I just got done reading all the stuff I could find here on the forum about the question above and found a few things touched on in other threads, but nothing that I could find directly addresses the questions, and the answers will change over time anyway.
We just got notice that Netflix rates are going up again in April to $15.50/month. Now my wife watches a lot and I watch a little, mostly in spurts when the weather is bad or I am doing shop work. It keeps me company.
I am looking around and wondering if it is time for a change. But we are retired and have to be frugal. I am always cautious of those 'small monthly charges' that can eat a hole in your bank account over time. Netflix was $9/month when we started. I looked at Amazon even though I hate that corporation and their business model which is largely smoke and mirrors to harvest money. I can't even figure out what is costs looking at their website. Right now Hulu seems to be something we could try. A cheap monthly rate is all we want with some decent content.
SO I am asking what have been your best and cheapest sources for this streaming stuff? We are just looking for one.
Youtube, and Crackle , then all kinds of old TV series on archive.org under PDTV . No subscription fees.
We do Roku as our provider and through them get netflix, hulu, and several others. Not sure about the cost. Lindy takes care of all of that. We tried apple tv and it was ok but we binge watched what we were after on a free trial and the canceled it. Right now we also have youtube tv and it is quite expensive. It started as a free trial and I forgot to cancel it. Won't make that mistake again. Roku is about $6 a month but you have to buy the box first. There are several free channels available from there. We swap around on the others. You can turn them on and off pretty easily. No long term contract on any of it. Watch for free trials. Some last for a month, others only a couple of weeks. We also have paramount+ and disney.
Been watching one of my Youtube channels that has a series on art theft called "Raiders of the Lost Art". Some history along with the investigations. Some art was never all that prominent until the 20th C from little known artists that no one took notice of. And some swindlers fool the experts with, not copies, but 'originals' in the style the artist they were portraying. And a lot of flip flop back and forth on whether it is genuine or not. Tells me it's an art in itself identifying the stuff. :D
Let me know what you all find. It would be great to find a service that covers your needs beyond the traditional home based or hard wired services. It's probably out there and younger people know about it. :D
There's everything I want to watch for only the cost of the internet. 8)
We get Netflix included as part of out Internet service, and pay for Disney+. We don't watch a lot, but enough to justify the cost, and they have the new Star Wars series. ;D
Thing is that even a couple of subscriptions are way less then what conventional pay TV costs. And you can always sign up to a service for a couple of months, watch what they have, then cancel and sign up for a different one. After 6 months they might have some new content, and they will welcome you back for a few more months. Most let you pay month to month, although Disney gives a discount if you pay 12 months in advance. But if the budget is tight, you could take your ~$15 month and cycle through 3 or 4 different services.
We have been using the most expensive Hulu package only because my better half will not live without the local channels which only come with that package. I took the antenna down years ago and really don't want to put one back up. Net flix is an extra that we live without. The cost is half of dish network. So much free stuff is available it's amazing.
I have a Verizon Unlimited plan for my family phone service. They have a Disney Plus package where you get Disney, Hulu and ESPN+ included. I stream everything and watch free movie and sports sites. A couple of them have the new movies a day after they come out.
Amazon also has Prime Video for those who pay the Amazon Prime Fee. I have watched a bunch of the old shows and movies on there. I don't watch network tv anymore. The only thing I miss from my old DirectTV subscription is Turner Classic Movies.
The landlady gave me their live streaming code for no charge so I have free internet. I have an older tv so bought the Roku box (60 bucks) to enable it but haven't used it that much, I watch the news and some documentaries.
I cancelled Netflix, the rate went up to 22 dollars per month and I can't justify it. There is not enough that interests me.
Quote from: rusticretreater on March 06, 2022, 02:52:18 PM
The only thing I miss from my old DirectTV subscription is Turner Classic Movies.
If you have a NordVPN subscription that is free to. But I don't. USTVGO streams it, but some channels require NordVPN, like TCM.
We use Spectrum streaming. We had a cable box but the cost went up to almost $70 a month for TV so my wife called up to cancel it. After canceling they sent her call to another rep that offered us a streaming package for $14.95 a month. It included all the channels we had without sports, news, or local channels that we get on an antenna anyway. It's a hidden secret that you only get offered after quitting and most TVs have the app so its basically the same as cable but you can use it anywhere with an app if you have wifi. 4 years later and the price hasn't gone up plus channels have been added.
Edit. I checked the bill and it's called Spectrum Essentials.
We use FUBO. Former dish customer and this was the closest I could get. 68 bucks a month and includes locals like ABC, CBS,NBC plus discovery which I watch. You can stream it on a few tvs at once.
Not really loyal to them and yeah I could switch once the free trial runs out but once I figure out how to navigate its worth a few bucks to stay put for awhile. Cant complain about cost for the service so far.
Streaming? I'm still not at all sure what snap chats and twitter are.
I live in the dark ages we can't get internet by cable or only options except satellite or cell phone hot spot.
Quote from: Nebraska on March 06, 2022, 08:29:59 PM
I live in the dark ages we can't get internet by cable or only options except satellite or cell phone hot spot.
You sound like one of Elon's Starlink target market. Although a "fixed" cellular internet is an option if you have decent signal.
