Who Knows About All This, "Streaming" Stuff ??

billt460

billt460

Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
11,866
Location
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
I'm currently getting Direct TV, and I'm not happy with it. It's basically all crap. 400 channels of which there is almost nothing to watch. If I buy this, then what's the catch? Can I still have my Direct TV, or do I have to choose between one or the other?

And I'm willing to bet this box and remote only starts the expense. There is bound to be some type of monthly fee involved. Is "streaming" like watching You Tube? Or can you get local channels or cable news as it's being broadcast?

What if I buy this and sign up, and find out this sucks too? Then what? Would I be trapped into a contract that would cost a ton to get out of? If anyone knows a lot about all of this, I would appreciate some common sense recommendations. I haven't kept up with any of this, and it all seems to change every 15 minutes.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
We have a Roku, and we mostly watch Hulu. Bear in mind the box itself doesn't have a subscription, it depends on what other services you subscribe to that are paid for, like Hulu or Netflix. We can get most of the major networks, AMC, TCM, Discovery, and a variety of other channels through Hulu, and we're pretty happy with it, still way cheaper than the UVerse we had before. I'm pretty sure we don't have a contract with Hulu, we can cancel whenever. Ditto for Netflix. We can get local channels through Hulu, but you would need to use an antenna if you don't subscribe to a service that carries them.

There are free things like Youtube and Roku Channel, but I never found anything interesting on the Roku channel.

Your Dish Network is separate. I'm guessing you have a receiver for that, then you would just have to use a different input on your TV for the Roku.
 
I got off cable years ago, and while we still do Netflix, I've found it a bit like killing a sweet tooth: annoying at first, then later you don't miss it. Once I stopped watching commercials for shows and movies, I no longer knew what was coming up--and didn't feel like I was missing anything.

I believe with most of the services you can cancel at any time. Usually they keep the monthly amount low, $10 or $20? in hopes that it's too small for you to bother canceling.

We have a couple of Roku's but only have a Netflix subscription. Well I think the wife has a couple other subs but again, I think you can come and go.

If you toss up a TV antenna, can you get any local channels?
 
There's plenty of streaming services and plenty of devices to use to stream. Which device(s) and service(s) are you specifically looking at?


We don't do netflix as their content has kinda fallen off. But Hulu, Amazon Prime and HBO have treated us good. And a boatload cheaper than what the cable co would be charging. We have both a smart TV and a firestick.

Youtube is still my favorite. Lots of great content there.
 
Streaming is Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc and most services do cost money. People "cut the cord", i.e. cancel cable, but then sign up for a half dozen streaming services and often end up paying as much as they paid for cable or satellite.

Some services will offer your local channels, i.e. YouTube TV (not YouTube), Hulu, Sling, and others.

I'm not aware of any streaming service with a contract.
 
atikovi said:
Why not use Comcast or Verizon especially if you have internet and home phone? There is always a triple play bundle available on sale.
Click to expand...
I have triple play medium tier NO sports packages NO HBO. $250 a month One TV no DVR. that's more than my mortage or car payment a month.
And they keep killing off good included channels like TCM even though they added EPIC

Most TV and BluRay have streamers built in but I don't know what the remote is like.

You can get a Amazon firestick with voice remote and headphone jack for loud or late night listening.

I have one in a drawer I tried a couple months ago. Pluto is fun; programming is like its 1960 and 1970 again. You can watch The Rifleman or The Real McCoy's or even Captain Nice; The HDMI streaming stick connects wirelessly to your router optionally.

I ended up removing it as it ran hot and it was pulling down too much current on the TV - I had to readjust the brightness and contrast and colour. I do admit I didnt connect the remote supply as I had no open powered USB or 117VAC The HDMI port standard includes a 5V buss - like USB - though I don't know it's current(ampere) limitation; the I/O board on my base Samsung TV may be limited.

Just remember you will have to buy reliable internet of at least 25mbs down ( maybe 10mbs) min and companies are jacking up the internet prices since so many are bailing on the cable. I have Consolidated Cable coming to my area with fiber so there is competition now with communistcast so finally NOW I have a real bartering tool to whack them over the head with.

Try to have fun, I know this is hard for those of us born over a 1/2 Century ago in the last Millennium.
 
Last edited:
wag123 said:
Get a Roku, plenty of free content (if you don't mind commercials, that's the catch) from the Roku Channel, Pluto TV (my personal favorite), IMDb TV, Xumo, tubi, and MANY other sources.
Click to expand...

