It seems like every day a new online media portal pops up; the flavor of the week was Vevo, and undoubtedly over the past year Hulu has made the biggest splash in the online content arena. But where is the fun in watching your favorite content on a cramped computer screen in a stiff office chair? This article will hopefully give you some solid ideas on how to move all of this high quality free content onto your TV screen where it belongs.

There are numerous ways to bridge the gap between the internet and your TV; Vizio, Samsung, and others are even beginning to integrate online connectivity directly into their sets. Countless set-top boxes, Blu-Ray players, and dedicated streaming devices are available. But the downside to all of these options is high cost and a limited set of options; proprietary solutions nearly always limit you to a certain subset of online content.

The best solution lies in the world of open source. XBMC and Boxee are two phenomenally good applications designed to bring all of your media to the big screen in a polished manner.

XBMC was originally designed as a custom application for the first generation Xbox, and this is arguably where it works the best. With the price of an Xbox hovering around $50, buying one and installing XBMC is a no brainier (go here for a tutorial). It’s the solution we use and it works remarkably well. As a bonus, an Xbox running XBMC also serves as a great upscaling (to 1080i) DVD player.

In its default configuration, XBMC focuses on pulling your music and videos from your home network and playing them on your TV. But with the addition of some extra software, XBMC can become a portal for virtually every online media source. XBMC’s catalog of plugins includes staples such as YouTube and Last.fm. But for a truly comprehensive catalog, you need to purchase and install MediaMall’s PlayOn software. This application runs on your PC and serves as a middleman between the Internet and your XBOX, pulling content from Netflix, Amazon’s Video Store, Hulu, YouTube, PBS, NBC, CNN, Cartoon Network, HGTV, FoodNetwork, and countless others. For a total price of less than $100 up front, you can watch TV Shows and movies to your heart’s content without the sticker shock of a $50+ cable bill. PlayOn can also stream content to the Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii, so if you already own one of those devices, then you can skip XBMC and start watching right away.

Another popular option for online media consumption is to dedicate a PC solely to your home theatre (also called an HTPC or Home Theatre PC). With the price of computers lower than ever, this is an increasingly viable option. While Windows Media Center does an excellent job of displaying your own media, and offers some high quality video in the Internet TV section, it fails to offer a full catalog of sources. That’s where Boxee comes in.

Boxee is an open source media center application for Windows, OS X, and Linux that is based off of XBMC. Like XBMC, it can display all of your own media; however, Boxee includes support for Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and other content sources right out of the box. Boxee just announced its Beta release a few days ago, so now is a great time to begin using it.

Online streaming is a fantastic (and often free) way to enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows. But one thing that it doesn’t do well is HD. While Netflix and Amazon offer a small selection of HD titles, streaming HD is bandwidth intensive; if you don’t have a Wireless N network or Ethernet running through your walls, you may as well forget it. Many people forget, however, that they have a smattering of HD channels being broadcast to their home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, over the air. Since the DTV transition earlier this year, there is now more content then ever to be had for free. With a little help from AntennaWeb, you can be up and running with crystal clear HD channels on your TV.

With so many options available to access the content you enjoy, there is little reason for to continue paying over $50 a month for Cable or Satellite service, when there is a good chance that most of the material you watch is available for free online or over the air. Even if it’s not free, an $8.99 subscription to Netflix and the occasional $3-4 rental from Amazon’s Video On Demand sure beats a huge monthly payout to your local telecommunication giant.

XBMC and Boxee are just two of the countless ways of getting media from the Internet to your TV. If you’re already in the market for a new TV, Blu-Ray Player, or game console, investigate what is available. As always, if you have any questions or comments about your favorite media sollution, be sure to leave a comment on this article. Now if you’ll excuse me, its time to go watch a free streaming episode of The Office.