How to dump your satellite service with Hulu, Amazon and Windows Media Center
Like many people, I have been paying for satellite television service for the last decade or so. After receiving a recent bill, I tortured myself by calculating what I’ve spent over the last 10 years. Let’s just say I could have purchased a new Hyundai for what I paid. The total was sobering and encouraged me to look at alternatives. At first I scoured the Internet for deals offered by other satellite service providers and even cable, but averaged over a few years they all cost about the same. Given this, I wanted to see if I could find a solution that utilized Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services such as Hulu, Joost, TV network websites, and pay services such as Apple, Amazon and Netflix.
Windows Media Center
Since I already had a laptop with Windows Media Center 2005 and my goal was to reduce costs, it made sense to try it out as a satellite replacement. Out of the box, Windows Media Center will stream video from a few sites, but not the popular content sites such as Hulu, Joost, Amazon or Netflix. As I was looking to replace my satellite service, network TV and movie content was a must. Fortunately, there are a couple third-party plugins such as SecondRun.tv and TunerFree MCE which allow you to play content from popular streaming sites and others for Amazon and Netflix.
Free Content
SecondRun.tv and TunerFree MCE installed easily and showed up in Media Center as Extras. SecondRun provided access to Hulu content while TunerFree upped the ante by adding BBC and ITV. Navigating each plugin required a small learning curve, but with some practice I was quickly watching recent episodes of House on Hulu. In all, these plugins did the job, but with some compromises. For example, both applications launched Hulu shows in a browser window. This broke the user experience and required the use of a mouse to click the full screen button. At times, there also seemed to be some delay between content being posted to Hulu and appearing in the plugins.
Paid Content
Integrating Amazon video downloads into MCE was also fairly easy and only required installing the Amazon Unbox Video Player. Downloaded shows then showed up in the Pictures + Video - video library. The full playback experience was seamless until you wanted to purchase a new show. Purchasing videos is done outside of MCE and requires a browser to go to Amazon.com, purchase shows, and configure the library to download to the MCE PC. This is a bit of a hassle, but since this could be done from any computer with access to Amazon, it was tolerable.
Netflix video streaming is a new feature offered in Vista and Windows 7 Media Center and was not available on 2005.
Live TV
I would be remiss for not mentioning that MCE also support over the air (OTA) content. This is a great way to watch live content and greatly supplements IPTV. In many areas you can receive up to 30 channels of content including the major networks. In my experience, I was not able to get consistent reception and shows often lost a few minutes here and there.
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
Windows Media Center provides a good TV interface and with plugins it provides access to much of the TV content people are looking for. However, the plugin’s lack of full integration with MCE leads to a fragment user experience at best. Early adopters might be willing to overlook these challenges, but the average user wants a seamless experience. Microsoft has recently made some inroads by announcing a relationship with Netflix, but they really need to address the lack of Hulu integration. Since this does not fully address my needs, I will be exploring a second option using a Playstation 3 (or XBOX 360).
Pluses
- Plugins for Hulu and Joost
- Amazon integration with downloader
- Live TV with additional tuner card/antenna
Negatives:
- Overall experience is fragmented and requires a mouse
- Delay in content availability
- Amazon purchases require leaving MCE to go to Amazon.com
- Netflix did not work on 2005
