Streaming was supposed to save us from cable hell - but now we're living in it again

[MULTIZ321]

Streaming was supposed to save us from cable hell - but now we're living in it again

Streaming was supposed to save us from cable hell — but now we’re living in it again

The total cost of streaming services now rivals a cable bill

www.tomsguide.com

Richard

 

[Sandy VDH]

You can always go back to cable, less to monitor.

I have just found myself watching TV less and less.

 

[DeniseM]

Recently, the SF Giants, and I suspect other teams as well, have started broadcasting their baseball games once a week or so on various subscription required streaming services. So to watch the games, you have to subscribe to multiple streaming services. I think that's bull-!

 

[DrQ]

I pay for premium versions of:

• Hulu (FOX & ABC)
• Paramount+ (CBS)

So that we don't have to put up with commercials.

We get Amazon Prime Video with Amazon Prime and we get Disney+ because we like the content.

For cable-like channels, we get Sling TV that I adjust based on season (college football).

I can turn Premium services on and off (Crunchyroll, MAX ...) through Amazon Prime and use the Prime Video viewer.

I have found that there is overlap between MAX and the shows we watch on Sling TV. On MAX, we can see the shows on demand without commercials. I am considering dropping Sling (or cutting it back) until football season.

The big advantage is that I can turn things on and off without having to call customer support and get shuttled to customer retention.

 

[GetawaysRus]

For entertainment (older movies and television series), I will put in a plug for DVDs from the public library. News and live sports remain a dilemma, unfortunately.

I'm able to get a library card for my own city and also the city immediately adjacent. Both of these libraries have inter-library loan agreements with a large number of other libraries, and each city has sharing agreements with different library systems. I can search the catalogs online and, if my local library doesn't have what I want, I can request the item (if available) from libraries as far as hundreds of miles away. The service is free. I receive a text message when my item comes in. It's just remarkable.

Recently we wanted to watch the British police drama "Happy Valley." There are 3 seasons. I live in SOUTHERN California. I got all 3 seasons on DVD from 3 different libraries in NORTHERN California. No charge.

 

[ScoopKona]

You can always go back to cable, less to monitor.

I have just found myself watching TV less and less.

Here as well.

And thanks to foreign sports streaming sites, I can watch basically anything I want, with very minor effort. I've been stocking up on Blu Ray discs from thrift stores for years now. I have hundreds of my favorite movies -- all for a couple bucks each. I'm wagering that the "you never actually own movies, music or television shows" model will take hold except for the rare holdouts who want a physical copy of whatever they want to enjoy.

So, yes, I've spent a year's worth of cable/streaming fees to acquire my top 250-ish movies. But at least I never have to pay for them again.

News and live sports remain a dilemma, unfortunately.

Not at all hard to find online. Not convenient -- because the streaming sites are coming from Ireland, Czech Republic, Albania or similar. And you have to go looking for them. But also not hard.

 

[DrQ]

In a related note:

I was looking to update my TiVo Romio with a newer model which supports streaming and found out that TiVo no longer makes a model which records OTA content.

It looks as if they have sold it to Channel Master (2 channel), but it has been sold out every time I've looked.

 

[ScoopKona]

It looks as if they have sold it to Channel Master (2 channel), but it has been sold out every time I've looked.

There have been open-source solutions for this ever since Windows Media Center was removed as a windows feature. I use MediaPortal.

A bit of a learning curve, but nothing too difficult. You don't need to know how to code to use it.

 

[DrQ]

There have been open-source solutions for this ever since Windows Media Center was removed as a windows feature. I use MediaPortal.

A bit of a learning curve, but nothing too difficult. You don't need to know how to code to use it.

I've played around with hauppauge tuners for over 10 years. I have used Windows and Linux software to control them. They do not pass the "wife test". Whereas I may put up with fiddling with the bits to watch shows, DW will not put up with the fuss.

TiVo provided a nice turnkey solution that passes the "test".

I bought a 4-tuner Tablo with a 8TB external drive which does work, but the interface is not nearly as mature as what TiVo has. The downside is that the Tablo viewer is application based. It is buggy and crashes often, but it does recover quickly. There is no application that allows viewing on a PC, but there is an application for Chromebooks.

