Author Topic: Cord cutting confusion  (Read 9100 times)

Cpa Cat

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Cord cutting confusion
« on: April 19, 2014, 08:30:49 AM »
My husband and I were all set to cut the cable cord and buy a Roku 3. And then the very day I went to buy it, the Amazon Fire TV was released. I became instantly overwhelmed by the choice and didn't know what to buy. So I backed off the whole idea. I need some guidance.

Here's our details:

We have never owned any of these streaming devices except for a PS3 - which we use for Amazon Prime and Netflix when we've had it.

We are planning to get rid of cable completely, so any ap that requires a cable subscription is irrelevant clutter.

We don't care about watching sports or local TV.

We do care about HD. I hate watching stuff in standard def.

It must be user friendly. We don't have a lot of patience for browsing features or troubleshooting. If it's not immediately obvious what it is or how it works, we may never find out.

We currently have Amazon Prime and will keep it. We intend on getting Netflix because it's familiar. Are there other subscription-type services we should consider? I hear people talk about Hulu Plus, but I don't know what I get with it, exactly.

So what device should I buy? And as a secondary question, what other subscription services should we consider trying?

eliandjax1

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2014, 08:49:33 AM »
I cannot speak to roku 3 as I have and am still using a roku 2(highest model) I think ot streams in hd? I have used ps3as well and perfer the roku.

Depends on what you want to watch... we get by fine with netflix and amazon prime for us and the kids. I got rid of hulu when they started advertising whicj is one reason I perfer streaming to cable in the first place.

Good luck on your cord cutting. Were 4 years out and don't miss cable tv on bit.

socaso

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2014, 08:55:08 AM »
We did the cord cutting thing at the beginning of the year and I'm much happier than when we were paying for cable. We bought the Roku 3 because of the HD, got a refurbished one on Amazon for $79 and it works perfectly. We have Netflix and Hulu Plus. Both work very well for us. I'm perfectly happy with Hulu Plus but have acknowledged to my spouse that we may drop the service for a couple of months at a time (like over summer) when there are fewer things we want to watch. There are quite a few shows I follow on Hulu Plus but there are some really stupid restrictions about some shows. For instance, they have Hannibal but you can only watch it online and not stream it on the Roku. Super annoying if you ask me. The thing you have to accept about cord cutting is that it is a brave new world of content streaming and you may have to find multiple sources if you are very devoted to certain shows. Networks and streaming services are cutting all sorts of whackadoodle deals and it is very confusing for consumers but my personal opinion is that things will become much more streamlined in the future as more and more people get fed up with cable.

As far as the HD is concerned it is great on the Roku with one little quirk, when you first fire up any given program the picture quality is slightly off for the first few moments. This corrects into HD pretty darn quickly (less than a minute at our house) so I don't mind.

There are far more apps available on the Roku than I had thought. I was pleased and surprised to discover PBS has a free Roku app and you can watch all sorts of PBS shows like Sherlock, Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge and Austin City Limits (to name a few) these shows tend to be available for only a few weeks after the original air date. There is also an app for YouTube which I have been exploring. It's interesting to see some of the independent content being produced online.

Spork

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2014, 10:42:49 AM »

related question: Does the Roku understand Amazon Prime?  (I was REALLY surprised that TiVo does not.  You can buy Amazon titles, but it has no knowledge that you're a Prime member and you pretty much have to pay full price.)

dcheesi

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2014, 01:55:59 PM »
The amazon product doesn't seem as polished as the roku. From what I've read, it doesn't do service-agnostic search very well; it tends to show amazon options first, even if theirs is paid and another service has it for free.

Since you're an HD lover, I assume you already have a blu ray player? If not, the Sony players do a decent job of supporting streaming services including Amazon prime.

pipercat

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2014, 03:42:25 PM »

related question: Does the Roku understand Amazon Prime?  (I was REALLY surprised that TiVo does not.  You can buy Amazon titles, but it has no knowledge that you're a Prime member and you pretty much have to pay full price.)

We use Amazon Prime with our Roku all the time.  I have no idea which model our Roku is, but we've had it for at least a couple of years.

Really, Netflix and Amazon Prime take care of everything we need to watch.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2014, 07:19:31 PM »
Why not just use your PS3? I have both a PS3 and a Roku 2, and the PS3 gets used much more. I like the remote better and the UI is snappier since, as dated as it is, the game console has way more computing horsepower than the media boxes.

It does generate some noise and uses more electricity, but that's not enough reason in and of itself to buy the Roku.

begood

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2014, 11:27:19 AM »
I am starting to consider this cord-cutting thing too... we are big TV hounds, and big college basketball fans (watching on TV, not attending in the arena), so this is not a small thing for us to try to imagine. We moved away from our conference, so we rely on ESPN to keep us connected to our beloved teams. Live sports seems to be one thing that is difficult to get without some kind of basic cable or satellite.

