Internet TV....don't want dish or cable. What's the haps?

Unit74

Unit74

Final Approach
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Unit74
just moved to a new love shack. Trying to save money. Our last dish bill was close to $100. In our house, weather channel, nick Jr., Cartoon Network, pbs, nat geo, discovery, AXS were about all we really watched.

If I have hardline cable/DSL or whatever the hell it is now, what cheapo options do you man cave junkies like? Right now I've got electricity, water and a working septic tank, so I'm looking.
 
I recently got myself the dvd plan on Netflix. All the good movies and tv shows are on the dvds, their streaming is just crap anymore.
We have a roku thingy that plugs onto the tv for all the streaming crap and my dad made us an antenna yo watch tv. I think we pay about 40 a month for everything.
 
I don't bother with broadcast tv. The only thing I have right now is Amazon Prime with a minimum bandwith DSL connection. It connects to my TV via WiFi. No issues with the streaming as long as I'm not doing any major downloads while watching something.

I might pay for Netflix when I'm in the US a bit more.
 
We gave up Direct TV a year or so ago and went back to free TV over the air (antenna). We get 36 channels for no cost. We have Netflix at about $10 bucks a month or so. And, if you have an HDMI connection on your computer, you can watch most of the shows over the internet also. We watched the Razorback's get slaughtered that way on Saturday. My wife and I are very satisfied. Cable and satellite are getting too greedy.
 
Unless there's some kind of a special coming on, I hardly ever watch TV anymore. 90% of the shows that air are all re-run's. Netflix is about as good as you can get for the money.
 
PBS is free if you're within range:
www.antennaweb.com
www.tvfool.com

Sling Blue will get you Nick Jr, Cartoon Network and Nat Geo for $25/month. They also have a version of the Weather Channel called "Local Now", but I'm not sure how it differs from their cable feed. Sling also recently announced that they're carrying AXS but I'm not sure which package includes it.
www.sling.com

As for Discovery, you can get some shows here but I think they are otherwise cable-only with no other OTT.
https://www.discoverygo.com
 
Addendum: I found Discovery. It's on Playstation Vue. Playstation Vue is a bit pricey comparatively speaking, though. $40 gets you Discovery, Cartoon Network, and Nat Geo but you'd still be missing Weather, Nick Jr and AXS.

Addendum #2: Roku is probably the best box for aggregating the different streaming services from a beginner's standpoint. It's somewhat vendor neutral unlike Amazon Fire TV, AndroidTV or AppleTV, which prefer you stream from their services. Heck, AppleTV won't even stream Amazon content. Apple requires you to cast it from another device instead.

Addendum #3: If you don't care about 4K or HDR, the 2015 Roku 3 is on sale at Best Buy for $49 on Black Friday. It was originally $99 before Roku revamped their product line last month.
 
We have the next-to-lowest Cox internet package and an OTA antenna in the attic space. We get roughly 25+ channels, and which we probably regularly watch 5 of them at most. They all come in crystal clear and haven't been affected by weather so far. We also have a Roku 3 and an Amazon Fire HDMI-dongle. They both have the same stuff on them, but I made the changes to the Amazon Firestick in order to get Kodi installed and it gives you access to quite a bit of legal (and illegal) streamed content. We have Amazon Prime and Hulu, which is good for catching up on any shows the wife wants to watch, but we haven't bothered with Neflix or SlingTV yet. We also have the parent's DirectTV info, so we can watch FoxSports or ESPN via their apps as well.
 
flhrci said:
Almost off-grid! LOL
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Lol, we've got the same, although we also have a water well for watering the yard which I could probably re-plumb back into the house line if I wanted to shower in water that smells like sulfer!
 
Do what I did. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 for like $30 and setup OSMC. Connect it to the Fusion Repo and install Exodus.

Free TV. Forever. No limits .
 
Before I moved into the NC house full time, I had a PC driving the TV that let me watch DVDs and whatever I could get on the internet. I then augmented that with a Amazon FireStick (since I already had Amazon Prime).
 
SkyHog said:
Do what I did. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 for like $30 and setup OSMC. Connect it to the Fusion Repo and install Exodus.

