I'm not sure why Netflix is "pathetic", good source for older stuff... looks good via the original Roku and great via my TV netflix app. Hulu (free) has 4-5 of the latest shows from content providers that they have agreements with. Amazon is limited, compared with Netflix. There is also VUDU (via pay per view), which has higher resolution (HD-like) than Netflix and Amazon.
There's more than just Windows MCE and MythTv, for example:
MediaPortal, MPC-HC, (see Home Theater Computers - AVS Forum for more info/guides),
NextPVR | A free PVR and Media Centre application for Windows and
there was SageTv (purchased by Google, but seems to be going nowhere).
As for Windows MCE and DVB-S/S2, you can get the DVBLogic addons.
Netflix has lots of movies but they are sadly lacking on TV shows. Besides, that ship is sinking anyway.
Hulu has just a few episodes of shows. And you can't pay to get commercial free stuff. Even if you subscribe to the premium you get commercials.
Amazon has a pretty good collection of TV shows and they have current HD shows but dang they are expensive. $3 a pop for "HD" episodes of American Pickers.
But it's commercial free. They have a good collection of old TV shows. Last week I was watching Hawaii 5.0 and I missed the last 2 minutes of a show I was into.
I jumped to Amazon (I have Prime) and I watched the end of that show, no charge. It was commercial free and I could skip to any place forward or back instantly as I pleased.
So it's OK in some respects.
ALL of them have short-comings. That's why I want to shop for a Blue Ray player that has access to all those services and hopefully others as well.
That way if one doesn't have what I want I can jump over to the other and find it. I don't mind paying $8 a month for NF and Hulu. $16 a month is within my budget.
Amazon is paid for except if I want to catch a NEW episode of something then I'll shell out a little extra but that's fine with me.
I think I can find a player that covers all the sins, or at least I hope I can. It's just going to take some homework and a lot of reading to be sure of what I'm getting into.
A lot of the apps for a PC, I've tried pretty much all of them or looked deeply into most all of them and there really aren't any that will allow me to use my fairly kooky and complex dish & switch setup.
I've got an 8x1 switch, a 22k switch, a G-box and a USALS motor and a few other switches and dual output LNB's.. None of them let me get that complex. They all limit support to a 4x1 switch.
A few tuner apps I found that allow an 8x1, those apps are "deadware" and are no longer supported. The app I'm using now, Mytheater, has it's limitations but it works well with my kooky switch setup and many dishes.
It's pretty much "abandonware" and before long it should be reclassified as "deadware" because it's not supported or updated anymore and on the site for it, people posted questions a year or two ago that are still unanswered. The forum is dead.
I guess the author had to get a real job..
Anyway.. I've been through all this PC app BS before, many times. I'm quite tired of the PC and am hoping to get a tuner box that can replace the PC. I can assure you of one thing, it sure ain't gonna be an Openbox! :tsk: Got one now, NOT happy with it, at all..
I'm still hoping to get an Azbox but I'm waiting to see if they fix the ATSC problems.
I really want to get away from PC's.. They give me a lot of grief...
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