XBMC has some apps that allow you to link to "legal" web sites and watch full movies.. I can't remember the name right now, ill check when I get home
TV/internet options/screw rogers
- Thread starter kellen
- Start date
I will try to keep this brief:
phone $50 one time lifetime fee with freephoneline.ca WORKS AWESOME with 80% of Canada is free long distance calling.
Buy a $50 ata linksys box from Canada Computers and $25 to port/keep your old phone number.
You get caller id/call waiting/vmail/vmail to email and some other stuff.
Their tech support and customer service ppl are very helpful.
DO NOT TELL ROGERS OR BELL that you are going to port your number. Just fill out the form you get from freephoneline and they will do it all for you (takes 2-4 weeks).
internet- velcom or teksavvy
tv- FREE HD for life 25-35 channels depending where you are located
cost $70 for antenna shipped $100 I paid someone to install on the roof but it's an easy DIY job for extra $30 for mount and cable
There are online sites that will provide you a channel guide for your area.
computers- get rid of your desktop if you don't need it for gaming. They cost you at least $100 a year for power alone. Switch to a laptop.
Use an old laptop with hdmi port as your media center to download movies and music, hooked up to a large screen tv.
A 10 inch tablet is also a nice addition to watch movies and surf the web etc...
It is staggering when you add up the cost you pay for internet/cable/homephone/cellphone.
Add it up right now. You are easily working 1-2 months just to pay Rogers.
phone $50 one time lifetime fee with freephoneline.ca WORKS AWESOME with 80% of Canada is free long distance calling.
Buy a $50 ata linksys box from Canada Computers and $25 to port/keep your old phone number.
You get caller id/call waiting/vmail/vmail to email and some other stuff.
Their tech support and customer service ppl are very helpful.
DO NOT TELL ROGERS OR BELL that you are going to port your number. Just fill out the form you get from freephoneline and they will do it all for you (takes 2-4 weeks).
internet- velcom or teksavvy
tv- FREE HD for life 25-35 channels depending where you are located
cost $70 for antenna shipped $100 I paid someone to install on the roof but it's an easy DIY job for extra $30 for mount and cable
There are online sites that will provide you a channel guide for your area.
computers- get rid of your desktop if you don't need it for gaming. They cost you at least $100 a year for power alone. Switch to a laptop.
Use an old laptop with hdmi port as your media center to download movies and music, hooked up to a large screen tv.
A 10 inch tablet is also a nice addition to watch movies and surf the web etc...
It is staggering when you add up the cost you pay for internet/cable/homephone/cellphone.
Add it up right now. You are easily working 1-2 months just to pay Rogers.
I'll be keeping an eye on that one.. XBMC is on my main media machine.. Works great with an MCE remote
and I am 2.5yrs away from pulling off a contract with roger the thief!Ok here's what me and the wife do for tv etc.
I have Teksavvy for internet, currently using their cable service. I split the cable from the side of the house with a feed going to the modem and to our 2 LCD TV's, one in the bedroom and one in living room. This gets us basic cable channels i.e. channel 02-58 which is good for flicking channels though this is more for the wife than me as I typically just watch things I have downloaded(no commercials, yay!!). She watches more tv than me and likes to channel surf.
For shows we follow and watch religiously I use a program called Sickbeard which has versions for Linux and Windows. I use the linux version in my setup. What the program does is basically act as a PVR of sorts. You tell it what TV shows you want and it will keep track of and download new episodes as they are shown. So you typically will get the newest episode the same night or next day at the latest. It is designed to work with newsgroups and this is how I use it but it does have the option to use torrent sites as well if that's your thing although I have never tried that feature and can't speak to it's effectiveness. sickbeard.com is the site for the program. It's works fantastic for me. You can even tell it what quality you prefer.
To make all this work I have a dedicated "file server", basically just an older computer that I put in the basement. It runs linux and handles all my torrents, tv and movie downloads. Then I have 3 mini itx computers which are about the size of a paperback book hooked to our tv's and the projector in the basement. These are low power super small pc's which also run linux and are diskless and boot off the aforementioned server. All run XBMC as the front end. All downloads are automatic and shuffled to the correct folders which xbmc brilliantly organizes and keeps track of. Took a bit to get it all working but now it is all pretty much self sufficient. The only PC which runs all the time is the main server, everything else is either asleep or powered down when not in use. It is easy to use, even the wife likes it. I love having no commercials most of all.