My Mum doesn't have a computer apart from her smartphone (needed it for internet banking), but her "landline" is now cellular. Regular phone that plugs into a cellular router. Costs $10 less a month than the copper landline because the Telco doesn't have to pay for the copper line rental, calls come via their own cell tower system. She can get an internet connection added via the same system for ~$10 more a month, which would be good enough for streaming HD TV. But she's 80, never used a computer. She doesn't realise she's using one when the looks at the grand-kids Facebook posts on her phone. ;) Must check what streaming options are available for the horse racing pay TV she currently has, then volunteer my Nephew to set it up for her. :D
Likewise when we got fibre connected here, a landline was $10 extra, connected via the fibre router. But after a while we found 95% of the calls were scammers or telemarketers, and we were Paying to get them, So we changed to a faster internet plan and unplugged the landline. Haven't missed it.
Can get phone onto internet service here, but my experience is the land line will be up in a storm and the internet phone will be down. But that was Fibre OP cable internet, I'm off a tower here. And cells don't work here, the towers are all behind hills. :D I'll be the last hold out on a land line. The phone company stopped issuing phone books some years ago and now Yellow Pages sends the books. Seems to me you're in the same boat as a land line if you have no phone book to look up the numbers. Yes, the Yellow Pages are online. But like good old regular book reading. I'm reading a 122 year old book (republished) right now. With digital, when all those memory sticks crash within 30 years and CD's break down, old text will be gone. And I doubt old stuff on the first CD's or memory sticks are going to be maintained, they'll be forgotten because of the sheer volume of the task. Plus being passed over for the new. It will simply be lost, history erased. They are trying to do that now, while we still have old books. So it's not a contrivance at all. :D :D Canada's chief archivist, Leslie Weir, is deleting whatever she deems personally offensive from historical records of the government's web content, the first step of the purge. Take an English class in University now, it's an indoctrination into a new idiology and a war on old literature. No thanks.
Quote from: Nebraska on March 06, 2022, 08:29:59 PM
I live in the dark ages we can't get internet by cable or only options except satellite or cell phone hot spot.
I have same option.
I do have a good internet provider, a Maine based company, unlimited usage, that comes in off from a tower.
The tower is only a few miles from the house. But at times that one don't work good for us. ??? So he shots us from one that is about 15 miles from us.
Well thank you very much folks. I should have stated that I was just looking to replace netflix, not find a full streaming TV replacement. We have a landline phone and cable, but frankly the cable isn't what it should be. We keep thinking about dumping it, but I need it for internet access, the only option here.
You've all given me a lot of homework to do now. ;D
For that we just use Amazon prime. You get free delivery and returns, next day on many items, movies and shows, basic music, free kindle magazines each month and many extras on the echo devices. Amazon has been very reliable with basically no slowdown plus some free content is 4k. With a business you can set up a business account at no extra charge and receive discounts on products plus discounts on scheduling drops of items that you repeat buy with easy record keeping. I hate what Amazon stands for but when you live in the country the free next day delivery pays for itself quickly in saved trips to the store to find unique items.
Like theCfarm, I am on a local company with towers. The company is 30 miles in one direction and I am fed by a tower less than 10 miles away. ;D
Amazon plus for us too. We then may cycle some others for a month or two; Paramount+, FRNDLY, Hulu, etc. We have done a free trial and binged a show we wanted to watch then drop.
I have a Roku stick, with that comes a lot of free streaming services (they have commercials) and tons(!) of options. I also have Netflix I barely ever watch, Hulu+ which I watch some, Amazon Prime video I watch every once in a while, but the one I watch the most is Pluto.tv (that's literally the website, but they also have apps for Roku or your phone/tablet). Pluto.tv has commercials that can get annoying but there is huge amounts of content there, similar to Crackle, Roku Channel, and probably several others.
So, really, Pluto.tv. They have many 24 hour a day channels of only one show so you can really get your fill of something, be it The Love Boat (my personal favorite), Three's Company, This Old House, and probably a hundred or two more.
I am fine with streaming my rooftop antenna for the basic networks. News and NFL mostly. I follow some YouTube creators for my TV time. Neither the wife or myself are movie or TV buffs. But we have watched a movie or two (literally) on our Amazon Prime account.
We have an excellent fiber optic hard wired web service via our telephone co-op and main TV source is Dish Network. I see these streaming things such as paramount, etc. as yet another gouge on our pocketbook! It slaps us in the face when watching sports as the networks will choose the other game than what we DVR'd over another as it went into overtime, etc..
Then whatever programing followed that we also "thought" we were taping gets shorted and we miss the end of programs we've watched to learn we don't get the end of the show.
In our RV we watch mostly "air TV" and a few ball games via cell phone streaming. At times we are found listening to a game on SIRIUS radio in the truck. Main issue with air tv is the huge number of programs but much duplication and limited away from cable news we seek. I'm currently buying a used travel dish for RV to gain access to our Dish subscription on the road.
Too many companies trying to make a buck off this stuff we supposedly already paid for!!!
FWIW: I just read a guest editorial online wherein the lady writer says that Russian citizens know full well whats happening in the Ukraine based on common use of cell phones there-in spite of Putin's efforts to snub out all the media sources. That opens the question if it's wise to shut down various services that a Russian citizen might be using to gain current information? I don't use it, but TikTok comes to mind as one of those and there are others.
Streaming has come a long way. I use to have to have internet and cable at my house, Shop, and place in Steamboat. I was paying over 500 per month for all those places. I now have Youtube TV that I can have in up to 5 different places. So now the kid in college uses it and I put my father on it. We also have Amazon as part of prime. At $65 for Youtube TV and $12 for Amazon, that makes each place $15/month. Can't beat that.
I still have to have internet, but the switch to streaming has saved me over 250 per month. Which means $3,000 less for the cable company. I see cable companies going the way of phone companies in 10 years.
We have disney plus, paramount and hulu and use cindy's parents amazon account sometimes too. We are paying pennies compared to the dollars we were paying when we had dish.