Another TV Question- Streaming

I am considering cutting the cable and going to streaming. Is it worth it? I don’t think I will be saving a lot of money. With Better Call Saul ending soon there doesn’t seem like a lot I am really interested in on my cable package.

Any opinions on Roku or Fire Stick. Ease of operation? With a new TV would I really need one of those? What about using Alexa to control the TV.

Hulu+ or YoutubeTV? Right now I do a little Amazon prime through my smart Blu Ray player, but it is kind of a pain in the *** to use. My Vizio is smart and 10 years old but doesn’t want to connect to the Wi Fi. Maybe it is time to just replace it.

To me, streaming is better if you like a lot of movies and series. Cable is better if you like more live / sports.

Probably pay about the same when it’s said and done.

Not a big tv watcher or very technically inclined. I went strictly YouTube TV.
It’s got BigTen and NFL and most of the popular channels. Lots of free movies and unlimited recording. $68 per month.
Biggest gripe no guide. You search or scroll.
Our dish package didn’t have anything extra that I couldn’t live without and it was $148 a month.

disco bobber wrote:

Any opinions on Roku or Fire Stick. Ease of operation? With a new TV would I really need one of those? What about using Alexa to control the TV.

Amazon and Google have occasional spats and Amazon removed the YouTube app from their app store for a few years. It’s back now but it’s the reason I’d never get a Fire anything. For Google Chromecast there was a period where Amazon refused to support prime video on it. You don’t really need either if your TV has the apps built-in but, on a non-smart TV, adding Roku is the “neutral” party that should support everything. I used voice control once, said neat, and have never used it again so I don’t really think it’s important.

disco bobber wrote:

With Better Call Saul ending soon there doesn’t seem like a lot I am really interested in on my cable package.

You can also buy TV shows through several different services that you want to watch and you get the episodes a day after they air usually. Better Call Saul S6 was $25 and buying a few shows you care about each year is a lot cheaper than paying for a package of things you don’t want to watch.

Is 500 good enough on the internet speed or do I need the 1 gig? Only 2 of us in the house and only one set streaming.

I have a smart TV but still use Chromecast with Google TV. I think they have the best user interface.

Roku is the way to go for ease of use and variety of apps. You can get Alexa to control it if you wish (may depend on which version of Roku). As for what streaming services to use that’s going to come down to personal preference. You’ll probably come out slightly ahead on price if you’ve been paying for large cable packages and don’t go crazy on subscription services.

disco bobber wrote:

Is 500 good enough on the internet speed or do I need the 1 gig? Only 2 of us in the house and only one set streaming.

You only need about 20 tops for 4k

The 1080p Netflix I’m watching right now is 1.59Mb/s

disco bobber wrote:

Is 500 good enough on the internet speed or do I need the 1 gig? Only 2 of us in the house and only one set streaming.

we have spectrum and I don’t think we even hit 80mps when they claim 100mps for the package we got. usually when i check, we are under 50mps and rarely have any issues and we got a lot of devices using bandwidth.

Anyone use Hulu?

MX1825 wrote:

Not a big tv watcher or very technically inclined. I went strictly YouTube TV.
It’s got BigTen and NFL and most of the popular channels. Lots of free movies and unlimited recording. $68 per month.
Biggest gripe no guide. You search or scroll.
Our dish package didn’t have anything extra that I couldn’t live without and it was $148 a month.

I saw a video and it showed live streaming with a roku remote and it seemed to operate like a cable box.

I have Hulu…. Haven’t watched TV in months though.

I pay $140/month for a Direct TV choice plus package with DVR and century link high speed internet. Plus free NFL Sunday Ticket every fall which is valued at $325. I don’t really feel like I’m paying that much, especially with free Sunday ticket.

Live sports is pretty awful with streaming. It’s choppy and slow. I agree with Lindy, streaming is probably better for a series and normal television is better for live tv and sports.

MX1825 wrote:

Biggest gripe no guide. You search or scroll.

YouTube TV has a guide. We have that at the office.
DT

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Anyone use Hulu?

Been using Hulu+ for a few years and like it. Only issue with any of the streaming services is you can’t get Ballys to watch twins games.

No issues at all streaming live sports. If someone has issues it’s because of their ISP.

We save a little money by not having cable but once you add Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, plus your internet the savings are minimal. The services are way easier to use and you don’t have to deal with terrible customer service from the cable provider.

