TV/Phone/Internet advice

[Evil Stormbringer]

Good morning my fellow partners in all things evil! In an effort to trim some fat off of our bills the wife and I have been kicking around some of our options with regards to TV, phone, and internet (YES, we finally have high speed internet availability in my area!!).
In a month we spend roughly: $70 for DISH satellite TV, $60 for land line phone service, $40 to $60 for airtime cards on our "pay as you go" cell phones and $10 for AOL internet access through dial up.
My thought has been to drop DISH and the land line service and just go with high speed internet for $55 a month. Since most of the channels we watch frequently, such as TBS, G4, Discovery, the History Channel, etc. have websites that claim you can watch "full episodes" there we shouldn't miss our DISH that much. Is this a correct assumption? Plus, if we still wanted a traditional "land line" phone service, it seems that paying $20 a year for "MagicJack" would allow us to keep a land line phone. Again, another correct assumption? Granted, this doesn't address our cell phones, but we do not "live by our cells" as some people I know do.
So assuming I am understanding current technology correctly, if I went with "internet only" and just hooked my PC up in the living room as my "heart" of our media center would we be missing out on much? What are some of the technical aspects I might have to go through to do this? Furthermore, are there any other options out there I may not be aware of? Any and all advice, as always, is greatly appreciated.
On a side note, I would be ecstatic to FINALLY be able to go online and join in some of the other games you guys play... you know, so I COULD KICK YOUR ASSES!!! Just kidding of course!
But seriously, would this be the way to go? Besides, it seems like a good way to twist the wife's arm into letting me build another rig... something that could be pitched as "being necessary" to our cause... ahem.

[DethAdder]

As far as TV goes, since I got rid of my Directv last year I haven't looked back. Saved myself $70/month and now watch everything through the PC commercial free. I usually DL an entire series and watch them in succession so it may not be typical of how others do it, but it works for me. Hooking it to your TV shouldn't be much trouble, just depends on the TV/PC and connections available within each. I never bothered to try mine. Then again, I get so little use out of my TV I still have an old 27inch JVC Tubed model that is pushing 15years .

I've heard good things about Magic Jack from Motti and there are other alternatives as well if you have high speed. BMF I believe uses Skype almost exclusively. They offer pricing and calling options similar to MJ. Since I have DSL it all comes kind of as a package with the landline phone, but my G/F makes sure we get our moneys worth out of it

I did the pay as you go on cell service too. Never would sign one of their overpriced contracts with any of them. I guess it depends how much use you get out of it, but mine would average costing about $25 every other month. A lot better then $70/month or whatever they charge and then waste most the time on the plan. Last year I ended up dropping my cell down an elevator shaft I was working on. Five story drop, then sat under a few inches of water till I got down there to it. Now it's a glorified name/number book, since while it comes on it doesn't make calls anymore . I gotta say I haven't missed it a bit. There's something nice about being "disconnected" and unavailable at times.

[BMF]

Though i can't really address your needs mate for the most...for the obvious..i can say that since we got rid of our land line we have not looked back. I do use Skype for all calls. It costs $40 a year to be assigned a phone number that allows cell and land lines to contact you, but that is such a bargin compared to the fixed line rates we were paying. the call costs are great too..we pay $6 a month for unlimited landline calls anywhere in the country..cells are dearer..but no more so than from a landline...

The quality is great..just ask Motti or DA, and you can buy plug in cordless phones to make it easier.
This ir any similar alternative is definitely recommended mate.

As for ditching you subscription for TV...watching them online may well be the best way to go for channels like History/Discovery and such, as it only seems to be the more popular ratings driven shows that are available to download through torrents.

But available they are!!! Good HD quality and usually uploaded within a few hours of your fav show being aired...i watch all my TV in this fashion, or if i really like the show..i buy it on DVD.

Cell Phone plans suck...'nuff said.

If your going to build a new Media Center rig..i'd recommend three things...

A HD tuner card....for all your commercial tv needs right there on your PC...they have good software and you wont need to bother with a tivo box or anything similar (unless you have that functionality already)

A good graphics card. Watching HD tv through the pc on a large plasma or LCD tv will push a weak card to its limits...aside from the obvious gaming improvements this is one area you can spend a little more on. (and its a good argument for the missus). A good power supply will help here as well...don't want to be pushing your GPU with 1080 HD and have a crapped out PSU. 750w and a decent brand will serve you well here.

Storage!!!
Don't bother getting a hard drive that is smaller than 1TB. If i was building a media center PC i'd get 1.5TB or if the budget allowed 2TB.

A 1 hour HD program can be over 1GB...so if all your TV needs are going on the PC...you can easily see how fast that will add up.

Build the rig yourself mate..don't buy a pre fab dell or anything..you'll get bloatware you won't need.

Good luck!

[Evil Stormbringer]

Thanks for the replies guys.Seems we're pretty much sold on the idea of dropping the DISH/Landline phone service and picking up high speed.
As far as my current rig I believe my 9800 GTX, although dated already,and my OCZ 750 PSU should be quite capable of living up to the task at hand. I've been wanting a larger HDD anyhow, but again, for the moment between one 500 GB and another 200 GB I should be okay out of the gate.

[DethAdder]

I was thinking if I were to setup a media PC to use HDs with something like This hot swap dual bay HD dock. Instead of a pile of DVDs/Blu-rays, you can just have hundreds of movies, games, music or anything on HDs. Want to watch a movie? Just stick in that HD. Want to play music?, just slap the other one in. No worrying about future expansion or tearing back into the machine to do it.

I plan on getting one for my PC. I can always use more space, as I found out if I keep everything I DL I can fill out a TB in probably 3 months.

btw: There's other cheaper docks too, as low as $22 I believe. Just look through newegg's external enclosures section.

[Mottikhan]

I've had real good luck and saved a lot of money using Magic Jack. It's not exactly a plug and play thing though. I've had to do some significant tweeking and it takes some maintenance here and there to keep it functioning properly.

I have mine on a dedicated PC partly because of the annoying popup that comes with it. I wouldn't put it on a gaming computer.

If you're going to try a VOIP, I'd suggest checking into which one might be best suited to you as a family.

I found some good info at the unofficial support forums...

http://www.magicjacksupport.com/

Without them, I'd have probably not extended my service for another year.

They're about $40.00 for the first year and $20.00 a year after that.

There's an undisclosed limit on calls. Magic Jack won't let us know exactly what those limitations are though.


There's a competitor called TK6000.

http://forum.nettalk.com/

For about $100.00, you get a device that plugs directly into your router and doesn't require a PC.

The downside is that you can only request an area code and not an exchange. Many customers are stuck with exchanges that incur toll charges to their local friends.


Skype, of course, is probably the best quality.

I'm of the opinion that others like Vonage and Road Runner VOIP are overpriced.