Don't ask me why, but the picture quality of the Roku apps (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) beats the picture I get when I watch through my smart TV's version of the same apps (Samsung 4K 6290). All of the input picture settings are identical. So I can heartily endorse the Roku model. I watch way more Hulu than any other service. Just watching ER and MASH alone will dominate my viewing this summer. Anything that's on Netflix or Prime I get through other means.
I've got Roku 3's on all 3 of my TVs. I used Spectrum/TWC's Roku app when I lived in a Spectrum/TWC area, and now that I've moved to a different cable "zone" where no provider offers such a service, I've switched to DirecTV Now. Aside from a glitch here and there, it's been smooth sailing for me. The "Live a Little" package has the best balance of channels for my uses, and almost all of my locals. The fact that it just went up $5/mo is disconcerting, but that's the nature of streaming entertainment, apparently. Still saving 6x that in set top box fees each month.
We "cut the cord" more than ten years ago and just have Internet with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Filmstruck and Hulu accounts (not the streaming live TV tier). However no one in my household really watches sports so this was much easier for us. Along the way we have streamed from the Wii (so terrible but Netflix streaming was in its infant stage), Apple TV 2nd Gen (very bumpy start with renting movies from iTunes and a nightmare trying to get iTunes sharing to work), Roku (very easy to use and reliable), Amazon Fire stick (pretty good but buggy) and the Xbox One. We have pretty much settled on the Xbox as our main streaming device now We have the Amazon Fire Stick plugged into the Xbox for when we want to watch Filmstruck which does not have a native app. We rent movies from Amazon, Microsoft or even Vudu depending on price and availability. It's funny because I was once an Apple ecosystem hardliner but we have pretty much eliminated them from our streaming chain unless we are away from home and using the iPad.
@Chris DeVoe That is where we differ. I couldn't care less about anything but news and sports! If I could find away to get just the basic news stations along with MLB Extra Innings and NHL Center Ice when in season I'd be very happy and cut my $175 DTV bill immediately!!!!
The news stations are going to be more difficult than the sports. I don't watch them but I used to be the technical support for one of Kansas City's finest sports bars. One of the things I set up for them were four computers the could output high definition video that can be distributed to every single television via a modulator. Pretty much every major sport and every single college team has a package that you can buy for streaming, completely unconnected from any cable television package. Check out the Roku packages for NHL Center Ice and the MLB package.
If I live in or about 30 miles close to a large city I wouldn't have any cable. I'd just get one of those flat antennas (which I have) and use that. They get pretty amazing results for local channels, however, I can't PBS out where I live with it (I like 90 miles away from a large city), and it's one of my favorite channels. The same is true for all those app streaming channels that I've run across. If I could just get the major networks, PBS, TCM, and ME TV that's about all I'd want.
The flat antennas work well in a city, but are completely inadequate at your distance. You really need an outdoor antenna, above your roof (and no, putting it in the attic is not acceptable at 90 miles. If I were in your location, I'd have a YAGI reflector aimed at the nearest city.
The Roku units have a faster processor and are able to decode and decompress the compressed video stream far better than the much slower processors put in the typical "smart" TV.
I'd much rather they keep offering super-high-speed Internet for very little than hide the cost of something that I manifestly do not want, like ESPN, in the Internet package. The price has to be paid somewhere, and I have every reason to believe that I can completely replace the cable package without paying for any channels I am not interesting in viewing. I'll let you know how things work out.
I wouldn't say completely inadequate. I live in a town that's mid-sized (90,000) and it has the main TV stations here: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX so I get them clearly. I also can pick up GRIT-TV which is a pretty good one for action and westerns. There are also some church channels and Spanish channels. But yes, thanks for that input.
Ah, okay, if you have local broadcasters then you can supplement them with an outdoor antenna to receive the one that you can't normally. You can use a 75 ohm splitter in reverse as an antenna combiner going into your TV tuner to get the PBS station.
Researching cutting the cord finally from directv. First question I have is - working from home, family of four with lots of devices, and 4K - is 100mbps speed enough or do I need to jump up to 300mbps 600mbps? 100 works fine today with directv and using our appletv for Netflix and movies, since I actually can get 100 regularly.
100 megabits is more than enough to stream 1080p - most of the streams leaving my Plex server are only doing 6-8 megabits per second. The problem is the cable companies are in almost never going to act deliver that consistently. The other problems the router may not be able to handle all that traffic.
I don't know how it all works but I find in amazing that streaming services like Netflix, Disney +, iTunes etc. can handle all the demand for streaming with people signing up daily for services. World wide millions if not more are streaming daily. They have to be using some awesome servers.
Both. A $29 router is unlikely to have a chip fast enough to get all the packets to the right IP addresses on your home network.
The first couple of weeks for Disney +, they failed terribly. Their infrastructure is supplied by Major League Baseball, and was optimized for supplying the same few games to huge numbers of people, not for supplying a huge number of different people individual shows.
Got it. I have a pretty good netgear router - I can get 100mbps on my phone while my wife is on Netflix and we watch a 4K movie from iTunes on the Apple TV. It is 5 years old though so it’s likely time for an upgrade. I think I’m sold. We have (but don’t use today) amazon prime, definitely use Netflix, and if we get that disney+ bundle with ESPN and Hulu, I think that covers everything for us. I’ll miss TCM for sure but they do have an app. That looks to save us $50ish from what we pay today thru Directv and that’s with me calling once a year to do the dance that we’re threatening to leave.
FYI, you likely won’t be able to watch anything on the TCM app without having a login for a cable, satellite, or streaming provider.
EXACTLY! It's saved my bacon, although, when my source switched from DirectTV to Hulu Live, I lost TCM access (not a supported provider).
Odd. Hulu doesn't show up in the provider list when attempting to log into the TCM standalone app on AppleTv.
