I Am Cheap & My TV is Old

[OhBrother]

I just canceled my cable in an effort to save money so I have until the end of the month to figure this out.

I'd like to use Boxee/Netflix as a replacement for cable but I have a few questions.

1) My TV is old. Is that going to be a problem? I have a Sony Trinitron and I don't really want to replace it with one of those fancy LCD/HD cute little TV's that everyone has now. Not in the budget. Am I going to be able to find a box solution that will connect to my regular old non-HD TV?

2)I want a cheap box solution. Do you have any suggestions. A mac mini is out of the que$tion right now. I cannot find Aspire Revo anywhere other than eBay (why is that??) and I'm not even sure if that will connect to my old tv, and I am considering an Apple TV. But I really want something that will be easy to add Netflix to.

Are there any other suggestions besides these? I am not technical at all so when people say "just get any old ....." I don't know what that means. I need a specific product name.

I know Boxee is coming out with one but I don't want to be without TV until November.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide this old, cheap fuddy duddy.

[DPK]

No worries, we'll help you walk through this. First just because in the end you are going to need to get the media to your TV somehow (else what's the point):

1. What is the model of your Sony Trinitron?
2. Even a better question is, what connectors do you have going on back there?

In regard to not being able to find the Revo anywhere, have you check out Newegg?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-266-_-Product
"Once you know, you Newegg."

[aiiee]

I just canceled my cable in an effort to save money so I have until the end of the month to figure this out.

I'd like to use Boxee/Netflix as a replacement for cable but I have a few questions.

1) My TV is old. Is that going to be a problem? I have a Sony Trinitron and I don't really want to replace it with one of those fancy LCD/HD cute little TV's that everyone has now. Not in the budget. Am I going to be able to find a box solution that will connect to my regular old non-HD TV?

2)I want a cheap box solution. Do you have any suggestions. A mac mini is out of the que$tion right now. I cannot find Aspire Revo anywhere other than eBay (why is that??) and I'm not even sure if that will connect to my old tv, and I am considering an Apple TV. But I really want something that will be easy to add Netflix to.

Are there any other suggestions besides these? I am not technical at all so when people say "just get any old ....." I don't know what that means. I need a specific product name.

I know Boxee is coming out with one but I don't want to be without TV until November.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide this old, cheap fuddy duddy.

Wow, I was in about the same position as you , right down to the old Sony Trinitron. I'll tell you what I went thru ( so far!) and you can take it from there.

I got fed up paying the cable company $90/mo for basically 1 channel that I liked ( it was in the premium package and I needed 2 digital boxes for my two tvs ).

#1 I tried to live with the Sony, but it obviously did not have an HDMI input and the composite inputs on it had to be fed from the VGA outputs on my Acer Revo. The picture was "ok" but the text output on things like Boxee and Hulu Desktop was unreadable. So, Sony is now sitting on the floor in the family room waiting to be sold ( for 5$? ) and I have a new Philips 47" 1080p flatscreen from Walmart that cost me $600. I recommend it.

Of course then, my old AV receiver had no HDMI ports, so that begat a new Yamaha receiver. El cheapo @ $200, barely adequate, but adequate for me.

Much much much nicer picture than the VGA, and *to me* worth it. You can buy HDMI/component/composite converters, but you are going to spend $150-200 on that so why not just do it right in the first place?

Oh, and if you go the VGA way, you'll need to drop $25 on a VGA/composite/S-Video converter unless your TV has a VGA input which I doubt it does.

#2) I just bought the Acer Aspire Revo 3610 from Newegg.

Here

I don't know that I'd recommend this box though. It is *barely adequate* for SD streaming, and has problems with HD streams. For instance the Arcade Fire concert on YouTube the other night could not be streamed at 1080p, although 720p was *fine*. Just so you know this going in.
There are more powerful boxes out there that will address this, but I don't have one so I can't advise you here. There is a new Dell Zino HD ( the 410? ) coming out with a quad core that *may* do it. From what I'm told the current Zino HD also struggles with HD streams. The new box should run around $550-600 for the quad core version.

Good luck, be careful though, get multiple opinions from multiple sources and different boards before you buy, you won't regret it.

Oh, and just because you have an antenna on a mast with a coax cable coming out of it, doesn't mean it is functional and not encroached by trees so that even if you had a functioning antenna rotator on it , it would not turn.

Anyway, my next step is to get a new antenna and rotator on top of the mast ( I live in a rural area ), and get the tree trimmed back so it can rotate.

Or go back to cable.

[OhBrother]

No worries, we'll help you walk through this. First just because in the end you are going to need to get the media to your TV somehow (else what's the point):

1. What is the model of your Sony Trinitron?
2. Even a better question is, what connectors do you have going on back there?

In regard to not being able to find the Revo anywhere, have you check out Newegg?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-266-_-Product
"Once you know, you Newegg."

Thanks.

This is the model I have
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/mod...D27FS170&LOC=3

It looks like there's an S-video plug in the back and some component video plugs.

