Cutting the Cord: Life Without Cable (Part II)

Cutting the Cord is a weekly column documenting a life without cable TV.  If you missed them, you can read the Introduction and Part I first.

Previously, my wife and I had just taken the big leap and cut our cable service down to a meager thirteen channels.  It was now time to replace the shows we used to watch on cable with alternatives on DVD and streaming internet sources.  Everyone owns a DVD player, but streaming internet video onto your TV is not something most people do every day, so lets go over the hardware options one has to do just that:

- Media Center PC [Pre-built: $850+; Build-your-own: $550+]
- Roku [$80-130]
- Apple TV [$230]
- Xbox 360 [$200-300]

Aside from these, there are a slew of competing products emerging in the set-top box market that should be available later this year, such as products from Vudu, Boxee, and Popbox.

While the low price of a set-top box is very tempting, all of those options are limited in some regard.  Many can stream from only one or two sources, such as Netflix or the iTunes store.  While these are great value devices, they aren’t flexible enough for a serious media junkie to completely replace cable TV with. Since the $100-200 range boxes that provided streaming movies and/or a limited range of shows weren’t going to cut it, we decided to get our hands dirty and built our own media center PC.

Here’s a summary of the components we picked out for our PC:

• Case:  hec Black Micro ATX Media Center Case (3.9” x 13.8” x 14.5”) – $50
• Motherboard: ASUS M3A78-EM Micro ATX AMD Motherboard – $74.99
• Processor: AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor – $59.99
• RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 RAM – $40AR
• Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5” Hard Drive – $69.99
• Video Card: ASUS EAH4650 1GB DDR2 Radeon HD 4650 128-bit PCIe Card w/ HDMI – $35AR
• Optical Drive: Samsung 22x DVD Burner SATA Model SH-S223F – $23.99
• (Optional) Wireless Card:  HiRO H50170 801.11g wireless PCI card w/ Low Profile Bracket – $37.99

Finally, we went ahead and bought some accessories.  The first was a Windows Media Center Remote for $25 with infrared USB reciever, which turned out to be extremely useful.  The remote is useable when watching DVDs, playing .avi files, listening to music, or viewing shows from MSN’s internet TV channels.  For only $25, the remote is handy simply because it passes the “mom” test.  Everyone knows how to pick up a remote and press the play, pause, and stop buttons.  Remember, you aren’t the only person to ever use your TV, so throw your guests a bone and pick up a remote.

The other accessory we purchased was the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution combo.  We admittedly went overboard by dropping $160 on this Bluetooth 2.0 keyboard and mouse set, but have not regret it one bit!  The MX5500 has an extremely convenient rocker button on the side of the keyboard, allowing you to zoom in and out of webpages; an essential feature for surfing the internet from across the room.  The Bluetooth 2.0 technology also sports improvements over its predecessor, overcoming range and power consumption issues of Bluetooth 1.0 devices.  Not once has this combo has a connection issue in our house.  The keyboard batteries lasted 10 months, and the mouse with built-in battery only needs to be placed in its charging cradle once per week.  There are less expensive alternatives to the MX5500, but I say treat yourself to something nice.  You are saving money by cutting cable after all!

Total Cost:  Approximately $577

As mentioned previously, the total cost of this PC was paid back in monthly savings after 9 months.  Now that the PC is built, though, we will continue next week with a full rundown of locations on the web where you can stream the best in cable TV.

READ PART III BY CLICKING HERE