Dumping Cable TV & Living Off The Land

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HARDWARE

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Stock Mac Mini 2.0 w/ 4GB of memory

External hard drive with 1.5+ TB of storage

EyeTV Hybrid USB Tuner

Cheapo amplified antenna from Monoprice

Some type of VGA/HDMI/DVI cable/adapter that matches your TV’s input

Optical digital audio cable

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SOFTWARE

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Front Row

• EyeTV Mod (launches live TV and organizes DVR’d shows)
• Understudy Mod (Netflix)
• Hulu Mod (launches Hulu Desktop app)
• Boxee Mod (launches Boxee)
• Plex Mod (launches Plex)

EyeTV (DVR software that comes with Tuner)

Boxee

Plex

Hulu Desktop

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NOTES

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• I’d love to use Boxee as the centerpiece of my system, but its inability to launch external apps is a dealbreaker.
• Most people forget about over-the-air broadcasts.  It’s a pleasure to watch and record full, uncompressed HD signal.
• A number of the Front Row mods do not work on Snow Leopard yet due to minor issues.
• Hulu Desktop does not carry all of the shows that are available from the website.

I’ll be revising this on a regular basis, as the project is still evolving.  I’m also certain that I’m forgetting to include something.