I have Time Warner Cable and really don't think it's worth it. My wife likes Downton Abbey and the Artful Detective, I used to like Speed (now Velocity) but all the drama without wrenching is just a waste of my time. Seems like a waste of money.
Does anyone have experience with Netflix, Hulu etc.? I'm interested but bear in mind my IT experience is limited to being able to spell I. T.
Thanks for your help,
Dan
Buy a Roku.
Plug it into TV.
Follow onscreen prompts to setup on your network.
Add Hulu, PBS, Netflix, YouTube channels.
Open Hulu and follow prompts to subscribe.
Open Netflix and subscribe.
Open PBS and sigh up (it's free).
Open YouTube and sign up (also Free). IMSA and other race series are available here.
DailyMotion and LiveStream also have some races, but that's pretty sporadic.
Add any other channels that look interesting to you. Pretty easy to do.
Enjoy streaming video of various types with a simple interface.
Have had Netflix for 6+ years, cut cable 4 or 5 years ago, dropped the DVD subscription when they jacked the price up, we still have the $8/month streaming service.
SWMBO's folks have got me an Amazon Prime subscription for Christmas the past 2 years.
We have a Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Roku 2, and the new Samsung in the bedroom is a "Smart" TV, all have streaming service built in.
We get NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, MyTV, some religious, and Hispanic channels over the air with an antenna I built and stuck in the attic.
I miss ESPN and AMC, but other than that I'm content with the programing we have access to.
We have cable internet, but no actual cable TV service. I discovered that if I split the cable to the cable modem, and the TV we get ~30 digital cable channels, but the signal isn't strong enough to do that on more than one TV.
I have a couple of HTPCs (one is also the home server), they both have access to Youtube and the torrented media shared from the home server. Both run Linux. Only costs involved are hardware, electricity and ISP bills.
The girlfriend and I between Netflix (her) and me torrenting (I'm an awful human being, I know) have everything we could hope and dream of.
If I really like something, I will go buy a hardcopy of it so further cinematic endeavors will be undertaken and seen as profitable 
Roku is the easy button as turboswede explained. I have a variety of streaming devices like bigdaddylee82 (Wii, Blu Ray, Xbox360, "Smart" tv, Roku), but the Roku is easy enough for the 8 year old to use. We tried the Chromecast stick but it didn't offer anything different than the other streaming devices we own. As for AMC, I got into the Walking Dead late and by accident (not generally a zombie fan). The first 4 (5?) seasons are on Netflix. My wife bought the current season on Amazon for me and the Sunday episodes are added within a day, or so, of airing "live". I'd add Amazon Prime to the list of Hulu and Netflix. Our cable company got wise to those dropping cable tv, but keeping cable internet for free tv, and installed a filter on our line after 6 months of "free" tv. Now they require a box in order to recieve the tv signal.
If you want to know what's available on Hulu or Netflix, check out their websites. Hulu is more for current shows, Netflix is for complete series. Basically, if it showed this season: Hulu. If it's on DVD: Netflix.
We have Dish TV, but only use it during football season. There's an Apple TV attached to the TV, it does a lot of the same tricks as the Roku and also allows me to mirror my MacBook screen on the TV - that's useful for showing stuff that is only on the laptop. For example, free Hulu, Netflix through a UK proxy or home videos 
Or we can stream live football from the NFL app on our Verizon iPhones, so there's the Dish obsolete.
HBO is releasing a streaming service next month as well. $15 a month (a bit steep IMO) will get you access to all of their stuff. If the payment structure is anything like the other services I'll pay for a month or two, binge watch what I want, then cancel.
It seems a la carte programing is beginning to arrive. The only problem being that once you pay for Netflix, Prime, Hulu Plus, HBO Now, etc you're skirting dangerously close to cable prices anyway.
I have a fire TV stick.. Plug into tv.. Turn on.. Enjoy. Easy.
Do you buy one Roku, Firestick per TV or does one unit do multiple TVs? (we have a small one in the kitchen)
In reply to 914Driver:
One per TV. You can occasionally find some of the older versions on eBay, etc.
I got my refurb Roku 2 on Woot! for ~$30. Seems like they have Rokus a couple times a month.
I stream as much as i can and if it's not offered on stream I pirate it. If they want me to pay them they will offer a stream. If they haven't joined the 21st century yet they don't get my money.
The only part where you take a hit is if you want to watch sports that are not broadcast on NBC or if you like sports other than NHL. NHL offers streaming which is great. NBA and NFL do not offer live streaming. There are ways around this but it is on levels of "pirating" again because people broadcast their cable tv as a stream.
With streaming I get UK shows (netflix), day 0 anime subtitled (crunchyroll, hulu, netflix), good internet only shows like house of cards, and I can watch entire series of shows in the past I haven't seen before or just want to rewatch. If I could get live NFL and not have to pirate it I would be happy.
I pay less than $20 for all this E36 M3, had the same content before for well over $100 when I paid for cable.
Old people have issues with this. I tried getting my parents to cut the cord but they can't get the weather channel or late night news to watch what gang member shot who and where so they still pay for cable. If you still read the newspaper and need to watch whoever replaced Brian Williams you will not like it lol.
Apparently Apple is going to offer new HBO shows if you have apple tv. But then that requires you to have apple tv.
kanaric wrote: I stream as much as i can and if it's not offered on stream I pirate it. If they want me to pay them they will offer a stream. If they haven't joined the 21st century yet they don't get my money.
This is also what I do. Buy what's available and, er, "find" that which isn't.
You'll need to log in to post.
