I officially cut the cord this last weekend after the cable bill hit $100 monthly. Feels good to finally have some control as to what I watch and when I watch it! Looking for some input/help so I can make this transition a little easier on my fiancé who is already complaining that it's to complicated.

Here is my current setup:

* Macbook Pro hooked up to main t.v. with HDMI Cord
* Hulu Plus and Netflix account
* Safari Bookmark folder with lots of "channels" of streaming for her to easily get to.
* Logitech Harmony One to get everything to the correct settings easily for her
* Playstation III for bluray/dvd

I am considering buying a Mac Mini to permanently hook up so that I can have a dedicated system, tidy things up, and add ability to use external drives.

Here is the equipment I have that I am not currently utilizing for this project:
*Logitech Google TV
*iPad

Ultimately, I would like to accomplish the following:
* Storage and playing of DVD's, music, and Bluray
* Ease of access and use for her
* Possibly OTA channels

Where I need help is in hardware and software suggestions. Are there any complications from streaming hd movies from an external hard drive via usb? Is there a software solution that would tie everything, or most everything together seamlessly? I gave up on my logitech google tv as it was slow and buggy. Thank you for any input!

OTA channels will probably cause the biggest issue (espeically if you want to watch them live while also DVR'ing). The solution I use is SageTV Media Center server installed on my ex485 (e5200 upgraded) paired with a SageTV HD200 media extender. DVD/Bluray, music, OTA, home videos, and pictures are all stored on the server and can be viewed/streamed to the TV. There are add-ins for Netflix, buy my Samsung TV does a better job of that on it's own so I don't view netflix via the sage setup. I do use the sage setup w/ addin's for internet video streaming (hulu, playon, etc...).

The downside: Sage got bought my Google about a year ago and you can no longer buy their software/extenders directly, you have to go to ebay. Extender's MSRP'd for $149 and the HD300's are now going to $300+ on ebay. If you need OTA, DVR, and want it to run on your MSS, then I think sage is still a good option. Not sure of anything else that is out there at the moment that does everything sage does in one nice package. You can view and search the forums at sagetv.com to see what some members have gone to post sage.

Well, I am not a Mac guy so I don't know how much I can help. Here is my setup:

- 16 HDD Windows Home Server (approx 25TB) where all my content is stored and streamed through my house
- PC used for ripping my DVDs/Blu rays as well as recording live tv (via cable card tuner or QAM)
- Various media players throughout my house (Dune, PCH, etc...) for accessing and playing back all my content.

I am not a big live tv person but even with just using free QAM I would be able to record most of the shows that my wife and I watch. Otherwise there are other options to getting TV shows without cable or having to rely on Hulu/Amazon/Netflix...

This setups works the best for my family, all movies/tv shows are available at each TV.

As Phil mentioned, SageTV by far was the most robust whole house DVR platform but for better or worse that is no longer an option (although I did make some nice money selling my HD200s and HD300s ).

Hooking up a dedicated Mac Mini and attaching storage could be a solid option for you (once again, I am not a Mac fan here). I am just not positive on the type of file support you get with Mac (I think many people use VLC as their software player).

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

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