wii vs xbox vs roku for streaming

I've spent some time now working on each system to see which I like the most. So far, Xbox wins, hands down of the gaming systems, but Roku eats their lunch.

WiiMC tends to get skippy on playback of avi's. Luna's nabi tablet only reads MP4's. I'd rather not have to convert from avi to mp4 or back. Xbox handles mp4's and avi's with ease. It's really just that simple.

Also, my linksys router will allow me to put Xbox live on top priority for streaming.

I do like the Roku best of all, if you don't have a system. It's WAY less expensive than purchasing a gaming system that is only barely used for gaming. $300 vs $100

The new Roku 3 has a headphone jack in the remote. Win!!

Kid Tech - Tablet style

I picked up a Nabi tablet for the little kid. Yeah, you read that correctly. I bought an 8 year old a tablet. Normally, I'm in the land of "If you can pay for it, go ahead" but we needed something more portable than the laptop for her homeschooling.

Price: $200 (Black friday had em for $130, dang my poor timing!)

So far, worth every cent.

The Nabi's claim to fame is that it can be dropped from a height of 7 feet and keep on ticking. Um, yeah! I know our pitbull has stomped on it more than once with no ill effects (other than little miss getting read for leaving her electronics out...)

We don't have the one that will allow you to stream through a service provider - that junk costs money. There are free wi-fi areas all over which are not too hard to find. I went to an IHOP near the local college in the middle of the night and asked a waitress there. She told me where all the college kids go to suck internet for free.

They offer support via Facebook, which is handy.

Cables cost HOW MUCH??

I like to keep my local businesses in my thoughts when I'm buying stuff. Walmart is generally my third place to look for anything. Yeah, I've got the Hippy Hatred of Chain Stores.

When you need a cable, connector, attachment, etc. price it at a couple of electronics stores, amazon,walmart and ebay.

Remember that shipping costs will eat your lunch. A 75c connector that costs $7 to ship is NOT a good deal. Unless it's only $7 to ship enough stuff to justify the expense.

In Ebay-land make careful note of where the product is coming from. Stuff from China and Taiwan can take a month or longer to make it to your mailbox. Generally, if it's only a little bit more to buy from someone in the US, I take that route. Unless you're someone who needs to be able to return stuff or buying something that is high dollar and does not have a warranty.

Gamestop or Radio Shack will have a cable for $20, on Ebay, maybe $7 with free shipping.

Sometimes, the difference is hardly worth thinking about...just make sure it's in stock.

How to find your IP address...

Each unit that uses internet will probably have an IP address. The router is where these begin. You will see extensions xxx.xx.x.103 or 101 or 102.

In Windows 8:

Press the button, Kronk!

right click and choose see all apps
click on command prompt (it's the black square one)
type: ipconfig in the black box that pops up.
Write your ip address down in your little text file saving spot and close the window.
These are the numbers next to ipv4



This is the ip for the computer you are sitting in front of ONLY. It will be pretty much the same for each different unit.

If you plan to stream from one computer to the other, you will need this number. It's your computer's geek address. Keep it safe.

Bye Bye, Cable...

Hello all! We have been paying waaay too much for cable or dtv. I heard about "cord cutters" and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with umbilical cords. It's how to stream your tv through the interwebz.

Cable - we were spending almost $200/mo
Satellite - we were spending almost $160/mo
Streaming - 90% of this is initial setup money, after that it's $14/mo or less depending on which services you choose to pay for.

Streaming is different than cable. It's more of an on demand than fed by date/time experience.

Make a list of the shows you like and channels you enjoy. Most of the series I watch have been hitting their finales and going bye bye. *sniffle* This may not be the case with you. Premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime are not selling streaming only options. I am sure in the future this will happen, but it isn't here yet. You can certain shows a'la carte on your own from Amazon or Itunes or something.

There are generally 3 options for watching your programs.
1. Wait until the entire season has passed and it populates in Netflix.
2. Wait up to a week for it to populate on it's home channel or HuluPlus the next day.
3. Grab the torrent and download it from somewhere - not legal!! (bad llama, that's stealing the pie off the windowsill rather than waiting for dessert time - hypothetically speaking.)

The research on this project has taught me a few things. It go like this - here we go!

FIRST- Ya want it to be easy as cake, treat it like cake.

In the same way you don't make a cake until you've gotten all the ingredients on the counter, you wanna have all your stuff ready before you crack the first egg. Yes, there will likely be little things that got missed. Make your list and double check that you have all your goodies in order.

The flow is how you determine what you will need to make this a success. Do the math on a year of your current paid tv service. Mine was $1920 with an extra hundred for the router to start and more for the modem.

Go to your notepad on windows and make two files. One for "cost of cutting" the other is "needful things" In the cost file, you put how much you'd spend in a year for your current service and how much you will spend to get your streaming up and running. This simple little thing will give you the long view of what is going on. The second file will hold all your logon and password info for each device, you'll be coming back to this one a whole lot when you start. If anything goes sideways in the future, you have this to help reset your anythings back to where they were. Handy!!!

