Seeking opinions on streaming services.

[mac5155]

Netflix, HBO Go, Watch ESPN, etc can now be used on an Xbox 360 or Xbox One without paying for a Live Gold membership.

really!? This is huge for me as I cut the cable cord today to reduce my bill.

Oh thanks for reminding me, I promised myself I'd do this once the Pens season ended.

[pittsoccer33]

yea the paid subscription is now just for online gaming, the free games with gold, and discounts on titles for sale.

my guess is that too many people who owned a 360 or One were turning to other devices to use those services.

[dodint]

My PS4 does Amazon Prime. I use it for AP, Netflix, Youtube, Crackle. I uninstalled Hulu+ because the commercials were too much.

[pittsoccer33]

Crackle is cool. Most of whats on there is garbage, but occasionally you find a gem.

We should all chip in for server bandwidth and start a massive Plex library.

[PensFanInDC]

Netflix, HBO Go, Watch ESPN, etc can now be used on an Xbox 360 or Xbox One without paying for a Live Gold membership.

really!? This is huge for me as I cut the cable cord today to reduce my bill.

Oh thanks for reminding me, I promised myself I'd do this once the Pens season ended.

HAHA! I did the same thing. We rarely watch TV and we have a $220 a month bill. My mother in law still watches TV so I cut all premium channels and reduced our lineup to Digital Economy which basically has channels 1-100, no On Demand, and no HD or DVR. We kept our blast internet. Got the bill down to $103.00 per month including fees and taxes.

The Xbox deal is perfect for us. It will allow us to have a device in the living room and in our bedroom where we can access Netflix and Amazon Prime (if we decide to sign up).

As for Amazon Prime, is it worth it?

[mac5155]

Yeah im trying to quit cold turkey but if need be I can get economy TV for like $35 more on top of our $45 cable internet bill. DirecTV has been $110 a month for a year or so now.

[PensFanInDC]

$45 internet bill? Blast internet from Comcast for me is $75 a month. That's the cheapest bill I can have.

Any recommendations for a modem? I'm thinking of buying one to save the $8 a month I spend to rent one from Comcast.

[pittsoccer33]

I had a Prime trial in December 2012. It seemed like the overlap with Netflix was 70+%. They had a few things at the time I noticed Netflix didn't have (like the Jack Ryan movies) but those come and go from Netflix.

I think where you could get some value is if you subscribe to a season pass of a show. If theres a show you really like on cable you could potentially get all the episodes via Amazon, for an extra fee.

Ask Comcast if you can get a multi service discount by subscribing to local basic cable. That should be less than $75 combined.

[PensFanInDC]

Multi service discount? local basic cable? Wha?

[pittsoccer33]

Multi service discount? local basic cable? Wha?

This is how Comcast works here in Pittsburgh, or least what I've been offered every offseason when I cancel my expanded package (I do the exact same thing after hockey season ends):

If you buy internet service only you pay close to $70 per month. Local basic cable (the same channels you get over the air with an antenna) are around $12 per month.

If you subscribe to internet AND another service (any tv service, phone, etc) they knock the internet price down to around $45. So you get internet and local channels (in HD) for less than you'd pay for internet only.

You USED to be able to hook the cable line right from the wall to your television and get those local channels in HD - the FCC mandated that they couldnt scramble them. The MSOs lobbied the FCC to change the requirement. Now they are allowed to scramble them, but they have to give you a free digital transport adapter box. It won't do HD Since I have my own HD cable box this isn't a problem for me (but I typically use an antenna anyway - its better quality).

I assume they lobbied for that because blocking those channels would require a truck coming to your house and filtering your line. Otherwise anyone subscribing to internet could also get those channels for free.

[relantel]

I cut the cord for a while until I basically got TV for free from Time Warner to move back with that and internet vs what I was paying at that time from another carrier.

Hulu+ is actually a very good service. I use that still as a on-demand for FOX, ABC and NBC and also get classic shows too. Hate that CBS is not a member though. There is some overlap between Netflix and Amazon but enough to have both if you use Prime for shipping too.

We still have DirecTV premier level, but also have Hulu+. Why CBS allows dead shows on there in their entirety but not current ones is frustrating, but they don't even have some of the current shows available in their own app. It's a pain when we miss an ep on the DVR cycle.

