tv options

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m old and still watch TV the old fashioned way. I pay for satellite reception. I pay for 200 channels that have crap on all the time and 50% of the time its commercials…So I’m paying for the privledge of being inundated with shit and commercials.

I want something else. What are suggestions for watching new and old tv shows, movies etc. I’m even ignorant of netflicks. I know it is out there, but I’m not totally familiar with the concept. I have wifi so should be able to get internet broadcast through the TV. What reputable websites would I look into.

Also my wifi may not be strong enough where the TV is situated, is there a way to boost the signal if I need to?

Essentially…what are you young kids doing for TV nowadays, without having to pay for cable or satelite.

2

We’re using Netflix, with an occasional trip to Hulu or a specific network’s website (like, say, www.abc.com). The upside is Netflix is cheap (even with the upcoming price hike) and for TV series you usually get an entire season at once so happy binge-watching. The downside is that you tend to get stuff 3 to 6 or even 12 months after the initial broadcast. That doesn’t bother us much. For other people it’s a big deal. We’re not paying for Hulu and the like, we’re using the free services which means current shows you usually have to wait a week before you can see the most recent episode. Again, not a problem for our household.

Broadcast TV in our area has channels that specialize in old TV shows. I often get a Six Million Dollar Man fix on Wednesday nights, for example. The selection is limited, but if you like 50’s-60’s-70’s sitcoms you might be happy with it.

Beyond that, we hit the video section at our county library. We’re fortunate, though, in that we have a surprisingly good local library that really makes an effort to keep up with local popular shows and movies. Again, there’s a wait between initial showing and when the library gets it, and sometimes a prior patron has effec up the disk, but you can’t beat the price.

For current events, there are plenty of news sites on the web, and more choices than you’ll get from cable, actually. If it’s REALLY important the broadcast TV will be showing it, too, 24/7, for free.

3

I subscribe to cable and use my DVR extensively. I never watch anything in its original time slot except for local news and Judge Judy (hey, it’s a good background noise for when I’m fixing dinner. Shut up.)

Turner Classic Movies often has something worth taping, and I am currently being amused by the Failing Business Impossible Rescue shows.

Also, several friends of mine have appeared on Oddities.

4

My suggestion is to buy an antenna (like one from these guys) and start seeing what you can get from over-the-air broadcasts. You might get a ton of channels like I do, you might not get many. But what you do get will be good and crisp and in high def.

Then buy a smart Blu-Ray player that has applications on it to play Netflix, Amazon and Hulu content. You can get a subscription to Netflix for $8/mo, or one from Amazon for $99/year, or both. And/or you can just pay for content from Amazon a-la-carte. Personally I subscribe to Netflix and then when I want to see new movies, I rent them on Amazon for $4.

You can also use the library for free movies and TV on DVD. You can use RedBox to rent movies. You can subscribe to HuluPlus to get a lot of over-the-air content if your antenna doesn’t get good reception and/or if you would prefer to watch the content on your schedule and not just when it is airing.

If you like sports your choices are kind of limited. Your device would need to have an MLB.tv application in order to watch an MLB.tv subscription - but you will not be able to watch games from your local team. I don’t know what the NFL and NHL do. Lucky for me my NFL team is on broadcast TV, and I can watch some NCAA stuff. Otherwise, get used to the radio.

You can get very long ethernet cables for cheap to physically hook your blu-ray player up to the Internet if you don’t think your wifi is that strong. But then again the wifi might be way stronger than you think.

In list format:

  1. Good antenna. Check out what is available OTA for you.
  2. Smart BD player with Netflix, Amazon and Hulu
    2a. Hooked up to Wifi
    2b. Hooked up with physical cable
  3. Netflix subscription; Amazon Prime subscription; Hulu subscription; Amazon a-la-carte. Choose one or all of these things. See the web site http://canistream.it to see what is streaming where.
  4. Sports is a tossup. Invest in a good radio.
5

A major consideration is the quality of your internet signal. Some of us have problems with the streaming signal stuttering/freezing.