I am using the application loaded on an Amazon Fire Stick. It works, but at this time, it would not pass the "test".

In order to remotely control the device away from home, I will have to build an inbound VPN. That means I would have to further segment my home network.

 

[jp10558]

I just generally share with other family members who want to pay for all those services. Actually I've used alternative sources since the early aughts so I do have a pretty well worked out setup. And I just don't really watch TV like I used to - Youtube, books, and life take up enough of my time as do these forums, discord etc. If you've got someone who can set up some techie stuff like XigmaNAS or other RAID device, plus jellyfin you can use a cheap android TV or roku or the like to give a netflix like experience to local content. You can also use something like zerotier for a android friendly overlay network and if your upload is good enough stream it to whereever you are.

For most of this, the "hard part" is setting it up, once that's done it can run for a year or more without techie intervention. FWIW anyway.

 

[isisdave]

Dr Q, I've sent you a private "conversation."

 

[Brett]

I have also found online "foreign sports streaming sites"
Apparently some countries don't care about US copyrights
and VPN's

 

[Snazzylass]

Recently, the SF Giants, and I suspect other teams as well, have started broadcasting their baseball games once a week or so on various subscription required streaming services. So to watch the games, you have to subscribe to multiple streaming services. I think that's bull-!

Yup! I suspect this is true for any sports fan. I know it's true for basketball. It sends me to the sports bar frequently as I only have an antenna for local stations - no streaming services. ZERO.

I have been able to catch a lot of the Indiana Fever on the WNBA app.

 

[pittle]

I use Roku TV quite a bit and it is free. I also get Netflix free via my T-Mobile cellular and Wi-Fi. I can find lots of things to watch. I love finding older series to watch.

When it is college basketball season, I reinstate my Sling account and ESPN+. As soon as the NCAA Final Four is over, I suspend my account again.

 

[jehb2]

I told my kids teenagers. I’ll pay for subscription as long as somebody is watching it. They’re really good about it. Mainly because they really don’t watch TV. I have Amazon prime for the free shipping. and for some reason, Netflix seems to be an ongoing thing. After that, everything else I’ll get for a month only if there’s a specific show or movie I want to see.

Important point is where and how you signed up. So that you can remember where and how to cancel.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I used FrndlyTV. I want access to the history channel for some series. FrndlyTV is the cheapest I can find to get the history channel.

 

[emeryjre]

If a person does subscribe to streaming channels
Hulu, Disney plus, Paramount plus, Peacock, Britbox, Acorn TV
Every year around Black Friday, these services offer deep discount deals
As low as $19 a year
You have to be a new or returning subscriber
So I have 2 emails I rotate every year
One email login is not resubscribed
The other one signs up as a returning subscriber
Has worked for the last four year

 

[Bucky]

Best Buy has a free 3 mo membership to Apple+TV that I have used a few times. Works great for binge watching. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-...ning-subscribers-only/6484512.p?skuId=6484512

 

[Timeshare Von]

Streaming services covering sports are the worst! Even in bowling, our national governing body (USBC) has set up a streaming service to watch a variety of bowling events live. I refuse to pay the $125/year for the service. ESPECIALLY since most of the broadcasts I'm interested in, turn up on YouTube (from USBC) about 3-5 days after the live event. I would rarely be able to watch live anyway, so no big deal.

I'm not enough of a Brewers (MLB) or Packers (NFL) fan to worry about "needing" to watch their games . . . and ZERO interest in the Bucks (NBA).

 

[WinniWoman]

All we have is high speed internet and Amazon Prime. It’s amazing how many things are available to watch just on the smart TV.

My husband likes the old tv shows like Columbo or Mission Impossible. We watch our local news station through their app streamed from our cell phones to the TV.

You get used to it after awhile. As for sports, I’m not a fan and hubby lives without it, but if he wanted to he could go up to our club house to watch a game, yet he chooses not to, so it’s not an issue anyway.

We have Roku as well but don’t use it as much anymore.

