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I hooked up a computer to my big screen in the living room (got a remote for the computer that works like a TV remote, moves the mouse, etc). Killed the satellite, put an antenna in its place for HD over-the-air stations (locals, weather, pbs). I joined Netflix ($14.99 a month plan).
Best decision ever.
Far far far fewer commercials. I never miss anything I want to see. There is always something on. Aside from a minor initial investment, costs me a total of $15 a month (and I get DVDs mailed to me two at a time for that too).
Seriously look into living “cable free”. If you don’t like it, you can always call DirecTV.For a newer street, there is no DSL here. Only Charter for Internet. thinking about dropping the Cable shows, and keep the Internet. I am finding most of my favorite shows are online. ??
That is what I am thinking my best option may be. If I miss something on live tv I can probably catch it on Hulu later…
A few thoughts.
Netflix has no shortage of good movies and TV shows to Watch Instantly, but if you go looking for a specific movie to Watch Instantly you might come out disappointed. Instead, I just maintain a huge (500+) Instant Queue of movies to watch that I append to whenever I see interesting stuff while browsing around. Movies that I want to watch that aren’t available for streaming, I put in the DVD queue and eventually get around to.
It’s great because there’s always something to watch, but not always great if I have something specific in mind that I want to watch.
You can use Netflix Watch Instantly streaming service on your Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and a plethora of other boxes, such as some Blu-Ray players and dedicated streaming boxes like Roku and AppleTV. I usually watch movies from my Xbox, and my dad (sharing my account) watches movies on his netbook.
I like Hulu as well but I am not really sold on the idea of their Plus subscription plan. I will wait and see what they offer up, and as the rumors go they want to open up the entire back catalog of old seasons of shows that they already have, so it might be good if you are a real TV-holic. Since Netflix already has some shows on their streaming service (Lost, 24, Dollhouse, Dexter) I feel that Netflix offers a better value than Hulu Plus, although the service hasn’t even launched yet so it’s too early to say.
Something to note is that what you find on Netflix may not be on Hulu, and what you find on Hulu may not be on Netflix. Netflix Watch Instantly focuses on movies but has some TV (and a good amount, too), whereas Hulu’s primary focus is on TV and has very few movies (mostly forgotten old movies).
On timeliness: Hulu (free) offers TV episodes online anywhere from an hour, to a day, to eight days or more after the episode originally airs on TV. You usually have a bit over a month to watch the episode before it expires and disappears from the service. This is pretty much good enough for me to keep up with shows like House MD, Lie to Me, Chuck, Community, V, Glee, White Collar, Burn Notice, and Covert Affairs.
Netflix on the other hand does not really announce any timeframe, if or when a TV series or season will show up on the Watch Instantly feature. Same goes for movies. You could wait a couple months, or perhaps even years (!), although lately Netflix has been getting better at procuring movies for their streaming service in a timely manner.
The only real problem is if there is a specific show that you follow, they may not be offered by either of the two, at all. Fox, ABC and NBC (and affiliates) pretty much put up all their shows on Hulu. A few others do as well. CBS and Showtime, amongst others, choose not to participate — you can watch their shows on your computer, on their website, but I’m not aware of any provisions made to watch on your TV from the couch. For instance, I follow Dexter and I used to watch CSI, and you wouldn’t be able to watch the latest episodes from your Roku.
Another option: with a digital tuner (standalone, or an HDTV equipped with one) you may be able to get over-the-air broadcast (for free). Here where I live I get a handful of channels, all in HD quality, although unfortunately the networks I get are essentially the same ones that participate fully with Hulu.
Carrot pretty much covered a bunch of it, but I will add one more thing. If you have an Xbox 360 and you want to stream Netflix, you have to pay for Xbox live in order to do so. LAME! As far as I know, all other current gaming consoles do the same thing for FREE! I cut the cable and haven’t really missed anything except the History and Discovery channels. Let us know what you decide on.
The wife & I decided to get rid of DirecTV a while ago – we just use “rabbit ears” to get the networks off-the-air, and the Xbox 360 to stream Netflix (we have the minimum “1 DVD at a time” subscription – $7.00 a month, I think?) As fatkid said, you have to subscribe to Xbox Live to do this, but I would do that anyway for the online gaming. We can also do it through the Wii for free, but the picture quality isn’t nearly as good. There is a program called PlayOn that let’s you stream Hulu to your Xbox, PS3 or Wii, but I’ve never been able to get it to work reliably, and you can pretty much forget about using it over wireless.
