TELEVISION VIEWING OPTIONS

[Gator]

Maybe this is a weird question but...
If you are not watching cable or satellite TV what are you watching?
My wife is about as tech savvy as a june bug. Seriously.
I'm paying nearly $200 a month for Dish Network and I want to move over to Netflix or Hulu, or Amazon Prime, or ???

What can I set her up with that she can easily navigate and I can come out cheaper?

She likes Dr Pol, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, and some nature shows.

FYI: I haven't watched TV since Christmas. I just don't have time. I'd watch an action movie once a year.

 

[Admin]

 

[Mopower58]

We have Amazon Fire TV and AT&T is our provider. It has numerous options available. We used to have satellite tv also and the price kept going up.

 

[CID]

I'm too cheap to pay to watch TV, never had cable, never will. I used to be a prime time TV junkie, it seemed I could always find one of the 3 networks (and then KDVR and CW), prime time dramas to watch but they killed that this year with all the social engineering bulls*** being forced down our throats. So I've limited my TV time to Netflix and a few of the small channel stuff like Yukon Gold.

I have Amazon Prime but haven't figured out how to get it to my TV and I'm using the puter for a few forums like here so I can't use it for Prime shows (if the TV is on, I'm also on the puter).

 

[bjniceguy]

check out Fubo TV. They have pretty good selection and have a Guide to see what is on (fair amount of sports plus all the you talked about & some). Most pay ones have 1 week to 30 day trials for free, so you can check out before you dump what you have. Even my wife can figure it out (most of time). I use Ruku stick in TV through internet. Hope this helps.

There are a bunch of Free ones out there too, Like pluto, Tubi, Crackle, IMDB, Plex that have a lot of movies, but not near as easy to get around in.

 

[Fyathyrio]

Cutting the cord is awesome! You need decent internet speed. (Mine is usually running ~15-20 mbps here in rural UT and works fine), hardware that can get the different "channels" that really work like apps on a phone, and subscriptions.

Roku (hardware receiver) is cheap, like a one time $30 buy-in. It plugs into the TV like a DVD player or cable box, with an HDMI cable. You search for your desired tv provider and add it to the main menu, just like app on phone. I use Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. Newer TVs may have this built in.

Hulu has a HUGE library of older TV shows, and you can get a commercial free option for only a couple extra $$ a month. If you don't want to pay for cable style channels like ESPN or NBC, it's about $15 a month, otherwise it's around $70. Hulu has an OK movie library, too.

Netflix has some decent TV shows, some self created content, and OK movie library, too. $13ish/month. They occasionally pick up network cancelled shows to give them new life, such as Lucifer from Fox.

Amazon is already paid for with my Prime membership, has some old TV shows, too, but wants to charge a few bucks for many movies in it's library, others are free. They are starting to create their own stuff, too.

I don't have Philo, but if I decide I want basic cable style programming, that's the one I will go with. It's about 1/3rd the cost of other basic cable streaming services since they don't have sports or news channels. (I read my news online instead, and don't do sports anymore with all the politics involved)

So, for around $80/mo, including the cost of internet, I have more than enough TV to keep me entertained. I do not miss not having networks or tons of basic cable channels that I never watched.

Pitfalls are few, main one is the providers vary on how they handle extra devices, such as a 2nd TV in the house, or kid away at college using the account. Hulu only allows 1 TV/Roku per account, but will allow others to watch on devices like phones or tablets. Netflix allows 3 TVs I believe, and isn't picky about where in country they are at. Not sure about Amazon policy, but it seems to work on both my TVs with no complaints.

 

[Kinlaw]

I've reached the point where I mostly just watch Youtube. Network TV is garbage.

 

[Gator]

I guess I should have mentioned that I bought a Roku and put it on the TV last night. It seems to work fine. Althought their remote won't program to my (any) TV for volume control.

 

[Fyathyrio]

Universal remote that works with Roku

 

[Backwoods]

I have and like Direct TV

 

[tdhanses]

I have Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Sling TV. I probably pay roughly $75-$80 a month for it all. The most expensive is Sling at $35. I pay $55 for Google fiber internet. I tend to usually watch mostly YouTube stuff anymore but the kids watch everything else in some fashion.

 

[rickoshea]

i get netflix, amazon prime and internet tv on my big screen smart tv logged into the home wifi.the remote has the dedicated buttons on it out the box.i use the kids password for netflix,so free and the ball 'n chain is addicted to amazon shopping so prime,naturally.internet tv channel lineups change enough to keep it interesting.lots of car stuff,offroad,racing.

 

[Vikes79]

I have and like Direct TV

Me too.

cutting the cord options total up dang near to the $90 a month I spend already.

