suggestions on streaming service?

[Ken Platt]

I realize posting this probably puts me in the old curmudgeon category, but I'm new to the streaming thing and am a bit overwhelmed by the choices.

We have a panasonic so-called "smart" TV, which takes an ethernet plug and sets up internet access, and has a bunch of app-type things. It includes a button for Netflix, amazon prime instant (or something like that) Hulu, Vudu, and CinemaNow.

It has seemed surprisingly difficult for me to find out what each service offers in what they have available now, how much they charge and what's included in the various charge levels. I'm guessing that it's me, not them, since apparently the entire rest of humanity streams their movies already.

So - we tend to be episodic viewers, mostly movies but the occasional documentary (stuff like The Roosevelts or the series on the National parks). Rarely do we have any interest in past episodes of tv series.

Could folks weigh in on what services they have, which they like, which they don't, and why? I'd be appreciative - otherwise I'm just gonna go back to Redbox. Nearest is only 10 min drive in town.

Thanks -

Ken

[Tim Boger]

Start with Netflix, you may not need anything more ... it's less than $10.00 per month.

[Chuck Wintle]

I realize posting this probably puts me in the old curmudgeon category, but I'm new to the streaming thing and am a bit overwhelmed by the choices.

We have a panasonic so-called "smart" TV, which takes an ethernet plug and sets up internet access, and has a bunch of app-type things. It includes a button for Netflix, amazon prime instant (or something like that) Hulu, Vudu, and CinemaNow.

It has seemed surprisingly difficult for me to find out what each service offers in what they have available now, how much they charge and what's included in the various charge levels. I'm guessing that it's me, not them, since apparently the entire rest of humanity streams their movies already.

So - we tend to be episodic viewers, mostly movies but the occasional documentary (stuff like The Roosevelts or the series on the National parks). Rarely do we have any interest in past episodes of tv series.

Could folks weigh in on what services they have, which they like, which they don't, and why? I'd be appreciative - otherwise I'm just gonna go back to Redbox. Nearest is only 10 min drive in town.

Thanks -

Ken

I can only speak for netflix since I was a subscriber to that service. I watched quite a bit a first but then found I watched less and less. So I cancelled the subscription. I don't know about the other services though.

[Bill Huber]

Are you and Amazon Prime member, that will make a big difference.

I have the Amazon Fire TV, I use it most for watching You Tube and shows for the grand-kids and a movie now and then, just not a big movie person.
I have Netflix but I am going to cancel it soon, just don't use it.

So I guess for me Amazon is the best bet, the Prime service is $99 a year and that gets me 2 day free shipping and there video service.

[Jim Becker]

For the little streaming we do in this house, Amazon Prime is our choice. We had Netflix for awhile a number of years ago, but used it far less than we expected. That said, "what you want to watch" will also dictate which service or services are best for you since some content is exclusive to a particular service.

[Jamie Buxton]

What internet bandwidth is needed for streaming movies? Do smart TVs have some buffering in them to deal with internet hiccups?

[Bert Kemp]

Netflix has a try it free for a month I believe so you can see what that has to offer for no risk. Hula has commercials , which I can't stand. Project free tv is free over the net and has 1000's of movies and tv shows, no com, takes a little finesse to figure it out but I did, watchtvlivenow has every tv channel in the world it seems like its free but also takes a little figuring out but again I did so its not that hard.
go Pats

[Judson Green]

I've been happy with Netflix and going though a Chromecast dongle. And it streams just fine on my $40 a month time warner service, I think its the second from the bottom in bandwidth.

[Steve Peterson]

I recently installed Netflix. We have 6mb DSL service and can stream 2 channels. It is fairly convenient on the bedroom Sharp TV. The 6 month old Samsung "smart" TV in the living room does not work well either wired or wireless. Neither location is as convenient as watching a movie on cable or a DVD. There is a 5 second pause to rewind or advance to a different chapter.

Steve

[Phil Thien]

I have Amazon Prime and also Netflix.

Netflix Pros: Everything listed is free for one flat-fee. Lots of TV series. Some newer, Netflix-original content.

Netflix Cons: No new movies, have to subscribe to the DVD service if you want movies. Can't even pay extra for them via streaming, just not available.

Amazon Prime Pros: Included w/ Amazon Prime service. I subscribe to Prime for the shipping deals, so the "free" streaming is nice. Free content is about the same type as found on Netflix. The content doesn't fully overlap, but there is a lot available from both. But, with Amazon Prime, you can pay extra to stream newer releases.

Amazon Prime Cons: The streaming of newer content (at a price) seems to be getting more and more expensive. Yet, sometimes you just want to watch something w/o having to run-out to Redbox.

I previously had a cable TV/Internet bundle. I dropped that, switched to U-Verse for Internet, added an antenna to the TV for local content, and added Netflix. I'm paying quite a bit less than I was with the cable bundle, and I'm quite happy.

[Ole Anderson]

Wow, Phil and I are in the exact same boat up to his last paragraph. We find that we stream is on Netflix. Had the Chromecast dongle but once I hardwired the Blu-Ray player, we didn't use it anymore. Have had Netflix almost since it's inception. We tend to use Netflix DVD for movies or episodes that aren't available streamed, Hawaii Five O for example (the new one). Right now we are catching up on Crossing Jordan, Parenthood and The 100. We have Comcast with a speed of 60/12 but with problems with their new wireless router, I ended up hardwiring the connection to our Blu-Ray player which is our streaming device. If you go to your Netflix account, you can choose the speed you have available.

[Judson Green]

Netflix Cons: No new movies, have to subscribe to the DVD service if you want movies. Can't even pay extra for them via streaming, just not available.

Isn't that weird? I just don't understand why.

[Brian Tymchak]

Like some others have mentioned, I subscribe to Netflix but after the initial 6 months or so, I now only find maybe 1 movie every other or every 3 months that I haven't seen and might be interested in watching. I may drop it soon. I have a little bit better luck (emphasis on "little") finding more recent movies on my cable HD movie service, but I have to pay the rent on those. If you like a fairly broad set of genres, you may feel Netflix is worth it. However, they are offering a lot of TV series now.

[Ken Platt]

Thanks all. I found the free trial month on netflix, so we're giving it a try. Surprisingly, there seem to be a large number of web sites devoted just to listing good stuff on netflix, and I found quite a few thing there that look interesting. After we signed up for the netflix trial we were able to poke around (why they don't have some mechanism for letting you do that FIRST to see what's there?).

I found a surprising number of unexpected good things to watch, including stand-up comedy, NOVA episodes, Cosmos episodes, and the entire Star Trek Next gen series which I have sworn to my wife I wouldn't binge-watch.

I expect this'll do for a good few months, with Redbox supplementation for newer movies. Those are in short supply on netflix.

Ken