We certainly get our money's worth out of Hulu, between my wife, daughter and I. We blasted through 9 seasons of Grey's anatomy last year on it. And having whole current seasons of many shows is helpful if one is more than 5 eps behind. And it was nice to catch up on the first few episodes of Numb3rs that we missed when we caught it 5 or 6 episodes in on original run.

And since we still have houseguest, and said houseguest has Netflix, we used that to binge watch S1 of The Following back in January.

[pittsoccer33]

Why CBS allows dead shows on there in their entirety but not current ones is frustrating, but they don't even have some of the current shows available in their own app. It's a pain when we miss an ep on the DVR cycle.

This could be because of who actually produces the show, especially when you're talking about a CBS app.

-Person of Interest is a Warner Bros production
-Criminal Minds is an ABC production
-Big Bang Theory is Warner
-How I Met your Mother was Fox

stuff like that

[Admin]

Amazon Prime just added all the HBOs.

http://www.amazon.com/HBO-Providers/b/r ... d_i=507846" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[pittsoccer33]

I was looking for something to watch on HBO Go on Sunday (PS the Rocketeer is on there) and I noticed that the Sopranos were missing. so thats a pretty big get for Amazon.

[dodint]

Crackle is cool. Most of whats on there is garbage, but occasionally you find a gem.

Comediens in Cars Getting Coffee. I've poked around there for other content, but this is still the only thing I've watched on there and the reason I downloaded it.

[Digitalgypsy66]

I was looking for something to watch on HBO Go on Sunday (PS the Rocketeer is on there) and I noticed that the Sopranos were missing. so thats a pretty big get for Amazon.

Sopranos is still on my HBO Go.

[PensFanInDC]

I cancelled Comcast cable TV and kept my internet. I made no changes to my internet speed (I still have blast). Since I cancelled the TV portion of my service my internet signal is not as strong. I've never had an issue with my internet speed or connectivity. Not one single problem. Now, I'd say 75% of the time I see no difference, but there are times when the speed drops WAY down or I lose signal completely. I don't find it a coincidence that this starts happening when I drop $140 of service from their company. It feels like Comcast has a service plan that is special for people that downgrade services.

Anyone else run across this same issue?

[skullman80]

I have comcast just for internet(DirecTv for TV), and I've never noticed any issues. I may not like what I pay them, but their speed and consistency has always been good for me.

[PensFanInDC]

I have comcast just for internet(DirecTv for TV), and I've never noticed any issues. I may not like what I pay them, but their speed and consistency has always been good for me.

I ran into a buddy of mine who only has Comcast for internet and says the same thing. I think it lends credence to my theory. My internet was perfect until I dropped TV from my subscription.

[PensFanInDC]

XBox update went live today. Enjoying some Thomas and Friends on Netflix as we speak...

[dodint]

My internet will work fine all day, then as soon as I open a Private tab in Firefox it stops. I would assume it was a Firefox issue except manually resetting the router fixes it. No idea what's causing it. Probably malware.

[Digitalgypsy66]

I'm not sure how long this has been the case, but WatchESPN is now working with Chromecast. I was able to cast via a tab on Chrome, but now it's working directly with the various apps. Just in time for the World Cup!

[dodint]

Along similar lines, but I was watching 24HR of LM last weekend and got tired of Fox Sports 1/2 endless commecials, sponser segments, and interviews. There was a really great GT battle happening at like 3am and they spent 20 minutes talking to Dan Gurney. I installed a media server console (Serviio) on my desktop and was able to stream a really great internet feed to my PS3 so I could watch it on my big TV without having to break out my HDMI cable and dual screen my laptop. Was really happy with the experience. I assume I'll find similar success this fall with football games.

[DelPen]

South Park signed a deal with Hulu to exclusively air their back catalog and current episodes the day after they air on Comdey Central. Not sure if this will make it to Hulu +, which by the way needs to rename their service to something besides adding value since not everything on regular hulu for free is available on the so called "+" service.

But anyways, if you are big on South Park it should be leaving netflix and Amazon if it's there now and you won't need cable to see episodes if you can handle watching them a day behind.

[pittsoccer33]

It left Netflix a long time ago but was still available at SouthParkStudios.com - is that going to go away?