Have cable, tried streaming, am I missing something?

[soulcougher73]

I must live in a dead spot. Bought one of those flat letter paper sized ones. $25 and it sucked. Bought a highly rated $65 one...8 channels and 4 of those I'd never heard of. No fox, cbs. Not interested in putting one on the roof.

Hell, it's only $$ anyway, right? Cable Life.

The Mohu Leaf is what i use. That flat letter size paper one. One of those 4 main channels struggles a bit, i think its ABC if i remember right. But yeah location matters. It is really flat where i live from where the towers are so not much to get in the way of the signal.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I must live in a dead spot. Bought one of those flat letter paper sized ones. $25 and it sucked. Bought a highly rated $65 one...8 channels and 4 of those I'd never heard of. No fox, cbs. Not interested in putting one on the roof.

Hell, it's only $$ anyway, right? Cable Life.

Go to a garage sale and find an old TV antenna from the 1970's or 1980s, it will work perfectly. This is what I use.

 

[highland145]

Go to a garage sale and find an old TV antenna from the 1970's or 1980s, it will work perfectly. This is what I use.

I probably have one somewhere or my Mom does. Pops never threw anything away. "Might need the cord off that old lamp one day." Maybe but 20 of them?

 

[DietDrThunder]

I probably have one somewhere or my Mom does. Pops never threw anything away. "Might need the cord off that old lamp one day." Maybe but 20 of them?

You might have to buy one of these to connect a 300-OHM antenna output to 75-OHM coaxial cable

 

[Perknose]

I must live in a dead spot.

[...]

Hell, it's only $$ anyway, right? Cable Life.

I, too, live in a dead spot. Several antennas have not worked for me.

@highland145, @kranky, this is our dilemma. We're hooked on the still superior "convenience" of cable. For me, I want HBO and Showtime, at the very least. And I am used to the convenience of cable's robust channel grids and DVR to record every damn show I want with ease and then fast forward through all the damn commercials. Bonus round: this shortens an NFL game by maybe half! And it all works more or less seamlessly.

But . . .

Carriage costs, the fees cable must pay to host all those channels, keep going up. Their users demand those channels, so they pay. Then they raise the cost to the consumer. Impoverished millennials and assorted other victims of the Republican ascendancy -- -- are more than willing to forego this top tier ease of use and access in order to avoid that (relatively) huge recurring monthly bill.

As users flee cable, they need to raise their rates even more on the backs of those who remain.

I do believe that the various streaming services will continue to refine and improve their channel grids and their DVRs. And they do keep broadening the package of channels they offer. But then, the price they charge keeps increasing, too.

However, the one huge cost advantage they have over the cable companies is that they use the internet to deliver. No cable boxes and no fleet of installation monkeys means a continuing price advantage over cable. Like with cars, as they improve, the streaming Kias will creep closer to the cable Mercedes.

In the meantime, "MARTHA, where did you put the %#*&## remote?"

 

[highland145]

You might have to buy one of these to connect a 300-OHM antenna output to 75-OHM coaxial cable

I was thinking about the connector. I used to have one....

Hey, Pops might.

 

[vi edit]

Isn't the whole point of streaming so you don't have to record content to DVR? What's the point of a DVR if the content are already streamed to your watching device?

Streaming services have a "DVR" function. You just tag series/shows/whatever and it auto-records and you just playback. As for specific streaming services, I've been using PS Vue for two years now and have been pretty happy. It's a touch more expensive than Youtube TV but it has excellent channel selections and the guide works pretty well on Fire TV boxes and *really* good on an Nvidia Shield TV. The mobile app is also pretty good for catching stuff on the go if you have smartphone and wifi access.

 

[Unheard]

We use a combo of Direct TV Now and my local Plex server. Having ATT Fiber has saved me $150 a month over Comcast cable and their internet.

 

[Ken g6]

I, too, live in a dead spot. Several antennas have not worked for me.

The first thing you should do is find where nearby TV broadcasts are coming from. Here's a map. Could you be on the wrong side of your building? If not, try an antenna in a window.

 

[Perknose]

The first thing you should do is find where nearby TV broadcasts are coming from. Here's a map. Could you be on the wrong side of your building? If not, try an antenna in a window.

There's no right side to my house. Mine is a particular problem of geography and topography.

