Best streaming movie/TV shows service

[Bullgrit]

this thread seems like a modern pulse check on past "can I fire my cable vendor".

Answer:

No.

Actually, my answer is: Yes, done it.

As of last month, we have no cable/TV vendor. We have Internet service, through which we use Netflix. For local channels we have rabbit ears discreetly concealed behind the TV. The only complaint has been that my wife misses HGTV and the Weather Channel. But after I remind her that I lowered our monthly bill from $170 (TWC: TV, Internet, phone) to $56 (AT&T: Internet, phone), she says, "Never mind my complaint."

We were with TWC for over 12 years, and when I tried to get them to give us a better deal (after the price kept going up), we dropped them and changed to a new provider.

[I couldn't talk the wife into ditching the home phone service. She has reasons to have a line separate from her cell.]

We watch relatively little TV.

Me = maybe 2 hours a week.
Wife = maybe 4 hours a week.
Kids = maybe 2 hours a week.
All of us together, another 1 hour a week.

Although I've looked for a few particular movies and failed to find them, I haven't been at a loss for something to watch. Neither has anyone in my home.

Bullgrit

 

[Bullgrit]

duplicate post

 

[Janx]

Actually, my answer is: Yes, done it.
...snip...
We watch relatively little TV.

Me = maybe 2 hours a week.
Wife = maybe 4 hours a week.
Kids = maybe 2 hours a week.
All of us together, another 1 hour a week.

Although I've looked for a few particular movies and failed to find them, I haven't been at a loss for something to watch. Neither has anyone in my home.

Bullgrit

yeah, we watch a bit more TV than that, my wife more so. And we don't watch it live. DVR has revolutionized the way we watch TV, and it would be impractical to watch TV without it (I gave away all my VCR technology years ago, and I am often not available to watch TV when shows actually air.

the computer hooked to TV, browse to Network to view show on web page was clunky, so we only use that when there's been a DVR failure (rare, but happens.)

I don't get good enough reception to use broadcast antenna anyway.

I'd counted the shows we watch, looked at Apple's per episode pricing ($2 typically), and if they had everything I'd save money paying per episode (the # of shows airing per month is cheaper than paying for cable TV.

Alas, we can't get the shows we want on any single (or even small multiple) solution.

 

[Morrus]

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.

 

[Nytmare]

Yeah, I haven't had cable in ages. The last, brief interlude was some offer where they were effectively giving it to me for free in the hopes of getting me hooked.

The pattern that I've fallen into regarding TV shows is "wait till either the season, or better yet, the entire show has run it's course; and then sit down and watch the entire thing end to end between work projects on Netflix, Amazon, or someone else's DVD collection."

 

[sabrinathecat]

For a while, I was sharing an apt with my brother, who paid for cable. He moved out, but for some reason, the cable wasn't disconnected. I had free cable for almost a year.
Then one day a friend asked me to tape something for him (yes, tape: this was 2001). I discovered that the cable had been disconnected finally--two months earlier. Hell, if I haven't missed it for 2 months, I don't need it at all.
With NF's instant viewing, I have access to more than I can conceivably watch. Only thing I like to see when I visit my mother is Jeopardy and Deutsche Welle (German news--with actual international events instead of just USA crap--translated).
So there is absolutely no reason to keep a Cable service if you have internet access and a Instant viewing program.

 

[Nytmare]

I think that, for me, the cable drop was more of a "Wait a second, what happened to the Discovery Channel, Sci Fi, TLC, and the History Channel?"

 

[Janx]

So there is absolutely no reason to keep a Cable service if you have internet access and a Instant viewing program.

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.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Ah, but you could tell them "Don't bother: this season sux" or "Keep going: it gets even better." And only 1 year behind, unless they choose to be further.

 

[EricNoah]

I'm a cord-cutter (or more accurately a cord-never-haver). We use three sources: Hulu Plus (good for current TV and some past TV, annoyingly still with ads); Netflix (good for some past TV and some movies, very spotty coverage); and Apple TV (we rent the occasional movie through iTunes and we buy a couple of TV series we can't get elsewhere). I'm really not a big movie watcher I find - if I wanted to see it I saw it in the theater; if I want to re-watch something a lot I'll buy a DVD. I do find that TV series are my preferred video meal.