#6 Alternative to Cable TV: XBMC

The father of a bunch of other media centers, XBMC is a piece of software built to take over the world. In fact it's so popular that it has become the basis of other popular media centers like Boxee and Plex. It was originally built for the X-box game console. Some guys realized that the X-box was just a computer and that it wasn't being used to its full potential. They hacked it and put on their media center software.

Like every other media center out there this has plugins and scripts. But XBMC has been around for a ton longer so it has a ton more plugins. You name the video site and there is probably a plugin already made and available for XBMC. I've heard that it's very simple to make a plugin or script yourself even though I have no idea how to do it.

Since it was originally made for the X-box it has simple interface which works well with remotes. And if you want to replace your cable you're not going to want to use a mouse to control it. That's one of the big parts of the of the tv experience. Instead of cable where you flip channels looking for what you want to watch, XBMC let's you watch a bunch of online videos, tv shows, and movies for free. No ones going to sue over watching this content because the software makes it legal to watch those shows. You just have to find it first. In other words you just can't flip channels anymore.

I think that XBMC is the most viable alternative to cable tv except for media centers that are based around cable tuners. This software proves that age can be a good thing. It had a ton more plugins, allowing you to watch way more stuff. XBMC doesn't though have any social network features like Boxee or Mac integration like Plex but it has more internet videos, music and podcasts than any of the other media centers. So feel free to give it a shot.