6 Month Streaming Anniversary!

We've been off cable for 6 months. A-ma-zing! I've had cable in the house since the early 80's, so this is a big thing for me. There have been bumps and it's still nowhere NEAR perfect but it's passable and you can't beat it for the money. Not. At. All.

So far what I've learned is stuff I already kind of assumed, but didn't have the cheese or the gumption to make a reality.

Mo Bandwith, Mo Betta - If you're streaming on more than one unit plus have computer(s) in der haus, upgrade as high as your provider will let you and if'n ya gotta, switch providers to get the highest speed you can find. Yeah, affordability is a balancing act - how much cabbage you've gotta lay out vs how many times you can handle yourself or someone else in the home bitching about their electronic device creeping, freezing or puking. We're running at 3.0 Mbps which is horribly slow for what we need. Don't be me. Pay the money, man, just pay it.

Schedules and Time - Netflix will only allow you to stream on 2 units at a time. You want more? Pay more. (Cha, as if?!) Pops' system is considered in the house as "always on" and "Netflix hog". All other users have to recognize that there is a bandwith drain 24 hours in there and that there is only one other Netflix slot available at any given time. If I want to download, uh, stuff - I have to wait until there is nobody else using bandwith. We call it "eating your BamWich" thanks to an untechsavvy ex-roomie who thought that's what we were saying whilst complaining about lack of bandwidth.
*Huge shout out to the cast and writers of Charmed. You've kept an old man held warm in the embrace of your jiggly and giggly. Extra kisses to the wardrobe department! - Thanks, Dad.* 

Channels - With new apps coming available all the time, there are endless new channels to look at and realize they suck yak scrote. You will see groovy apps for HBOGO and Syfy, for example. HBO will not let loose of it's goodness unless you're market cost paying for it. She's an old whore who has experience that far outweighs the new kids and is still mighty good looking for her age, so no money-money?  No honey, Honey. HBO refuses to sign any agreement that will allow the streaming pay sites access to their content. (read:Netflix and HuluPlus). HBO refuses to offer a'la carte streaming service. Ain't gonna. No way. No how. Showtime does offer it's shows - the old ones - on Netflix. Again with the no a'la carte. Syfy will show you endless clips of behind the scenes stuff but not a single episode via their app. You can, however, stream most of their shows on your computer for free. This is a problem with HuluPlus as well. Some shows they will only allow you to view through the computer website, rather than on a streaming box or game system. Why? Dunno, though my best guess involves money. (Money is usually the answer to any question.) There are free movie apps that do show movies for free. Not generally films that I'd devote time to - but they're there.  Crackle is a pretty cool saving grace. I've found some fun tv shows on there and the occasional neat movie. It leans heavily towards the cult movie tribe, which is a great idea. I like I Heart Radio. It's a targeted radio app/channel that lets you pick from music stations all across the US. There is a premium aspect to it, if you choose to go that route, which offers more options for choosing artists and music. I'm doing fine with the free version. If a channel is free, I'm more than willing to give it a test drive and see if I like what it's offering.  More than half the time I'm noticing that the app really doesn't have what I'm looking for. Personally, some of these apps/channels from the big networks feel like placeholders - don't want to give away too much or make things too easy, but gotta gotta have at least something out there. The NBC channel has grown quite a bit in the last 6 months. Still not great, but I'm no fan of their webstreaming site, either.

Hardware - Wii is fine - in the little kids room. Or maybe for Grandma because she only wants to watch Netflix. Anyway, you can probably pick up a used/pawnshop Wii for cheaper than a Roku. PS3 and Xbox 360, well you know how I feel about that already. I likee the xbox for streaming - if you MUST stream on a gaming system. Roku eats the gaming system's lunches every time.
A good router is a very important link. My rule of thumb is the same for routers as for kids shoes, buy a size larger - they're gonna keep growing and buy quality, used if that's all you can afford. I absolutely ADORE the cisco router we have. It has a Smart Wi-Fi application that allows you to see who is on your router and turn off anything that is connected to it, even set times for wi-fi to turn on and off for each electronic item.

LAN vs Wifi - Before the cursing starts, do you own your home? Allowed to rewire stuff or drill holes in walls? Pining for the 70's when everyone had speaker wire strung up walls and across ceilings? If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, LAN is going to be your new best friend. Hardwiring does not involve line of sight, it is faster and more reliable than wi-fi. Yeah, wifi is groovy and all. For friends who pop by and use your internet, tablets and phones. Or if you're renting your pad. If you have the ability to run ethernet cables in your house, do so. Cat6 is the new boy on the block and he's built for the future. Not much more expensive than the current standard Cat5e cable. Cat5 is fading into the background, don't bother using it. We're going to tackle this project in the next month. *shudder* It's been interesting trying to decide where to run the lines... above or below. I'm an ebay slut. I won't pay $40 for 50ft of Cat6 at a chain store when I can buy it out of New York and have it sent to my house for the bargain price of $12.

Timey Wimey - It's a work in progress, still. I don't have everything as tweaked as I'd like it to be. It's a big change. I can't tell what time it is by walking through the house. Hmm, the Today show, must be 9am. Ah, Colbert! It's 11:30! I like the gorge viewing part. It's how I read, so no wonder there. Cable cutting is becoming so prevalent that there are bills in the House over how to regulate it. Cable companies are peeing their pants, so we're doing something right. I think this is the start of a wave that is only gonna get bigger and more awesome. Time will tell...