FLOW - From Modem to Router to Box to TV.

Modem:
The internet comes into your house via DSL or Broadband (cable internet) through a modem. Cable is better for streaming, but dsl will work if'n that's all you can get. Don't worry about the routers that have a modem in it. You want each piece to be it's own thing. No shortcuts. Your internet will have a speed. You can buy upgraded bandwidth and it's probably a good idea to have the premium internet service. Figure the monthly extra charge and put that in your cost file.

Router:
The modem connects to the router. The router takes the internet and sends this info where you tell it the info is allowed to go. Think about the future, this is not the time to be a cheapass. Go for DualBand Gigabit at the very least. Expect to pay around $200. You CAN get these for less than that, but it's the high water mark right now. Mpbs is the max speed that the info will flow through your router. 300 is standard right now...shoot for higher and you won't have to replace your router in a year. (Unless you are streaming to less than 3 units...then 300 is more than fine for a while)

Think about the layout of your house. If you have more than one story to your place, you may need a repeater to get the signal through all the walls and floors. Try to get a repeater that is from the same company as your router. It really does make things easier. Layout is important, try to put the router in a central location if at all possible.

How many units will you be feeding internet regularly? We have 3 computers, a magic jack, a Roku, an Xbox, a Wii and a PS3. I expect that at least 6 of these will be running at the same time. More stuff = bigger router & more bandwidth.

Box:
What are you going to stream through? There are pros and cons to each setup. You can use your XBOX, PS3 or WII, or buy a ROKU. Which Roku depends on what kind of tv you have. Old style with no hdmi in the back? Roku hd - $60. If you have the spiffy new flatscreen type, then get the better Roku. You're looking into what will best serve you for the next few years, rather than just a quick band-aid fix. www.roku.com to see what they have to offer.

Different channels prefer different boxes. The wii is the odd man out for the most part.

I'll go more into details about the setup for each channel in posts for each one later. If you want more detailed info now, google it yourself.

Plex is a channel that is free. It can be used to stream info from your computer's hard drive to your tv. The wii does not get plex, but xbox, ps3 and roku do. Wanna watch your ripped dvd's or home movies on the tv? This is what makes that possible. It's the easiest that i've tried so far.

WiiMC is a free channel that will allow you to stream from your computer's hard drive to your Wii.
Easy to use, not so easy to set up. (Unless you have a how to that is easy to understand)

Playon costs $40 for a forever license. I haven't tried this one yet, but it looks SO much better than HuluPlus.

HuluPlus costs $7 a month. Other than being able to watch John Stewart and Steven Colbert, I can't figure out why anyone would want to use this service. Well, maybe if you're a hardcore anime fan. If you're ok with waiting a day to see your shows, then go right ahead.... *edited* ok, it's not as horrible as it first appeared.

Amazon Prime costs $7 a month. Go take a look at how their services work. They explain it much better than I could.

Netflix costs $7 a month for their streaming only option. They have a kids area that is pretty cool.

YouTube is free and has different channels that show original programming. I am a fan of My Drunk Kitchen, Space Janitors and about half the stuff on Geek and Sundry.

There will be channels that get you all excited and don't have jack worth watching on them. It's ok, you can find what you were really looking for elsewhere. For me, the wii syfy channel is like that and the msnbc one. I don't WANT clips, I want the whole damn show.

TV:
What kind is only important when it comes to the jacks in the back. You have to be able to connect your streaming unit to your TV.  I'll assume that you can read and hook up this stuff on your own.

NOW WHAT?

Get all your hardware gathered for our expedition into streaming. The "needful things" file is going to hold important info like your IP address, your logon and pw for the router and for your channels and whatnot. Call the file whatever you want, I don't care. The important part is that you can find it without internet service and with ease.

Biscuits are cheap!

Pops has always been big on the country cooking. I've never been able to make biscuits worth eating. Mine always come out 10 lbs and taste like burned and floured dirty feet. Didn't understand why, but now I think I know and have finally made decent biscuits.

Biscuit Recipe:
2C flour - sifted
2t baking powder
1/4c (rounded) Butter flavored shortening
1/2t salt
3/4c Milk
1 capful of Vinegar

Preheat oven to 400, chill the shortening.
Sift together dry ingredients
Add shortening and cut it into the flour until you have the little pea/sand looking flour stuff.
Add vinegar to the milk and slowly add it to the flour, stirring while you add until you get a lump of chunky dough. Don't over stir, ugly is fine, you're gonna bake it into submission anyway.

Toss the dough lump onto a lightly floured board and roll out. Cut with a coffee cup or biscuit cutter. If you're not into rolling and cutting, press the dough and use your hands to make the round shapes. I don't like my biscuits too hard on the bottom, so I bake mine on a cookie sheet covered in wrinkled foil.

Bake for 12 minutes. If you're worried, peek at 10 to make sure they're ok. Cook em until you like the color.

