Posted on 11/10/2020 12:11:46 PM PST by Mount Athos
The cable guy just fixed the internet. I disconnected the cable box to see what cutting the cord was like.
Commenters recommended Pluto TV, which was available as an app through my PS4. It's free. It took about 60 to 90 seconds to download and install. I found it in about one minute scrolling through all the apps listed on the PS4.
You can go to Pluto.tv to view their website, and see how to connect, whether by smart tv, a streaming device like Amazon Fire stick or Roku or the PS4, or even on your phone.
There are more than a hundred channels, from a Star Trek channel, to a Sci-Fi channel (which also plays some Star Trek), to an entire channel of CSI repeats, and an entire channel of 007 movies, 24 hours a day.
Newswise, they have OANN, Newsmax, The Blaze and others. They have liberal networks too, like Bloomberg News and I think a version of CNN and MSNBC and NBC News, too.
They seem to have a deal with CBS in particular. There are a dozen or so local CBS News channels.
There's a lot of British stuff, from Father Ted to Classic Doctor Who.
There are a whole bunch of Pluto-branded versions of channels like Comedy Central and MTV and that crap. I don't know if these are the actual channels or maybe like highlights of the channels. The Comedy Central channel has repeats of Crank Yankers, so maybe this is just some of their older material?
There are also a lot of movie channels, like "90s Throwback," "80s Rewind," "70s Classics." 80s Rewind was playing Hellraiser 2, followed by Heathers.
In addition to a lot of Live TV channels, there's also a lot of On Demand stuff. For example, I can watch the 007 movies playing on the 007 channel, but I could also watch, say, Doctor No on demand.
Again: this is free.
Although you don't have channels that I know people watch a lot of, like ID and HGTV, they do have their own knockoff versions of that kind of programming.
And also: Free.
But if you have to have some of those cable channels, like ID, you can get Philo TV, which has 63 channels for $20 a month. That doesn't seem worth it to me, but then, I don't watch ID.
I'm surprised. I'd say "delighted" but that sounds like something that closet case David French would say upon seeing tonight's chosen buck.
Given that this stuff is free, it makes it pretty affordable to buy the occasional series like Always Sunny in Philadelphia or What We Do In the Shadows on Amazon Prime.
Here's a sample of their channel lineup now. You can scroll the different categories available on the left, and scroll down the actual show listings in the middle/right.
This is going to be super-easy, barely an inconvenience. I don't watch a lot of TV anyway. I just sometimes put something on when I'm bored and getting ready for bed. Obviously, Zero Dollars is a good price to pay for this level of TV.
Check it out. And thanks to everyone who suggested it.
Zero #!&* dollars.
Well, I mean, I do have to pay for internet, but I was already paying for that.
I'm so happy I will never pay for ESPN, ABC, MSNBC, CNN or Fox again.
Goodbye, *!$&ers. When the ratings aren't budging, that's me not watching.
. . . and if anyone in the family has vision problems, think seriously about the utility of biting the bullet financially and getting a big flatscreen. But not the biggest - at any given time the biggest available is like twice as much $$ as the second biggest - and you don’t get twice the screen area for those bucks. IMHO.I mention it because my wife, of blessed memory, had macular degeneration - like her brother. And he was the one who mentioned the utility of a big-screen TV for her. When he mentioned it, I said, “Of course!” and promptly bought the TV I have now. Still have the old TV in the bedroom - it seems so tiny in comparison.
Ping to my #61 above.
Burn in occurs when you leave the exact same image on your screen for hours at a time.
Unless you are using your flatscreen as a monitor for a computer displaying a static image (like a security feed or computer desktop) then you won’t have a problem.
Devices like Roku have screen-savers built in. All of my flatscreens (the LED & plasma) will turn themselves off after a certain amount of time to prevent burn in.
BTW, CRTs also experience burn in. Where do you think the term screen-saver came from? From the days when computers used CRTs for the monitors. It was quickly found that images burned in on the CRTs, because computer images were more static than television broadcasts. And, the burn in problem has never been fixed with CRTs.
CRTs are actually more prone to burn in than flatscreens.
You are over thinking this.