Still it’s $88 per month just for the internet (we do rent the modem) and then additionally we have to pay for Amazon Prime. Seems expensive to me.

 

[jp10558]

All we have is high speed internet and Amazon Prime. It’s amazing how many things are available to watch just on the smart TV.

My husband likes the old tv shows like Columbo or Mission Impossible. We watch our local news station through their app streamed from our cell phones to the TV.

You get used to it after awhile. As for sports, I’m not a fan and hubby lives without it, but if he wanted to he could go up to our club house to watch a game, yet he chooses not to, so it’s not an issue anyway.

We have Roku as well but don’t use it as much anymore.

Still it’s $88 per month just for the internet (we do rent the modem) and then additionally we have to pay for Amazon Prime. Seems expensive to me.

I'd say it depends on how much you use your internet and how much speed you need. I'm happy with a basic fiber plan right now for $59 a month, but I expect that to go up when they start offering symmetrical (if the rumors are correct) simply because better upload would be very worth it for me.

If you just need passable streaming, and have AT&T cell service available, you can get a tablet plan for ~$24 a month after taxes that's unlimited and you get 4G. You can cast from the tablet to your TV or you can get it into other data only devices (AT&T just gives you a data only SIM).

 

[WinniWoman]

I'd say it depends on how much you use your internet and how much speed you need. I'm happy with a basic fiber plan right now for $59 a month, but I expect that to go up when they start offering symmetrical (if the rumors are correct) simply because better upload would be very worth it for me.

If you just need passable streaming, and have AT&T cell service available, you can get a tablet plan for ~$24 a month after taxes that's unlimited and you get 4G. You can cast from the tablet to your TV or you can get it into other data only devices (AT&T just gives you a data only SIM).

We use the WiFi all day on our cell phones and laptops and then the TV in the evening in addition. We also have straight talk unlimited for our phones and that’s $85 per month on top of everything else I mentioned. 5G as available. We don’t use tablets.

 

[Bucky]

We use the WiFi all day on our cell phones and laptops and then the TV in the evening in addition. We also have straight talk unlimited for our phones and that’s $85 per month on top of everything else I mentioned. 5G as available. We don’t use tablets.

Interesting how much disparity there is between providers and location! We pay $15 per line for mobile unlimited use with Spectrum. Our internet with the same provider cost us $30 for 100mbps down. Not fiber speed for sure but fast enough to never have buffering. Of course, there are only two of us so we are not pressed for anything faster.

 

[jp10558]

We use the WiFi all day on our cell phones and laptops and then the TV in the evening in addition. We also have straight talk unlimited for our phones and that’s $85 per month on top of everything else I mentioned. 5G as available. We don’t use tablets.

I'm not sure how explicit I want to be on an open forum - DM me if you want details - but via red pocket yearly plans and the data only plan I mentioned - assuming 2 lines and "unlimited" 8GB high speed data phone line and unlimited de-pri data only, the total cost for all of that would be ~ $68 a month.

 

[WinniWoman]

Interesting how much disparity there is between providers and location! We pay $15 per line for mobile unlimited use with Spectrum. Our internet with the same provider cost us $30 for 100mbps down. Not fiber speed for sure but fast enough to never have buffering. Of course, there are only two of us so we are not pressed for anything faster.

We have 500 mpbs. Unlimited. We have Breezeline here in NH.

Our 2 phones are locked with straight talk. We just bought them this past fall for $149 each- iPhone SE’s. 10 GB

I don’t play around with switching when things work well. When Breezeline increases I call and then give me another “ deal”, but it’s still expensive. I have had them for a few years now and straight talk I’ve had like forever.

I have a friend that was using a low cost cell carrier for like $10 per month and it’s gone downhill so he’s now searching for another provider.

For Internet and or tv Infinity came into our community and people started switching and had problems. We stayed with Breezeline with no issues.

The only downside to straight talk is when we go to Italy in the fall they do not have an international calling plan you can pay for while overseas if we have to make calls within Italy or Germany ( airport) or to call the USA.. Not sure how I will handle that yet.