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The Smart Girl’s Guide To Smarter TV

Written by
January 13, 2012
Be Smart
19 Comments

 

It’s nearly the weekend! Maybe you want to sit on the couch and watch Good Stuff?!  (Like NEW GIRL!?!)

In Ye Olden Days, we all gathered around a tv which weighed as much as the whole family combined, to watch Countdown or Fantasy Island or a bit of Charlie’s Angels.  There was no cable TV, there was no internet, heck COLOUR TV was an amazing revolution, back in the day.   If the picture got fuzzy, Dad would climb on the roof and wiggle the antenna.  Ah.  Things were so simple.  Unless you were Dad and you fell off the roof. But let’s move on.

Take off that body shirt and fast forward to NOW. Things are not simple. Things are varied and complicated in the TV department.  Where a big brown box presented us with a few channels to flick through (Sometimes remote-less! Ye gads!), we now have the option of flat screen, LCD, Plasma, 3D TV, Smart Tellys, monitors and more.  We can watch Free To Air, Digital or Cable.  We can use platforms like Apple TV, Slingbox, Streaming Media Players and other smart devices to stream our Kardashians or our Attenboroughs or our Vampire Fancier faves into our lounge rooms and beyond.

Things are moving FAST.

You probably already know about Apple TV which streams to your telly via le internet and your iTunes account, but there are a ton of ways to watch even more varied programming too.  For starters,  YouTube are working very hard to develop WAY BETTER content (less catz?!) and channels which will stream onto your TV via your internet connection. Quickflix offers Playstation 3 owners over 50 000 movies to stream via their PS3 for a monthly subscription of around $15 (I think there’s a special introductory price of around $5 for new subscribers?)  You can also use the internet on the PS3, turning your telly into a mega browser.  Told you this was fast.

New smart TVs will be internet ready, and plug and go media platforms are on the rise, too.  For instance, the Boxee Box media device lets you watch a host of regular digital channels, YouTube, Vimeo plus a ton of other TV shows and movies (use the Navi-X app!) for FREE.  Free. Freeeeee! Boxee streams files from your computer, wirelessly and will even screen a movie you have playing on your iPad onto the big screen. Hot diggity.  There are other units like this too, at varying prices. Check your local JB Hifi, Officeworks etc and do some research online before you buy.

If you don’t want to fork out for one of the new media boxes,  you can just plug your computer into your TV with an HDMI cable (if you have a newish tv) and watch stuff from your computer on the big screen like that.  YouTube has lots of videos to show you how to do that.  (I have a PC and use the ‘Windows Mobility Centre’ on my computer to connect any telly with a HDMI port to my computer. It’s easy and adjust the screen resolution automatically for the best possible picture. Ask your local electronics retailer for help if this idea hurts your brain.  It’s actually super easy to do.)

In my humble opinion, Pay TV should be VERY worried.  We’re getting smarter and making our own choices. Probs they don’t include back to back episodes of How I Met Your Mother all weekend.  Maybe they do.  Choice is the appropriate word here. Do you want more choice? Do you want less repetition? I know I do.

How do you watch what you want to watch? Are you doing things the old skool way? Are you a Cable TV subscriber?  Do you have your computer connected to your TV? Or are you an AppleTV champion?  Or maybe you have one of the new streaming media players, like I do?  Why don’t you share how YOU watch stuff?  You might inspire someone else to get smarter with the telly.  That would be a very good thing, because we can’t be watching rubbish, can we? We need to watch the thing we love most!  Comment below!

xx Pip

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  • http://www.facebook.com/belindajaneedwards belindaedwards

    We’ve been watching the new US shows about to screen here on FTA channels for months, by LEGALLY streaming them from sites overseas. We’re hooked on our weekly download for The New Girl, Homeland, Two Broke Girls and more. We have a pay TV sunsription too, but really the only channels we watch are the kids cartoons and the comedy ones. If I can get good quality content for free, from overseas, why should I continue to watch repeats on Aus channels, or pay for subscriptions. The writing is on the wall….

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      I hear ya! Loud and clear! I feel the same, Belinda!

