All Things Streaming

Films, TV shows, and books of the 'modern' era
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Masha
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by Masha »

I have found that: Movieland TV is back! I know that it was not my imagination that it disappeared a short time ago because it was mentioned in: Roku forum on: Reddit. It has a slightly different UI than previously but so does the search function on: Roku. It is possible the app was not available because it was not compatible with a system update. There is one movie which I am sure it carried before that is not now there but all else seems reasonably identical.

The Roku which we use most is: Ultra LT. It was: $39 from: Wal-Mart during one of their promotional periods. It is nice that the remote uses radio because it avoids pointing problems but it does complicate things when used in the living room because it changes also the Roku in the bedroom.

We lost cable television some years ago when living at our former residence. Renovations to a street meant taking down all the poles which carried the telephone and cable television wires. The telephone system was unaffected because it had changed to buried lines more than a decade prior and the poles were a legacy. The local cable television company did not relocate their wires to the power poles at once because of the difficulty and expense of doing the work in a construction zone and we were the only paying subscribers within a several block radius. The street work was scheduled to last only a few months and then they would do the work. A battle between city, county and state regarding who would pay for what and whose code would be used for what delayed the project several times. We were fully converted to streaming by the time cable television was again available and we never went back to it.

Cable television here would by a minimum of: $79.95 a month plus box fees and taxes plus more for a tier which includes TCM. We pay: $59.99 for 200Mbps cable internet and supplied our own modem. This bandwidth is sufficient for us to have four Roku boxes in different rooms and be using three computers all at the same time with no noticeable lag or latency. I am sorry to say that the project to run CAT-6 cable to all rooms has been delayed because of unforeseen problems and so we do have cables taped to the crown molding in the hallways but I am reasonably confident that it will all be neat and tidy some day.
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Masha
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by Masha »

jimimac71 wrote: May 28th, 2023, 1:51 pm I think the preprogrammed buttons are silly.
It is advertising. Streaming services pay a fee to be on one of those buttons. Roku applies those fees to cost of manufacturing. I have not seen exact numbers but have read in several places that it 'significantly' reduces the selling price of the devices.
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txfilmfan
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by txfilmfan »

jimimac71 wrote: May 28th, 2023, 1:51 pm I've been employed by both Storer Cable TV and Viacom Cablevision.
Both companies are only memories but good ones.
I worked at a cable system in Fairfield, CA. that used dual cable.
12 channels on the A side, and 12 on the B side.
It does puzzle me why Roku has the remote the way they do.
I think the preprogrammed buttons are silly.
Both Amazon and Apple have all the buttons on the front.
With Apple, the Siri button is on the right side, but you must press and hold it.
I looked on the Internet to see if the Indy 500 was available commercial free.
Of course not, but many, many complaints about NBC's coverage being overrun with ads.
Some say the Peacock coverage is lagging.
Not sure what is lagging. A perfect opportunity for the good old Pay Per View.
Our TV is small by today's standards at 39 inches. I has a pedestal base.
I have it elevated as the soundbar blocks the TV sensor.
Picture a number of really big phone books.
Amazon has an app for their Fire TV devices too.
In true Apple fashion, it is possible to use an iPhone or iPad as the Apple TV remote.
You still have phone books where you live? Haven't seen one here in over 15 years.
The dual coax system here had 120 channels or so. Very advanced for the time (late 80s/early 90s).

I grew up with cable (Cablecom), as my hometown sits between two larger TV markets, too far away to pick up signals with an ordinary rooftop antenna (and blocked in one direction by low mountains), and had only 2 TV stations locally, but no local stations when the system first was built. The cable system started in 1951 or 1952. The first system had only 5 channels, but that was in the 1950s. I only remember the 12 channel system, which was upgraded with pay TV add-ons in 176 (Showtime or HBO - you couldn't get both) and then to 36 channels in the late 1970s and more after I left home.

If you remember, the Indy 500 used to not be shown live at all. It was carried on tape delay, for some reason, well into the 1980s, IIRC.
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jimimac71
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by jimimac71 »

First, I understand why Roku has the labeled shortcut buttons, but still think it's lame.
You can also get a remote with programmable buttons.
Exactly how do you label them?
Second, I have indoor plumbing and have not seen a phone book in years.
An independent company still does one once a year.
It's more like yellow pages.
I remember the Indy 500 on ABC and actually on Memorial Day.
The worst thing about cable?
Okay, the stupid cable box and remote. You press a button and it starts spelling words, in addition to channel numbers, like texting on a flip phone.
There are 3 sets of channels. SD, HD, and 4 digital.
I stay with it because streaming, in the long run, would cost more and get me less.
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Lomm
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by Lomm »

I've tried just about every streaming device there is I think. :lol:

Apple TV 4K: the best, most complete ad-free (in the interface) experience for me, hands down. Very easy to use once you get the hang of it. If you already have an Apple TV device, I would recommend just spending some time getting familiar with the remote and how things work. It will be a positive in the end.

Nvidia Shield: complicated, confusing, ad filled home screen. Once you get the hang of how Android TV works, it's not too hard to use though. And like the Apple TV, it's a powerful device. You won't have any lag issues related to the hardware.

