- Jun 30, 2004
- 15,708
- 1,450
- 126
I used to think I was a sort of tech-whiz. But as we moved into the thumb-typing era with cell-phones, and the internet began offering streaming services, I just . . . stopped . . . keeping up. I got old. And after 2017, I was spending a lot of time daily to take care of my 96-year-old Moms. Less time to fiddle around with electronics and computers.
I have an 11-year-old LG LED-LCD HDTV -- I think the model is either the LG 42LV5500 or the 42LW5700. It's got about 5 HDMI ports, the legacy coax connection, and an RJ-45 ethernet port. I never connected it to my wired network, since I'd used a long HDMI cable to connect it to my HTPC. (There was a time when HTPC's were "the thing".
The HTPC accessed two SiliconDust HDHome-Run triple-tuners (for cable-cards), and it was marvelous for years -- until . . . . . Until Charter merged under Spectrum, and then I lost my premium-channel access, and tech-support couldn't seem to help. I finally just decided to scrap the SiliconDust tuners, and pulled them off the network several weeks ago.
Guess what? All the recordings made with the HDHomeRun units now play with damaged audio. You can't hear the voices in the movie-script. Ten years-worth of recorded political events, news specials, documentaries . . . movies and other content -- encrypted or otherwise -- just . . freaking . . gone.
So, OK, I can live with that loss. At the moment, we're accessing our Spectrum subscription through an EDGE web-page, such that our channels are streamed through the internet. I've got a cable-set-top box I checked out from the Spectrum people last summer, and I've yet to install it. Our cableTV+internet+telephone subscription is running us $270/month. If I chose to stream in YouTube @ $65/month, our costs would drop $115.
The LG instructions say that it gives internet access for streaming. I'm wondering if I should take the time to try it. I'm also wondering, for an 11-year-old HD TV, if I shouldn't just donate the set to GoodWill and buy a new one. Not for the money -- our rooms are too small for 70" UHD sets. I need a 42" set, for starters, and I need about a 20" for my Moms room.
I don't know where to begin with this stuff. I need to take time to do it right. In this entire scenario, I once had a house with three computer users, a server, and four PCs. My brother died in January, and Moms is bed-bound with dementia. I'm the only computer user in the house now. I've got to scuttle two Sandy-Bridge systems -- the Media Center boxes. I may even need to scuttle my Windows 2012 R2 server system with its 11TB of drive-pool storage. I'll take time to think about that.
I'm looking at a situation regarding Moms where it will be wise to trim our monthly recurring expenses. We're going to need to pay for some in-home care, running about $1,440 per month. so -- yeah -- I want to wean myself from the cable subscription, or at least scale it back to "no sports channels, fewer premium channels". My brother in Nevada has described his setup and convinced me that streaming is the way to go.
I'm just not sure where to start. Certainly, I can get a new Samsung 42" Smart TV for about $850. Then what?
Any ideas? What do I need to know? What do I need to learn? What should I do?
I have an 11-year-old LG LED-LCD HDTV -- I think the model is either the LG 42LV5500 or the 42LW5700. It's got about 5 HDMI ports, the legacy coax connection, and an RJ-45 ethernet port. I never connected it to my wired network, since I'd used a long HDMI cable to connect it to my HTPC. (There was a time when HTPC's were "the thing".
The HTPC accessed two SiliconDust HDHome-Run triple-tuners (for cable-cards), and it was marvelous for years -- until . . . . . Until Charter merged under Spectrum, and then I lost my premium-channel access, and tech-support couldn't seem to help. I finally just decided to scrap the SiliconDust tuners, and pulled them off the network several weeks ago.
Guess what? All the recordings made with the HDHomeRun units now play with damaged audio. You can't hear the voices in the movie-script. Ten years-worth of recorded political events, news specials, documentaries . . . movies and other content -- encrypted or otherwise -- just . . freaking . . gone.
So, OK, I can live with that loss. At the moment, we're accessing our Spectrum subscription through an EDGE web-page, such that our channels are streamed through the internet. I've got a cable-set-top box I checked out from the Spectrum people last summer, and I've yet to install it. Our cableTV+internet+telephone subscription is running us $270/month. If I chose to stream in YouTube @ $65/month, our costs would drop $115.
The LG instructions say that it gives internet access for streaming. I'm wondering if I should take the time to try it. I'm also wondering, for an 11-year-old HD TV, if I shouldn't just donate the set to GoodWill and buy a new one. Not for the money -- our rooms are too small for 70" UHD sets. I need a 42" set, for starters, and I need about a 20" for my Moms room.
I don't know where to begin with this stuff. I need to take time to do it right. In this entire scenario, I once had a house with three computer users, a server, and four PCs. My brother died in January, and Moms is bed-bound with dementia. I'm the only computer user in the house now. I've got to scuttle two Sandy-Bridge systems -- the Media Center boxes. I may even need to scuttle my Windows 2012 R2 server system with its 11TB of drive-pool storage. I'll take time to think about that.
I'm looking at a situation regarding Moms where it will be wise to trim our monthly recurring expenses. We're going to need to pay for some in-home care, running about $1,440 per month. so -- yeah -- I want to wean myself from the cable subscription, or at least scale it back to "no sports channels, fewer premium channels". My brother in Nevada has described his setup and convinced me that streaming is the way to go.
I'm just not sure where to start. Certainly, I can get a new Samsung 42" Smart TV for about $850. Then what?
Any ideas? What do I need to know? What do I need to learn? What should I do?