Comments on: bye bye, cable tv

By: Brian Carlton

Brian Carlton — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:12:57 +0000

A converter box plus your PVR would at least let you watch over the air in NTSC quality.

By: David Carlton

David Carlton — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:41:18 +0000

Hmm, looks like I actually can use the iPod as a VNC remote – I hadn’t thought of that. Cool.

The plans are definitely taking shape, thanks to everybody’s help! The main change is that I’m now leaning towards getting a PS3 as a DVD player, instead of dealing with the Mac’s computer-centric output biases in that regard: I’d been thinking I should get one soon anyways (Flower, Noby Noby Boy), might as well recable everything once. I’m busy this weekend, but I have an appointment for shopping help at the Apple store a week from tomorrow.

By: Joe Pallas

Joe Pallas — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:09:08 +0000

Can’t you use that shiny new iPod Touch instead of the laptop as a VNC remote?

By: Stuart Marks

Stuart Marks — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:29:27 +0000

Wow, good luck with that! We’ve been on Comcast digital cable for some time now. It’s not bad service, but paying $65/mo for the privilege of watching TV has been starting to grate. We’ve toyed with the idea of turning off cable but we haven’t yet taken the plunge. With many movies available on DVD via NetFlix, and many TV series available via the internet, cable is starting to look vulnerable. One additional source, of course, is terrestrial broadcast digital TV (ATSC).

I’d be interested in what you end up with.

By: Brian Carlton

Brian Carlton — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:42:22 +0000

Netflix On Demand for video. Just not the new stuff. Surprisingly, some good recent series, e.g. 30 Rock.

By: David Carlton

David Carlton — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:10:23 +0000

@Trevor: I hadn’t thought of VNC, and I’ll definitely look into that – it will be very convenient in some circumstances. I can’t depend on it, though, because we’re already fighting over who gets to use our one laptop, so I don’t want to make that worse! (I’m hoping this will actually end up reducing laptop contention.)

@Luke: Thanks, I’ll definitely look into that.

@Travis: Yeah, I was surprised, too – there’s certainly no technical reason why they can’t continue to send analog. I think that what’s going on here is that analog takes more bandwidth, and they’d rather free up that bandwidth for other uses. They’re probably hoping to make more money from video-on-demand sales, too.

By: Travis Megill

Travis Megill — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:59:24 +0000

They’re forcing you to switch to digital? That’s strange. At least in TN, analog will still be broadcast through cable, it’s just the OTA analog signal that’s disappearing. The only people that had to worry were those not already paying for cable.

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:21:59 +0000

keyboard + touchpad: http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-Logitech-Cordless-Mediaboard-Pro/dp/B000W5RBQE/ref=dp_cp_ob_vg_title_0

ipod remote control app: http://www.macworld.com/article/134453/2008/07/remoteapp.html

online content: hulu, netflix, abc, and of course Bo’s startup — veetle.com!

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:16:25 +0000

I currently have an older PowerMac G4 set up to serve video to an HDTV, and I use a VNC client to control the computer sans mouse+keyboard. If you have a laptop, it’ll be an easy solution to control your Mac Mini without having to bother with the extra clutter.