Forget all the yammering about the forced digital upgrade on June 12: After years of gripping a wretched remote and looking at lousy menus, I’m Comcastrating my cable service. Or, at least, I’m seriously considering doing so. After test-driving one $40 app for a couple of weeks, I’m ready to chuck that crummy cable box into the trash and forget about the digital-upgrade scheme. This is the story of PlayOn, the software that could ruin everything for cable providers–if the bugs are ever ironed out.

Imagine a software package that can stream just about any show to your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or, soon, Wii. Netflix? No problem. Major-network TV shows? Yep. Obscure stuff from Adult Swim? You name it, you can watch it. All you need is a PC and an Internet connection in the same house.

A little explanation: For years I had a pretty sweet setup. I crafted a media center PC, loaded with digital tuners, that serves as the hub in my house. It records all my shows, and it spits out whatever I want to watch over my home network to my Xboxes. Simple, clean, effective.

But over the past few months, I’ve found myself watching more of my shows online–be it on Hulu.com or countless other online sites (the legit ones, of course). I’ve already been weaning myself off of conventional TV viewing. But how do I clear the last hurdle–getting shows from that wacky Internet to a TV in my house–without piling on additional costs or ludicrous cable service charges?

That’s when I decided to give PlayOn a try. This software was in beta until late 2008, but it’s now live–and with enough kinks worked out, it’s at least worth the free 14-day trial download. First, the hardware check. Do you have:

Windows XP or Vista?
A 3.2GHz or better Pentium 4, a 2.0GHz or better Pentium M, or any multicore x86 processor?
512MB RAM?
4GB to 5GB of space on the same hard drive where Windows is installed?
Hey, I think that describes a spare laptop I bought two years ago!