Our Harvard Square apartment has quality Comcast Internet and TV service in a bundle (I convinced myself this was cheaper than Internet alone). The cable box sits on a shelf partly because the actual cable comes into the office, not the living room or bedroom where there are Samsung TVs (used as digital picture frames and computer displays; they are hooked up to Ethernet).
Right now we have a professor from Germany staying there. He was unhappy about the lack of TV service.
- me: What do you want to watch?
- him: CNN
- me: I will send you an email message every morning reading “Donald Trump is a rich, white, guy and the people who didn’t vote for him don’t like him.” Then you’ll have learned everything that you would have learned from watching CNN.
He still wants CNN. Is it easy to have the cable box in the office and for the TV somehow to grab the show over the CAT5 wire? Or do I have to call Comcast and have them drill holes through the exterior walls to bring in more coax feeds? (and then have a cable box right next to each TV)
Get an Apple TV or a similar streamer and use the CNN app. Or just get rid of Comcast and get a streaming service like DIRECTV Now or PlayStation Vue, etc.
Slingbox is the only way I know of having the TV and Cable box separate. The sling box attaches to the cable box, then you have to use a phone, tablet or computer with the “Slingplayer” app on it. The app will have a cable guide, just like on your cable box, that you can select the channel from. You then send the signal from your computer app to a roku or apple tv, just like apple “airplay”. The difference is that the signal will then handoff to the sling box and not drain your computer battery.
Search YouTube for “CNN live” on his laptop/iPad/phone. There are always a few live streams for every network channel.
Amazon has a 30ft HDMI cable for $15?
If you can hook a browser up to your TV, just go to cnn.com, click “Live TV” at the top right and log in using your Comcast credentials.
There are HDMI to ethernet converters if it’s too far for HDMI:
http://lifehacker.com/5918457/hdmi-over-ethernet-adapter-extends-hdmi-connections-up-to-98-feet-saves-money
If you have a direct CAT5 connection between both rooms, you can use an HDBase-T transceiver to send HDMI + IR.
https://www.monoprice.com/category?c_id=109&cp_id=10914
I happen to know, from having this converation with Comcast last week, that they’re telling the salespeople that they’ll have secondary tuners fed by Ethernet or wifi sometime later this year. Until then, drill, baby, drill.
Download the Xfinity apps and watch to your heart’s content on an iPad.
I also use the slingbox. It works great. When I travel in Europe I can watch on an ipad/iphone (or TV with apple TV) any of my shows at home. You literally are watching your tv and you have a online remote
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Silicon Dust makes a cable decoder -> ethernet box that allows you to watch cable tv via your local network:
https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-prime/
I realize this isn’t on the TV but:
XFINITY Stream
All your TV, all in one place with the XFINITY Stream App. Stream live TV and XFINITY On Demand on any device at home or on the go. If you’re an X1 customer, you can also stream or download your cloud DVR shows to your device and watch anywhere.