This post is for Mario. I started it as an email to him, but he suggested it as a blog post in the first place, and now that it’s done it does seem to be post-worthly (although off-topic).
Here are the details of my new home TV system.
First of all, the only paying services I have for TV entertainment are DSL and Netflix. You can get the cheapest Netflix membership and still get all the “Watch it now” content that they have. Not the best and most recent movies, but there is a lot of stuff you can watch, and I always seem to find something interesting for myself or the kids. I think you can get the basic Netflix account for under $10.
My DSL is the only other monthly expense, which is $60 a month. But it’s only that high because I have a static IP address, which I want to use to access my home computers remotely (at some point in the future).
In order to handle all the streaming content to not only my media computer, but the other 2 computers in my house, I bought an N-band wireless router for $80. You can get a G-band wifi router for under $60, but it is 50Mbps vs over 300Mbps. It is worth it because I can watch youtube on my computer while my kids watch a movie on Netflix.
Hulu is awesome, and it is even more awesome because of Hulu Desktop, which installs on your Mac as an app and interfaces with hulu without a web browser. My Apple remote worked with it without configuring everything, so I can change shows easily without getting up.
The computer I’m using is just the MBP I was using for development for G2One. It only has 2 MB of memory, and it seems to be working fine. I was going to sell it and buy a new Mac Mini, but I thought why not try this one out first, and it is working just fine.
A note about resolution… I have a 1080p HDTV, and the quality of the streaming video can be hit-and-miss at times. Hulu *always* looks great, but Netflix can sometimes deliver crappy video quality if the shows you are watching are older. And YouTube usually looks crappy on a 52-inch TV, but it is better than nothing.
Let me know if any of you attempt this, I’ll be interested to hear of other people’s experiences. I’m really happy so far, but then I hate cable companies. I get so frustrated with the DVR UIs. Don’t they pay usability experts to design them? AT&T Uverse was the best I’ve seen so far, so coming back to Comcast here made me want to throw up.
Another thing you need to think about is placement of the media computer. If you are going to use a remote, you have to put it in a place with line of site to your remote, so it can’t be behind the entertainment center somewhere. I also have a spot right in front of the flatscreen where I put my (very small Apple) keyboard and wireless mighty mouse. You’ll still need to put a keyboard and mouse somewhere because you can’t do everything with your remote.
3 Comments
This sounds like the perfect setup. I will look into whether Hulu desktop will work on a non-Intel Mac. I have a 1st Gen Mac Mini that I’m not using for anything. Thanks for taking the time to write this down, Matt!
I don’t have cable either, but rather than having a PC/Mac, I purchased a Roku box. It has Netflix, Amazon VOD, MLB.TV, Pandora, Flickr, SmugMug, and a bunch of others (no Hulu though).
That said, if you have an extra mac mini just hanging around, that sounds like a great way to go! You should also probably give the Boxee app a try if you haven’t already.
If line of sight is a problem for the remote, I think it’s possible to get RF-based or Blue-tooth based remotes.
I hooked up a MacBook to my TV. I had similar experiences with Netflix. Hulu Desktop is great. The picture looks good, but sometimes I notice dropped frames = jerky motion on screen. Not sure if this is an “infrastructure” issue with my setup or a problem with Hulu. I am kind of tempted to boot my Macbook into Windows just because Flash is so much better on Windows. I have a feeling that both Netflix (which uses Silverlight on Mac, but has an optimized player for Windows) and Hulu would greatly benefit.