Call us dinosaurs, but we haven’t yet switched to any of the online sites for movies/tv watching. Still have cable at home. But are now thinking of getting one of these. Few questions to those who have these services -
Are all of these monthly subscription based services? Any cancellation fees if you change your mind?
Can you watch any tv show/movie with just the subscription or do you need to buy shows/movies? I want to watch all episodes of an older show that is no longer on tv - assume that's available?
How about sports? H won't be happy if we can't watch all the NFL/MLB games
There have been times when the four of us are in four different locations. Will all of us be able to use the same account to watch? Is there a family membership of sorts?
How do you get this on the big screen tv? Do you use HDMI or a device like Apple TV, Chromecast? We have both Macs and PCs at home - interested to hear what would be the easiest option.
I do not believe that Netflix/ Hulu have sports. We watch sports on over the air tv.
Amazon Prime, has shows, including original programming, but also has shows that are extra.
Hulu plus is a monthly service with current programming, but can’t always watch more than a few season. No extra fees. ( also has ads)
Netflix has mostly older shows & movies, up to 3 or so viewers can have seperate to do lists & can watch different shows at same time. Also has current original programming. ( streaming + DVDs available)
We don’t have cable, but we do have Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime & Hulu plus. Have two kids who share the accounts, and haven’t had a problem. Only on Netflix can you set up different viewing lists with same username & password.
Sorry can’t help about how to watch on your flat screen, our TV does not have a HDMI port.
There probably is newer info, but this could be a place to start. http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/2013/10/16/how-to-cut-the-cord-cable-tv/
I was recently looking at a $300 TV at Costco that already had Internet access included, however I read an article that advised that the boxes ( Roku, AppleTv- Xbox?..), were a better option because their software is updated more often than the software in the TV. It also advised there would be a new crop of televisions coming out after the latest electronic show that are a big jump from what is currently available, so I am waiting.
You can put in your address to this FCC site and it will tell you what stations you might receive.
Click on the. Station call sign on the left and it draws a line to the tower.
We bought a $60 indoor antenna with amplifier and can get around 50 channels. We can watch some sports but not all on the major networks and in high def. For free.
We also bought a cheap “seen on TV” antenna at Walgreens as a test. $15 bucks and works great
Trying very hard to get good cheap internet connection without TV but it is proving difficult in my area. They make it cheaper to bundle the TV with it but its still more than I want to spend.
It is all a work in progress. Looking at Ting for my phone service too.
Good luck. Google is your friend! You can even google best ways to get a deal at comcast etc.
We buy basic cable (for sports) and have netflix and Amazon Prime. Works for us a family consisting of: 50 something parents, a 15yo D and a 21yo S. The only person in our house who watches TV live is my H. The rest of us, time shift programs to suit our schedule or binge watch series we haven’t seen on Amazon and Netflix.
Wow 50 stations?
I am in a big city & I only get 13 stations. Which is just about the same as before the transition to digital.
Not all are worth watching, but they are enough to keep H happy.
Ek. With the cheap antenna we got about 20 stations. With the $60 one with the amplifier we get 51. Some of those are foreign language or home shopping. We do get BBC which is nice and all the major networks like abc,CBS,NBC,fox,TNT , a couple stations that show movies and some PBS stations.
We bought one for son in St. Louis. Will be interesting to see what he picks up on his when he connects it. From the maps he has clear view to most of the towers in his city.
The above link in post 2 will show you strength of signals from your house and ,i believe, suggest power of antenna. I had looked at a few sites while shopping around.
Many pro sports are shown on regular stations but certainly not all the games.
We share daughters netflix account and watch netflix on TV through our blue ray player. Lots of options.
https://www.sling.com/ - this is new, haven’t tried it. But I’m seriously considering going the antenna/sling/netflix/hulu route and cancelling my DirecTV. It just costs too much. Here’s what we have right now:
Amazon Prime - I get this for the free shipping. Least favorite movie/TV service, as almost everything I want to watch costs extra. There is a lot for free, but usually it’s stuff I can get other places.
Netflix - they have two tiers, where you can get 2 or 4 concurrent streams. Great selection of TV and movies, but it changes all the time due to contracts and viewership. They don’t get recent shows until after the season has ended.
HuluPlus - has lots of old movies, and you can watch many recent episodes of TV shows the day after airing. They’ll often have the 5 most recent episodes of any given show available. Not sure how many can be logged in to the account at the same time.
I believe only Amazon Prime requires you sign up for a year. The others are monthly with no time commitment. D uses all these accounts to watch shows away at school.
We have both a Roku box and a ChromeCast. The advantage of the ChromeCast is you don’t need a remote - you use your phone, tablet, or laptop to talk to the ChromeCast. The disadvantage is you can’t get Amazon Prime on the ChromeCast. I’ve been very happy with the Roku except I live in fear of losing the remote - lose the remote and you’ve got a device good for nothing other than serving as a hockey puck.
We just signed up for Sling and cancelled cable (although it’s not actually off yet). So far we are liking Sling. Watching HGTV on it bright now. Football is our primary sport and it will be nice to still have ESPN. You can even add a sports package for another $5 and get ESPNU and SEC network. I may do that in the fall. I only have ESPN and ESPN2 with the cable package so it would be nice to have those extras. They say its easy to add/drop the add-ons and even the service itself. No contract. And they gave me a week free trial.
We have the lower tier Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Roku box.