Free TV. Forever. No limits .
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Color me interested, Nick.

What all content can you stream through that setup? Networks, services, whatever.

Dish it (so to speak). Speak Directly about TV.
 
SkyHog said:
Do what I did. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 for like $30 and setup OSMC. Connect it to the Fusion Repo and install Exodus.

Free TV. Forever. No limits .
Click to expand...

Sure. Simple. What?
 
SkyHog said:
Do what I did. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 for like $30 and setup OSMC. Connect it to the Fusion Repo and install Exodus.

Free TV. Forever. No limits .
Click to expand...

....another vote for info, please. Sounds like a good geek project.

Jim
 
Free to the point of how much you're willing to break the law to obtain it.
 
Anymouse said:
I don't bother with broadcast tv. The only thing I have right now is Amazon Prime with a minimum bandwith DSL connection. It connects to my TV via WiFi. No issues with the streaming as long as I'm not doing any major downloads while watching something.

I might pay for Netflix when I'm in the US a bit more.
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I'm kind of the opposite of you (well, more accurately, probably the consensus.) I only have broadcast TV at home. That's it. No cable. No dish. I figure if I'm paying for TV, I'm watching it too much.
 
SCCutler said:
Color me interested, Nick.

What all content can you stream through that setup? Networks, services, whatever.

Dish it (so to speak). Speak Directly about TV.
Click to expand...

That's what Kodi is (used to be called XBMC "XBox Media Center"). No need to do all the Android/Rasberry Pi stuff. The Amazon products already have the capability to download Kodi and then you just get whatever Video Add-ons you want (Exodus = tons of movies). You can buy the Amazon Firestick/Fire TV stuff with Kodi and the add-ons pre-installed on eBay pretty cheap if you don't want to follow the online instructions to do it yourself.
 
you can also install Kodi directly on a fire-stick.. so no need to mess with a RPi if you don't like getting knee deep in linux.

You can install it directly on the stick, from the stick in about 10min. Google Firestick Kodi and lots of walk throughs. With black friday around the corner, i suspect fire sticks will be a dime a dozen.

edit: 5min too slow.
 
I'll add to ringing the Netflix bell. It got a decent selection and is priced right. There's a great show that I think is only available there, The Crown. I still have DirecTV but haven't watched it in months, other than TWD.
 
Apple TV and Netflix/Hulu/HBO apps. Watch what I want when I want. I also have Nat Geo, Food Network, CBS, NBC, ABC, and a couple of handfulls of other apps but I rarely watch those.
 
Netflix is going downhill fast.

Like a lot of successful companies, they have gotten away from their roots and this will hurt them.
 
paflyer said:
On-TV interface is slow and clunky.
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Which Roku do you have? Roku 4 is great...fast and good interface. Almost all the product reviews I have seen show Roku on top between amazon, Apple TV, etc
 
We did this when we moved, I just didn't see anything on DirecTV worth the nearly $100/mo bill.

Have netflix, amazon prime, and OTA TV. Works well, sometimes there's a series or movie that just isn't on any of those services so I just order the DVD set for it. Some stuff doesn't become available for a while which is a problem if you're following a series as it airs. There are websites where you can download torrents of such things but of course I wouldn't know anything about that. On the upside both netflix and amazon have some of their own TV series and a lot of them are actually very good.

Device wise I have a samsung smart TV that has built-in apps for netflix and amazon prime among other things. It works well enough and doesn't require a box which is nice. Also have an apple TV in another room. I like the apple TV's interface the best but there's no easy way to do amazon prime on them so booo.
 
I want to do this to, but I need my sports. What's the best option to keep getting ABC/ESPN, Fox, CBS, and NBC sports? Currently a Dish subscriber and have a Roku at a second home.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I'm kind of the opposite of you (well, more accurately, probably the consensus.) I only have broadcast TV at home. That's it. No cable. No dish. I figure if I'm paying for TV, I'm watching it too much.
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I got Prime for the free two day shipping. The free movies, etc. is just a bonus that I take advantage of when I'm in the States.

Eventually I'll start doing the Netflix thing, but that's at least two years out.
 
