Movie Review - The Crazies

I can't come up with something every day for my cutting the cable blog, so I can add a movie review!

My family is out of town, so besides working in the basement, we so need to have a yard sale, I can catch up on horror flicks.  Michelle won't watch them with me so this is the only time I get.  Usually 2-3 weeks out of the year and I can get them all in.

The Crazies is your typical zombie flick, in fact, George Romero is the executive producer for a remake of his original from 1973.  A biological weapon is accidentally released on a small Iowa town and gets into the drinking water.  Eventually, people start going crazy.  A husband and wife fight their way out of town and in the end make it out alive just as the town is getting nuked.  They make there way to a bigger small town in Iowa, and it leaves a sequel open from there. 

If you really want to watch a recent zombie flick, go for 28 Days Later.  Much better than this one and most of the recent horror flicks.

I Finally Have A New TV!!

It took me a while, but I bought a new tv. For our bedroom. Cheap LED from Wally World. Needed the hdmi inputs. Since getting rid of cable, the tv in our room, a 1980s Sony repair job my dad gave to me years ago, no longer does what I need. I bought another WD Live TV, bought a wireless network adapter and hooked it up to the tv. BAM! I was watching the British Open on ESPN3 this afternoon and Tigers/Indians on MLB.tv this evening. So far so good, I am very tempted to upgrade my router from wireless g to wireless n so I don't have to worry about any choppy screens. We'll see how it goes. Got a good deal at radio shack today on a Net Gear wireless n adapter that was $20 cheaper than anything I could find on ebay. Upgraded the firmware on the WD Live TV and it was plug and play from there!!

Can now fall asleep watching west coast baseball, nothing like listening to Vin Scully!!

Saturday Morning, 2 Kids, No Cable, What To Do?

I first suggest coffee, or any caffeinated beverage of your choice. Now that you can think straight, let me tell you what to do. Since we don't have a workable television yet (I have one on the way to network with the rest of the house) I can't watch tv in bed with the kids anymore. Downstairs we go while Michelle and the dog sleep.

1. There is a PBS feed from NYC on justin.tv. But, no kids shows right now. It does pretty much match our local PBS station here in Roanoke though.

2. Over the air tv. Right now, nothing good on. Saturday mornings on regular tv are not like the used to be. ABC starts some disney shows at 8am, but not much in the way of cartoons. What happened to Looney Tunes back in the day?

3. WD Live TV and Netfilx. It's been a Phineas and Ferb and Suite Life of Zach and Cody morning.

So, even though we don't have cable, my kids and I are snuggled up on the couch watching tv and are all happy. Please, don't forget the caffeine.

So you have sports, what about other TV options?

Okay, even if you are not a sports freak like me, there are plenty of options on the internet to get your favorite shows. The only show I'm following this summer is on the SyFy network. Warehouse 13 Very good show by the way if you want to check it out, Tuesdays, 9pm. My wife loves that terror propaganda spreading #1 show on television, NCIS. I have a link to USA network, and she can watch all the re-runs until she thinks Al-Qaeda is in Roanoke. You like shows on TNT and TBS, I have that too. Weather Channel, all the major news networks, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Bloomberg. Here is a list, which is ever changing, just like the internet, you have to be diligent to keep up your list....

atdhe.net Numerous options are listed on the front page, which is mostly sports. Click the live tv page, which has all the news networks, as well as sites that show movies all day long.

goalfanzine.com I just found this site a couple weeks ago when I was looking for a live SyFy channel stream. It has all the major USA cable and broadcast networks. Schedules are updated daily for the primetime shows. Very nice site. Note, you must turn off any ad block software you may be running and click on the ads periodically. Some of you may not want to do this, but netflix is the only one I ever have to click. If you don't do this, you will not be able to watch the streams. The quality isn't great, not hd or anything, but again, we are saving money here, and quality will have to be given up as a result.

justin.tv again, a great site, good for sports, weather channel, movies, news, you name it. search for what you want, and bookmark the page. you can also register and keep a favorites list.

ustream.tv very similar to justin.tv. search for what you want, bookmark the page, or sign up and keep favs.


Again, there are many other options, these are a few of the best internet sites I have found that broadcast live television. There really is no channel you can't find if you do enough searching, and again, it's all free babeeee!!!

