Cutting the Cord: Introduction

We’ve been without pay TV (excluding Netflix) for about a year now and now that we have most of the kinks worked out, I thought I’d give you an update on how we’ve done it.

For our cord-cutting experiment, we’ve tried three different solutions. This has been fun for me to be able to try out different options, but it also means that it’s been hard for Julia since she’s had to learn how to use three different TV setups. Luckily, though, she’s pretty smart and has picked it up really well, but it’s not always easy to teach new visitors how to use our new setup. There’s certainly a lot of room for improvement in that category, but hopefully it won’t be too tough.

Goals:

  • Play back our media collection from any TV
  • Ability to watch and record TV
  • Watch Netflix from any TV

Other Parts of Cutting the Cord:

Cutting the Cord: Introduction
Backend: Desktop Computer (acting as file server) and TV Tuner
Master Bedroom: Roku streaming
Living Room: HTPC and TV w/ built-in Netflix
Basement: Original Xbox with XBMC