For me, it made almost 7 biscuits of decent size. Not too big, not too small.

Crazy cheap and can be used for a zillion odd country recipes.

Pops was digging on the creamed boiled eggs for a while. I know, it sounds frightening but it's not horrible.

Make white gravy with flour, salt, pepper, milk and a tad of butter. Once it's thickened, add finely chopped boiled eggs. Stir, throw over the biscuits.

The same recipe can be done with steak-um sandwich steaks. Fry the steaks, chopping a bit as they cook. Pull out the meat, make white gravy with the steak grease and flour, etc (no butter) then toss the meat back in once thickened. And again, serve over open biscuits.

You can even get crazy and use steak-ums and boiled eggs. Depends on how much you have of either.

I'll post the white gravy recipe when I post a sausage gravy recipe. Ask if you need it before then or just buy the silly packets of it on the gravy aisle.

French Onion Soup Recipe

I try to keep it cheap by souping us half to death in the winters.
Expect more soup recipes.

How to make it extra thrifty style? When you get a chance to pick up broth on B1G1, do it. Stock the cupboard. I didn't say boullion. I said broth. I haven't seen boullion on B1G1 and it's just plain different than canned broth. Onions on crazy sale or B1G1? It's time for this soup!

My french onion soup takes 3 days. Don't freak out. I cook a sirloin tip and feed us the meat for two days, reserving the juice and using that in the soup on the third day. It's cheaper if you serve as meat-soup-meat, if you tend to have leftover onion in the soup pot after you're done. We feed 4 people, but when I make soup we all get greedy and I usually have an extra set or two of feets under the table, so the soup honestly serves about 10 moderate eaters. For us, it's 5 people with lots of "taste testing". If you find yourself in a hole, too many folks not enough soup - add 2 small cans of boullion and 2 medium onions.

First step - cook the tip.

3lbs Sirloin tip roast
2Tbs Worchestershire sauce
2Tbs Minced Garlic
2 cans Beef broth (plus one can of water)
3 beef boullion cubes
1 tsp Onion Powder
Black pepper
Optional: 2 cups red wine.

Toss roast in crock pot, add everything, put a lid on it and cook until the meat is fork tender. My big patience problem is waiting until the meat releases. You gotta wait until you're almost afraid that you can't get the meat out because it's falling apart. Pull the meat from the new broth and serve it however. You can bake some fresh veggies in a can or two of broth +1 beef boullion cube, turning that juice into gravy and make it a roast dinner or just make open faced sandwiches. (Our favorite!)

On Soup Day:
Think of how many people you're serving. My standard formula is: 10oz beef liquid + 1 medium onion per person. A large onion is about 1.5 people.

When you get the broth from the fridge, it should have yellow/white hard fat chunks floating on the top. That's ok, we keep it in the soup, it melts clear. If your broth is too chunky with little bits of stuff on the bottom, heat the broth and strain it before use.

Recipe:
Homemade broth from the tip
5 Medium Onions
Butter or Margarine
2 cans beef broth (do not stretch soup with water. Done it, killed the soup)
Red wine, or liquor - rum, whiskey, bourbon, whatever's in the cabinet.
Salt & pepper to taste
French bread (any bread, depending on what you have)
Butter spray grease
Adobo criollo (Spanish seasoned garlic salt)
Italian seasoning herb mix
Sliced cheese or shredded cheese - Not american cheese, but you can use just about anything else: cheddar, provologne, jack...use what you like or what you have.

Heat homemade broth, add broth and maybe a boullion cube. Get it to a slow boil.

Slice onions thinly. Pan fry onions with 2 tsp butter in the pan on medium heat stirring occasionally until they are clear, kind of carmelizing them, but making sure they're very tender. Do smaller batches rather than one giant batch, you get more control over the onions. When your onions are cooked, toss them into the broth and deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of alcohol (the wine or liquor). Pour your giggle juice into the hot pan and scrape out the sicky burnt onion goodness on the bottom of the pan. Don't let the liquid totally evaporate. Pour liquid into soup. Melt more butter in the pan and cook some more onions, repeating the whole drill until you're done with your onions.

Stir the soup and let simmer covered for about an hour. Just walk away and do something else. That's generally when I make the croutons. Taste the soup in 30 minutes and see if it needs anything. If it has a bitter tinge to it, add 1 tbsp of sugar or brown sugar. If it's not rich enough, take the lid off while it simmers - but watch the pot a little more closely.

Cut french bread into 1/2inch or 3/4 inch rounds. Lightly coat with spray grease (or olive oil) on both sides, sprinkle gently on both sides with Adobo and Italian Seasonings. Broil croutons on the rack on low, turning frequently until bread is dry and super crunchy, not burnt.

To serve - put bread in the bottom of the bowl, add soup, sprinkle with cheese. It's a pretty soup if you have soup crocks - put them into the oven and broil to brown the cheese. Around here, everyone has been smelling this stuff for the last 2 hours and will not wait for something like "pretty".