 

[ultimatebob]

I wonder when Netflix is going to start offering a lower cost ad supported option. At first I thought that the answer would be "never", but then I noticed that Hulu and CBS All Access now offer "Limited Ads" and "No Ads" price tiers. If the new Apple and Disney streaming services do the same thing, Netflix will have to offer a cheaper option to compete.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I wonder when Netflix is going to start offering a lower cost ad supported option. At first I thought that the answer would be "never", but then I noticed that Hulu and CBS All Access now offer "Limited Ads" and "No Ads" price tiers. If the new Apple and Disney streaming services do the same thing, Netflix will have to offer a cheaper option to compete.

My hope is never. But as an existing subscriber and seeing that they are raising my rate to $12.99 a month starting May 25th, I don't know how long I will keep the service. Their original content, to put it bluntly, in most cases sucks. There is so much crap to dig through it makes it very difficult to find something worth watching. My wife and I have decided to cut Netflix off for 6 months, then maybe we will be able to find something we want to watch again, although I highly doubt it as we don't seem to be their target demographic anymore. I will be selling my shares of Netflix as well. I could be completely wrong, but I think the stock is at near peak, and once all the rate hikes kick in, I believe there will be a subscriber exodus.

 

[ultimatebob]

My hope is never. But as an existing subscriber and seeing that they are raising my rate to $12.99 a month starting May 25th, I don't know how long I will keep the service. Their original content, to put it bluntly, in most cases sucks. There is so much crap to dig through it makes it very difficult to find something worth watching. My wife and I have decided to cut Netflix off for 6 months, then maybe we will be able to find something we want to watch again, although I highly doubt it as we don't seem to be their target demographic anymore. I will be selling my shares of Netflix as well. I could be completely wrong, but I think the stock is at near peak, and once all the rate hikes kick in, I believe there will be a subscriber exodus.

Ya know, I noticed that they have a lot more new content now, but the quality of that content isn't as good as it used to be. For every show that was "House Of Cards" or "Chef's Table" quality, there are about a dozen that are mediocre and another dozen that are unwatchable.

 

[Perknose]

I will be selling my shares of Netflix as well. I could be completely wrong, but I think the stock is at near peak, and once all the rate hikes kick in, I believe there will be a subscriber exodus.

Don't sell now. Their strength is in the international market, and it will take a while for other services to catch up. Right now, they've got the best name recognition. "Netflix and chill."

"When Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported its fourth-quarter results, the company's subscriber growth continued its steady march upward. Global paying customers increased 26% year over year to more than 139 million. The addition of 8.84 million subscribers during the quarter far exceeded the 7.6 million Netflix had previously anticipated. "

 

[Mayne]

i would tell you but it will get me banned.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Ya know, I noticed that they have a lot more new content now, but the quality of that content isn't as good as it used to be. For every show that was "House Of Cards" or "Chef's Table" quality, there are about a dozen that are mediocre and another dozen that are unwatchable.

I disagree. I think they have more quality content now (I think their early Originals were massively overrated), but they just have so much content that its overwhelming (and so to stand out its either hyped like crazy like Stranger Things, has to resort to some shock factor bit to try and hook people, or gets lost in the shuffle as there's always a new show or season and its tough to keep up). And some are a slow burn so you have to watch a whole season before you'd even say its good or not (Haunting of Hill House, where even though I liked the characters and arc of the story, I feel like it was at least a couple of episodes longer than it should've been, and I feel like it could've easily been a show I hated because of a bad ending making me feel like I wasted time on a dragged out show for no worthwhile payoff that squandered good characters). Also, some of the shows just become less interesting (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, where I like the characters and the comedy, but I've already gotten the enjoyment I will from it).

 

[Dulanic]

I don't know why I use a local OTA feed, but I do even though I have YTTV and I love it. DTVNow SUCKED bad when I had it, it is no surprise they are losing subscribers left and right. Plex has really worked up their OTA recording, so Im happy with that also. I have a Tivo OTA, but if I had to do it today, I doubt I would use it again /w Plex available.

I live like 50+ miles from broadcast, but the clearsteam 2MAX seems to work well for me, I just put it in my attic and honestly it isn't that big.

Also, some of the shows just become less interesting (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, where I like the characters and the comedy, but I've already gotten the enjoyment I will from it).

That one killed me, it started OK and became so..... boring.