I'm paying good money now for Direct TV, and most everything is saturated with commercials. Channels like AMC and FX run 2 hr. movies for over 4 hours so they can pile in additional commercials. It's ridiculous.
 
billt460 said:
I'm paying good money now for Direct TV, and most everything is saturated with commercials. Channels like AMC and FX run 2 hr. movies for over 4 hours so they can pile in additional commercials. It's ridiculous.
Click to expand...
IMDb TV is interesting. They play commercials, but they are very limited in frequency, number, and length. During their few commercial breaks they will play from one to four commercials (typically two), and they are each only 15-30 seconds in length. No five minute infomercials like have become popular in the last year. They also don't shorten/cut the show to fit-in more commercials like some channels do (the SyFy Channel is the WORST about doing this, it is unwatchable IMO).
 
billt460 said:
I'm paying good money now for Direct TV, and most everything is saturated with commercials. Channels like AMC and FX run 2 hr. movies for over 4 hours so they can pile in additional commercials. It's ridiculous.
Click to expand...
It won't improve with streaming services in many cases. You'll be viewing everything "on demand" so they can insert even more ads, remove ads entirely if you pay more $$, disable fast-forwarding, and so on.
 
billt460 said:
I'm currently getting Direct TV, and I'm not happy with it. It's basically all crap. 400 channels of which there is almost nothing to watch. If I buy this, then what's the catch? Can I still have my Direct TV, or do I have to choose between one or the other?

And I'm willing to bet this box and remote only starts the expense. There is bound to be some type of monthly fee involved. Is "streaming" like watching You Tube? Or can you get local channels or cable news as it's being broadcast?

What if I buy this and sign up, and find out this sucks too? Then what? Would I be trapped into a contract that would cost a ton to get out of? If anyone knows a lot about all of this, I would appreciate some common sense recommendations. I haven't kept up with any of this, and it all seems to change every 15 minutes.

Click to expand...
Check out your options with DTV. You can get a cheap monthly DTV package then add addl paks to satisfy your specific interest. Ie. sports or movies ,etc.etc. etc. I think DTV has the best reception, Dish, may be #2 in my limited experience. I think you can stream to your computer just by going to the "streamers" website. .02
 
I'm not sure I understand how Ruku and Hulu work. How do you receive it? I'm fed up with Spectrum and skeptical of a new fiber optic service (Allo) about to go on line here.
 
The availability of channels doesn't vary much between the devices because most of the channels are "apps" that are made for most of the major devices.

If you have a friend with cable or satellite TV you can "log in with TV provider" and watch many cable-type channels on their account.
 
I dropped cable recently and went with Sling (blue) which gives me a decent selection of cable channels. Pluto TV is good for some free content and If you have an Amazon subscription you can watch movies on Prime. There’s a few other free apps for movies and tv that were mentioned like Xumo that are good too. I’m using an Apple TV, but a Roku is just as good and cheaper. There’s a lot of apps you can download for free content. Oh, if you have Xfinity Internet (Spectrum too I think) you get the premium version of Peacock included.

Be aware streaming uses a LOT of data and if your internet has a cap, you’ll probably go over it if you stream a lot. Our first month with 2 tvs streaming just went over 1.2TB and this month will be higher because it seems MLB TV uses more data. Thankfully there’s no data cap for Xfinity in the Northeast for some reason.
 
Yah-Tah-Hey said:
I'm not sure I understand how Ruku and Hulu work. How do you receive it? I'm fed up with Spectrum and skeptical of a new fiber optic service (Allo) about to go on line here.
Click to expand...
I comes through the internet. Like watching you tube videos on a PC or laptop.
Do you have a wireless or wired router in your house?
 
ARCOgraphite said:
I have triple play medium tier NO sports packages NO HBO. $250 a month One TV no DVR. that's more than my mortage or car payment a month.
And they keep killing off good included channels like TCM even though they added EPIC
Click to expand...
My package is similar with 2 TV's and was $125 for the 2 year contract that expired a few months ago. Now it's $155 but have been too lazy to renew the contract.
 
As others have mentioned - the Roku you linked is the device that lets you watch through other apps like Pluto, IMDB tv, Peacock, etc. You can also pay for stuff like Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, etc.

We have a Roku enabled TV. We pay for Hulu, sign up for a year subscription when they run it around Black Friday for $1.99 - so we end up around $25 a year for whatever we want to watch.

No hidden fees, etc. There may have been a request for a credit card when we activated our Roku account years ago so that it is "easier" to purchase content when you want to (purchases still required a pin). Really don't recall if this was mandatory but easy solution if you want to be extra safe is a prepaid card from a rebate and then just spend the card elsewhere, I've never had an issue with that.

Cut our basic cable (the "2-13" channels) maybe 6 years ago. Like supton said it is easy once it's gone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Is Dailymotion just a scam app
Replies
3
Views
430
Rand
S
No Monday night football for Spectrum / Charter customers?
Replies
10
Views
577
alarmguy
R
Antique RCA Systemlink Universal Remote Codes
Replies
8
Views
1K
Rmay635703
M
Canceling Spectrum Streaming
Replies
2
Views
575
Mr_Luke
GON
Is there a good streaming service without sports?
Replies
18
Views
674
Vil_Riker
Back
Top