<p>I was thinking about signing up for Netflix streaming, with my primary purpose being to watch tv series, both old and new. When I went to their website, I had difficulty finding a list of the shows they offered through their streaming service. I called the number listed and spoke to a customer service representative. She told me they don’t have a list of shows offered, but she could check one or two for me. I asked about The Good Wife. Nope, not offered through streaming. </p>
<p>I’m annoyed and feel like they are trying to hide what they do and don’t offer. Maybe I’m way off base. What are your experiences? Is it worth $8.00 a month?</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, the Netflix website does list all the available TV shows (within each category you have to click on the arrow at the end of the row to see the next set of shows). I think the streaming options are very poor, for both TV and movies.</p>
<p>Depending on what kind of shows you like to watch, I think the streaming of TV shows is pretty good. I’ve watched all 6 seasons of Weeds on Netflix, as well as Walking Dead, Family Guy, and Glee.</p>
<p>You should be able to find a free month code somewhere on the internet (retailmenot.com is a good bet). Use that, see if they have what you want, and then determine if it’s worth the $8 a month.</p>
<p>Personally, I ditched cable and used Netflix exclusively a while back. Then I realized I wasted too much time watching Netflix, and I just watch less TV in general now. Saved a lot of money in the long run.</p>
<p>Sportsmama - I did the same thing as you and noticed the same thing as well. They don’t list very many shows on their website. I was trying to compare it against Amazon’s streaming service. I’ve read that Netflix has more shows but they don’t have a very good website and they’re not very complete in what they indicate. I haven’t decided whether to do the free first month or not (they require personal and payment details for the free month).</p>
<p>btw - I read elsewhere that Netflix consumes around 23% of all internet traffic.</p>
<p>You can’t easily see what is streamed vs. available on disc, especially without a subscription. Once you have the subscription, you can go to the website and search for each item you are interested in, then see if you can add it to your instant queue. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t… I have both types of subscription so I can watch instantly or get discs. We use a Wii to stream.</p>
<p>Examples of things we can only get on disc: NCIS, Game of Thrones, Kings, Castle, quite a few movies.</p>
<p>Examples of things we have streamed: Downton Abbey, Glee, Numb3rs, Dr. Who, Mythbusters, MasterPiece Mystery: Inspector Lewis.</p>
<p>Even when Netflix has them, usually there is a long lag (6 months or more) between when the episode is on TV and it is available through Netflix. Example: still waiting for season 2 of Downton Abbey and season 9 of NCIS.</p>
<p>We just quit streaming because the selection is so sparse of movies, tv shows and docs. No Dexter, no Closer. For eg., I did enjoy Breaking Bad, and a few Masterpiece mysteries, but I finished ages ago. They are seasons behind. I feel there is nothing on Netflix I would want to watch today.</p>
<p>In June, I signed up for 2 free 30 day trials – one with Netflix, one with Amazon Prime – I just canceled Netflix because selection of movies was so poor (but I wasn’t looking for TV shows). I have 4 days to go with Amazon – they have better selection plus you get free shipping.</p>
<p>The other option to look into is Hulu Plus. I have a few friends that subscribed to it and seemed happy.</p>
<p>I’ve got an Amazon Prime subscription for the free 2-day shipping and free monthly kindle book, but I’ve hardly used their streaming service. I think it’s still gaining steam and lacks a lot of shows.</p>
<p>I’ve been using Amazon Instant Video. It has both seasons of Downton Abbey for free if you have Amazon Prime. You can check out what it has for free by going to Amazon and looking at Amazon Instant Video and checking Prime eligible. Of course we’re watching Season 9 of NCIS which is not free (but is available.) There’s a bunch of other stuff I like to watch like most of the Midsomer Murders and Poirot.</p>
<p>After major research, I think Hulu PLUS is far better than Netflix streaming. Hulu has good stuff, but when you pay the $8 a whole new world opens up. They offer a free month trial as well. Maybe try them too.</p>
<p>I think the streaming on Amazon has the complication that some content is included in the ‘Prime’ offering but other content has a per-use charge despite being a Prime member. Is that correct and what you meant by - </p>
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It seems that it’d be irritating if most of what one wanted to watch wasn’t included in the Prime fee.</p>
<p>It looks like none of the streaming services are ideal.</p>
<p>^^ Thanks. I was being selfish and asking for myself - not the OP. I’m considering signing up for one of these but I’m not sure which one or if it’s even worth it if the content isn’t what I want.</p>
<p>One problem with watching TV shows on HuluPlus is the COMMERCIALS - there are a lot more of these than there used to be. For example, the current season of Bones has around 7 1/2 - 8 minutes of commercials per “one-hour” show. Psych has a bit less - maybe 6 or so minutes per show.
It’s so irritating that you pay $8 per month and STILL have to watch all those #&<em>!</em>^! commercials. We’re thinking of dropping it.</p>
<p>Plus, HuluPlus doesn’t necessarily carry all seasons of shows - sometimes just the most recent one or two.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. I am in the process of researching the different companies. </p>
<p>MomCat2, I just came from the HuluPlus website. At least they let you look at their offerings before you sign up. I’m disappointed to say they didn’t have The Good Wife, not even the current season. As you mentioned, they tend to have only the current season of quite a few series. </p>
<p>I was very, very disappointed with the Netflix offerings. We signed up for their 1 month free trial and quickly dropped it since there was practically nothing watchable among their collection of garbage shows. At least the cancellation process was very quick and painless. Thanks for the heads up on the Hulu commercials - I’d be really ticked off to find out that after the fact!</p>
<p>Ok. Just returned from the Amazon site. I am thoroughly confused. They had two different plans. Can’t remember the name of the first one, but it appears you pay a fee per tv episode. I’m not sure if there is a subscription fee. Then there is Amazon Prime, which costs $79 per year. I got tired after a while, so I abandoned my search and might return. I don’t know who designs these things, but I’m sure they could do a much better job if they surveyed customers!</p>
<p>Gladgraddad (do I have that right?) Yes, what I meant was even with all the free content available we of course are watching something we have to pay for. But we don’t mind–we’re fools for NCIS.</p>