Two other options you might consider are
Netflix disk rental by mail:

and Redbox available at tens of thousands of locations:
http://www.redbox.com/

6

free broadcast tv. currently in the USA it is digital tv and so you need a digital tv or digital tv converter sending the signal to your tv.

go to

www.tvfool.com

click on

Check Your Address for Free TV

enter your zip code or address (better) and height of antenna (intended or current).

it will give a list of channels and the type of antenna needed.

i get a bunch of stations. with digital broadcast tv each channel can offer 2 or 3 subchannels (think as each tv station now had 2 or 3 channels). i get a movie channel, a few retro(old) rerun channel, a few do-it-yourself/cooking/health channels. enough to find something during the times i want to watch tv.

7

Where do you live? A lot of people that have satellite reception are out in pretty rural areas, so you may not have access to either over the air broadcast television, and/or high speed internet connections. So a lot of these options may not be well-suited for you.

There are five major providers of non-cable television content that you may want to look into: Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Roku and Netflix.

Netflix: $8/month can give you access to its online content, which is heavy on television shows, light on major motion pictures. Another $5/month can get you 2 DVDs a month to your mailbox.

Amazon: $99/year gives you access to even more online content, also heavy on television shows. I don’t have this service, but I know plenty of people who like it. The $99 plan is for Amazon Prime, which also gives you access to all sorts of Amazon perks, like 1-day shipping (with caveats). They’re being pretty aggressive these days acquiring content, and recently got HBO to give them access to nearly their entire library (minus a few fancy baubles, like “Game of Thrones”).

Hulu (Plus): Also $8/month. Has a solid corner on the market for recent content - they get shows just a few days after they air, versus waiting for things to come out on DVD for Netflix and Amazon (no, Netflix and Amazon don’t send you DVDs (other than Netflix’s DVD service…), but they don’t have the rights until it’s on DVD). It’s essentially a DVR for people without a DVR. Note that even for the subscription-based Hulu Plus, you will still have to endure commercials. It’s the cost of early access to the content.

Roku: For as little as $50, you can get a device that will access Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon services, as well as a bunch of random crap as well. You will need some sort of device to access the various provider content (unless you’re just going to watch on your computer rather than your TV), Roku is a well-built little device that you plug into your TV. (Be aware that Roku’s website is really misleading, and lists a bunch of channels that you can access via it, but you’ll need a paid subscription to actually watch (usually a cable subscription).)

Apple (TV): Like Roku, Apple has come to market with a nice little device that will access a bunch of service providers, Netflix and Hulu being the main ones. It does NOT access Amazon, however (they’re competitors). You can connect to any of your Apple-purchased media with this device, and have easy access to purchase shows and movies through it as well. They cost $99, and you can find them used pretty easily.

Amazon (again): Note that Amazon just went to market with an Apple TV competitor device, which does a lot of the same stuff, minus have access to the Apple store.

8

Also, keep in mind that all of these options need a lot of bandwidth. If your Internet connection has a data cap (a limit on the amount of data you can download in a month without additional fees), watching Netflix and/or Hulu every day may end up costing you more than your satellite connection costs now.

9

Are you bragging or confessing?

That’s my issue, exactly. Sports is about all I watch anymore, and to get all of the the sports I currently watch I would have to pay more in subscriptions than I pay for satellite. Even then I couldn’t get college basball, softball or lacrosse. :frowning:

10

I have a similar issue. I am going to be moving to a new place, and want to figure out the best/most cost efficient way to set up multiple (at least three or four) tv’s in the new place. I read up briefly on that antenna, and it wasn’t clear whether that would be connectable to multiple tv’s, or would I just need to buy a few separate antennas/units. I also watch sports a lot. So maybe cable is still the best answer, but I’m hoping someone has good insight into “splitting” the signal. Although it’s a big place I’m moving into, it’s just me and occasional company, so I’d rather not pay “full time” for the various different tv’s to be connected. Thanks.

11

you can get distribution amplifiers with outputs (2,4 or 6) which you can hook up to your antenna and distribute the signal.

12

Thanks, John. Would those distribution amplifiers also work if I do decide to stay with verizon fios?

13

Crackle.com is free. It’s not bad. And it’s free.

14

the amps will amplify what your antenna gets or any video signal on the antenna/cable coaxial cable.

you would need a tuner at each tv set.