Internet TV - where to start?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Title says it all.
I want to see what I can get on the internet as opposed to cable, sat and/or U-verse.

Our U-verse contract expired and it jumped from $99 a month to $180 a month.
I was happy with the service and the selection - - still am, but, not the price.

I want to look into getting a smart TV and hooking it to the internet. Where do I start looking?

My U-verse connection is 21Mb down/2Mb up.
I seldom have issues with videos freezing when it's just my wife and I using the web. OTOH - when my grandson comes over our connection slows to a crawl.

[Prashun Patel]

I am trying to cut the cord too. Google that term.

Bottom line is there are devices like chrome stick, roku, Apple TV which make your regular tv a smart tv. They also have apps that make them easier to navigate than many smart tvs.

For network tv you can get an air antenna and a dvr for it.

For subscription internet tv, you can get most things except live sports. That's the big show stopper for a lot of people. Also you may have to cobble together a few services like Amazon prime, Netflix and Hulu to get good program options. At the end of the day, you have to be prepared to change what you watch.

I am still trying to convince my wife to do it...

[Matt Meiser]

First try to negotiate that down. My dad successfully got AT&T to lower his internet bill for years.

And consider what your internet-only plan goes up to. The pricing I've seen really favors bundling.

[George Bokros]

AT&T won't negotiate your price down? I have TWC with digital cable, 50 mps internet, DVR, and phone (don't use the phone because of the home security system) for $163/ mo. I know a lot of people complain about TWC but I have no real complaints. My biggest beef is that when there is an issue they try to tell you that it is in your house and my other complaint is the service techs. One time when then came out they disconnected two of my cable runs because I was not currently using them. They said it was to eliminate the splitter which would eliminate the booster transformer. When I insisted they leave the booster transformer they said they would have to replace it with a new two way booster to improve the internet. I said do it and it did not cost me anything to change it and no cost per month. They still left the cable runs disconnected. I reconnected them.

I agree with Matt, bundling reduces cost that is why I took the phone. My bill with the phone was less than the same service without the phone.

[Curt Harms]

We have a Roku with Hulu. Picture quality is similar to HD assuming content is HD. I was concerned about connecting via WiFi having heard horror stories about buffering, we have a pedestrian wifi network. It hasn't been an issue. A certain 'channel' may buffer but others don't so I suspect the source, not the device or wifi network. Using a Roku - or I guess other streaming devices does change TV viewing habits. A certain show is not broadcast at a certain time. Instead, a certain number of episodes are available for a period of time. You can watch them whenever you want. OTOH, I don't know if any streaming devices permit recording, at least in HD. The Roku 1 does have a composite (? white-red-yellow jacks) out that I assume could be hooked up to a recorder, never tried it. I think any content recorded using that output would be SD, not HD no matter if the source was HD.

[Keith Outten]

If you are going to consider Apple TV you should wait a week or so for the new model 4 which is by far superior to the current model 3. The V4 has Siri built in and a mouse pad that makes it so much easier to use and offers any more features. The Apple TV model 4 starts at $149.00 for the 32 Gig model when they go on the shelves next week.

[Erik Loza]

We just got a Roku for the downstairs TV and picture quality seems fine to me. My wife is all aboard the "cut the cord" train. She's talking about an Apple TV for our bedroom TV, next. I don't have enough loyalty to TV to have an opinion except to say that the technology seems to work fine for us.

Erik

[Pat Barry]

We've got Roku and are happy with it, but, nothing good is free - you will want to get a service provider such as Netflix or Amazon Prime or HBO or maybe more than one of these. Also, forget about sports - there really isn't any, unless of course you want to pay the NFL, or MLB, etc to watch live.

[Tom M King]

Amazon Fire Stick here. TV is not a Smart TV. Still paying Directv though, so haven't done much with the Firestick but get Netflix and Hulu.

[roger wiegand]

Like the new Roku device, especially their phone app that searches all their available provides for a given movie or show-- what requires payment on one service is often free on another. We probably use Netflix 80% of the time and Amazon Prime 19% and the other hundred services rarely.

Sports are better on radio in any event.

[glenn bradley]

I use a Roku at one location. A small PC with a wireless keyboard and mouse and a decent video card is most efficient iIMHO. Apple TV, Roku and the stiks are all a bit sluggish and entering text for searches using a remote is a pain.

[Peter Kelly]

Use the Remote app on your iPhone to control Apple TV: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote/id284417350?mt=8

Speeds things up considerably when searching for content.