Built-in Android TV smart TV: Same interface as the Shield, but slower and laggy due to low processing power of the system. It's still what we use on the main living room TV, because it came with it and I'm too cheap to buy a second Apple TV device when this just sort of works fine. It does run out of memory sometimes and reboot apps in the middle of viewing though. It's a rare enough occurrence that I just live with it.

Roku: well covered above I think. :)

Amazon Fire TV: This one I bought for my son when he went to college so I don't have a lot of personal experience with it. Seemed ok to me when setting up, but FULL of ads.

Google Chromecast with Android TV: same as my built-in TV above really, only on a dongle. Seemed to work well but I retired it because there is no way to secure my YouTube account from my other son when using it (he watched things I didn't deem appropriate for him and I couldn't lock it down to not allow him to log into it). This issue would also apply to the Shield and my living room TV, but he doesn't have unsupervised access to them like he did on the small TV I put in his bedroom. He now has a Roku, which lets me segregate the access permissions nicely (same as Apple TV does).

Streaming services:
I cut the cord and save about 30-40 dollars a month having switched from paying for cable to YouTube TV. It includes TCM at no extra cost, but it is NEARLY as expensive as cable. Still does save some money.
I also subscribe to Amazon (through my prime membership, it's included), Disney Plus, and Apple TV Plus. The latter two are quite inexpensive IMO, so I barely even notice the cost. I don't have Netflix or MAX, or any of the other pay services. Netflix especially has gotten too expensive these days. I use Tubi and Pluto TV for my ad supported viewing. This and the occasional pay-per-view movie have satisfied me. You can also do trials for most of the services and try them free for a month. If you do this you can keep doing it endlessly, with new email addresses, to keep up with certain shows if you want (I don't bother with this). :lol:
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jimimac71
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by jimimac71 »

Excellent post Lomm!
In my opinion, Roku is simple and available in many price points.
The Amazon Fire TV Sticks are okay but can be stubborn.
It seems you can not search for content from an app that is not installed on the device.
Apple TV is expensive, perhaps more than the Nvidia Shield. Not sure.
You can not use the 32 or 64 GB of storage for media. It is an awful lot of space for apps.
I live with my Mom and she mostly decides what we watch. It's my job to find out what's on.
I use the Xfinity app on my tablet and can scroll much faster through the channel guide.
TCM and SF Giants baseball require a full TV package.
MLB.TV will not stream local games live. That's pretty lame.
We are not big on other sports.
Ma is a news hound and that is all we watch on broadcast television.
Then there's MeTV. We watch it frequently.
Some of the shows are scattered across other channels.
YouTube TV would be my first choice. I don't feel the need to purchase from Disney.
They are too big for their britches. I don't need Hulu, Disney+, or ESPN+.
YouTube TV would be a lesser of two evils. Fubo dropped the Turner channels a long time ago, it seems.
I could live without TCM, which Fubo doesn't have and they are loaded on the sports side. I do want TCM!
In my opinion, Direct TV Stream (or whatever the name is today) is satellite TV without the satellite.
I cannot use an antenna and live in the San Francisco broadcast area.
Cable has access to the channels where satellite and streaming does not.
Over-the-air channels on streaming is limited.
I will no longer have access to Peacock through my Xfinity service on June 26.
It is the $4.99 ad supported version. Can live without it.
Apple TV does not have The Roku Channel, which also isn't a deal breaker.
I could get by okay with just YouTube TV.
Funny how you can get a 20 minute free preview and there is an on screen live TV guide.
Here is the link:
https://tv.youtube.com/live
After looking at the guide, I could get almost everything worth watching.
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Lomm
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Re: All Things Streaming

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I've been very happy with YouTube TV and have converted several others to it as well. There may be an add-on package for your SF Giants baseball, I don't know. Here in the Cincinnati market we are stuck with Bally Sports, who don't have a deal with YouTube TV and seem to have no plans to ever have one. My stepfather has resorted to dodgy internet streams he can find online and watching on the PC. :lol: I'm content with highlights.
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jimimac71
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Re: All Things Streaming

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The SF Giants are on NBC Sports Bay Area. Owned by Comcast/Xfinity. It's all good.
I noticed the Hallmark Trio of channels are all East Coast feeds. Oh well.
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txfilmfan
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by txfilmfan »

Lomm wrote: May 30th, 2023, 12:36 pm I've been very happy with YouTube TV and have converted several others to it as well. There may be an add-on package for your SF Giants baseball, I don't know. Here in the Cincinnati market we are stuck with Bally Sports, who don't have a deal with YouTube TV and seem to have no plans to ever have one. My stepfather has resorted to dodgy internet streams he can find online and watching on the PC. :lol: I'm content with highlights.
Same here. YouTubeTV had Bally's predecessor here in the DFW area (Fox Sports Southwest 1 & 2), but the deal came to an end about 6 months after I signed up. Shortly thereafter, Bally's was dropped from other area providers. It has been controversial because they carried the local NBA, NHL and MLB teams here, and carriage is now limited in the area. They offered a direct to consumer streaming package recently, but it's reportedly glitchy, and many balked at the $20/month charge ($190/year).

