Thread: Using BitTorrent to replace Cable/Sat TV?

Hi everyone,

I was thinking about the economics of BT as a mechanism to replace cable. Here's my thinking:



Up front:
$60-$90 each for my two media players (WDTV Live and Patriot BO, 1 for each TV)
$300 for a couple of TB of hard disk space
$40 for Ethernet cabling to network my house

Monthly:
$20 a month for TiVo (to cover over the air programming - my wife did not let me go fully digital)
$25 a month for a seedbox
no extra for the home internet (I need it for work)

-----
Cable: no up front, but ~$120 a month for 2 HD-DVRs, with no premium channels.

I'm thinking I'll break even in a few months AND have much better content to choose from in the end.

Anyone else try to do this? In particular, anyone convinced their spouse to go this route?

Yeah, I've gone this way. I have two Seagate FAT+ (39.99 on Newegg) and a Samsung Blu-Ray. I added a netflix account at 7.99 a month for streaming only because the torrenting thing it too time consuming for my wife and kids to get into it. I torrent new releases and netflix old TV series, Movies, and Anime. Also, I picked up a cheap Dell Poweredge Server with a large array from publicsurplus.com to use as my NAS for my devices.

one of my neighbors went this route he also got the magic jack and saves a bundle on phone services, to be honest almost tempted to try this myself

A HTPC is the way to go imo. I have one setup in my living room and I can just download stuff from the comfort of my couch. And about the phone yeah magicjack works well if you need a home landline, I just ditched mine all together and use my google voice number as an alternate phone number when needed.

Yeah the math(s!) looks good, the only issue I would see would be in trying to link it all up so its a seemless process like cable/sat viewing.

It's quite feasible and easy to do if you know what you're doing.

The problem is my girl doesn't want to learn so we keep paying the 80 bucks for 2 hd dvrs through directv.

I have to strongly reccomend Boxee for anyone thinking of cutting the cable. Its the best media aggregator that I've found.

Originally Posted by shadowbuild

one of my neighbors went this route he also got the magic jack and saves a bundle on phone services, to be honest almost tempted to try this myself

Have you heard of OOMA? I bought a refurbished Ooma Hub at my local Fry's for $99, and I only have to pay taxes (~$3/month) to get full VOIP service, with unlimited local and international calling, and full service phone features. Combined with Google voice, I have something that works far better than land line service for a fraction of the cost. Note if you want to connect multiple phones, you'll have to get one of the phone systems with expandable handsets if you don't have one already (or rewire the phone lines in your house).

------------------------Post auto merged------------------------

Originally Posted by stormbayne

It's quite feasible and easy to do if you know what you're doing.

The problem is my girl doesn't want to learn so we keep paying the 80 bucks for 2 hd dvrs through directv.

That's the big question. Putting it all together in one place so even our family members / friends / roommates can figure it out.

I bribed my wife - told her that she could get any show on DVD/bluray that she wanted, plus any show on ANY premium channel out there within minutes of it airing, and she caved.

At worst, chocolates and flowers work as well :)

The real only issue I could see some run into with this is if your ISP has a bandwidth cap. Using a seedbox should help quite a bit with this but still something to keep in the back of your mind, especially if you're doing a lot of BluRay movies.