Re: Sky Angel and TIVO - 7 months later
[SIZE=-1]My family and I had the cheapest possible cable TV - it was called
"Lifeline", and it seems Time Warner doesn't even promote it anymore.
They want to sell packages that cost $50 or more per month, but with
Lifeline, we were paying $12/mo.
We also own a ReplayTV (you know, the same as Tivo, but with automatic
commercial skip). Of course, they were sued out of existence. But the
service still works.
On the left side of our TV cabinet, I have a paper that says something
like "TV should be educational and uplifting, and draw us to a closer
relationship with God and man." On the right side of the cabinet, are
the 10 Commandments.
So my 7 year old son asks one day "How come dad sends me out of the room
when he watches some shows?" We're talking about man stuff - "Bazooka
Deathmatch" shows that keep me awake when I watch TV. But, is "Bazooka
Deathmatch" educational and uplifting? So I realize my 7 year old has
just found me to be a hypocrite. Great example, dad. Gotta do
something about that.
So here we were with 25 channels of junk. I looked ahead at the movies
coming on for the next 2 weeks and all I see is PG-13 and R rated
movies. Nothing I can let my son see, and nothing that meets my own
criteria.
A year ago, a friend mentioned a subscription TV service called Sky
Angel. And yes, this is where Linux enters the story...yeah, I'm a big Linux fan...
At skyangel's web site, they sell a set-top box (that
runs embedded Linux) and offer Faith, Family, and Faith & Family channel
lineups for $15, $20, and $25 per month, respectively. The Faith &
Family is about 80 channels in all.
Sky Angel transmits streaming TV over your existing high-speed Internet
connection. It takes about 130kB/s of bandwidth, so you can web browse
and watch TV with no problem, even on a DSL connection. The set-top box
is rebranded from Neulion, and it outputs the TV onto composite or RCA
connections to the TV. But...
Sky Angel also works with Tivo. And contrary to Sky Angel's web page
about this, it works with the very hackable Series 1 Tivo, which you can still
get on eBay for $90 (lifetime subscription). And Tivo runs Linux. The
Australians (and folks in the Netherlands) are still going nuts with
hacking the Series 1 Tivos.
Once set up, the Tivo will record its little heart out on the Sky Angel
TV streams, and provide hours of educational and uplifting TV. Sky
Angel will block any program rated R that doesn't have the bad parts
edited out. And I've noticed a couple shows where bad language was
muted. These are good things.
So what replaces Bazooka Deathmatch? Man vs Wild. The guy drinks water
squeezed from elephant poop - how manly is that?!
So compared to $50 cable packages, Sky Angel is cheaper, and it runs
Linux, and it meets my criteria for "Good" TV. A winner to me![/SIZE]