So, you’ve installed the Plex Media Server and you’re streaming all of you’re DVDs, photos, and music to you’re media devices in your house. Awesome, but, are you really taking advantage of everything the Plex Media Server can do?

Related: Plex Media Server and Backing up your DVD collection.

Plex has tons of Channels of high quality TV shows, movies, photos, podcasts, etc. They can help you get around any weaknesses your  cord cutter setup may have. Here are the essentials to get you started.

Broadcast TV Networks

Watch full episodes of the most recent shows on the Big 3 TV networks and PBS. Sure, you can pick these guys up over the antenna and get great HD signal, but If you’re coverage is spotty or you just want to watch these show on your own time, then these channels are the answer.

Cable TV Networks

Even with Hulu and Netflix, there are shows that are hard to find anywhere else but streaming from the network websites. All of these channels will let you watch the latest and greatest TV Shows or catchup on old episodes without having to pull out your laptop.

Web Content

Discover great music using Pitchfork or find the YouTube videos everybody is talking about with Devour. These channels will get you started with finding great content that you don’t normally find on your TV.

These channels should get you started. There are so many other great channels out there, like us on Facebook so you don’t miss our next Plex article.
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Related: Plex Media Server and Backing up your DVD collection.

My Crappy Cable

We used to have everything the cable company offered. We had hundreds of channels, HD movies, DVR, the works. And to be blunt, they all sucked.

Half the channels were in Spanish, the HD images were horribly compressed, the DVR was clunky and we paid way too much.

Back in May 2011 I paid my last $150 cable bill. We shutoff the cable TV and the bundled land line phone that was never hooked up. We were left with $45/month for internet.

Back to Rabbit Ears

At first, the pendulum went a little too far.

I went and bought one of those little boosted antennas and hooked it up to see just what was being broadcast over-the-air. I set the TV to auto scan and waited as it searched for all of the free HD content I knew was out there.

It found 9 channels.

After closer inspection, I realized that 3 were in Spanish and 2 were televangelism channels.

After 4 days, I threw in the towel and went shopping for another option.

[...]

We’ve come a long way since the days of 3 channels and rabbit ears.

I can stream HD movies and TV shows to my Roku HD with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. I can store limitless amounts of video on my plex server and stream them to my iphone and watch them where ever and when ever I want.

So, the question is… Have we arrived?

Is this the content consuming utopia we all dreamed about? No.

Streaming services have limited catalogs, next-day-air services like hulu still make us wait until the next day to watched their limited offerings of shows. Copyright holders are still afraid that we’re some how getting something for free and taking money out of their wallets.

We’re not there yet, but it’s coming.

So what does the future hold for us?

[...]