Internet TV (streaming movies, etc)

I agree
The content I have watched on cable, satellite, and U-verse is of no value at all. The best I can tell for any given day you get morning paid inform commercials channel, plenty of "news" channels, weather, food, local, discovery, sci fi, trutv, history, nat geog, and other segments. Sadly there are reruns on this too and all this content is horrible over priced.

 

What about Apple TV

 

Heard Apple will come out with a new version sometime in the future.

 

Generally the day after you buy the old version.

 

Stream content. Play DVDs. Avoid commercials and episodic programming. Save $100/month. Sounds good to me.

 

I decided to get 2 TB of DVR storage, record everything we watch, and watch 4 hours of TV in 3 hours! And you do not have to watch the show intros, outros, and the evil commercials! Fast Forward, and 30 sec per button push Fast Forward are indeed tools of the GODS!

 

But Pinto Girl this would make you miss all those wonderful political ads coming up this year.

 

I firmly believe the inventor of the Fast Forward button had this very thought in mind when he came up with the idea!

 

http://m.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/03/hands-on-1080p-apple-tv/

In the meantime, current Apple TV owners can snag an update to their set top box today, but you still won’t be able to stream 1080p — only new Apple TVs get that perk. The 2012 Apple TV is $99, can be pre-ordered today, and will be available for purchase next week.

 

I just learned that if I cut the TV portion of our cable service, that something like 120 QAM channels are still delivered if I just set the little $129 flat screen TV into a global search mode, and as long as it is attached to the coax. Most channels won't be in full 1080 HD, but about 15 are. Thus far, the cable company has no way of filtering these out of the internet bandwidth stream (IIRC from the cable forum). BTW, I'm not talking about going to the internet for these TV shows; this is real TV, on the TV.

I wouldn't be able to get PPV, or premium services like HBO, CMAX, SHO, or BBC America, but I'd have 95% of what I mostly don't watch anyway. Just don't take my Doctor Who from local PBS, or DISC or HIST channels away, and I'll be a happy camper.

QAM's take a little while to get used to - you've got to tune to a channel by punching in 84.41, for example, but most TV's today can be set to an alias, so you just set it up to navigate to CARTOON NET on the screen with the cursors on the remote and hit ENTER. I already do this, since my TV in my office doesn't have the optional digital box to tune through.

WOW is what I use for TV and internet delivery currently. I haven't cut the cable TV portion, as it accounts for $30 more a month, and that includes the digital HD DVR and router/modem rental, and the convenience is worth it to both of us.

Now if Apple can get their delivery issues figured out and also have a la carte choices (rumored), we might want to switch when the time comes (looks like 2013 now). And that would mean no more DVR, since all "recorded" shows would be in the cloud.

 

I get my high speed internet from our local municipal cable company. Since they have no way to block cable television when a person subscribes to high speed internet, they just give it to you. This cable company still installs or removes "traps" in the line to give or take away channels.

 

I have Netflix right now and a lot of the movies and tv shows I want to watch are not on netflix. When I goto imdb.com to check out a tv show I check for the season and episode guide. In the guide there's always that watch on amazon button. I check Netflix for the same show and it's DVD only. Dexter, dead like me, the big bang theory, and reba just to name a few. Amazon Prime is annual subscription while Netflix is month to month. My question is which online streaming service offers the most movies and shows, amazon prime, netflix, hulu plus or some other ones? Does hulu plus have commercials like their free counterpart?

 

Amazon Prime (which gives you stuff like free shipping and limited Kindle book loans) has some free streaming content, but most of what's on Amazon is still pay as you go, even if you have Prime membership. For example, Dead like Me, which you mentioned, does not seem to have a Prime button, meaning it's not available for free. I get the impression (based on very limited searching) that anything available free with Amazon Prime, is also available on Netflix streaming.

NetFlix is far more limited in what it can offer by streaming, I think because of fee structures and contracts (maybe because it's cheaper).

 

Little tip... If you want to increase the quality of your streaming video (Netflix, etc) then run ethernet cables to those devices. When you are using the WiFi you will find the quality degrades especially if more items or people are using the WiFi signal.

I've run an ethernet cable under my house from the home office to right behind the entertainment center in my living room. I have a switch there so that the PS3, Wii, XBox 360 and Bluray Player all can connect without using the WiFi. Much better picture and more bandwidth for my iPad, other tablets and laptops in the house.

 

I have a Netflix subscription myself. Apart from ensuring your bandwidth being optimal (IE ethernet cables, port optimization, etc), I've noticed some of the programming is better quality then others. Some of the latest "HD" Movies and TV shows show a marked improvement in visual quality, and also have Dolby Digital Plus (so the audio can be better then DVD). Even though streaming has one of the lowest bandwidths for HD, I am amused when services advertise whether the resolution is fullHD or not. That doesn't matter because compression artifacts will make their 1080p image look not as detailed as a HDTV 720p/1080i image. If you're really concerned with good quality, then blu ray is currently the main choice (not just visually, but lossless audio does sound nice too). Maybe, though, you want the convenience of streaming for TV shows or older movies that don't need the best.

I've found I'm keeping Netflix streaming because they are offering a lot of TV shows as well as movies that are now out of print on DVD.

 

I keep Netflix because I like to go through some series that are no longer on television or that I missed. "Lie to Me" series and "Monk" series are two of my favorites. However, since I am a true geek my 9-year-old daughter and I will both be on our laptops while we are watching a show. Too many things on the WiFi and we can tell the signal has degraded. Netflix has something build in that detects how good your stream is and adjusts it.

If I'm on 3G with the iPad it is a fair picture, if I am on WiFi the picture is good. The same happens on your home television over WiFi versus over an ethernet cable.

You are right, Davesrose the sound suffers as well.

 

Check for some of the new programming on Netflix. I've watched several things now (a few movies and new TV shows) that are dolby digital plus (definitely an improvement over their earlier dolby stereo). Sometimes it even taps my 500W subwoofer. Though it's never going to be blu ray quality, and sometimes you get signal loss, and then one episode I watched of Eureka (which is DD+) had something wrong with the encoding so that all the surround effects were not matched well. So to sum things up, I like streaming for its convenience. If I'm looking for a high quality movie theater experience, then I'll watch blu ray.