 

[trigger]

I've had the cable trifecta forever. High speed internet, all the channels and an unlimited landline that I don't need but it's part of the deal. Price kept creeping up and they wouldn't work a deal, they used to. Told them if it went over $200 I was going to cancel. Just about that time I got a telemarketer call from my cable company offering a huge discount for new customers. Shows how on the ball they are. Of course I b****ed that they should offer that to their longtime customers and he said there's a way around that. He told me step by step how to do it.
Call the cable company and cancel. Suddenly they're going to find you a discount bc they don't want to lose a customer, but it's not enough, decline their offer. Tell them you and the wife are splitting up and you're moving out. They'll ask if she would like to keep the service transferred into her name. No, she doesn't want it. Your wife can call and get new service in her name and the new customer discounts locked in for 2 yrs. These can be timed so you have limited interruption (about 2 hrs for us). You will have to switch out your boxes but the newer ones are always better anyway. In 2yrs when the discounts come off you do the same thing the other way.
Yeah, it's a game of deceit but I was sick of playing their game. Saving me $70 a month for 2 yrs.

 

[JACKAL]

Maybe this is a weird question but...
If you are not watching cable or satellite TV what are you watching?
My wife is about as tech savvy as a june bug. Seriously.
I'm paying nearly $200 a month for Dish Network and I want to move over to Netflix or Hulu, or Amazon Prime, or ???

What can I set her up with that she can easily navigate and I can come out cheaper?

She likes Dr Pol, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, and some nature shows.

FYI: I haven't watched TV since Christmas. I just don't have time. I'd watch an action movie once a year.

DISCLAIMER NOTE:

1. You have to have 100MB sec + internet for the below to work.

2. This is gray market stuff, definitely not DMCA kosher. But it works perfectly.


I ditched my $180 mo Dish Network, and switched to 100% streaming services.

I have five (5) Amazon Firestick 4K all setup identical. They have been put in developer mode and added the following apps.

Downloader
Tivimate
EMBY

Tivimate sub that I use is $200 a year, for 5 concurrent TV streams of 5400+ channels. This is everything you can buy from Dish/DirecTV all premium channels, PPV, over 650 local TV stations from cities all over US.

EMBY is a share server like a PLEX on steroids, as soon as any movie hits stream it is stored there for access in 4K

Feed Crew is the service that runs in Tivimate.

This is what I have, overkill but I share with 2 other families.

This is what a typical family would buy...

In addition to the above I get Disney + included with my Verizon phone service and have Amazon Prime Video.

Between all that there is always something to watch

 

[Gator]

DISCLAIMER NOTE:

1. You have to have 100MB sec + internet for the below to work.

2. This is gray market stuff, definitely not DMCA kosher. But it works perfectly.


I ditched my $180 mo Dish Network, and switched to 100% streaming services.

I have five (5) Amazon Firestick 4K all setup identical. They have been put in developer mode and added the following apps.

Downloader
Tivimate
EMBY

Tivimate sub that I use is $200 a year, for 5 concurrent TV streams of 5400+ channels. This is everything you can buy from Dish/DirecTV all premium channels, PPV, over 650 local TV stations from cities all over US.

EMBY is a share server like a PLEX on steroids, as soon as any movie hits stream it is stored there for access in 4K

Feed Crew is the service that runs in Tivimate.

This is what I have, overkill but I share with 2 other families.

View attachment 287908
View attachment 287907

This is what a typical family would buy...

View attachment 287909


In addition to the above I get Disney + included with my Verizon phone service and have Amazon Prime Video.

Between all that there is always something to watch

This is what I'm talking about!!!
Unfortunately my internet speed ranges from 6-20 MBS.

 

[JACKAL]

This is what I'm talking about!!!
Unfortunately my internet speed ranges from 6-20 MBS.

I would say bare minimum for 1 TV stream in HD would be 30mb secon cable / fiber for enjoyable minimal bufferring. Until 6/30 I had 100mb sec satellite and it just didn't cut it, mainly because the supposedly unlimited data got throttling after 150GB of bandwidth, that's about 2 weeks of normal TV use and I really never averaged 100mb sec. etc.

For those interested a ton of information and instructional videos are on YouTube from Troypoint .com

 

[Jerryg]

Not really watching TV anymore, canceled cable years ago. There are plenty of things to watch online. If I am not learning something, i won't waste the time.

 

[JACKAL]

Not really watching TV anymore, canceled cable years ago. There are plenty of things to watch online. If I am not learning, i won't waste the time. something

I haven't paid attention to the networks propaganda machines in a few years. But with my setup above it's nice to go back and watch series on my schedule, Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Yellowstone, etc. Or any movie that strikes my fancy. Of my 5470 channel access on Tivimate I probably checkout 50 channels maybe.

 

[Dasmoeturhead]

Since I've had Netflix I've learned 6 different languages. Lol! Lots of foreign stuff, and I've learned to read faster. Ciao ciao

 

[Jerryg]

I haven't paid attention to the networks propaganda machines in a few years. But with my setup above it's nice to go back and watch series on my schedule, Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Yellowstone, etc. Or any movie that strikes my fancy. Of my 5470 channel access on Tivimate I probably checkout 50 channels maybe.

I used to be a bit of a movie buff, especially comedies. But my disdain for Hollywood and media outlets has overshadowed the urge.