Apple iPod Event

[billybob476]

Welcome to Canada. My bill from Rogers Cable for internet, TV and home phone is about 220 dollars a month. It's too expensive, before the end of the year I'm switching providers.

EDIT: So I guess any method to get the cost down is interesting to me. Remember we don't have netflix (yet), nor hulu or anything like that.

[Rico]

Welcome to Canada. My bill from Rogers Cable for internet, TV and home phone is about 220 dollars a month. It's too expensive, before the end of the year I'm switching providers.

EDIT: So I guess any method to get the cost down is interesting to me. Remember we don't have netflix (yet), nor hulu or anything like that.

HOLY SMOKES!  That's a lot of cubits!

- I thought I heard that Netflix would be up yonder soon?

[jedijeff]

My cable bill is quite high, but I have all my services through the same company as well, Phone, Internet and Cable. It is probably in the range of what Joe pays, but I have a few expensive things on it like I have to pay 15 dollars a month for a Chinese Language station for my Wife. Also I have a movie channel as well, it is an expense, but I figure probably cheaper then renting or seeing some of the movies in the theatre. Takes about a year for them to reach that channel, and it has most of the big movies. I might reevaluate it in the fall and see if I really need it or not.

I think I saw just about everything on TV that I wanted. The only things I did not get was Clone Wars in HD and Men of a Certain age, as it was on a channel I don't have. Those I just downloaded off Bit Torrent and streamed through my XBox. Hopefully someday we get something like Hulu or Netflix, as I like the Idea of seeing some older shows I have missed. I would rather just pay a subscription fee per month, then per show.

I have not really followed the Apple TV all that closely, so will have to look more into it, but right now, doesn't sound like it does what I am looking for. I guess I will have to see how much they charge for movies, as possibly could be cheaper then what I do right now, but still I am just more into paying a fee for the month, then per movie. But the other hand, right now I am at the mercy of the channel I get my movies on to what they are showing and when.

[billybob476]

Same here, I pay for the TMN package with gives me a few movie channels plus HBO Canada, that's about 14.00/month. I'm very close to dumping that. I'm also renting an HD PVR and standard HD terminal for my two TVs.

Nextflix (streaming only) has been slated for the fall here. No new developments on that front at this point.

[jedijeff]

Same here, I pay for the TMN package with gives me a few movie channels plus HBO Canada, that's about 14.00/month. I'm very close to dumping that. I'm also renting an HD PVR and standard HD terminal for my two TVs.

Nextflix (streaming only) has been slated for the fall here. No new developments on that front at this point.

I get HBO Canada as well, but I have not watched much on it besides the Pacific Miniseries earlier in the year. I pay about the same for our Movie Channels as well. A few years back they intoduced a new Movie Channel, which bugged me a bit, as I have Movie Central, and up until then, it was the only movie channel, so it got pretty much all the movies. Now there are two, Movie Central has most of the movies, but there are a few of the other channel, which I dont get, such as Marley and Me that I noticed last month on the other channel. So will look to see if there are better alternatives for movies. Some months I watch a lot of movies, and other months not as many. I guess for me, if I pay per movie, if I dont like it, then I will feel I wasted my money, since a lot of movies I watch on the Movie Channel are not ones I would normally watch in a theatre.

[Bryancd]

Is that just for the TV part Joe??  I'm guessing not.  I think it comes down to how much TV/movies you consume and what works best for you.  Personally, I watch a fair amount so I don't mind paying for a more general fee to access a good chunk.  But if you only watch a show or two and a couple movies I can see Apple TV filling that little spot. 

Exactly, which is the camp I fall in in. I'm not a huge media consumer at all and would love to have an easy, streaming pay option for contnet when I want it. I also have sufficient DVR capabilities on my DISH Network system and Jamie and I don't record and store a lot of stuff at all. Now, if I could stream to my iPad and somehow mount it on by bike.... :)

[billybob476]

One thing that does stop me from seriously considering dropping cable is the "causal" tv watching. I mean just flipping on the tv in the background and watching something you're not incredibly interested in. I guess it's more a question of modifying that behaviour and replacing it with something else.

Also my monthly bandwidth cap is 60 gigs. I think I'd eat through that pretty quick if I consumed all my media over the web.

[Rico]

I've never been a channel flipper person.  If I need something on in the background, I'll put on some music or a podcast.  I only really turn on the TV just before a specific show is on or to watch a movie.  I would certainly guess too that as more large file video content is moved over the net, bandwidth caps will need to increase.  Or more likely, you can get more but it will cost you.  They will still get us all in the end.  ;)

[Jobydrone]

I would love a streaming option for the iPad similar to Slingbox.  For THAT I'd pay $99 bucks. 

[billybob476]

I would love a streaming option for the iPad similar to Slingbox.  For THAT I'd pay $99 bucks. 

They're working on it!

http://gizmodo.com/5505288/slingplayer-hd-coming-to-ipad

[Rico]

I would love a streaming option for the iPad similar to Slingbox.  For THAT I'd pay $99 bucks.  

Wait a second - so you can't access your home networked PC/Mac using your iPad to show content located elsewhere?  Every video file has to be converted and moved to your iPad via some kind of plug in sync method?  Yuck!

[Jobydrone]

Interesting.  Kind of useless for my Wifi only iPad unfortunately but very very cool none the less.

[Jobydrone]

Wait a second - so you can't access your home networked PC/Mac using your iPad to show content located elsewhere?  Every video file has to be converted and moved to your iPad via some kind of plug in sync method?  Yuck!

Yeah...What do you think this is, Star Trek or something?

[Rico]

Wait a second - so you can't access your home networked PC/Mac using your iPad to show content located elsewhere?  Every video file has to be converted and moved to your iPad via some kind of plug in sync method?  Yuck!

Yeah...What do you think this is, Star Trek or something?

Ahh, no.  But I thought it could at least network like a netbook or laptop.  Wow, that's a major drawback for me.

[billybob476]

Yeah it's a very strange restriction. Apple introduced this AirPlay thing in the keynote as well but it seems to be for streming FROM your iOS device TO a 3rd party device, not from a computer to the iOS thing.

Sometimes Apple is just strange.