I grew up with TV free over the air and I haven’t advanced much since then. I had cable once and I had satellite once, both in small towns with little choice. I found them very much over priced. if I could get even ONE network over the air I’d be happy with that.
what’s all these new ways of viewing TV? streaming on the internet won’t work for me since I am already maxing out what I pay for, internet-wise.
I do have a laptop with a DVD player and I know I can get DVDs of TV programs from Netflix. $8 a month? might do that.
in other threads where people talk about their roku and hulu plus and amazon prime I get confused. I need a very basic TV101 about what the options are.
assume I am clueless, OK? and walk me through it. kindness is optional since I have the hide of a rhino (which I really should give back)
blast, that wasn’t very clear. here’s the scoop - I am CHEAP and techno-dumb and want more TV than I currently have which is one over the air station that sucks. I have
a cheap TV
a laptop that plays DVDs
nothing else, device wise
my internet is pretty much used up by just surfing - so I don’t think I want to “stream”. unless I change that.
I might need more coffee - not a lot of degrees outside (maybe none, actually) and my brain seems to be not working.
Confused about that as well. If you have a monthly cap, and you’re hitting it, you won’t be able to use Hulu Plus (and hulu), Amazon Prime or Netflix Instant. Those are all streaming services. Having said that, you can stream them all into your computer or a Roku box. OTOH, if you’re not streaming any videos now, I’d be surprised if you’re hitting any kid of cap.
If you’ve hit your cap and don’t want to raise it, your options are going to be physical DVDs. So, (regular) Netflix or the library which probably has DVDs that you can borrow for free.
If you’re at 5g and you only have 8 available each month and you want to get the majority of your video entertainment via internet streaming each month, the first thing I’d do is look into the cost of unlimited downloads.
I think you’ll chew up that last 2.5g after you watch about one full length movie, maybe two (but I could be wrong).
I’d look into the cost of an unlimited download plan and add the cost of something like Netflix Instant to it. From there you can decide if it’s cheaper to just get cable.
Roku is a magical little box that works on TVs that aren’t internet ready. I’ve got one on the bedroom TV. I think it cost me about $50, and it connects wirelessly with my router - you may also be able to connect directly to a router or modem, but since I don’t do that, I don’t know.
I access Netflix with the Roku, but it also has other “channels” available, both TV shows and movies, some really really *really *old movies. I don’t watch those because they’re interrupted by commercials. It wouldn’t be bad if it was like broadcast TV, but in my experience, it just randomly (at set time intervals?) breaks into the show with ads. It could be literally in the middle of a spoken word. Made me nuts, so I don’t bother with it any longer. I think it also has news feeds and other stuff, but I just use it for Netflix.
Hope there’s something in my verbiage that helps you.
Roku, Wii, Various Blu-Ray players, some Smart TV’s, newer Tivo’s, Laptops…yes, you just buy them once. It’s just a box with some software. Then you give Netflix a couple of dollars per month for the service. That’s why I didn’t count the price of the hardware into the budget in my last post. Over time it’ll cost less and less and you’ll be able to use it for other things. For example, with the Roku, you can use it for Crackle (free movies), Facebook, youtube, Pandora, Hulu Plus (pay TV) etc.
all helpful, thank you. also I am reading the pitt thread about xbox. and I did NOT know that microsoft will of course screw us. so, I’m pretty uninformed.
for internet I have verizon mifi and I’ve been signed onto their website for 30 minutes and still have NO idea how much unlimited streaming would cost me or even if it is possible. :mad:
You can’t stream over cellular internet - don’t even try (20G is like 10 hours of programming, and isn’t that hundreds of $/month from verizon). Honestly the data caps on Cellular internet are comically low.
If you want to stream, you need to look at DSL, Cable, or a local dedicated wireless provider (where you mount an antenna on your house -not a cell phone company). Those generally are cap free or have caps of 250 or 300 gigabytes which are at least a reasonable amount of data.
Yes. Sign up, pick anything labeled “Watch Instantly,” and you are there.
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so - my verizon mifi does not have unlimited data - but it goes up to 20 MG, how much could I stream with that?
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Well, I’m looking here at the extended version of the Lord of the Rings - I see 2.6GB for three hours, and 2.85GB for three hours, twenty minutes. Not HD.
But I have DSL and can’t speak to** jacobsta811’s** cautions above about the implications of doing this over cellular.
Sure you can. My internet was acting wonky one night and I streamed a movie onto my cell phone and ran an HDMI cord to my TV. No problem.
But then I have an unlimited data plan and was doing it more just to see if I could do it.
Also, as for how much data you’ll use up streaming. 1 Gig per hour is a reasonable assumption to work with.
