Question for those of you who stream TV

This assumes I know what I want to watch, but I can't remember all the movies and TV shows ever made. None of these sites have a content directory to browse in? Like the TV Guide.
Yes, no, kindof

You can simply scroll through what they're putting up on the home screen or browse genres of content and after you use the services enough it will get better at what it recommends to you on the home screen. However, scrolling EVERYTHING that a service offers is too exhaustive to do.
 
I don't know what you mean by "streaming services, but our living room TV uses a Roku, and our bedroom TV uses a Firestick...
These will be different.

For Roku - you can do a search and it will bring up what you want, and you select it and it will tell you all the streaming services that provide it, and whether its free or paid. For example it might tell you a particular show is free on disney+ with subcription, and 1.99 an episode on Amazon

No idea with firestick.

And yes, you can stream live TV through something like Sling or others as well.
 
First of all, what "device" do you use? Is it your TV that has the apps build in? Is it a box or a stick you connect to your TV? Your laptop? iPad or iPhone?

Then which service did you subscribe for? Netflix / Amazon / Hulu / HBO max / etc aren't free, you pay a monthly fee for those be it 99c during black Friday or $15/mo regularly with no ad, you need to pay the better ones just like your cable TV. Good contents aren't free and the free ones are usually not as good (or very old).

You cannot just go on the internet and see what you can watch then just play it, you have to turn on your device, get into the app you subscribed, and then look inside that service you subscribed to see what they have. The contents change monthly so some new ones will show up and some older ones (or more expensive ones) will end. We can't tell you without know what you have and what you sign up for (and pay for).
 
Every year around this time we start searching for the most popular Christmas movies, but they only seem to be available for rent or purchase. I don't know why the pay apps, such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime, ect don't have these movies available for their subscribers without having to rent or purchase them...
The providers like Netflix have access to whatever content they have licensed. So they likely have figured out not enough people really want to watch Christmas movies, and the owners of said movies have figured out enough people will pay that they just rent them out separately.

The whole industry is moving more towards this model - where the owner of the content don't simply want to license it to a big provider like Netflix, they want to monetize it themselves. Years ago you used to get Disney and HBO movies on Netflix. Now they have their own service and you have to pay for it separately.
 
Every year around this time we start searching for the most popular Christmas movies, but they only seem to be available for rent or purchase. I don't know why the pay apps, such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime, ect don't have these movies available for their subscribers without having to rent or purchase them...
Because they can make money this time of year?
 
1. The OP has to let us know what device he is searching with.

2. We use and have always used Roku players for the last decade. All you do is hold down the microphone button on the remote and tell it what show or movie you are searching for and whatever it is that you are searching for will show up on your screen. It will tell you what services the show or movie is on for both for paid and free stuff, then you just click to go to that service/app. Super easy.

3. We dont, never have and never will use the built in app on the TV. We always use Roku players.
 
Every year around this time we start searching for the most popular Christmas movies, but they only seem to be available for rent or purchase. I don't know why the pay apps, such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime, ect don't have these movies available for their subscribers without having to rent or purchase them...
1. Pluto TV has a 24 hour Christmas Category that is free and contains a few Christmas Channels. You can see if any of those movies but we are kind of like guessing because we dont know what you are looking for.

2. Roku Channel has 21 Free Classic Christmas Movies
3. Paramount + has11 Free Classics
4. Hulu has 14 Free Movies
5. Netflix 21 Free Movies
6. HBO Max 16 Free Movies
7. Apple TV has all the Charlie Brown Classics Free
8.
and some others, too much to try to get together but this is what is available to us.

This is just a tiny sample of what I wrote above, the screen actually scrolls the movies sideways, no way to get them all in a photo ..
IMG_0710 3.JPG
IMG_0717.JPG
IMG_0712.JPG
IMG_0714.JPG
 
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At least with my Fire TV I use use my voice-enabled remote to search for the movie title. It brings up where it can be watched. Simple.
 
My Firestick has a ton of downloadable apps to watch basically anything you are looking for. FreeVee for instance, I watched Bewitched, Judge Judy, and Fox News. Lots of variety.
 
ATT Uverse and Direct TV have a search feature. Sure Xfinity does too. These are services with a monthly fee determined by the bundle you purchase. Other aforementioned apps also allow searching for specific programming. Some you may have to pay for. a la carte. Others are included if you are subscriber with a monthly fee.

I know it can be very confusing as compared to when the free off-air channels were used with a TV Guide (remember those?). By the way haven't tried it lately, but many have told that exploring the free off the air channels is still worthwhile. Just need to hook up a cheapo antenna to the coaxial connector on your TV. However, need to be sure the TV includes a tuner and is NOT just a monitor (without tuner).
 
The Roku search function works pretty good if you know what you want to look for.

If you just want to browse categories you pretty much have to do it by content provider - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc all separately. I have found that doing so on a PC works much better than in the app for some reason. Gives you more variety, then you can just favorite the ones you want into your "my stuff" category and it will show up on your TV.

Sort of off topic - I want to watch some bowl games on ESPN new years. Is Sling the likely best service if I for sure only want it for 1 month?
 
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