Ten years after the original, the BBC produced a sequel to their nature series Planet Earth. While the first series was 11 episodes, this second iteration only has 6, but it’s still phenomenal. We live on an amazing planet. In the United States you can watch Planet Earth II on the Discovery Channel.
Some of the moments that left me in awe:
Penguins being able to find their family and distinguish the call of their mate in a group of over 1 million others.
Ibex effortlessly moving up and down steep mountain terrain.
Big cats like the snow leopard and jaguar.
The plague of locusts.
Stallions fighting.
A fox diving in the snow.
Langur monkeys running and jumping across rooftops.
Feeding the hyenas.
Singapore.
Throughout the series I kept wondering how much work went into catching some of the scenes. Thankfully they produced a bonus “Making Of”episode as well, which shows off some of the camera equipment and the challenges faced by the camera crews.
On Sunday, I had a headache and camped out in front of the TV all day. Somehow I ended up on the Science channel, watching How It’s Made for more hours than I care to admit. I learned about potato chips, boot liners, light switches, Chinese furniture, concrete, Thai fish sauce, microprocessors, pop, fire trucks, and many more things. Fascinating stuff. The show also has a YouTube channel, which I’m now subscribed to.
I’ve always been interested in how things work or how they’re made. Probably explains why I also like Fast N’ Loud, where they restore cars, or Alaskan Bush People and Alaska: The Last Frontier, which chronicle how people live in the unforgiving state.
It’s been a month since I cancelled Charter Spectrum TV service. Go back and read that post if you want details on the services I’m using now. I haven’t missed the service at all and Playstation Vue continues to impress me. In fact, I didn’t even notice I wasn’t picking up ABC on my antenna until I went to schedule TV show series recordings last week. I still need to adjust the antenna placement. I get ABC On Demand through Playstation Vue, so I’m not missing out on my shows.
I have noticed a pretty big habit change without Charter. I rarely sit down and watch random TV anymore. I’ve spent the extra time working on homeprojects, learning things from YouTube videos (mostly aboutelectronics), or getting to bed earlier.
Who remembers this show? I don’t know why, but my family used to watch it all the time when I was growing up. The intro music still creeps me out and gave me goosebumps when I found this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwAG-DnWhiY Makes me wonder if watching shows like this has an effect on us later in life? Am […]
I just got home from returning this equipment to Charter.
I watch my share of TV shows and I’ve used a DVR since 2005 for just about everything. I really dislike cable TV as a service though. They get you in the door for your first year and then jack up the price unless you call and haggle with them every year. No matter what you do you’re forced to pay for a bunch of stuff you don’t want. They give you the illusion of value with hundreds of options when most of us probably only ever use 10-15 channels.
I’ve been keeping my eye on services like Sling TV and hoping Apple might be able to shake up the market with a new product/service. Several weeks ago my friend Casey shared a link to DIRECTV NOW, a new streaming service similar to Sling. Looked promising. Then I remembered skimming over Dustin’s post about replacing his TV service. I did some research and had a chat with him to learn more. Sounded even more promising.
I installed the PlayStation Vue app for Apple TV and signed up for a free 7 day trial. During that week I tried to use the Vue service wherever possible. I watched Walking Dead through the cloud DVR feature. I watched SportsCenter on ESPN. I watched the Red Wings Fox Sports Detroit. I was impressed. The interface is an entirely new way to watch and browse channels without having to fight through a bunch of garbage. A huge advantage Vue has over DIRECTV and Sling is the cloud DVR feature. It’s works basically like On Demand, but for anything broadcast on the channels in your package.
Playstation Vue – Core Slim package ($34.99/mo)
One of the things holding me back from a streaming TV service had been sports and Vue seems to deliver just fine with several ESPN channels, Fox Sports Detroit, Golf, and the Big Ten Network.
The one issue pretty much all of these streaming services have is ABC, CBS, and NBC, but you can these for free with an over-the-air antenna. Losing out on DVR functionality would have been a deal breaker, but I learned about Tablo from Dustin’s post. You need an antenna, one of their DVRs, their digital guide service, and an external storage device. Sure beats renting equipment from Charter and paying their ridiculous fees.
All of this meant I’d be able to use my AppleTV for everything… Netflix, YouTube, Playstation Vue, Tablo, HBO NOW, and Showtime Anytime. Really hoping the new TV app on AppleTV (yeah, confusing naming!) will eventually tie everything together.
This week I finally made the move. I already had an AppleTV ($149), but ordered the other equipment:
Setting it up was easy, though I need to adjust the antenna location to get a better NBC signal. The Tablo system is good enough (not impressed) and hopefully they’ll be improving the software soon. I continue to be impressed by the quality of service provided by Vue, which I’ve been using for a month now.
What does this all mean in terms of dollars? This is a summary from my last Charter bill…
Spectrum TV – $76.97
Spectrum Internet – $51.99
Spectrum Voice – $19.99
Other Charges – $6.05
Taxes, Fees, and Charges – $4.80
Total – $159.80
I don’t even have a landline phone in my house to connect, but somehow it makes everything cheaper. That’s the shit I’m talking about with Charter and I’m glad to be done with. Here is how my new monthly services break down…
Charter Spectrum Internet – $59.99
Playstation Vue – $34.99
Showtime (via Playstation Vue) – $8.99
HBO NOW – $14.99
Tablo Guide – $4.99
I’m confident we’ll be seeing major TV changes in the next few years, otherwise I’d pay for the Tablo Lifetime subscription of $149.99. I’ll only subscribe to Showtime and HBO when Homeland, Game of Thrones, and Westworld are airing new seasons. So although the total here would be $123.95, over the course of the year my monthly average will probably be $105-110. In less than a year the equipment purchases will pay for themselves.
I’ve been using a 50″ Sony Grand WEGA LCD TV for over 9 years. It’s been a great TV and I didn’t have any problems with it until last November when the bulb finally blew out. My Mom keeps mentioning how they’ll wait for a TV upgrade of their own (they’re still using the hand-me-down I passed along when I got this Sony) until I was ready to get rid of mine. All you have to do is plant the idea in my head. 🙂
The old 50″ Sony Grand WEGA
Over the years, I had accumulated quite the tangled mess of cables behind the entertainment system. They may have been a family of beavers living in there at some point.
Mess of cables
Breaking down your entire entertainment system and assembling a new TV stand on Saturday night of the Final Four isn’t the greatest idea. I watched the Michigan game like this, streaming on my laptop.
After setting everything up, I still have somewhat of a cabled mess, but it’s much more organized (right?).
By upgrading to the newer Apple TV and using HDMI for most of my connections, I was able to eliminate all of this stuff.
After being up late last night, I moved games, DVDs, controllers, and other stuff in this morning and finished everything up.
55″ Hitachi Ultravision LED 1080p 120Hz 3D TV
I went with a 55 inch Hitachi (model LE55W806) from Sam’s Club and a TV stand from Target. I’m going to enjoy this!
Over the last week or so I could swear I was hearing a part of a word as a show switched to commercial or vice versa. Today it was more than a partial word. Here’s proof I’m not going crazy.
Nick Momrik 