DACS General Meeting
Meeting Review:
October 2011—Streaming Video, Mike Kaltschnee

By Richard Corzo

Perhaps you've heard of people "cutting the cord", getting rid of their cable or satellite TV subscription, and relying on the Internet to watch television programming. Maybe you just want to catch up on episodes that you may have missed, or be able to watch movies that aren't available from your cable or satellite provider.

Mike Kaltschnee explained the options, both services and devices you can hook up to your TV. He is well known for his web site www.HackingNetflix.com. So of course he mentioned Netflix, which has both a video streaming service and DVD rental-by-mail service. The streaming service seems to be available on every TV, Blu-ray player, and game console; along with all the streaming devices he showed us, and a Windows PC or Mac.

Hulu and Hulu Plus is another service featuring mostly TV programs, and come in both free and paid versions. Amazon offers streaming through its Amazon Prime offering, as well as a huge selection of video on demand titles. HBO Go is available only to HBO cable subscribers, but lets you watch shows on portable devices and selected set-top boxes.

Blockbuster is similar to Netflix in offering both streaming and DVDs by mail. However, the streaming option for now requires a Dish satellite subscription.

You can select from the various options based on the service's selection of titles, price, how often you watch, and what devices they support.

To find where particular titles may be offered, Mike mentioned TV Guide (http://www.tvguide.com/), Fanhattan (http://www.fanhattan.com/) which has an iPad application and will soon offer a website guide, and clicker (http://www.clicker.com/), the "Internet Television Guide."

To watch Internet TV on your television, you could hook up your Windows PC or Mac with an HDMI or VGA cable, or use your game console. Your TV itself or Blu-ray player may offer some of these services. You might also want to watch TV on your portable devices, phone, iPad, etc.

Finally, there are dedicated streaming boxes such as the Roku, Boxee, Apple TV and Google TV. A TiVo combines a DVR with an offering of Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video on Demand, and Blockbuster. The Sony Dash was an interesting device I wasn't familiar with, and has a built-in screen.

So there are a lot of options, and we're no longer limited to cable or satellite TV. It was great for Mike to explain it all to us.