Best streaming movie/TV shows service

[EricNoah]

Interesting your note about live TV, Janx. We don't either - the only show we watch live is Doctor Who, and only because we refuse to wait even a second to watch it! Everything else is time shifted and watched at leisure.

I'm pretty patient in this regard. I'm a year behind on Game of Thrones and willing to wait rather than get cable to watch it. Also not interested in pirating it even though I know that's a pretty popular option with this show in particular.

 

[Mallus]

We use Netflix, Hulu+, and the occasional purchase from iTunes (mainly the Food Network shows I'm hooked on, ie Chopped & Iron Chef America). Haven't had cable in two years.

Netflix streaming is a good all-around service. The strong points (to me) include entire back-catalog TV series, foreign/festival/art-house films, and documentaries.

Hulu+ is good for current TV, anime, including series currently running in Japan, and a nice chunk of the Criterion Collection. Really, the reason we keep Hulu+ is for the Criterion films. If you're a film buff, it's great.

We're quite happy w/both, but neither service is good if approach them with specific programming in mind, especially popular, recent-ish movies, ie the stuff that's more expensive to license. You have to be like, "Hey, great, The Avengers is available to stream!".

If you want what you want right now, you're better off with Netflix-on-disk, or another physical-media rental service.

 

[EricNoah]

(slow-mo double post!)

 

[Elf Witch]

Or you're caught up on shows, and don't want to wait 2 years for it to show up in netflix without watching TV.

A recurring theme is that those who don't watch a lot of TV can't seem to fathom that those who do have a voracious appetite for the new shows because we have already seen all the last episodes of the good shows.

We would have to refrain from watching ANY tv for 2 years, for there to finally be something in the netflix queue that we missed when it we watched TV when episodes were new.

Heck, I can't stand talking shows with my friends who do the "wait for netflix" method, because they are 2 years behind in the conversation.

I am the same way. Because I am disabled I watch a lot of TV. There are days my pain level is so high I can't concentrate enough to read so TV is the answer. Now I am mixture there are shows I am up to date on and shows that I get around to. Though I don't have hissy fits if I hear spoilers of shows that I have put off watching and it annoys me when people do get hissy about it. I believe there is a statue of limitations on spoilers.

 

[Janx]

I am the same way. Because I am disabled I watch a lot of TV. There are days my pain level is so high I can't concentrate enough to read so TV is the answer. Now I am mixture there are shows I am up to date on and shows that I get around to. Though I don't have hissy fits if I hear spoilers of shows that I have put off watching and it annoys me when people do get hissy about it. I believe there is a statue of limitations on spoilers.

And there be similar reasons why my wife sees more shows than me...


What is annoying is that the technology is there. The whole reason this is hard is because of money and humans trying to get their share of it.

It would be relatively simple to setup a DVRs to record every new show on every network.

And to then catalog those files and expose them via a streaming site (ala hulu/netflix). We could even setup in each broadcasting region to get the "local" version of the show with the local commercials.

Thus, with the Cloud DVR service, you could watch a show that aired that you forgot to record, because in effect, you did by paying for the service of a zillion-channel DVR product.

In the 2st century, TV is supposed to be picking a show you want to watch from the catalog of all shows ever made.

 

[Mallus]

In the 2st century, TV is supposed to be picking a show you want to watch from the catalog of all shows ever made.

I don't the content owners & distributors got the memo!

 

[NewJeffCT]

From what I've seen, the streaming services don't offer newer movies on them. So, if I could order the physical copy of something just out on DVD ("This is the End" was out a week or two ago), I could do that from Netflix. But, I couldn't stream them from any service that I know of at this time. (Legally stream, I mean) I'm usually the type that likes to watch new movies and TV shows when they're released or soon after (like "The Walking Dead" live last night)... so, I see a DVD released in the stores, but I can't watch it on Amazon Prime and I get disappointed. Heck, after all the publicity Breaking Bad has gotten recently, I checked to see if you could get it on amazon prime, and you can... you just have to pay $1.99 per episode for the first few seasons. So, you're paying for the membership, plus each episode.

So, nothing in terms of streaming has quite done it for me yet. (I tried out Netflix before, too, but was also disappointed to find newer movies not available.)

 

[Nellisir]

I use streaming Netflix almost exclusively. Occasionally I'll rent a movie from a physical Redbox. I've found that Netflix improves the longer you stick with it - my queue is well over a hundred titles now, and that counts tv shows as single titles.

Of the titles you listed, Bullgrit, I'd only consider Airplane! and Tremors as "old" movies. Netflix is not a reliable source for movies less than five years old, and it does have large gaps - I tried searching a list of classic Westerns once, and got perhaps one out of ten. That said, Airplane! used to be available on streaming, because I watched it. Tron Legacy may come up soon; Disney signed an agreement going through 2017 with Netflix, and have been moving a lot of their library online (Avengers is available to stream). Netflix is great for BBC shows & foreign material. As others have noted, it's really dependent on the studio.