Annual streaming costs

[Surewhitey]

Try some of those live TV channels, and I bet there are commercials.

Gotcha. We don't even bother with those. Specific content, without, is what we watch. I consider those "extra credit".

 

[Sunset]

It's been mentioned somewhat but a big advantage of streaming services vs. traditional cable is the ability to jump in and out of different services. There are no contracts. If there is a Hulu show you want to see, you can sign up for Hulu for a month, watch the show, and then cancel the service. Somebody just told you about a great Netflix series? Open a Netflix account, watch the show, and then cancel.


We had Hulu for a year on their Black Friday deal (99 cents/month) and watched several of their exclusive shows and then we cancelled when the promotion ended. I think we will probably sign up again for a month or two because we didn't see the last season of Only Murders in the Building.


It's very easy to keep costs down by taking an a la carte approach to what streaming services you pay for at any given time.

+1
We do this, and also cancel Netflix if going away for a while and know we won't be watching it. While in a foreign country, I don't want to waste my trip time by watching TV that I can watch at home.

When we get back, I just restart Netflix and it's like I never left, except of course I saved paying them for 1 or 2 months.

 

[Sunset]

My biggest issue with some of the streaming services is that intermittently they think I’m in Mexico and bock service. This didn’t use to be a problem. DH has checked our IP address and it returns the correct US location. Some things went wrong with the services these apps are using. Very annoying but apparently also common.

I know for my internet, it now and then reconnects to my modem, and will generate a new external IP address, which often translates to different location sometimes far away.

Sort of like how if using a cell phone (or radio) beside the border, you can pick up the wrong tower from the other Country.

If you don't have a static IP address (costs $) this might be happening.

 

[audreyh1]

We did have a static IP address when this was happening.

 

[PointBreeze]

We’re around $23 per month. I don’t include Amazon Prime annual fee because we buy a lot from Amazon yet rarely use their Prime Video offerings. If they ever split it out we’d most likely drop it.

Ditto. We also donate $10/month to our local PBS station and as a result get to use the PBS Passport streaming service. Highly recommended.

 

[jimy]

We just have a few streaming services. I will say I was disappointed with PBS Passport. We did watch some PBS documentaries and enjoyed them. But the programming beyond what is available from “free” PBS seems very poor - lots of foreign series with dubbed in voices and what to us seemed low quality.

If you haven’t watched all the usual PBS shows it would probably be a good service for many months.

Jim

 

[audreyh1]

Ditto. We also donate $10/month to our local PBS station and as a result get to use the PBS Passport streaming service. Highly recommended.

My $23 monthly includes the $5 to PBS passport which is the same as annual membership and qualifies as annual donation.

 

[Koolau]

My computer is so old I'm not sure I could stream with it so my total streaming costs are $0.00. I have cable included in my HOA dues and I have DVR (included) so I end up watching way too much TV as it is.

 

[audreyh1]

You realize we’re watching our streaming on our TVs and not our laptops, right? Well some folks do use their laptop or tablet/smartphone.

 

[Koolau]

You realize we’re watching our streaming on our TVs and not our laptops, right? Well some folks do use their laptop or tablet/smartphone.

I did know that folks were watching on their TVs but I understood(??) the signal would first go through my computer (I do not have a smart TV - it's a cheapy.)

 

[REWahoo]

I did know that folks were watching on their TVs but I understood(??) the signal would first go through my computer (I do not have a smart TV - it's a cheapy.)

No, not through your computer. Folks with "dumb" TVs (and many of us with smart ones) use a streaming device like a Roku or Firestick.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I did know that folks were watching on their TVs but I understood(??) the signal would first go through my computer (I do not have a smart TV - it's a cheapy.)

You're streaming every time you watch a video on your computer.
The Roku device costing less than $50 just plugs into an HDMI port on your TV and connects to your WIFI and you can be connected and streaming free stuff on PlutoTV or Roku TV within 5 minutes.
Of course if your cable is included you probably have no interest anyway.

 

[audreyh1]

I did know that folks were watching on their TVs but I understood(??) the signal would first go through my computer (I do not have a smart TV - it's a cheapy.)

No, we use an AppleTV, an inexpensive little box that connects to the internet and streams to the TV via an HDMI cable. It has an easy user interface and a small remote and you select things on the TV screen. No other remote is required.

No personal computers are involved for TV watching in our household.

And even though our TVs are newer and smart we prefer the Apple TV user interface.

 

[tulak]

If your TV has an HDMI port - and I would be surprised if it didn’t - then I’d consider buying a cheap Roku and give it a shot. Even if you don’t pay for a streaming service, there are other services you can use.

And it’s possible that your cable provider has an app that you can use. That can give you access to on-demand content. You might not even need the DVR.

