Internet ready tv's, Google TV, Roku, Eye TV, VIA, WTF?

I've had enough of paying $80 a month for tv I don't like, so I'm finally getting rid of Direct TV, getting rid of my 25" tube TV, and venturing into the realm of HD, internet based television. 

But I don't know what I'm doing. 

I want to be able to watch the local network shows that come over the air from the local repeater towers (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), watch Hulu based shows, and stream Netflix to my TV, and I'm looking for advice from the folks at NCKA, because I know a bunch of you are knowledgeable about such things.

Price is always a factor, but let's assume I have an $800 budget, and I want a 32" 1080p tv. I have a MacBook and a high speed internet connection. What do you recommend....?

Ideas I've looked into include a Sony HD TV equipped for Google TV, but I've learned that Hulu and every major network have blocked access for Google TV. Eye TV seems like it's just a DVR for my Mac and would still require a cable TV subscription. I can hook my Mac up to the TV with about $50 in cables which is clunky, but would seem to work just fine. Roku has my interest. The Vizio TVs with Amazon's VIA installed are also interesting. And, I'm open to any other ideas...

Help me! 

Jay, does your Macbook have HDMI out? If so you can just hook that puppy up to your new TV and use it as a computer monitor. 

I use my laptop to connect to netflix and hulu on my TV. I only have a 42" 720p TV but I am happy enough with it. I haven't had cable since moving into my house and I'm not planning to.

TVs are cheap anymore..I could find you a 42" 1080p for approx $500 shipped.

Jay, does your Macbook have HDMI out? If so you can just hook that puppy up to your new TV and use it as a computer monitor. 

I use my laptop to connect to netflix and hulu on my TV. I only have a 42" 720p TV but I am happy enough with it. I haven't had cable since moving into my house and I'm not planning to.

TVs are cheap anymore..I could find you a 42" 1080p for approx $500 shipped.

I have the MacBook, not the MacBook Pro, so I have a mini-DVI port. I've found that with about $50 in cables I can get a mini-DVI to HDMI adapter and hook up the computer to a TV that way. It's not ideal to me, but it may end up being what I end up doing.

I'm really interested in the internet ready TVs, but I don't know much about them. Something like this: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666273504

Otherwise I'm also thinking about the types of access you get through Roku. I like the "clean" approach of internet ready TVs or Roku or ?
But, I am definitely leaning toward just using my mac attached to the tv. I'm just trying to figure out what else is out there and what the advantages of something like Roku or internet ready TVs have over using my computer.

Jay,  I have an old school rear projection TV with Direct TV but I also have a Roku and download from Netflix and a few free Internet content sites as well as Pandora for music. Roku is a great simple low cost way to connect a TV to the Internet but many of the new TVs can connect directly.  I think if I were going to replace everything, I would use a PS3 for Internet TV and Blue Ray. 

Martin

we dumped cable TV about 6 months back - and are still getting 100% of what we were paying for.  THere are a couple of solutions that we tried, but ended up with a cheap a@@ Win7 machine with a TV card pushing video our beautiful 1080P 46' monster.  We get netflix, hulu, local (with DVR), plus shoutcast and laura FM as a big fat bonus...

I'd be more than happy to walk you through it/ build it up for you if you want- 800 is more than plenty. PM me if you want.

When I moved I couldn't stand the thought of paying montly for TV, so I got a converter and antenna and I get a few public access channels.  I thought it would drive me nuts not having the variety, but the quality of the programming is MUCH better than I expected.  Rarely do I turn it on and not find something interesting.

I do miss The Office, but that's about it.

Eric, you got internet so you can watch the office on hulu!

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

My opinion... get the ROKU or Boxee.

I have the roku and boy has it come a LONG way in channels that it provides.  Its locked into my smugmug, youtube, netflix, amazon, hulu account.  But the new thing is the Boxee!  I have been to Steve Job's house and met him with Al Gore... and Al says to get Apple TV...

Get the Boxee!

I'm a huge boxee fan- I ran it off my MacBook pro to my 46" 1080 plasma and absolutely loved it. I didn't use it a ton for online content but it seemed to be pretty good at grabbing that stuff. Where it excels is playing my 3TBs of personal media- it sorts all my movies and tv shows and streams them wirelessly if necessary. With a little effort and proper file labeling it scrapes the IMDB info for each file, so rather than sorting through an alphabetical list of 1000s (literally) of files, it sorts by genre or other key categories, then displays movies with box covers like your own personal on-demand library.

Of course it also does pandora and Netflix, allegedly the hulu plus deal is in the works.  You can also download a smartphone app to turn your phone into a boxee remote, so you don't have to get up to search, pause etc.

The best part, oh it's free.

Now I recently upgraded to the boxee box, which essentially eliminates the need for my laptop to be plugged into the tv- it hosts the 

Sorry tapatalk got carried away and posted me prematurely-

Anyway it has full 1080p HDMI out, two USB ports and a wifi connection, so it justs sits there and serves up my media and my laptop can stay where it belongs- on my lap so I can play poker and surf NCKA while I'm watching TV.

I will say the box has a slightly different interface, the Netflix app is not expected until Jan 30th and its generally more finicky than a hot girl with a rich father- but I do love it so. I would check the software out since it's free, and if you like it, consider the box strongly - especially if you have any interest in streaming your personal collection- it will play virtually every video format and supports every container- something the other similar products simply cannot do.

I keep a few TBs of movies at the GFs house and her sons xbox 360 only plays about 80% of the AVI files. I haven't found a format boxee won't play yet.

I have to learn how to edit existing posts in tapatalk- iPhone typos are about to be on blast...

Anyway here is an article of some other cool things the box does
http://gigaom.com/video/boxee-box-tips/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newteevee+%28GigaOM%3A+Video%29

Thanks for the info on Boxee Box. That's one I had heard of, but didn't know much about it. I'll look into it more now. Thanks!