largely on directx10 and Flash video and hardware acceleration. So, for full on 1080p you want something that can support directx 10 in hardware, many new and even cheap video cards and on-motherboard graphics are capable of this. Keep this in mind y'all if building a boxee box.

There are many home rolled "apps" for Boxee that extend it's capability, check out navi-x for boxee - pretty beta-ish but a shit-ton of content - some legally streamed from legit sources, some shared right from other users drives.

 

[Joe]

I know HuluPlus will only work in the USA (according to the Hulu website). Not sure about regular Hulu.

One other question....does the computer you install the boxee software on need a TV Tuner of any kind or is it just strictly streamed from the web and all you need is the aforementioned video card.