Internet Tv

[vectordream]

Ok all I am fed up with my cable company. Too damn expensive and nothing is on! They just raised their rates again! I figure if I could save that money and buy or rent stuff through a combination of Zune for Xbox 360, Apple TV, or Netflix it would be cheaper and hell half the stuff I watch I would probably even own to watch again. No commericals!!

So my question is has anyone used Zune on Xbox to buy or rent content? I was considering getting Apple TV since I have some stuff I have already purchased in itunes. Is there a big difference it the amount of content both of these are offering? Itunes seem to have quite a bit of stuff and I like the features of Apple TV. I am getting reports of AppleTV having connection problems with itunes though so it made me think about this more.

Movies are not a big deal I can rent and wait for them through Netflix or stream on XBox but I would be focusing mostly on TV Shows and other things for either Zune or Itunes/AppleTV.

Any suggestions?

[Super Kev]

That's kind of a tough call .. I'm a Mac user but I don't have (nor want) the Apple TV. I have bought some TV shows on iTunes and it's fine .. little pricey for HD content but no one really has HD content that's cheap. I also bought an episode of SCRUBS on the Xbox before it changed over to Zune and it's still there and works fine. All of them have different content. I love love LOVE 90210 (feel free to make fun of me) and that's only available through iTunes .. I guess figure out what shows you want and decide from there. Also the ROKU box is much better for streaming content than the 360. You can also rent/buy movies from Amazon on it.

ROKU

Plus getting a media server for the 360 (I downloaded the PS3 version) is a good idea, or external harddrive to store movie and tv shows that you **cough** bought legally **cough** or took out from the library and stored them to watch at a later date. Since you already are buying things on iTunes maybe check for a converter like Handbrake or Popcorn to turn your video files in .avi wich the 360 will play.

[vectordream]

Your right the Roku looks better than anything I have seen yet!

It has more flexibility than Apple TV it looks like. I thought about it a little bit and I think the Apple TV is a little restrictive when it comes to content. They don't allow hulu and others services forcing you to buy everything off itunes. I got down to it and my goal here is to save some of that money from not paying the blood sucking cable company not to just give it away to something else. I want to get ahead.

I figure Roku + Netflix ought to do it for now and see how it goes. I am excited. I canceled my cable tv and it saved me a $100 bucks a month. Blew me away. Netflix will cost me $7.99 a month. I am looking at Hulu Plus for another $7.99 if I like it. So from $100 a month cable tv, where nothing is ever on that I want to see, to being able to control what I want to see even more with less commercials for $16 bucks a month? SOLD! Half our TV time is gaming anyways

[Super Kev]

That's exactly what I did .. the Roku I think is the best bet to get rid of cable. The wired connection is less than $60 bucks (one time payment) and Netflix is $7.99. I had Hulu PLUS through the PSN+ but honestly it wasn't much different than the Netflix instant streaming. It wasn't worth the extra $10 bucks a month for maybe one or two shows I didn't have access too. Also Hulu + has the same commercials that Hulu has .. that pissed me off and was one of the main reasons I only kept the 2 week trail. Also with Roku they are constantly adding channels (some of the them free), but the Amazon feature should have a lot there to rent and buy. You'll likely be pretty happy with 360 and Zune, and Roku and Netflix that you wont really feel the need to get Hulu +.