Bally (which just paid for the naming rights - the channel is actually owned by Diamond Sports Group, which is a subsidiary of Sinclair) is in severe financial trouble, and it is becoming apparent that there is not an unlimited supply of money for sports TV rights in the cable-cutting world. It will be interesting to see the knock-on effects in the various sports/teams that currently rely on the RSNs.

Sinclair got them as a result of Disney's purchase of 20th Century-Fox, which included the Fox regional networks. They were required to divest the sports networks since Disney owns the ESPN universe.

When I had Verizon FiOS a few years back, we had nearly every Fox/Bally sports network across the country.
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Lomm
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Re: All Things Streaming

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jimimac71 wrote: May 30th, 2023, 1:09 pm The SF Giants are on NBC Sports Bay Area. Owned by Comcast/Xfinity. It's all good.
I noticed the Hallmark Trio of channels are all East Coast feeds. Oh well.
Ah, but you see, the beauty of YouTube TV? Unlimited DVR. You just save it to your library and you can watch anytime you want, and skim through the commercials too!
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HoldenIsHere
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Re: All Things Streaming

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Masha wrote: May 25th, 2023, 10:37 pm
Our main go-to at the moment is: TubiTV. They have a nice selection of live channels which do have commercials but they seem slightly fewer than actual live television. It is not uncommon to see what was originally a thirty-minute broadcast network program shown complete in a twenty-six minute time slot.

Yes, I like Tubi.TV as well. The ads come in odd places though.
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jimimac71
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Re: All Things Streaming

Post by jimimac71 »

I have a ZVOX soundbar attached to my computer and seem to have misplaced the remote.
I hate that.
I have found my old TV set from about 2015 may not play nice with Apple TV.
Roku is my favorite device except for the remote control's volume and mute buttons to the side.
Come to find the more I tinker with my Amazon Fire Stick, the more goodies I find.
I can control my soundbar or TV sound, which doesn't seem to happen with other devices, or I don't know where controls are.
I really can't find a replacement (yet) for Xfinity TV.
It would be necessary to purchase YouTube TV and Philo, which is almost $100/month.
We watch MeTV and Great American Family (combined) more than TCM.
Considering how Amazon has there fingers in everything, why don't they have a streaming service?
I could get Prime Video, I don't need or have Prime now, and add an endless array of channels.
Same with Apple or Roku.
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Lomm
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Re: All Things Streaming

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Apple TV will (probably) support your soundbar. There are settings on it to train the remote for almost any device.

Amazon DOES have a streaming service with Prime, but it's all their originals and shows they bought, no cable channels (some are offered tied into Prime, like Paramount Plus, but you still pay extra for them, and no regular networks).
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Masha
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Re: All Things Streaming

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jimimac71 wrote: June 1st, 2023, 1:20 pm Considering how Amazon has there fingers in everything, why don't they have a streaming service?
I could get Prime Video, I don't need or have Prime now, and add an endless array of channels.
I am sorry to say that I do not understand what you mean. 'Amazon Prime Video' is Amazon's streaming service.

They have a very large number of movies and television programs available. Some are free with subscription and some are pay-pre-view and some cycle on an irregular schedule between being free and being ppv. There is a commercial at the beginning of each but the movies and programs have no commercial interruptions.

It is best if you know which movie or television program you wish to watch because their menu system presents only a tiny number of available selections and is complete dog vomit to navigate. The search feature is reasonably competent and it does allow searching by title, actor or director. There is a way to search by genre but it works slightly less well than standing naked on your front lawn at midnight with a rubber chicken on your head and screaming your wishes to the moon.

The only channel of which I am aware that comes integrated into the basic Amazon Prime Video subscription is: Freevee. It is ad-supported content. It is likely best to install the: Freevee app directly on: Roku rather than going through APV. I believe that you do not need to create an account to use that app but it will automatically link to an existing APV account.

There are a great number of channels to which you can subscribe through APV. This is slightly more convenient than subscribing to each channel through its own app because APV's opening screen will display the movies or programs which each channel is promoting that day and because Amazon handles the billing rather than having your credit card information stored on multiple websites of varying security.

It is an oddity of their system that they bill each subscription on its renewal date rather than aggregate it into one monthly billing. I have read that they do this so that it is plain to the consumer that the channel is responsible for the charges rather than Amazon charging whatever they feel like charging. I have read also that they do this so that it is not so readily apparent to the consumer the total amount they are paying each month. There have been posts in some forums by people shocked because they did not realize that the: $6.95 here and: $8.99 there actually added up to more than a hundred dollars a month.
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jimimac71
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Re: All Things Streaming

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I attempted to watch an episode of "A Fine Romance," with Judi Dench, on Freevee.
The program was very heavy with ads. Worst I've ever seen.
As for Amazon having a streaming service, I'm thinking about something to compete with the likes of YouTube TV.
I'm wired for live real-time TV. Don't use On Demand much. Too overwhelming with choices.
I actually prefer radio online over a service like Spotify.
Your post made me laugh.
If you're gonna scream (bark) at the moon, you should be on your roof.
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