NPR: Roku & Apple TV

[belle0720]

Not pregnancy related, but I'm looking for some suggestions on channels to stream. H and I finally took the plunge and got rid of our cable yesterday. We have a Smart TV that already streams Netflix & Hulu+, and Apple TV that we got for Christmas, and a Roku3 that I bought since it has such good reviews.

We played with our Apple TV when we first got it but haven't used it since then since we had cable, and I played around on the Roku last night and started setting up our Hulu+ account. I've 'subscribed' to all of my favorite shows and the ones I could find of H's on Hulu+ but I'm more specifically looking for channels to stream on the Roku & Apple TV since a lot of the types of shows H watches aren't on Hulu+ (sports, car shows, Pawn Star type shows, the news, etc).

We can stream ESPN through one of our parents' cable accounts and I see that there are national news channels and some local videos on Roku's ABC News app, but I thought I remembered being able to stream a couple of channels(i.e. ABC) live on the Apple TV by logging into a cable account--is that a thing or am I making it up? 

Also, interested to know how much you pay just for internet each month(if that's not too invasive) and whether you rent your modem or bought one? Our cost is going to be $67/month+tax right now and we're trying to figure out if we should switch the AT&T internet. We returned our rented modem and then went to buy one figuring it's worth it in the long run, but didn't realize how expensive modems and routers are! We bought a modem+router in one box at Best Buy for like $250 after tax for the meantime but I wanted to do some more research online today to see if we could get something cheaper and return that one.

Anyways, I'd love to hear your suggestions/experience on all things streaming!

[wormgerm]

I was just looking in to this today. Our plan is to drop uverse but I love my shows. Really crappy cable reality stuff. Looking at you Teen Mom and Kardashians. We have Netflix streaming but I'm not super impressed (except for OITNB.) Roku? Apple tv? I don't know where to start.

[islandgirl14]

It's so funny that you posted this... we literally just got Apple TV last night, after dropping our cable at the end of last year.

Regarding the live TV - I think you are correct... my understanding is you can stream live TV through Apple TV IF you have cable. We were unable to watch live shows last night, but noticed that the shows that aired the night before were available to watch (on the ABC channel through Apple TV).

I'm not sure how much we pay for Internet, as we bundled with AT&T... currently what's left of our bundle is internet & phone, which runs us around $76/mo.

Our current thought is that we'll subscribe to Hulu & HBO.I still really miss my cable, and am not entirely happy, because the things I loved about cable I still don't think I can make up for with Apple TV... I want the discovery channel, Animal Planet, and HGTV, none of which appear to be available, but maybe I'm wrong? I also don't like that I still don't have the ability to record on basic TV, but I guess if I can watch it the next day through Apple TV at my convenience, it sort of makes up for it?

I think this is getting long and rambly... sorry! Not sure if it helps or not!

[belle0720]

Apr 29, 2015 11:02:13 GMT -5 islandgirl14 said:

It's so funny that you posted this... we literally just got Apple TV last night, after dropping our cable at the end of last year.

Regarding the live TV - I think you are correct... my understanding is you can stream live TV through Apple TV IF you have cable. We were unable to watch live shows last night, but noticed that the shows that aired the night before were available to watch (on the ABC channel through Apple TV).

I'm not sure how much we pay for Internet, as we bundled with AT&T... currently what's left of our bundle is internet & phone, which runs us around $76/mo.

Our current thought is that we'll subscribe to Hulu & HBO.I still really miss my cable, and am not entirely happy, because the things I loved about cable I still don't think I can make up for with Apple TV... I want the discovery channel, Animal Planet, and HGTV, none of which appear to be available, but maybe I'm wrong? I also don't like that I still don't have the ability to record on basic TV, but I guess if I can watch it the next day through Apple TV at my convenience, it sort of makes up for it?

I think this is getting long and rambly... sorry! Not sure if it helps or not!

Yeah we are going to miss HGTV! We watch it pretty much every single day lol. And H likes Discovery, but a couple of the shows he likes are on Hulu+ so at least there's that. 

It's not like we needed to cancel cable to save money, but cutting our bills by $100/month just seemed so practical. Plus I really don't want our kids growing up to be TV junkies like I am (H isn't as bad as me!) I can sit in front of the TV all day long in my PJs

[dmoney]

We have cable but also have a Cromecast and Hulu+ and Netflix. Not planning on getting rid of anything but the HULU+ and Netflix will come in handy when I am doing nightly feedings. We are not putting a TV in the baby's room so I will be able to watch "tv" while doing late night feedings (OITNB) and anything else.

[bruunk]

We have Roku and that's it - we use Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon for most of our movie, tv needs. The only time we have a problem is if we want to watch a Showtime show or a few HBO shows (most of them are on Amazon though). I think you can get the HBO Go app for the Roku, but you have to have an account for that and I've been too lazy to set that up. I can still find my crappy tv though, much to DH annoyance.

[noeliav]

We haven't cut cable fully yet, but it's a matter of getting through this week at work and then :: dun dun dun-dunnnnn :: Time Warner. Your time is up!

We have a digital antenna upstairs for one room, and I need to buy another for the other room (now that I know we like it and it works well enough).

Downstairs, we have AppleTV (and stream Netflix through that or the PS) and I'll get SlingTV so DH can have his sports channels. Then, I'll see if we need a third antenna, but I think we may be good with just those two.

[erbear]

We just cut cable a month ago. We have an antenna for local channels and we use our roku for Hulu+, Amazon prime, Netflix, and yahoo (community!).

Best free random channel? nick Reboot. We paid for a year and it's streaming, on demand (for paid version) old school Nickelodeon shows.

[belle0720]

Apr 29, 2015 11:56:01 GMT -5 erbear said:

We just cut cable a month ago. We have an antenna for local channels and we use our roku for Hulu+, Amazon prime, Netflix, and yahoo (community!).

Best free random channel? nick Reboot. We paid for a year and it's streaming, on demand (for paid version) old school Nickelodeon shows.

Awesome!

[belle0720]

noeliav erbear do you happen to know what antenna you have? I bought a 1byone antenna and when we set it up today it only picked up 3 channels, 2 in spanish. It's supposed to have a 50 mile range and there should be quite a bit more available all under 40 miles away according to the antenna tv website. I'm not sure if it's the antenna that sucks or if we're just out of luck where we live.

[erbear]

belle0720 we got ours at Target; it's a GE amplified HD receiver. We get about 10 channels, mostly crap, but we get abc and nbc. I think we paid $40 for it?

[noeliav]

May 2, 2015 0:17:12 GMT -5 belle0720 said:

noeliav erbear do you happen to know what antenna you have? I bought a 1byone antenna and when we set it up today it only picked up 3 channels, 2 in spanish. It's supposed to have a 50 mile range and there should be quite a bit more available all under 40 miles away according to the antenna tv website. I'm not sure if it's the antenna that sucks or if we're just out of luck where we live.

I bought the 30m Amazon brand one. There's a website that tells you which channels you should be able to receive... I'll look and link it tomorrow.

[belle0720]

noeliav erbear thanks ladies! I'm going to return the antenna we bought--I was going to try and get a more expensive antenna in hopes that it'd pick up all of the channels that the website shows are within range, but when we called Comcast to set up our new modem on Saturday they told us that we can get basic cable for just $3 more/month than we were going to be paying for just internet so we're going to do that. We're still saving $100/month compared to what we were paying before so I'm happy!

[noeliav]

I'm glad you tagged me
Here's the website, just any case you or anyone else needs it: transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/