 

[Aikouka]

Streaming services have a "DVR" function. You just tag series/shows/whatever and it auto-records and you just playback. As for specific streaming services, I've been using PS Vue for two years now and have been pretty happy. It's a touch more expensive than Youtube TV but it has excellent channel selections and the guide works pretty well on Fire TV boxes and *really* good on an Nvidia Shield TV. The mobile app is also pretty good for catching stuff on the go if you have smartphone and wifi access.

I think some people are just mixing up on-demand streaming and IPTV. The OP is talking about the latter, which is just like cable over the Internet, and given that you're just receiving streams of video, you do still need a DVR (as you said).

As for IPTV, I originally looked at YouTube TV, but I saw that they didn't have HGTV or Food Network. However, during their latest $10 price increase (from $39 to 49), they added those two networks (among others). I've also tried PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now over the past few years, and the biggest problem that I see with all of these services is that they're just too expensive to justify the little bit that I watch TV. I think that's the big advantage that I see with Philo. Philo starts at just $16 a month for their cheaper package, which has 40-some channels, and has a slightly higher $20 package with 58 channels. They have DVR with unlimited storage, but they only keep your recordings for 30 days. (I believe YouTube TV is six months with unlimited storage.) It's really hard to ignore how Philo pretty much has anything I'd want and costs 1/3 the price of YouTube TV.

My assumption as to why Philo is so cheap is that it lacks sports networks, and consequently, also any content that the sports network owners would bundle with it, which does mean they may lack some other channels. For example, I think you don't get ABC Family, because ABC is owned by Disney who also owns ESPN. You also don't get FX, because FX is a FOX Networks channel, which also carries the FOX Sports channels. It also doesn't provide local channels, which isn't a huge deal for me due to having a lifetime Plex Pass subscription, which means I can setup an OTA HD DVR with just a one-time cost for hardware that has no monthly fee. (A good IP OTA tuner is about $100 and an antenna can range from $20-100+ depending on what you want.)

 

[Charmonium]

Here's a pretty comprehensive guide to streaming services but for actual channel lineups, you're going to have google each service. They do give you some idea of what each has though.

https://www.consumerreports.org/str...ide-to-subscription-streaming-video-services/

 

[Midwayman]

I don't know why you would want it, but there are plenty of streaming services that have "live" channels where you watch random crap complete with commercials just like traditional TV. Honestly I'd rather just not have TV than be forced back into that style of TV watching. Complete waste of time. Even if it has commericals like hulu, being able to pick things I'm actually interested in is a feature I won't give up. Push TV can suck it.

 

[Genx87]

Tired of paying $$$ for cable, thought I would try a streaming solution for a couple weeks to see if I could live without cable. For this I bought a Roku Ultra and also took a 2 week trial to YouTube TV. No DVR, not a lot of time to watch TV so I do not plan specific times to watch a particular program. If I have some time, I grab the remote, browse the cable guide to see what's on, stop somewhere and watch something.

I found that I am more of a "click around on the cable guide and stop somewhere" rather than a "search for something specific" viewer. So the streaming thing was frustrating. On Roku, I could pick a channel and poke around to see if there was something I wanted to watch. If not, pick another Roku channel, rinse/repeat. Found that pretty time-consuming other than on the Roku Channel which did have a lot of things listed. There are tons of free Roku channels but they don't tend to have a lot of things to watch.

YTTV has a decent guide to what's on at the moment. But I missed being able to browse a lot more channels to see if there's something to watch. It was the closest to the cable experience but with many fewer channels.

I guess the question is: do people who only stream TV tend to know in advance what they want to watch, DVR it, then watch at their leisure? I'm not going to use a DVR since I know I don't watch enough TV to make it useful. And I don't have any specific programs I care about to the point I would DVR them anyway. I just pick something that's on at the moment and watch it. With streaming it was pretty tedious just to see what was available (probably from having to select different Roku channels over and over). Just had the feeling that maybe I was missing something.

I have been using Sony Vue for nearly 2 years. It has an extensive guide, cloud DVR, and options to watch past shows. Very easy to use imo. I have it running on Amazons old Firebox.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think a cheap/free ad version of Netflix could work, but it needs to be ads that are between episodes, if they start shoving ads right in the middle of shows then forget it. And that's probably what they would do, even Youtube does that now if you try to use it without an ad blocker. This screws over creators too, because if the ads were not so obnoxious it would not create a need for ad blockers.

 

[Ken g6]

If it goes like cable did, eventually all the streaming services will have commercials while charging the same price or more. But streaming is somewhat more like a premium channel like HBO, so maybe it won't go that way.