Okay, so I built a computer...no cable, no sports right?

My issue has always been sports, that is 90% of what I watch on tv. If I get rid of cable, how am I going to watch my teams? Well, there's always an over the air antenna, that will solve my NFL problem. What if I don't live in the city my favorite team is in you ask? I have numerous solutions for you. If it is the NFL you seek, I have the answer.

Go to atdhe.net

This site has all major sporting events excluding baseball. I think MLB polices the internet and you very rarely get a game anywhere. All the NFL games are on, even the playoffs and Super Bowl. Most NHL and NBA games are on this site, big for me getting the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards this coming season since I no longer have Comcast Sports Net. Soccer on Saturday and Sunday is heavenly. If you like the major European leagues, I love the EPL on an early Saturday morning with coffee, this is the place to be!! You say you like tennis, got it, college basketball, got it, you say you like cricket, got it, you say you like Australian rules football, got it, you like the Canadian football league, got it too. There's darts, pool, auto racing, tour de france, you name it. This site has it all!! I discovered by luck on a blog and haven't looked back for the last 2 years. Just don't re-broadcast anything, that is how things get shut down.

Another great option is espn3.com

Now, I know not everyone has access to this, you must have an isp that they are linked with, but if you do, you can get it anywhere, even if the isp you are using doesn't have it, just enter your name and password and you're up and running. This site is great, I was able to watch all the World Cup games at work. One thing I just found out is that all the Gameplan and Full Court games on are this site. So if you have access, why would you pay for these on cable or satellite. One more way to save money, and that is what this blog is all about!!

Another option...

Justin.tv

This site has some sports on it, you have to search. You can find a lot of football, hockey, and basketball here. If you like soccer, this is great for the English Premier League, which starts again in August by the way!!

MLBTV

I know, this is a pay site. The bang for your buck though is amazing. You get all baseball games out of your local market. Since I'm a Detroit Tiger fan, it works for me. It works with WD Live TV and PlayOn TV as well. Just enter your username and password on Playon TV, and all the games show up on the WD Live TV. The picture is amazing! This is the only good option I know for baseball. I just ordered the other day, got the second half of the season for $60. This is the third time I've ordered it and they add new features every year. Games are archived, so if you miss one, watch it when you have time. Don't want to watch the whole game, skip to the 7th inning and it only takes a few minutes until the end.

You can always do a google search when all else fails and you can't find what you're looking for, but if you can't find it between these sites, you aren't going to find it.

The Decision

I read today that if Lebron signs with the Knicks, he'll pay $12.7 million in state taxes over the life of the max contract deal. No state income tax in FLA, can anyone say Heat here I come!

Play On TV with the Nintendo Wii

I didn't know I could use my Nintendo Wii with Play On TV. I had to download the internet channel for the Wii, and it automatically detected it over my network. How cool is that. So, anyone who has a Wii, Xbox, or PS3, which most of us do, can use this service.

I just found a use for my 42" tv in the basement that sees very little use other than playing the Wii.

Western Digital Live TV

This may the one of the greatest devices ever made. Check out the review on Amazon. I can't say enough about it. It was simple to set up, very reliable each use. No longer do you need to wait for a dvd to load, no longer do you have to watch netflix thru an hdmi cable to your laptop, no longer do you have to watch youtube over your pc. All of this and more are done on this device. Pick a movie you want to watch, presto, on the screen instantly. Netflix pulls up your instant queue and allows you to watch on your tv. You can put your youtube favorites and playlists together and watch them as well.

My big problem with no cable tv was my kids shows on Disney channel. Netfilx solves a lot of this as some of the shows they like, Wizards, Hannah, Suite Life, are all there for instant viewing. Their current favorite, Phineas and Ferb, are on Youtube, full episodes for the taking. The Playschool Disney shows are the issue. Nothing on Netflix, or Youtube. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Imagination Movers, Little Einsteins and some others. A few are on the Disney web site, but not much. I found a nice add on for the WD Live called PlayOn TV. It is a pay service, but for a lifetime it cost me $40. Currently it is $40 for first year and $20 per year after that, I got in early and got lucky, but what does cable or satellite cost? Right! They have nice addons that you can get all kinds of tv access. None of it live, but almost. Channels include...

