Posts from — February 2008

With my Tivo, I’ve always been able to stream music and photos from my computer to the TV. Now with the help of a Macintosh program called VisualHub, I can stream movies and video from my Mac to our Tivo-connected televisions. VisualHub unlocks a hidden feature of Tivo’s desktop manager which adds an additional tab to include not only music and photos but video also.

With my wireless-N configuration, I can start watching the video immediately after selecting it and the quality is pretty good. So now I don’t have to buy an Apple TV or Slingbox and can save the money for some other gadget that comes along.

It won’t be very long when we’ll be able to dump Comcast and rely totally on the Internet to provide our entertainment. The huge amount of money we spend each month for their service is outrageous. They do offer some good programming options but costs are not worth the hefty monthly price tag.

Here are some alternatives I’ve been using:

• Joost - from the makers of Skype, it has 400+ channels of music, TV and movies. I’ve been using it for about a year now and the programming choices get better each week. The best part is its all free.
• Hulu - now in beta, this is a very cool site that also has tons of programming with HD options coming soon. The streaming content comes up quickly and the picture quality is excellent. Since it’s ad-based the site is free.
• Tivo’s Unbox - you can download and watch movies right through your Tivo box. It’s a service from Amazon. I haven’t tried this one in a while but its like Comcast’s onDemand option.
• Torrent sites - no the legal ones. They are everywhere and give you free options to download media to your computer.
• Netflix - a per month subscription allows you to sign-out multiple movies at a time via the mail. I stopped using this a while back but if I ever ditch Comcast, this will be a good way to keep up with movies out on DVD.

Now I just need to find a better, and cheaper alternative to Comcast’s high-speed internet. AT&T’s U-verse DSL may be a good option.

Excalibur

Originally uploaded by frontsideback

My photo of a nightclub in Chicago is being considered for inclusion in an online tourist site called Schmap. I’m flattered.