How to Watch TV Using a Nintendo Wii

Cable TV has become so expensive over the past few years. Even the basic channels that are just news and shopping networks cost $20 or more in some areas. After finding that my cable company was raising our monthly bill by $10 to $50/month for 75 channels, I got frustrated and looked for ways to ditch cable forever. I found a way to watch TV using my Nintendo Wii.

First of all, you should download a free trial of PlayOn. You can find it at http://www.themediamall.com/. PlayOn is a media streaming software that runs through your personal computer to the game system of your choice (Xbox 360, PS3, or Nintendo Wii). The trial lasts 14 days and you get full use of the software.

Second, you should do the following to get it set up for use on the Nintendo Wii. Open the Wii Internet Channel. If you do not have this, it is a free download that you can get on the Wii Shopping Channel. Once you have this installed, open up the Wii Internet Channel and go to wii.playon.tv - I suggest bookmarking this as a favorite on the Wii. You should see a blue screen with the name of your computer there. If you do not see anything, you can get help by going to the PlayOn support page: http://www.themediamall.com/support/

Once you have PlayOn up and running, select a show to watch. I suggest trying Hulu to look for a show you want to watch. Choose something that is a half hour show or just a clip of a show. You are only doing this to test out the software. Once you have tested it and it is running, you can decide whether you want more "channels". You will need to be a little bit tech-savvy, but once you have it working, it's great!

If you want more "channels", go to http://www.playonplugins.com. This is a forum where developers have created plug-ins for the PlayOn software. They plug-ins basically pull content from network websites such as Cartoon Network or HGTV. You will need to register on this forum before you can download any plug-ins. Once you have registered, click on the Downloads section of the forum. Here you can choose the plug-ins you want to download.

Once you have chosen the plug-ins you want, download them. Then, open the folder that they downloaded to. On most computers, they will download to a folder called "Downloads". Some computers also default downloads to the desktop. Also, go to My Computer. Then, click on C: - this will open up your hard drive folder. Then, click on Program Files. Next, click on Media Mall - this will open the program files for the PlayOn software. Then, click on Plug-ins. Finally, click and drag the plug-ins that you downloaded earlier into the plug-ins folder. Restart the PlayOn software and your Wii and you should see new "channels" on your Wii console when you go to wii.playon.tv.

Now you have 14 days to try out your alternative to cable. You can watch shows from all sorts of networks. The only thing you will miss out on if you decide to ditch cable like I did is local news which you can get if you have a digital-ready TV or a digital converter box and an antenna. Once your trial is up, you will either have to give up PlayOn and keep cable or ditch cable and buy the PlayOn software. It costs $39.99 and that is a one time fee. For most people, this fee is less than the cost of one month of cable. Is it worth it? I'll let you decide.