The only things I really miss are MythBusters (Discovery puts up some chunks of episodes, but their website suuuuucks), and I really want to watch The Walking Dead when it starts – I might resort to iTunes for that…
It was my understanding that the plan for Hulu was to ultimately transition away from free content and just leave a subscription service. Maybe I’m wrong. Most of the best shows lately have been on either basic cable (FX, AMC) or premium channels (HBO, Showtime). Since over the air isn’t feasible for me, nor is satellite, I’m stuck with cable for the time being (if for nothing else, internet with decent speed). With my DVR I’m not too broken up about it (though Comcast hasn’t yet rolled out it’s newest TIVO-like interface in my market yet).
A friend has Netflix and the new Roku, but I don’t know if it’s the HD version of the new Roku.
It’s fine, but leaves something to be desired, though this is probably due to limitations of his remote control and the “meh”-ness of the interface. Netflix is slightly better on the computer IMO.
Think about a 42 inch 1080p TV as your monitor… yeah, me too.
I say cut it. There is also the DIY and Open Source version, Mythtv.org .
We have been without Direct TV for over 3 years now, we get 18 channels with this funky antenna I put up, some of the channels we get are HD, but it really doesn’t matter….it was highly recommended by a technician in Germany believe it or not…my dad was worse then me about researching a potential purchase.
Fun Fact for any potential antenna buyers, you do not have to spend a bunch of money on an HD Digital antenna…..the same antennas used long ago will receive HD just fine, Its all Advertising, but aluminum tube antennas aren’t that great
I made and used a quick antenna out in my shop before I got my hands on one to mount, coat hangers and a 2×4, worked like a champ for months, still hanging on my wall
Channel Master CM-4228…..$99………………..the new 4228HD model have had some complaints
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/cm4228.htmlHave you seen the new Logitech Google TV device? http://www.logitech.com/en-us/smartTV/revue
I have seen the Logitech Google TV device. My line of thinking is at least initially it doesn’t seem to bring much to the table vs Roku which looks to be substantially cheaper, but I may be way off base.
I have been using a netbook to watch Hulu on my wi-fi and that’s nice, especially the portability. On a side note my netbook is a little older so I notice some jittery framing every now and then, any suggestions on a good portable device for Hulu or other streaming video?
I think I like the idea of a DVR type of recorder, if for nothing else to simply get a show off the air that may not appear on Hulu or Netflix. Over time I am sure this will be even less of an issue if these services continue to prosper. I have even seen some posts about pay for services that stream even local channels but have not checked them out.
I may just end up with a hybrid, a physical antenna for locals and then a Roku / Google TV with Netflix and Hulu for now. Incidentally, with my current setup I have 2 TV’s in the house, running off of one Dish TV receiver. Whatever one is watching the other is too. Not a big deal since I’m the only one that watches TV. Going forward however with the Roku solution I can see where I will probably have to buy one for each TV (or please point out if I am missing something here) unless I can still tie both TV’s into the same video signal. The reason I don’t believe I can is currently the second (remote) TV is tied in over coax cable off of the Dish receiver. If the Dish receiver goes away I essentially have a Roku type box HDMI to my TV, no way to get that signal out of Roku or that TV and to the second (remote) TV.
OK, so if I get two Roku boxes (I am just using that as an example, I may go with Google TV, etc) will a Netflix subscription (which I know nothing about as I am currently not a subscriber) work on both TV’s simultaneously? If I am on one TV and someone else is on the other and we both want to watch something Netflix is offering can we both “log in” and stream simultaneously or is this either not allowed or requires a higher monthly $ level subscription?
spookysco said: ↑
OK, so if I get two Roku boxes (I am just using that as an example, I may go with Google TV, etc) will a Netflix subscription (which I know nothing about as I am currently not a subscriber) work on both TV’s simultaneously? If I am on one TV and someone else is on the other and we both want to watch something Netflix is offering can we both “log in” and stream simultaneously or is this either not allowed or requires a higher monthly $ level subscription?
Even the most basic Netflix subscription supporting “unlimited Watch Instantly” ($9/mo) will let you watch on up to SIX devices at a time. It doesn’t matter where your other devices are, even across the country. When I’m at friends’ places I can log onto their computer with my Netflix account so we can watch movies there, as well.I think you should skip the DVR. IMHO, streaming services more than make up for them but if you do get a DVR you should consider one that is Netflix-ready, such as the TiVo.
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