As I mentioned I use newsgroups for the majority of my downloads. Currently I have a 1 TB block from thecubenet.net which cost $50 on sale and will likely last me close to a year before it is finished. A program called sabnzbd handles the newsgroup stuff for me.
For my motorcycle racing I am a member of a few private torrent sites which cater to racing stuff. Works for me. I follow wsbk, motogp and bsb generally.
I also have an OTA antenna but currently it is not hooked up. I used to get probably 10-15 channels off it which covered all the major networks in glorious HD but I watch normal tv so little I haven't bothered putting it back up.
For movies I just download what I want. There is a program for that as well, CouchPotato, very similar to sickbeard, tell it what you want and what quality you want and it will grab it when it becomes available.
Works for me. If anyone has any questions shoot me a pm.
Oh and no home phone either. I have a work cell phone which is free evenings/weekends and the wife has a cheap plan with chattr. We don't use the phone much so this works fine for us. So really our only monthly cost is the internet which is ~$50
I have Teksavvy for internet, currently using their cable service. I split the cable from the side of the house with a feed going to the modem and to our 2 LCD TV's, one in the bedroom and one in living room. This gets us basic cable channels i.e. channel 02-58 which is good for flicking channels though this is more for the wife than me as I typically just watch things I have downloaded(no commercials, yay!!). She watches more tv than me and likes to channel surf.
For shows we follow and watch religiously I use a program called Sickbeard which has versions for Linux and Windows. I use the linux version in my setup. What the program does is basically act as a PVR of sorts. You tell it what TV shows you want and it will keep track of and download new episodes as they are shown. So you typically will get the newest episode the same night or next day at the latest. It is designed to work with newsgroups and this is how I use it but it does have the option to use torrent sites as well if that's your thing although I have never tried that feature and can't speak to it's effectiveness. sickbeard.com is the site for the program. It's works fantastic for me. You can even tell it what quality you prefer.
To make all this work I have a dedicated "file server", basically just an older computer that I put in the basement. It runs linux and handles all my torrents, tv and movie downloads. Then I have 3 mini itx computers which are about the size of a paperback book hooked to our tv's and the projector in the basement. These are low power super small pc's which also run linux and are diskless and boot off the aforementioned server. All run XBMC as the front end. All downloads are automatic and shuffled to the correct folders which xbmc brilliantly organizes and keeps track of. Took a bit to get it all working but now it is all pretty much self sufficient. The only PC which runs all the time is the main server, everything else is either asleep or powered down when not in use. It is easy to use, even the wife likes it. I love having no commercials most of all.
As I mentioned I use newsgroups for the majority of my downloads. Currently I have a 1 TB block from thecubenet.net which cost $50 on sale and will likely last me close to a year before it is finished. A program called sabnzbd handles the newsgroup stuff for me.
For my motorcycle racing I am a member of a few private torrent sites which cater to racing stuff. Works for me. I follow wsbk, motogp and bsb generally.
I also have an OTA antenna but currently it is not hooked up. I used to get probably 10-15 channels off it which covered all the major networks in glorious HD but I watch normal tv so little I haven't bothered putting it back up.
For movies I just download what I want. There is a program for that as well, CouchPotato, very similar to sickbeard, tell it what you want and what quality you want and it will grab it when it becomes available.
Works for me. If anyone has any questions shoot me a pm.
Oh and no home phone either. I have a work cell phone which is free evenings/weekends and the wife has a cheap plan with chattr. We don't use the phone much so this works fine for us. So really our only monthly cost is the internet which is ~$50
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I've given up on Rogers, almost completely. Only service I have with them is phones and I'll be dropping that once contract is up. Why? They treat new customers better than existing long term customers, rates are very high on just about everything, no understanding on upgrades and such. So yeah, screw em.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
LOL, not really. It just sounds complicated. Once it is all setup it's pretty self sufficient.
Hate Rogers and Bell. Pay Acanac $50/mo for unlimited bandwidth (with dryloop).
