Toasting Cable.

So want to toast my cable.
The programming is garbage, the only channel I really want is HBO.
I can stream, watch recorded sports online thru Reddit etc.

suggestions?

I use Sonarr with SABnzbd to get content, and Plex to view it. It was a hassle to get it all set up, but it works pretty well.

There are numerous TV boxes available that pull content from all over the Internet. Ones using Kodi seem to be popular right now. You're really just paying for someone else to deal with the hassles of getting all the software working on a computer rather than doing it yourself.

One thing to keep in mind is that you (and anyone you live with) need to be tolerant of the possibility that when you decide you want to watch something, it may not be immediately available because some part of the delivery system is fubared.

i have kodi on a raspberry pi and it fills our need for the kids to watch cartoons, plus normal movies, etc.  i'm sure kodi is way more capable than i what i use it for...some of the apps or whatever they are called we use are exodus, phoenix, kisscartoon.  like PaulB said, be prepared for things not to work all the time.

If you use something like Kodi, how do you deliver the content to the TV?  Do you need to connect a display cable (DVI/HDMI) from the PC running Kodi?  Can a device like a PS3 be used for getting content (i.e. run something like Kodi)?

An HDMI cable is the simplest solution if your device is close to your TV. In my case, the computer that runs everything is under a desk in my kitchen, so I use Plex and Chromecasts to connect it to my living room and bedroom TVs over Wi-Fi, and control it with the Plex app on my tablet.

A PS3/4 can stream content from any DLNA media source, but I don't think that there is any software like Kodi that will let it pull in content directly from the Internet.

Cord-cutting and going to a streaming setup sounds cool and all, but it's more of a PITA than most people are willing to deal with unless you just want to use Netflix, Crave, etc. If you just want local content, getting an over-the-air HDTV antenna is easiest, assuming you live someplace that has good line of sight to broadcast towers.  You lose the ability to record anything, but there are also techy solutions for that.

Posted by: switch

If you use something like Kodi, how do you deliver the content to the TV? Do you need to connect a display cable (DVI/HDMI) from the PC running Kodi? Can a device like a PS3 be used for getting content (i.e. run something like Kodi)?

There is a pretty comprehensive list of devices that will run Kodi on their wiki. http://kodi.wiki/view/devices

Basically, it runs on most linux/windows/OSX/android devices.

I personally use a dirt cheap AMD computer (FX-6100 / GTX 1050) hooked directly to my TV and download mostly 1080p & 4K content from Usenet using Sonarr (pretty much the same as PaulB) and then Kodi as a viewer. I have used much older hardware as well for 1080p content without issue (intel Core 2 duo/4gb RAM/GTX 650 Ti), I salvaged this system from a recycling bin and upgraded the GPU. Most PC's (running Windows 7 or better) will handle 1080p H264 decoding, if you want to play 4k files you're either going to need a fair bit more processing power or a more modern GPU with H265 decoding (Nvidia GTX 600 series or better). I don't stream content often, as I find the quality unbearable, but I have used the Exodus plug-in with some luck. I've also heard good things about the Alluc plug-in.

One good thing about using Exodus or Alluc, is that it takes the sketchiness out of browser based streaming.

For me, Kodi's default skin is pretty much unusable. I use the 'Amber' skin as it has features built in that I don't think I can live without. It organizes your TV tab on your homescreen into two rows, the top row being newly downloaded content and the bottom row your 'ongoing' content (the episode you're currently on in an ongoing series).

I've been having a lot of stability issues in Kodi lately though, it can be frustrating at times but I'm so used to the Amber interface now that I can bear to switch.