About the overthinking- yeah ive been weighing getting a galaxy tab s7 or it’s big brother the S7+, for digital art, and wanted the s7+, but tht has an oled screen on it, which is nice, looks absolutely stunning, but reading around on the net about it, folks are having issues just weeks or months later wwith burn in- mucho Dinero- so don’t wanna buy an inferior display- even if it’s a larger, better looking display- I’ll likely go with the LCD, but it’s a smaller display unfortunately-
I wish that tablets had something that would move the position of the screen every 20 minutes or so- even if just a little bit- I’d definately get the S7+ if they did-
TV’s liek you say have come a long way in that department-
CRT burn ins- I dunno- We’ve had CRT’s for 40 years now- and have never experienced burn in- and my folks used to watch fox 24/7 and other channels tht had their stupid logos in the same spot all day long- they rarely changed the channel- (networks display their logo as if we didn’t know what channel we were watching- and now- they run ads WHILE you’re watching TV down i nthe corners during the show- uggh, but at least those change from time to time- so not an issue with burn in i guess)
I will check out plasma- ut likely will try the HDMI to S-video converter first- as we do like our CRTV still- if that doesn’t work- we’ll i guess have to break down and get a plasma or omething
oh, and we just found out Newsmax is on cable now- didn’t even realize it was there- found it last night- one of the main reasons we wanted something like roku, was to have an alternative to fox- Just wish we also got OANN too- hopefully pluto or another ‘free’ or low cost service will offer- and bot be a pain to find and watch, like having to drill down through several menus to get to it- or whatever- if so, we’ll ditch cable altogether-
Newsmax is awesome- like fox used to be when they started out- a little less polished than fox now, but way way more conservative- ans NO Chris wallace, Marie Harf, donna brzille, juan williams, neil cvuto- so thhat is a huge huge bonus- wish we had known about Max earlier- will be fun to watch them grow- and mature into a powerhouse-
I tried to get Pluto yesterday on my Smart TV web browser. They made me sign in to my Google account, which I did. Then I got a message saying that my cell phone device can be accessed on the TV. (Not cool.) I cancelled the process and logged out of Google.
I’ll order a Roku today and see if I can skip that step.
Actually, consider a Firestick.
Roku’s program cannot be augmented. An FS can run supplementary software that will allow you to access channels with some help from a VPN.
The result is being able to cherry pick the channels you want to watch and leave behind those channels you don’t. For example - no news except OANN and Newsmax, but you can still watch sports, or whatever.
Can’t really do the same thing with a Roku. I own four and am trialing a Firestick. Very much like it so far.
Plus, Pluto has Bannon’s War Room.
My sister and BIL have Fubo and they’re happy with it.
I’m turning in my fire stick to the cable provider. I told the woman I spoke with that I love their high speed internet (which I am keeping), but the cost of entertainment is just way out of line with what you get. Also mentioned that there is no real news entity any more, that they’re all far-left garbage telling me what to think instead of what happened.
Anyway, I did go with Sling orange because I’m still addicted to college football, and the Epix movie package for a total of $35 a month.
Also got Pluto TV, which is free, for Newsmax and a couple of other conservative sources.
And - surprise - I found that the “over the air” channels were pretty numerous, and since it’s all digital HD the picture quality is pretty good too.
So for about 1/3 the cost, I have gotten rid of Fox, have other sources, and still have much of what I had prior.
Speaking of antennas, I got hold of a wall-mount amplified antenna through Sling (it was “free”) - tested it against my old standby rabbit ears with the UHF loop and guess what - the rabbit ears are at least as good if not better, and you can turn them towards the station if your stations are in different locations.
Unfortunately, the flat panel doesn’t have a stand so It’s basically hang it on the wall and be done with it. I’m now using the rabbit ears with the amp, and I have 41 channels locally from which to choose.
Pluto on Roku does not have you sign in to Google.
I said it before, cable is dead man walking.
Too many free streaming services with great content out there.
Sports used to be the must have on cable, but then I stopped watching the BLM/ANTIFA loving pro sports.
May I piggyback on this thread with a question?
I have a sharp TV. A big aqueous. It has some apps but was showing its age so I got a nice roku. The roku has a browser and that is where I want to go to get ustvgo.tv and pluto.tv. the browser tells me that I need that I need to be connected to a device on the network so the browser can run.
These devices run about 400 dollars. Any thoughts?
Great. I just ordered the basic Roku to see if we like it. If so, we’ll order two more of the higher-end models. We’ve slowly been turning in boxes to DirecTV to whittle down cable. Now we’ll be able to ditch it entirely.
Suck it, Fox.
Tell me how it goes for you.
I don’t even have a Google/Gmail account. I don’t know why that was necessary.
There are so many viewing options on Roku. It’s also not owned by Google (Chromecast owner) or by Amazon (Fire stick/WaPo owner).
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