I live in Iowa… I have directv streaming… It is 90 bucks a month. Currently watching the twins game on bally and have no issues with buffering or slow choppy feeds. I am happy with it other than the price hike it took a while back

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Anyone use Hulu?

We have had Hulu for about 5 years with Amazon Firestick-$75 month. All local channels we want, television series, movies, sports channels-excluding Ballys. What I can’t watch on Ballys, I watch on the YouTube app. Few glitches with Hulu, but could be something with internet. Alexa feature available, but haven’t used it yet.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Anyone use Hulu?

I’ve had Hulu live for a couple years now. It’s been good but I think I like YouTube tv a little better as far as ease of use in my opinion.

gim wrote:

I pay $140/month for a Direct TV choice plus package with DVR and century link high speed internet. Plus free NFL Sunday Ticket every fall which is valued at $325. I don’t really feel like I’m paying that much, especially with free Sunday ticket.

Live sports is pretty awful with streaming. It’s choppy and slow. I agree with Lindy, streaming is probably better for a series and normal television is better for live tv and sports.

i used to pay those stupid amounts and then found free streams and chromecasts. i pay $69.99 for internet and watch every game/ufc PPV on the planet with a VPN. the money i saved in the last 7 or so years has got to be pushing towards 6k? its not as convenient as a as a streaming service or dish but it’s free.

Youtube tv is probably your best option if you like sports minus the bally channel. As far as all of those free streams and a vpn eventually it will all go south plus if your not tech savvy forget it. And nothing is free trust me the rest of us our paying for it.

we use a firestick. IDK my wife is the tech geek and handles all that crap. Shes also a TV junkie. We have Netflix, Hulu, Discovery+, god knows what else. Am i saving any money compared to cable? IDK probably not. I do think streaming services offer better entertainment over cable though. I will say i just saw yesterday that the NFL app is coming out with a service where for $40 a year you can stream some games onto your mobile device. They said there were some limitations on which games. I might look into that. Last year i could watch about 5 games a week for free using the Yahoo sports app on my phone and usually the Thursday night game was on Amazon Prime. The more i talk about this the more i just want to smash my TV and be done with all of it lol

If you go fishing instead of watching TV then you have that extra money to buy lures and fishing stuff. Better way to look at it. LOL

Cutting the cable used to be SO worth it back when there was pretty much just Netflix, Hulu and Prime for major subscription streamers. We saved about $100 per month by going from direct TV to Netflix and Hulu Live. Since then, not only have both raised their monthly rates but basically every network now has their own streaming service with exclusive content for shows you might want to watch (IE HBO max, Paramount, Apple TV, etc). IF you’re truly into entertainment, the amount you pay for everything you want to watch will probably equal or even be more than what you pay today… and you still wont get Bally’s sports (unless you subscribe to that app, which I hear is awful).

BUT – We’re still saving money and I haven’t budged off Netflix or Hulu Live. You get basically the same live TV as cable, with plenty of good on-demand streaming. There’s some shows on other services that I’d like to watch, but I watch enough TV as it is. I watch LESS TV than I did with cable and I pay less per month by sticking with these two basic services, so that’s a good thing. (probably now closer to $60 savings per month instead of $100 with the incremental rate hikes).

Just got my Directv bill. Its back up to $185. No internet just tv. Harder to swallow now that everything else costs so damn much.

No way, I would cancel ASAP that’s $2200 a year.

JEREMY wrote:

Just got my Directv bill. Its back up to $185. No internet just tv. Harder to swallow now that everything else costs so damn much.

JEREMY wrote:

Just got my Directv bill. Its back up to $185. No internet just tv. Harder to swallow now that everything else costs so damn much.

Now way is tv worth that much to me a month that’s crazy

Coletrain27 wrote:

Now way is tv worth that much to me a month that’s crazy

I just signed up for DirecTV stream. Its pretty nice. We havent canceled the satellite service yet because my wife tried and since her name isnt on the account she couldnt, plus years ago to save a bunch of money I canceled it altogether, then ordered it again but misspelled the last name on purpose to be a new customer. Well, that might bite us in the ass now LOL

CPTMusky, How is DirecTV Stream a year into it? Just moved north and looking at non-cable options

I still have it and still have no complaints.

empty_stringer wrote:

CPTMusky, How is DirecTV Stream a year into it? Just moved north and looking at non-cable options