- Netflix $8 a month (especially for the kids programming - netflix for kids, my daughter doesn't even notice there's no cable), and set up a Buffalo Linkstation (4tb) in the basement as a mediaserver and torrent client - allows me remote access to start torrents downloading while I'm at work, or using my phone.
Each room has a media player (one Boxee Box, WD TV Live Plus, Egreat and PS3's) accessing the media server over a wired network allows Netflix access from every room as well as media from the server.
Telephone - freephoneline.ca (as mentioned previously in this thread one time $50 cost per line, $30 2 line ATA off Ebay) and Voip.ms ($0.01 a minute throughout North America).
Haven't experimented with OTA stuff, but we just haven't felt the need.
I am wondering what exactly they "mod" on the Boxee Box as it seems to work fine for me as it is, but would always welcome improvements.
- Netflix $8 a month (especially for the kids programming - netflix for kids, my daughter doesn't even notice there's no cable), and set up a Buffalo Linkstation (4tb) in the basement as a mediaserver and torrent client - allows me remote access to start torrents downloading while I'm at work, or using my phone.
Each room has a media player (one Boxee Box, WD TV Live Plus, Egreat and PS3's) accessing the media server over a wired network allows Netflix access from every room as well as media from the server.
Telephone - freephoneline.ca (as mentioned previously in this thread one time $50 cost per line, $30 2 line ATA off Ebay) and Voip.ms ($0.01 a minute throughout North America).
Haven't experimented with OTA stuff, but we just haven't felt the need.
I am wondering what exactly they "mod" on the Boxee Box as it seems to work fine for me as it is, but would always welcome improvements.
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cable problem solved http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Profession-a...ltDomain_0&hash=item1e6fc742a1#ht_4471wt_1057
So who had to come to fix your tek savvy connection? Or did you just hook it back up?
I have done that by using the vice grips to crimp the outer sleeve to the inner in an apartment building. good thing I had her holding the flashlight for me in the closet so i could figure it out.
for the cable boxes for you cheap ***** who can wait 3 weeks for the tool. you need a 1/8" drill bit attached to a drill and a small screwdriver jammed in the hole to slowly screw the plug out the box. did that for someone once.
Reconnected it myself.
Where I am Teksavvy cable runs through Rogers. It was great for the first few months.
Now I get disconnected randomly a couple of time per day.
Not so good for online gaming.
Call centre had me check out the signal strengths and they were nominal.
now they want me to try and catch a drop as a disconnect occurs, which just ain't going to happen.
My take is that the lines are oversubscribed in our area, and I'm stuck until they fix it or I can switch to DSL.
Now I get disconnected randomly a couple of time per day.
Not so good for online gaming.
Call centre had me check out the signal strengths and they were nominal.
now they want me to try and catch a drop as a disconnect occurs, which just ain't going to happen.
My take is that the lines are oversubscribed in our area, and I'm stuck until they fix it or I can switch to DSL.
get a rapidshare account and ur done
there are a billion sites with direct download for rapidshare and all those hosters, its 100% speed all the time, no torrent nonsense.
also the shows are there within 30 minutes of tv air time.
All 720p or higher, single link rapidshare downloads. (even moto gp 720 p !)
there are even programs to auto download your schedule on a weekly bases.
get taksavvy, i pay 50$ a mo no more no less and hit around 2500k/s constant.
300 gb download cap, to which i blow over every month and they dont even question it. (within reason)
so my total cost for tv is $50 a mo internet, a buddies netflix and $18 euros for 150 days of rapidshare service.
im not gonna mention my websites on here, but pm if you want some goodies.
there are a billion sites with direct download for rapidshare and all those hosters, its 100% speed all the time, no torrent nonsense.
also the shows are there within 30 minutes of tv air time.
All 720p or higher, single link rapidshare downloads. (even moto gp 720 p !)
there are even programs to auto download your schedule on a weekly bases.
get taksavvy, i pay 50$ a mo no more no less and hit around 2500k/s constant.
300 gb download cap, to which i blow over every month and they dont even question it. (within reason)
so my total cost for tv is $50 a mo internet, a buddies netflix and $18 euros for 150 days of rapidshare service.
im not gonna mention my websites on here, but pm if you want some goodies.