Van Johnston said:
I want to do this to, but I need my sports. What's the best option to keep getting ABC/ESPN, Fox, CBS, and NBC sports? Currently a Dish subscriber and have a Roku at a second home.
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Well SlingTV will cover the ESPN stuff for $20/mo, or you can add Fox Sports/etc for additional fee. Regular network ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox is available for free OTA.
 
I have no effin clue WTH most of you guys are talking about.Pi, Ruku, Hula....... does anyone speek gringlish round heer? This is gonna be complicated I guess. I do have Prime for the shipping. Never used it for Internet as our Dish connection dumped us for a data limit once we tried.


So If I have Prime now, what easy, simple, plug and play "thing" can I use to get some neat colors on the TV screen. I have a 5 year old Samsung 46" plasma right now.
 
Cheapest solution is the Amazon FireStick or Fire TV. They both do the same thing and will have Amazon Prime as its primary featured service. The other stuff is available on it too, if you so desire. The only think you must have is a WiFi connection and internet service.
 
CC268 said:
Which Roku do you have? Roku 4 is great...fast and good interface. Almost all the product reviews I have seen show Roku on top between amazon, Apple TV, etc
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A 2 or 3. Horrible interface, bought it for elderly relative, good luck training to use it.
 
Raspberry Pi is a stripped down linux computer (essentially talks HDMI and usually some sort of networking). You can make it into a dandy little media player with software that is available.

Roku is a little standalone box that allows you to connect to a variety of streaming services (a few free, many subscription) in a little less "hack it yoruself" than using a raspberry pi.

An Amazon FireStick is a similar unit except it's aligned closely with Amazon's own video services. Some of which you get free if you're already a Prime customer.

Some of the "Smart TV" have such streaming services as offered by the above built into the TV already.

Hulu and Sling TV are all program sources that you can view on a variety of media players above.
 
paflyer said:
A 2 or 3. Horrible interface, bought it for elderly relative, good luck training to use it.
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Interesting, I think I have used the 3 before but never the 2. I did a hell of a lot of research before I bought mine when I was looking at different streaming devices. Roku was pretty much regarded as the best overall streamer across the board. Chromecast and Amazon Fire were good as well. Apple TV I have used...it is okay. Most streaming devices now a days seem to be pretty good, but heck for $130 I will buy the Roku 4.

In all fairness most "elderly" folk are about as clueless as it gets when it comes to any electronic device. Even my parents are pretty clueless on how to use their new Vizio M series TV (specifically the Android tablet it comes with which allows you to cast anything you want onto the TV - Netflix, Vudu, etc).

Maybe try Apple TV? Apple usually provides the easiest user interface.
 
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Canceled Directv 4 yrs ago and buy $20-40 in dvds a month.
 
We don't watch TV. I bought a Sony-flavored Google TV box a few years ago thinking we might use it for some internet stuff but that didn't happen. Our new puppy went 8 months before she saw her first TV picture, which she found to be quite exciting.

It used to be that the exception to not watching was a couple of hours of the presidential election every four years, but this year I just used my N7 tablet to monitor the maps that NYT posted. So we don't need the TV for that any more either.
 
Has anyone wondered what information your Roku, Smart TV, etc. are sending home about you? The question is prompted by an email I got today from Roku about an updated 'privacy and cookies' policy, which is several pages of drivel. Still trying to figure out what exactly they're sending/intercepting.

Jim
 
Jim Rosenow said:
Has anyone wondered what information your Roku, Smart TV, etc. are sending home about you? The question is prompted by an email I got today from Roku about an updated 'privacy and cookies' policy, which is several pages of drivel. Still trying to figure out what exactly they're sending/intercepting.

Jim
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You don't want to know.
 
SCCutler said:
Color me interested, Nick.

What all content can you stream through that setup? Networks, services, whatever.

Dish it (so to speak). Speak Directly about TV.
Click to expand...
It's not exactly "legal" per se, although as a consumer the legality is ... obscured a bit as there is nothing overtly advertised as wrong.

But in short, everything you could ever want to watch is available on demand within hours of airing for free.

Even historical content for the last 60 years or so.
 
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