Posted on 09/16/2012 2:16:40 PM PDT by barmag25
I have been disgusted with my Television bills and what I'm paying for lately.
I have been thinking lately to switching over to internet for television.
There are some relatively cheap products out there such as Roku and others. I Was looking for any reviews of this product as well as any other similar products.
We rarely get into any TV show series except for a few like walking Dead & and my wife has a few shows. The only thing I watch anymore is baseball and football.
All news comes from internet(mainly FR-always ahead of everybody else) and anything really important is usually streamed by any news site..
MLBTV is cheap compared to a satellite package, which leaves me wanting to find a way to watch NFL via the internet.
Questions:
What are the best products (hardware)?
Does anybody else have just internet TV? Disadvantages? Advantages?
Do you generally find everything you want to watch?
Netflix has streaming programs, what other company's offer similar products?
The FReeper expertise is greatly appreciated.
later
I’ve been thinking the same, and wonder if my 50 gigabyte limit per month would be far exceeded by trying to watch internet tv or Netflix.
Look into Amazon Prime. My cable bill is getting ridiculous also. I used to subscribe to HBO to watch some of their series . I’m skipping from now on. I will be watching Boardwalk Empire online this time around to get the feel of how it works. I now simply hook up my PC to Tv to watch the shows and movies available on Amazon. Cost is $79.00 a year .
I'm not in a good broadcast TV market, but a friend of mine in Denver really enjoys watching his games on broadcast TV. He says the digital HD signals are way better than his craptacular cable company provided.
A possibility to look into.
I subscribe to amazon prime and netflix, they cover most of what I want, I am thinking about Hulu Plus. I own a internet TV, DVD player, receiver and Roku so have multiple streams into the living room. I use a harmony controller to keep it all together. Having said that, there are many nights I watch the same old stuff as I don’t like a lot of the stupid stuff out there. I would suggest if you only want to do one go with netflix - the have the most stuff, if you want more current shows, go with amazon and like I said, I am still checking hour Hulu.
bookmark
Check on the availability of HDTV broadcast in your area. We dumped the dish, hooked up a powered indoor antenna, and can pull down 34 stations. In addition, we have roku and apple tv. Both work great for Hulu and Netflix. I do enjoy some of the HBO and other cable series, and find the Apple TV a breeze to use to purchase the episodes I want. Have to check into the Amazon offering.....
I’d look into Netflix. They say you can get all the tv and movies you could want for about $10 a month.
If you are considering the purchase of a Roku player, I have a recommendation: go to the playon.tv website and purchase a lifetime license for their Roku channel. For $69-$89, you get a lifetime license and a free Roku player.
Playon allows you to watch tv shows from most major cable channels and the ability to add on (most are free) additional plug-ins for live cable tv channels and movies, series, etc.
If tv is not your life, but you want to have access to shows and stations when it is important to you, this is the best deal around!
If you do not have any of these get Roku more apps without mirroring capability but lower price from 49.99 to 99.99 for higher resolution. If you want you can get both. The price for Netflix and Hulu plus are the same with multiple devices.
That's all I can think of now. I hope this helps.
Mostly I watch sports - baseball and football - but my husband likes documentaries and such. Our son got an Xbox 360 to replace his cable. It seemed like a great idea, until he bought it and read the fine print. The sports coverage is not nearly as good as what they promised. They like having the game system for their kids, but the jury is still out on how well this replaces cable.
If you have Roku and want baseball games, for example, you have to subscribe to the MLB package. However, home games are blacked out. I still don’t think these systems give you all that cable and satellite do, which is a shame, because I would love to get rid of our cable. Hope this helps a bit.
Bookmark
Bump for later
I had to buy a new TV so I bought a 32” with a VGA input. Then with a VGA splitter cable ($18) and a 6’ extention ($14) to the TV You can watch any internet program like netflix on a big screen TV. No need for Roku. If your TV is more than 8’ feet from the computer, I’m told, you will need a ‘booster box’ (about $40). All these items were found on Amazon, just pay attention that you get the cable ends (male/female) right.
Not all of them are legit, but plenty are.
You'll know what to do.
I watch TV on my 42” LCD using an old computer I had. I bought a cheap video card with HDMI output at Newegg for $30. I watch anything I want. Having a PC connected to your computer gives you a lot more flexibility than buying one of those TV boxes.
Good plan!
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