 

[becca]

We have:

Prime - but I don't really count that as part of our streaming
Netflix - I pay my daughter $8/month to piggyback on her account
PBS - $5/month
Max - $3/month black friday deal for 6 months, will cancel after that
Sirius radio - in my husbands car, will cancel when our year is up
Comcast - a lot! don't even want to know but my husband insists on this for the golf channel and sports

I know we pay a lot for streaming but it's our main form of entertainment....we never go the the movies anymore and have cut way, way back on eating out.

 

[jim584672]

My Roku TV spies on me. I use the HDMI to connect a computer and watch my own movie file on the computer and the TV pops up a "There are other way to watch this". Time to disconnect the TV from the Internet.

 

[tulak]

My Roku TV spies on me. I use the HDMI to connect a computer and watch my own movie file on the computer and the TV pops up a "There are other way to watch this". Time to disconnect the TV from the Internet.

Not surprising. Everybody is watching you on the Internet.

One reason I prefer Apple is their lack of customer data collection. But I still use Google, FB, so I’m still being monetized.

 

[Sojourner]

My Roku TV spies on me. I use the HDMI to connect a computer and watch my own movie file on the computer and the TV pops up a "There are other way to watch this". Time to disconnect the TV from the Internet.

Wow... that is crazy! Can't believe Roku has that kind of spyware/nannyware on its devices. I use a FireTV stick and have never seen anything of the sort when I watch my own movie files (via the Kodi app) streaming from my local media server.

 

[Midpack]

Not surprising. Everybody is watching you on the Internet.

One reason I prefer Apple is their lack of customer data collection. But I still use Google, FB, so I’m still being monetized.

Apple most certainly collects customer data on you. They use it to improve your experience in their eco system like everyone else. The difference is they don’t sell it to second parties (Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, and almost everyone else online) who then sell it to anyone and everyone to do with as they please. So Apple does respect your privacy much more than most online platforms, maybe that’s what you meant…

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-privacy-data-collection/

Apple has always collected some data about its customers—as all businesses do—but its increasing push into services and advertising opens the door for more potential data collection.

 

[tulak]

Yes, I misspoke. Apple does collect data, but it’s a lot less than other companies and it’s primarily to improve the customer experience, as you noted.

I think that’s a good balance, especially since it can provide a better experience.

This article is a little bit dated (2018), but I found this fact interesting:

Apple took a little over a week to send me all the data it's collected on me, amounting to almost two dozen Excel spreadsheets at just 5MB in total -- roughly the equivalent of a high-quality photo snapped on my iPhone.

Facebook, Google, and Twitter all took a few minutes to an hour to send me all the data they store on me -- ranging from a few hundred megabytes to a couple of gigabytes in size.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-data-collection-stored-request/

I suspect that they collect more data now, with their push into services, but I still trust Apple the most out of all the major tech companies when it comes to user privacy.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I see that T-Mobile is getting ready to include a basic Hulu package in the price of its higher end Go5G plans. I currently use the previous plan (Magenta Max 55+). I received a message saying I "qualified" for the new Hulu add-on when it becomes available on January 24th. I wonder if "qualified" means I'm entitled to upgrade (and pay more) for the privilege or if they are also going to add it to the Magenta Max 55+ plan. The press release only mentions the Go5G plans.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

My Roku TV spies on me.

Who on earth really cares, they all do; Amazon, YouTube, eBay, FB, X, you name them they spy. Unless one has something to hide that is. There are way more important things to worry about in our lives.

 

[GenXguy]

My Roku TV spies on me. I use the HDMI to connect a computer and watch my own movie file on the computer and the TV pops up a "There are other way to watch this". Time to disconnect the TV from the Internet.

Strange it did that just from watching a movie file via HDMI. Was there any indication the Roku TV knew what the movie was? Or did it just know that "something" was playing through HDMI?

 

[jim584672]

Strange it did that just from watching a movie file via HDMI. Was there any indication the Roku TV knew what the movie was? Or did it just know that "something" was playing through HDMI?

The scary part is it knew the movie. I didn't play it through the TV, but through the computer and it still knew it.

 

[GenXguy]

The scary part is it knew the movie. I didn't play it through the TV, but through the computer and it still knew it.

OK, looks like this is using Automatic Content Recognition (ACR).

But it looks like the default is supposed to be disabled. Have you checked that? Uncheck "Use info from TV inputs"

https://support.roku.com/article/115005739288

How More Ways to Watch works

More Ways to Watch is an element of the Smart TV experience created for your Roku TV. It uses Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) and other technology to collect information about the movie or TV show you are watching via devices connected to the Live TV (antenna) and HDMI® inputs, including "over-the-air" broadcasts and cable/satellite set-top boxes.

• Note:
  • More Ways to Watch is only supported in the United States.
  • More Ways to Watch is not enabled by default. To use the feature, you must enable the Smart TV experience during initial setup or later in the Settings menu.
  • To use More Ways to Watch, your Roku TV must be activated and linked to your Roku account.