[Bonnie Campbell]

I've had Roku for about 3 years now. The pay channels can be worth it if you pick and choose. Most offer a free period to try them out. Where I'm at I can't get ANY local channels with an antenna, so I opted to pay for CBS. I pay for Netflix and Hulu too. I don't count Amazon Prime as a 'pay' since that's just a bonus because I use their free shipping. Oh, and there is a app called PlayOn that does have a recording feature if I remember correctly.

[David Masters]

Nobody has mentioned it yet, but when I cut the cable, I bought a Tivo DVR to allow me to continue to time-shift my viewing. Besides what you would normally get from a DVR, the Tivo I have will access Amazon (& Prime), Hulu, and Netflix. It has some of the new Apple TV capabilities in that you can search for a program or movie and it will search all OTA and streams for availability. The Tivo service cost $15 a month, but there is a one time option as well. I have Apple TV too, which manages my movies, and lets me purchase cable only programs that I might be interested watching. If I didn't already have Apple TV, I could purchase or rent the same from Amazon through the Tivo.

Dave

[Matt Schrum]

We cut the cord after we realized most of the TV time was watching Netflix and the cable channels we did watch on occasion were generally ones broadcast over the air for free in HD.

We spent $40 on a small indoor antenna which gets us about 40 channels over the air for free (including the big NBC, ABC, FOX, etc. plus some public channels and a few shopping channels) and use a Chromecast ($35) to cast movies from Netflix ($8/month), videos on youTube, etc. There are some DVR type devices for over the air TV if you miss pausing and recording, but that's not that important to us. At the end of the day we're saving $500+ a year (we only had basic cable before) and that's a pretty good feeling.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Besides what you would normally get from a DVR, the Tivo I have will access Amazon (& Prime), Hulu, and Netflix.

I have two Tivo's. Tivo's are great, but the Amazon App on my Vizio TV gives you a better experience watching and searching for your Amazon videos.
The nice thing about the Tivo is that if you search for a show, it'll search through all your available options. It'll tell if the show is on Cable, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, ......

My Comcast plan will run out in February and we're thinking about going with Comcast for internet only, and getting two antennas, Hulu Plus and Netflix, and an Ooma for our phone.

[Mike Henderson]

A new service that was just announced is CBS All Access (I think that's what it's called). It says that it also gives you access to your local CBS station. I haven't done anything with it yet so if anyone else has some experience, please share.

Of course, this is only CBS. Cost is $6/mo.

Mike

[Ralph Okonieski]

We have a smart tv. We also have an older tv with a Roku. I prefer the Roku. There is nothing wrong with the smart tv. The cost of the smart tv was a lot more than a non-smart tv with a Roku. We do not really use the features of the smart tv as we originally thought we would.

[Brian Elfert]

My biggest issue with streaming services for TV is most don't have recording features. Even some of the pay ones like CBS All Access still have ads. I don't watch any movies so Amazon Prime and Netflix don't appeal to me.

My TV/Internet from Comcast costs me $111 a month with all taxes and fees. I think the TV portion is about $40 to $50 a month which is tolerable. I have thought about going to just the very basic cable TV service with only broadcast channels, but I suspect in the long run it won't save much by the time the dust is settled with keeping Internet. I have a Tivo and never watch any TV live. Everything is recorded to skip commercials.

[Pat Barry]

I noticed on my Roku last night that there are several new stations available for free including a PBS station that has 135 of the Roy Underhill's Woodwrights Shop video's available for view.

[Charles Wiggins]

I'm cheap. I haven't had cable for over 15 years. Never had satellite. The only paid service we have is Netflix. We have a PS3 hooked to the big TV in the basement and that streams our Netflix and also functions as our DVD/Blu Ray player. I don't even own any games. It will also stream a paid Hulu subscription but not the free service. I have to watch free Hulu on my laptop. The PS3 also includes Crackle for free. Maybe some other services at this point. I have not been watching on the big screen much lately.

[Matt Meiser]

I don't watch any movies so Amazon Prime and Netflix don't appeal to me.

There's a lot of TV shows on both. They've both developed some of their own series as well.

[Neil Gaskin]

"I am still trying to convince my wife to do it..."

Guess I'm not alone in that endeavor. So far all I've been able to do is convince her we needed cable and Netflix, Hulu, and Prime. Prime doesnt really count though since I use the shipping for work.

[Mike Henderson]

I went and did the one week trial on CBS All Access. The problem for me is that there's no way to record shows for time shifting. I specifically want to time shift the national news because I often miss the time slot.

So I cancelled the trial.

Mike

[Brian Elfert]

Isn't CBS All Access an on demand type of system, or is the national news only part of their live feed?

[Pat Barry]

CBSN is free national news