Guide me Obiwan, to the best combination of streaming and devices. I'm fed up!!!

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  • Lex
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Apr 2001
    • 27461

    Guide me Obiwan, to the best combination of streaming and devices. I'm fed up!!!

    Fed up with ATT taking over Directv. I've cut my services to the bone, after they tried to hodo me into a 24 month agreement. I said FCK that, you're not doing that to me! I cut it from 80.00 to 47.00 and change family package, I still get HDTV and DIY and locals and HD, and not a lot else.

    I have Comcast basic cable, but they throw in HBO dudes! So, internet, basic cable, and free HBO for 60 a month. Well, even if you take the 15.00 off for HBO, that's not bad at 45, well, not too bad for internet and TV.

    I am not being a bungler, I mean bundler! The Comcast thing is just well, they want all their internet customers to have a base tv package, I guess for advertising?

    TV is changing, I am NOT going to continue to pay 120.00+ any longer. The question is, what do I do.

    Drop Directv? I'd like to pick up HDTV and DIY elsewhere.

    I like my Showtime, I am going Showtime direct, and that brings up the next thing, a device to stream to my 4K TV. Roku (many models) fire TV (gets Amazon too)

    God this gets complex. Can any of you experienced Jedi walk a poor smuck through this stuff and give advice?

    I sort of want the Amazon box, but everything keeps saying Roku is better. I'd like to have hard wire internet.

    That means a higher price box for Roku.

    One things for sure, the days of sniffing the dirt are over. Wait, wrong line. That's a movie line...

    I want to get a little bit of stuff to watch, for not a whole lot of money. I don't have too much time to watch, no family, so there is no point to having a multi-faceted entertainment package...

    Such a sad state of affairs, you cannot even call DirecTV anymore. ATT has consumed them, taken them over, no autonomous running of the TV biz. Big mistake. Huge. I don't want to talk to some UVERSE B* when I call about my DirecTV. I want to talk to the people that know about DirecTV! I think the hand writing is on the wall, I will likely be dropping it very soon.
    Doug
    "I'm out there Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it!" - Kramer
  • oldbob
    Member
    • Aug 2016
    • 53

    #2
    I feel your pain. There is no perfect combination at this point in time. No matter what you chose you end up paying for things you don't want and not necessarily getting all the things you do want. As far as streaming goes, you already have a smart TV what are any of the boxes going to give you that the apps on your TV can't?
    I have done like you I have the absolute bare bones cable TV so that I have access to news and all the basic channels I watch and then stream everything else, or watch DVDs. I even stopped buying DVDs except for the 4k ones. I uploaded all my DVDs to VUDU and if I want to buy a new movie I upload the digital copy and then sell the basic DVD and the BlueRay DVD on EBAY so I don't have to have them filling up drawers.

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    • Hdale85
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Jan 2006
      • 16075

      #3
      I've had issues with smartTV streaming on quality and functionality. Also a lot of smartTV's don't seem to have HBO and Showtime streaming.

      Honestly either a Roku4 or a PS4/Xbox one is likely the best streaming device currently. They both have access to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, HBO, Showtime, etc etc etc.

      I'll be getting an Xbox One S for me in the living room as well as both our kids one. It has 4k blu-ray, HDR, 4K streaming and as I said access to all those services and more. The Xbox will be replacing my Nvidia Shield Android TV and my Blu-ray player which is basically how I get access to all my streaming services now. The Blu-ray players GUI is terrible and video quality when streaming Amazon isn't great either.

      Unfortunately to get all the services you likely had it's going to still cost a good bit likely. I went back to cable because I could pay less that way, or around the same but get things like Dolby Digital which Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and Sling are all missing currently. They all stream 2.0 currently which imo is uncalled for with where technology is at. Netflix and Amazon Prime both use DD+ which sounds fantastic, it's higher bitrate than DD and honestly I have a hard time telling the difference between it and TrueHD.

      Comment

      • oldbob
        Member
        • Aug 2016
        • 53

        #4
        I have only had Samsung TVs for quite a few years now. My TVs have all those apps plus you can add. Maybe I have been extremely lucky but, I have never had a streaming or functionality problem. One of them is connected through WIFI and one has a hard connection. Anytime there has been any problem it has always originated from the cable company. Since it sounds like other TVs have these problems I am glad that I use the brand that I do. I am in no way any kind of cheer leader for Samsung I have just stuck with them out of habit and familiarity.
        The only complaint I can think of is I wish I could reorder the apps placement and also on VUDU I wish I could chose between alphabetized, date purchased, genre, etc. Like you can on their website.
        It is interesting that game boxes are always ahead of the curve in DVD players. I don't play games but, my understanding is that 4K players will be out soon and they will be less expensive then the present 4K DVD players.

        Comment

        • Hdale85
          Moderator Emeritus
          • Jan 2006
          • 16075

          #5
          Yeah curently the Xbox One S is the cheapest 4k blu-ray player, or equal in price to the other model that's out. I'm sure we'll see cheaper ones before long though. The discs are popping up all over too.

          Comment

          • oldbob
            Member
            • Aug 2016
            • 53

            #6
            Lex, have you looked into Playstation Vue or Sling?

            Comment

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