As for the New Egg, I went to that site so many times today and I kept coming across a page that had all the info on it but it said "not available". Maybe I was searching incorrectly.

aiiee, it looks like you spent at least 1000 to get started. If I have to spend that much I am going to get laughed at/yelled at for canceling cable to save money!

[aiiee]

Thanks.

This is the model I have
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/mod...D27FS170&LOC=3

It looks like there's an S-video plug in the back and some component video plugs.

As for the New Egg, I went to that site so many times today and I kept coming across a page that had all the info on it but it said "not available". Maybe I was searching incorrectly.

aiiee, it looks like you spent at least 1000 to get started. If I have to spend that much I am going to get laughed at/yelled at for canceling cable to save money!

It helps to be already divorced when you start one of these projects

And the payback, vis a vis cable, is still under one year.

And while the Revo DPK pointed to has a bigger HDD, it cannot be returned for a refund, only replacement . Which is nowhere to be found on the product detail page and can only be seen here.

[DPK]

Thanks.

This is the model I have
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/mod...D27FS170&LOC=3

It looks like there's an S-video plug in the back and some component video plugs.

As for the New Egg, I went to that site so many times today and I kept coming across a page that had all the info on it but it said "not available". Maybe I was searching incorrectly.

aiiee, it looks like you spent at least 1000 to get started. If I have to spend that much I am going to get laughed at/yelled at for canceling cable to save money!

Hehe, yeah it definitely depends on what you want overall and what you can get by with. What you're going to have to do (with some help from us here and some reading yourself) is figure out where you are in the grand scheme of things. Then basically run with it in whichever direction of your choosing.

I've got to run to dinner, but for now for reference, here's your TV specs:
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/spe...FS170_mksp.pdf


Specifically your input/output:

• Analog Audio Input(s): 3 (1 Front/2 Rear)
• Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr ) Input(s): 1 (Rear) 480i
• Composite Video Input(s): 2 (1 Front/1 Rear)
• RF Connection Input(s): 2 (Rear) - 1 Analog (UHF/VHF) and 1 Digital (ATSC)
• S-Video Input(s): 1 (Rear) with Detection

aiiee's advice is great btw since he's in your shoes and about a mile ahead of you with experience thus far. So while he might have spent "at least a grand" so far, don't let that discourage you. You might need to only buy a media device and some connectors and you'd be good to go.

Stay positive!

[DPK]

And while the Revo DPK pointed to has a bigger HDD, it cannot be returned for a refund, only replacement . Which is nowhere to be found on the product detail page and can only be seen here.

Oh good catch, I missed that entirely. Yeah you can get the other Revo they have listed which does have their standard return policy with the only trade off really being space concerns. Could always plug an external drive in if you start creeping up to the 160GB. That or invest in NAS (network attached storage).

[aiiee]

Heh, if we're talking about keeping the peace with the little woman I would get the VGA/S-Video adapter for the Revo/orwhateverbox and let her live with the cruddy resolution for awhile until she begs for a flatscreen

[OhBrother]

Heh, if we're talking about keeping the peace with the little woman I would get the VGA/S-Video adapter for the Revo/orwhateverbox and let her live with the cruddy resolution for awhile until she begs for a flatscreen

That's my goal.

I want to find a box that will work with this tv, prove that this wasn't a stupid idea, and then eventually upgrade to something nicer.

I am just intimidated by all this technical knowledge. I can see why more people don't try this!

[aiiee]

That's my goal.

I want to find a box that will work with this tv, prove that this wasn't a stupid idea, and then eventually upgrade to something nicer.

I am just intimidated by all this technical knowledge. I can see why more people don't try this!

Well, how you hook up to your tv is going to be determined by what outputs you have on your pc and what inputs you have on the tv. Since DPK has already listed the tv inputs, your next step is to decide on a video source. Now, what I did initially was repurpose an old laptop I had laying around that had a VGA output on it. This would have worked had the laptop been a little newer, but the video chipset just was not up to the task. So if you want cheap, and you have a laptop laying around, you can get into that for about $30 for the VGA/S-Video adaptor and a cable.

I got this and this, but who knows if there aren't better out there, these just worked for me. But again, lots of laptops have S-Video out so then you just need an S-Video cable and a cheap cable for the audio, from headphone out on the lappie to sound in on the tv. So, before you go buying any kind of connectors find out what kind of connector you are coming from and you will know what to get.

And bear in mind that many individuals don' like fiddling with a keyboard to get to what they want to watch. At this point I prefer using a browser with all the television network sites bookmarked across the top of the browser in the bookmark toolbar to keep it simple. Or I like Hulu desktop. Boxee is good when you are talking local sources or SD streaming. I also like its interface *much* better than Hulu desktop. I also bought this to make it easier to navigate around the screen ( don't pay more than $30 for it, it goes on sale every two weeks ).

One more thing: Don't use Linux as an OS, at this point in time, you can't stream Netflix in Linux.