Am I correct that you can't watch "WatchESPN" unless you are already an ESPN subscriber through cable or satellite?

We are also *addicted* to our DVR. We use it *all the time*. We don't watch anything live anymore. On the plus side for cord-cutting, though, we have 100+ episodes sitting in the DVR right now, including whole seasons of shows. Our typical pattern is to watch stuff stored in the DVR over the summer, when there's less original programming showing. As our daughter has gotten older, we spend less and less time watching TV. Right now, we're watching about an hour a night, usually less.

It's easy for me to imagine only getting local channels and it fulfilling about 75 percent of our TV needs. But that other 25 percent is still pretty important to us, at least from December - March.

Rural

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #8 on: May 03, 2014, 04:00:12 PM »
Sometimes you can get WatchESPN if you have cable internet -- we were able to until we moved to our house and had to switch to DSL. We'd never had cable TV at that place, just internet.

begood

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2014, 07:19:10 AM »
Sometimes you can get WatchESPN if you have cable internet -- we were able to until we moved to our house and had to switch to DSL. We'd never had cable TV at that place, just internet.

Interesting, Rural. And good to know!

NinetyFour

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #10 on: May 04, 2014, 07:31:40 AM »
I am a Charter customer, with internet only.  I seem to be able to watch quite a bit (free) on Watch ESPN--but not everything.

For what it's worth--I remember thinking that I just couldn't live without being able to watch all the tennis grand slam events on TV.  But I found out that yeah, it's possible.  Would I like to be able to watch more tennis?  Sure.  Am I willing to part with some of my hard earned money to pay for it?  No.

Davids

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2014, 09:52:19 AM »
Honestly for me Netflix and over the air channels are more than enough for me. For my streaming devices I have a Roku 2 which streams in HD (Bought for $39 on Black Friday 2012) and I have a Sony WiFi Enabled Blu Ray player which has various apps including netflix, youtube and a bunch of other channels (Got the blu ray player for free). Now I do use the WatchESPN app on roku as my parents have cable so I use their account to watch ESPN through it but that is once in awhile.

RapmasterD

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2014, 01:32:10 AM »
1) Apple TV.

2) Stream Amazon from your iPhone.

3) Watch so little TV overall that all of this is moot.

LibrarIan

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2014, 07:00:17 AM »
1) Own PS3

2) Use Netflix or Amazon Prime through PS Browser

3) Checkout DVDs from the library

NeverWasACornflakeGirl

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2014, 07:10:45 AM »
There was a similar thread recently that people may find helpful:  http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/netflix-vs-amazon-prime-vs-hulu-plus-vs/msg273635/#msg273635

Includes a shameless plug for a blog post that I wrote on the topic.  ;-)

nawhite

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #15 on: May 05, 2014, 07:38:27 AM »
I'm definitely confused why the PS3 isn't meeting your needs. It streams Netflix and Amazon Prime (and Hulu Plus) all in HD, it comes with an internet browser, and it plays rented blurays. Why do you need a Roku again? If your PS3 isn't meeeting your needs to allow you to cut the chord, a Roku or Kindle Fire TV won't be magically better.

Another app I'd recommend is Aereo if you don't have good antenna coverage in your area. Basically they set up a bunch of antennas in an area that gets great reception and then stream you all of the local channels from that. (They are currently facing a Supreme Court case over their legality but I think they'll win.)


Mt Tahoe

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #16 on: May 05, 2014, 08:36:08 AM »
We bought a roku 3. At time there was no Amazon product. Roku is tried and tested. We love ours. We only have Netflix, but there are a few free channels out there, and PBS. We have not gotten Hulu because did not want to spring for it, plus there is Soooooo much content on netflix that we would have to watch TV all day to catch up.

The head phone jack is good when one person wants to watch something and the other does not... Plus there is angry birds.... :)

Cpa Cat

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2014, 12:06:49 PM »
So the reason we wanted to get a streaming box is because we have two TV's. The PS3 is in my husband's errr... "man cave." So I wanted something for the other TV. I bought the Roku and have used it and enjoy the interface. But honestly, we haven't missed cable yet and I haven't used the Roku enough to have made it worthwhile.

NumberCruncher

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #18 on: May 07, 2014, 08:04:39 AM »
So the reason we wanted to get a streaming box is because we have two TV's. The PS3 is in my husband's errr... "man cave." So I wanted something for the other TV. I bought the Roku and have used it and enjoy the interface. But honestly, we haven't missed cable yet and I haven't used the Roku enough to have made it worthwhile.

Sounds like you bought the Roku, but for anyone else reading, Chromecast is a cheap ($35) solution.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: Cord cutting confusion
« Reply #19 on: May 07, 2014, 08:13:34 AM »
Also, Playon.tv and Playlater. One time fee of $80-ish for the software. Record any TV shows that networks post to their websites and stream to the device.

This one little program covers about 95% of what we watch. The rest is Prime, and in the summer, Netflix. (And DVDs from the library)