Surewhitey
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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".
Try some of those live TV channels, and I bet there are commercials.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
You're streaming every time you watch a video on your computer.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.)
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.)
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.
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.
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…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 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.
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.
My Roku TV spies on me.
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?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.
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.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?
OK, looks like this is using Automatic Content Recognition (ACR).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.
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.