• Academic Earth
• Adultswim
• Cartoon Network
• Channel9
• Crackle
• Discovery Channel
• Food Network
• Fox News
• GameTrailers.com
• HGTV
• MTV
• NBC
• NFL
• Nickelodeon
• Podcasts (OPML Player) -- with dozens of available feeds!
• Southpark Studios
• SyFy
• Spike TV
• International channels: Danish DR and Spanish TVE

Any video on these websites are available for viewing on the WD Live TV thru PlayOn TV.

Hulu is also available thru the WD Live TV. If you have all your subscriptions and favorites set up on the website, it transfers over to the device and you can watch them on your tv.

PlayOn Scripts is a site that has a ton if tv viewing options for Play On TV. You have to go there to see what is available. It will make you wonder why you pay $100 a month for tv. Included is Playhouse Disney. There are currently 91 videos available, full episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and all my kids favorites.

All of this and more is available thru a simple on screen menu, just like any tv or dvd player. A simple, easy to use remote is included.

Media Ripping

This is the longest part of the process. Ripping your media to the computer. When I got an ipod years back, I ripped all of my cd's, so I didn't have to go thru that. Simple drag and drop to the media server. DVD's are another story. I for one was not a dvd fan. I would only buy them if I knew I would watch them more than one time. Therefore, I had about 60 dvds. I didn't have the same rule for my kids. We had about 40-50 for them. I proceeded to look for a dvd program that would make this process easy. I had a program called DVD Copy Pro. This I found out didn't work with Windows 7. So I had to search for something else. I found a free on trial program called DVD Fab. The trial was supposed to last 30 days, but I was able to erase and download it again many times, until I was actually done ripping all of my dvd's. It did finally stop working on me, but I liked it so much, I went ahead and bought it. Ripping 1 dvd takes up to 30 minutes, depending on the size. Just change them to an .avi or .wmv, whatever format you like and save them to the media center. I set up categories, Kids, Movies, TV shows, Documentaries, and sub-categories in each. Makes it a lot easier to view with the device I use to stream them, I explain this in a later post. So, you can do the math, 30 minutes, times 110 or so dvd's. It took a long time. I would spend my nights after the kids went to bed ripping dvd's, weekends, I would make sure there was one always working while I was doing weekend stuff. I finally finished and can now just do them one by one as I acquire them!

Build Information

I did a lot of research on an htpc build. What I was mostly looking for was low power consumption. It is going to be on 24/7, so I don't want to push my electric bill too high. You need to start with the case. I chose a Cooler Master Elite RC-330 ($35). It has 4x5.25" drive bays and 7x3.5" drive bays, plenty of space to add more storage down the line if you need it. I chose a 400w power supply, which didn't come with the case. Plenty of power, brand doesn't really matter. ($18) Motherboard is very important. I chose the Asus M3A78-CM ($100). They are hard to find now, but the Asus brand is known for low power consumption. 11w when in use, 1w idle. It has has 6 SATA ports for plenty of add-ons. 4 gb of ram, don't know a whole lot about it, so went with suggestions from a build I found online. You need an optical drive, if for nothing more than loading your operating system software. Processor was the AMD Athlon X2 4850e. Not much to write home about here, but the key is heat. At only 45w this baby will not put off much. With the server being on all day and night, this is key. Finally, hard drive. I chose the Western Digital Caviar Green series. 2 1tb drives that provide plenty of storage. Since there are multiply drive bays, you can always add on later. I have also bought an external 1tb hard drive to back everything up.

When I finally got it all together and turned on the power, nothing happened. I freaked. All this work and nothing! I checked out all the wiring again to the motherboard. Low and behold, I missed 1 pin on a connection. Presto! The computer came to life! I installed Windows 7 for the operating system and haven't looked back. I love it!

All in all I was very proud of myself for building this computer. I honestly didn't think I would be able to succeed. It has ended up being the beginning of a 6 month, ongoing, never ending process.

I you choose to do this, be prepared for what's to come. It only gets more time consuming. My next few posts will show you how I was able to use this computer to have all my entertainment in one place.