The only TV that I have in my house is a small 21″ tube TV, you know, the old kind with the *massive* back that makes finding a place for it a big pain. This TV is actually in my office, we don’t even have one in our livingroom, and don’t really see a big need for it. However, I watch HOURS of tv and movies. How do I do this?
It’s easy, thanks to the internet. 99% of the media that Mrs. Guru and I consume is done on our laptops, which we can easily carry from the office to the livingroom to the bedroom. While we’re also Netflix subscribers, we both utilize a number of different tools online to legally consume video.
First up, my personal favorite is Hulu. There’s not too big of a backlog on there, but new episodes of Family Guy are posted regularly, as well as King of the Hill and a bevy of TV shows that we don’t watch. Sure, there’s a few commercials here and there, but I rarely encounter any buffering.
I also recently got an invite to Boxee, and have been using it on my Ubuntu laptop (as the Windows client isn’t available yet). This media center application allows you to easily browse local media, but also internet media, such as Hulu, CBS.com, and a pocketful of other online video locations, all in one place. It’s really rather brilliant.
What’s more, when we *do* buy a new TV, I’m 100% convinced of the benefits of just plugging a spare computer into it to use as a media center, rather than a cable box with a hefty monthly fee. There’s really no need for cable subscriptions anymore, unless you watch odd shows, or just like to channel surf. Thus far, for the $14/month of our Netflix subscription and the price of high-speed internet (which I would have anyways, thanks to my job), we can consume all the TV and movies that we want, on any computer in the house. It’s really rather brilliant, and something that I’m glad to see finally happening.
Ricky Cadden 