[Update 6/25/2017]
This is much harder than I had thought. If you are a do-it your selfer, this takes a lot more effort than I am willing to exert at this time, so I elicited some help from another techie friend who wrote back with:
"
I turned all the cable boxes years ago, I use TiVo's everywhere with lifetime suvscriptions, plus with upgraded hard drives bought from http://www.weaknees.com/.
Romiao records 6 Chanel's at once I also use Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon with Showtime, starzand HBO go etc. I use either roku3 or Roku TVs in most every room. My bill is usually about $130 a month with all movie channels."
[Original 6/21/2017]
So I was one of the early adopters of FTTH using Verizon FiOS back in 2008 or so.
I currently pay for 50/50 Megs internet with entire movie package (HBA/SHOW/CINEMAX/etc), 3 boxes, HD channels, DVR, and router rental.
And spend roughtly $3K per annum, but it's closer to $3600.
As you've seen over the past months, my internet service is *meh*
Earlier this month my connection was down and I was on hold for 52m before anyone answerd. It went down again a few days ago with no explaination either time.
I'm a big fan of FTTH, so now that AT&T Giga-whatever is in my area, I may transition to that and NOT subscribe to cable.
My requirements: fast/reliabel 'net speeds; Live TV, Movie Channels; ability to record/playback; access to my Amazon Prime/Hulu/Netflix accounts; a wirless router that I can hack with VPN etc; a mesh network; and no family complaints (so, very easy).
So here it goes.
Last night I installed Kodi (they are on version 17... I used to use XBMC back in the day, but they have since had a name change now they are no longer Xbox-only devices) on my old Apple TV 1 using OSMC. (link here: https://osmc.tv/). I had the wonky blue screen so I had to SSH into the device and followed the instructions here that worked perfectly: https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/journey-to-the-blue-screen/23235.
Now what do I do? Let's start with Live TV
Apparently with Live TV, I need a Tuner back end, front end and client? Not sure about all of that, so I need to research this more.