GatewayRedbirds.com

Because I'm paying way too much just for satellite service (quite the racket, isn't it?), I feel that I should squeeze as much value out of it as I can. We have the HD service, and with that comes a few channels that broadcast movies in HD (or at least in their original wide screen formate), and I've been saving a ton of them to my DVR. The DVR ran out space early on in the process, but I was able to connect an external hard drive to supplement. The external drive setup is awesome (expect for the freaking $40 setup fee) because you can not only archive recordings to the drive, but you can play them directly from the drive without having to move them back onto the DVR player. I've been stocking up on a ton of movies lately (commercial free and in HD formate) - Raging Bull, The Last Picture Show, Lawrence of Arabia... lots of great samurai movies. There's even a channel that broadcasts a ton of foreign films.

I'm still paying out the wazoo, but at least I'm stocking up on some great movies for free.

I love DISH, but can't get it at my new home. The technician said that he can't find a sight-line between the many trees to get a signal.

So, I'm stuck with cable.