      We just have to work out how to SUPPORT these shows financially (contribute in SOME way) so that we are fostering the TV industry’s growth. And keep watching our fave AU shows on Free To Air…. It’s a difficult balance to strike, isn’t it?

  • jennaappleton

    I like to have TV in the background while I’m working in the studio, and we might watch something in the evenings for maybe an hour (this is often the news and then one other thing), and the kids might get a half-hour in there somewhere and a couple hours on the weekend if it’s raining.

    I really dislike most of what is screened on commercial television and I’ve become much less tolerant of advertising over time. Pay TV often just makes me cranky when it’s available to me because so much of the programming is completely banal (I’d prefer if my kids didn’t have the Disney Channel on tap, ever; I want them to learn how to think for themselves, not get someone to tell them the Three Special Steps every time they have a problem).

    Hence I find that I’ve become a bit of an ABC junkie with bits of SBS and a smidge of commercial free-to-air thrown in. We have a CRT clunker of a TV in the lounge room with a set-top-box and PVR attached; generally we’ll only watch ABC on it OR commercial TV that we’ve pre-recorded and we’ll fast forward through any ads. Up in the studio I have an old laptop set up on the internet and stream iView (ABC) programs, or I’ll put in the TV card and watch sport when it’s on (January mostly; tennis and cricket).

    We’ll move to more internet streaming after our house is renovated, because our phone line is currently too dodgy to carry a good ADSL signal and it costs a fortune for wireless broadband bandwidth in the quantity that we’d want per month for all the shows we’d stream :) In the meantime… we buy a lot of the stuff we’re truly interested in on DVD as soon as it’s available and watch it that way.

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      Yep. Another streamer. You sound like you’ve totally worked out the whole on-demand user-chooses, thing. We stream A LOT of content at our house. We’re on a pretty huge plan, which has never run out, and there are 4 prolific internet users at ours. It’s still cheaper than Foxtel and we can watch pretty much ANYTHING. I don’t know if I could go back to regular old telly! Thanks so much for commenting. It’s so interesting to see how everyone is navigating the new choices we have with telly!

      • jennaappleton

        Yep!! We would use about 30GB a month if left to run free – totally within normal ADSL plans, but something like $400 per month if you’re doing it over wireless, so we’re having to hold back at the moment to keep that spending within sane limits! I used to watch a LOT more iView when our ADSL line was working, but it’s so rubbish now we’d have to lay a new one from the kerb and it seems a waste when the house is being totally done over in six months’ time.

  • tam

    I rarely turn an actual tv on anymore. I download everything I want to watch and watch it when I want , ad-free on my laptop where ever I am (kitchen, sewing, outside…)

    Means I watch less crap because the tv isn’t on all the time. Love having all the flexibility – what DID we do before the internet?!

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      I KNOW! Really, life is too short to be dealt programs we don’t want to watch! Let’s watch what we want! Let’s watch it when and where we want! YES! Thanks for saying hello, Tam! x

  • sib

    I love love love our PS3, don’t know what our family did without it! We watch iView and shows from our computers (just use a USB) on it, plus it can stream video and music over a wi-fi connection from other computers in the house.
    Unfortunately I was really disappointed recently when I bought a TV series from iTunes and discovered it could only play on my MacBook and other Apple branded devices. You would think that PAYING for a show meant I could watch it my TV with my family, but no. And they wonder why people pirate?!

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      Sheesh. AppleTV. It just seems so limited and a bit unfair to me. I’m so glad we bypassed it for the Boxee Box we have now. Phew. Apple are a bit silly with the way they deal with media files, I think. They really should be a bit more flexible and user focused. Thanks for commenting, Sib. Really great to hear things from your side!

  • Isabel

    My housemates and I recently through out our TV and it is the best household choice that we have made. Our lounge room is actually a social area now and the TV isn’t the main focus point. We have rearranged our couches in a circle so that we can all sit around and talk with each other. When we do watch TV we do it on our computers which we all have in our rooms – which means no ads, no interuptions and we can watch whatever we want without annoying someone else. It is great now that there are fantastic sites like ABC iView so that you can still watch current programs legally and for free.

