[swordmetal]

I am tired of paying over $100 per month for cable tv. I have been noticing that technology seems to be at the place where I could buy or build a computer to connect to my tv full time to watch HD tv and movies just like through my cable provider. What should I look for in components to make this happen? I am hoping to spend $1000 or less, but to get what I want I am willing to pay more. Thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

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If your ultimate aim to get cable for free, it isn't going to happen legally.
You will still need an active subscription to the cable company, unless you're heavily into blank screens.

[Neil Jones]

If your ultimate aim to get cable for free, it isn't going to happen legally.
You will still need an active subscription to the cable company, unless you're heavily into blank screens.

[barry.mann]

just recently i tried doing this myself. The technology is not there yet for you to be able to freely surf. However for some fee's you can get a pretty nice thing going. Is it cheaper than cable - Depends. I have uverse and would watch 2-3 movies a week for $6 a pop. Streamed netflix and i now watch 4-5 movies a week for alot cheaper. I also have automatic downloads for my favorite pay channel series ( HBO, Showtime etc.. ) which are free on there site ( or others ). These automatically get download to my external harddrive.... In other words, my $200 +/- a month bill is about $73 and i can really watch whatever i want but never as fast as just channel surfing. I really am about a week behind but the savings is worth it.

[Ferrari]

Hi Swordmetal,

I know how you feel. There is a very very good option in Boxee that is still in Beta stage, but it works fairly well. It's a little funny because to "go back" a screen it requires you right clicking, not hitting a "back" button. Anyway, it brings all kinds of television that is legally shown by sites like hulu, fancast, youtube, etc to your computer absolutely free. The TV shows are generally about 1 week behind the live or 1st showing on cable. Boxee also does movies, but the free movies on the net are not very good... and for that I would recommend NetFlix which also integrates into Boxee. I believe they are something like $8.99 for 1 DVD at a time and unlimited streaming a month right now which I think is fantastic. You can also stream netflix through blu-ray players as well.

You can always go straight to sites like Hulu, Fancast, etc as well.

LINK FOR BOXEE DOWNLOAD

Other than that, just about any computer Pentium IV or higher that connects to your TV will do. You may want a better video card for some cases which will require a better more powerful power supply as well. You really don't "HAVE" to spend a whole lot to do what I'm suggesting.

Hope that helps, feel free to ask questions.