Home Media Stuff part 2: the Huluization

I should edit the previous post to match the current state of things, but in case you are reading, here's a slight update on that:

We were Netflix customers before they offered streaming.
When they started their streaming service, we held on to the DVD side as well.  By the end, this was just so Talita could catch up on True Blood. And there are still a bunch of things on Netflix DVD-only (the HBO series probably will remain that way).

But we really weren't using that aspect for anything else recently, and it was, of course, costing us extra money for that privilege.

So we canned the Netflix DVD half, sticking with their streaming side.

On the other side of things, one of the reasons I had for keeping Linux+XBMC around was for "free Hulu", which requires a computer.
Ever since its creation, I have been convinced that the "Hulu Plus" service, when running on a non-computer device, was not actually "Free Hulu, plus paid content", but *only* the paid content. I have loudly voiced this as fact whenever someone asked about home media setups.

... So when we decided to try out Hulu+, at least for the free trial week, I was pleasantly surprised.
After loading it up on the PS3, everything seems to be there! I'm happy with this turn of events.

So now, without paying any more money than we were (because of the "trade" of services), there is even less of a reason to hold on to the TV-connected Linux Box.
Sure, XBMC is still great, and still necessary for playing "local" content, but like I said, we really don't watch much of that.
I bet we could totally pull the HDHomeRun device out of the chain, shut down mythtv, and we wouldn't even notice.

And, at some point, we can relegate XBMC to a "plug in to the TV when needed" role.
There's no rush on that, especially since I have to keep that box always-on until I find a reasonable replacement for the non-TV bits, but it is an interesting consideration...

The idea of AppleTV, mentioned in the other post, might come to fruition or might hold off.. we'll see, really have to look at what it adds. And now that CES is showing off a bunch of 'smart TVs', maybe that's the right direction instead.