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      Isabel! Go you guys! How radical and fab. I like it that you’ve made conversation a priority, and made viewing a more solo pursuit! I guess you can always go to the movies together, if you want to share something on a screen, right?! Much more of a special event, that way! xx

  • punky_and_me

    We watch a little old-school teeve, a little on-the-computer teeve & a high percentage of internet streamed content on the telly via the xbox; I. Love. It.

    You are not at the mercy of the television programmers – you can watch what you want, when you want, without the ads. I haven’t a clue what night specific programs are supposed to be on the telly or what times they’re on; and I like that! A lot!

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      Me too, Vic! Hey. I think it’s great that we have the power to watch what we want, the way we want. I think that it will lead to more innovative programming and heaps more innovation in film and TV, with lower budgets forcing film makers to throw their smarts at their work, rather than special effects dollars! Thanks for popping by! x

  • thestuffalo

    We are TiVo junkies at our house. We always have loads to watch and hardly ever watch live tv. My tolerance for ads these days is 0! There was an initial outlay but no continuing cost. Yipee!

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      Ah GREAT! You’ve found the watchy thing that works for you! So great! I don’t know much about Tivo. I’m going off to do some reading now! xx

  • Kateling

    Yes, I am a hybrid of jennappleton, tam and punky and me – i have been in essence doing this for a long time but it was very labour intensive in old days getting shows taped on VHS and sending to US for boxed sets. I also went 10 years TV free as the shows in 80s were generally pretty poor and the ads worse. I did miss a couple of great British shows but hey i just bought them on DVD. As we do a lot of TV watching while we working on separate monitors our lounge room has become less a tv room anyway… and sans ads shows are actually faster/shorter. When we are OS we take a boxed set and watch a little each day and skip the awful Christmas reruns or whatever is on recycle on cable and prefer that too.

    I still resent a little that we pay a lot more for a movie than US folks (and an itunes song) seeing as it is digital information and we are paying for computer/internet plan etc… why should it be double?

    A lot of american home shows (million dollar decorators/design star) can be seen now be for free as all the ads are imbedded in product placement in show anyhow but as I am a home guru/junkie i still watch some of these. But drives me insane to Australian shows (eg block with ads within and between every five minutes).

    I think in future a lot of performers/shows/concerts will go the way of Louis CK (if they are clever) http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/10/sabo/ where he has filmed and directly sold his film to anyone who wants to download it – he is selling for $5 and has collected a million already in his paypal account. If people can have fresh content reasonably priced and no middle men then we will all do it. I predict Louis will make a lot of money selling his platform to others so they can sell their content in the same way. He has my $5 already.

    Kate

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      That is SO interesting about Embedded Advertising. I am thinking this will be the way forward with lots of commercial programs? And other partnerships between programs and advertisers, too. It is so interesting to watch how this plays out. Thanks for such an informed comment, esp about Louis CK. I think it’s quite amazing that distributors are other middle men are getting knocked out of the equation altogether. The internet has changed everything and after some initial freaking out, it seems that artists can be the ones to benefit most of all. SO GREAT!

  • Kateling

    Oh and if i can add one bit re Louis CK and the paying directly for content model (it is OK if I can’t) he has set out in his blog where the money will go:
    https://buy.louisck.net/news (for the long version) which also makes buying his show legally very compelling. What do you all think as a model? Wont work for hollywood but for comedy and sold out concerts etc?

    “So I’m breaking the million into four pieces.

    the first 250k is going to pay back what the special cost to produce and the website to build.

    The second 250k is going back to my staff and the people who work for me on the special and on my show. I’m giving them a big fat bonus.

    The third 280k is going to a few different charities. They are listed below in case you’d like to donate to them also. Some of these i learned about through friends, some were reccomended through twitter.

    The Fistula Foundation
    The Pablove Foundation
    charity: water
    Kiva
    Green Chimneys

    That leaves me with 220k for myself. Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen. The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business. In any case, to me, 220k is enough out of a million.”

    Follow the link for more

    • http://www.meetmeatmikes.com Pip Lincolne

      How rad is that?! I love that he took the smallest cut. Whattaman!