- Push one tiny button accidentally on your fancy amplifier and nothing works.
- If you discover which button was accidentally pushed, everything works.
- Streaming TV over the Internet to your big screen TV works fairly easily.
- Streaming TV over the Internet is sometimes (a little) jerky depending on your service provider.
- Streaming TV over the Internet does give you access to lots of channels, some of which you have never heard of.
- Streaming TV over the Internet does give you access to most of the programs but not all.
- Streaming TV over the Internet does have some premium charges depending on the provider and is not all free.
- Streaming TV over the Internet is cheaper than cable.
- If you have an expensive sound system putting the dongle in your TV means that sound will not go through your nice side speakers but routed through your smaller TV speakers.
- Using your laptop for other things while streaming TV does interfere slightly with reception. (I never tried using a digital phone or tablet.)
- If you have "triple play" cable the ID that appears on your TV screen when the phone rings will not appear and you have to get off the couch and see who is calling when you are streaming.
- My particular Chromecast dongle setup must be plugged into electricity which removes the lovely wireless look.
- Hulu is good for TV shows and Netflix for movies, so before I talk to cable I am going to have to subscribed to one or the other of these and test them.
Anyway, I am feeling much better moving onto the next steps and will stop blogging about this stuff!
It is all getting too complicated. When I go to my son's to babysit I need a lesson because every week he changes the system.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting ever more complicated just turning on the TV. And we do enjoy Netflix but if the Internet goes out we can't use it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as though you're on top of it. We use Apple TV for streaming, with mixed results. Netflix & Comcast (our only choice of provider) do not play well together, but I can't quit Netflix bc I like Orange is the New Black, Foyle's War, Miss Fisher and a few other things I can only seem to find there.
ReplyDeletePlease don't stop. I'm trying to get G to modernize slightly, and all this should interest him.
ReplyDeleteMy friend in LA got rid of her cable, and loves her Hulu. I can't put a cd in to play a movie...doing so requires three remotes. Then again, I love watching/listening to the news while sipping a cuppa. She has no news and lives in an area where there are landslides. I just want to get the Smithsonian Channel. :)
hire a teenager
ReplyDeleteI like to say that technology is great...when it works. I sometimes wonder how many people Bill Gates has on staff to make sure that his tech....just works.
ReplyDeletePlease keep posting, I love the info. I got rid of my cable tv, still have the internet and netflix but am looking around to do something else, although this has been pretty good. We can receive some channels with an antenna depending on where a body lives. A store here has a loan program for a fancy sony antenna so you can check it out to see how well it works for you. Wouldn't mind the news and the PBS channels if that works.
ReplyDeleteWe are looking into switching to Direct-TV, which is an alternative to TWC we are using now. But I'm sure that whatever they offer today will change in a year and the rates will go up. Good luck with your technology.
ReplyDeleteOnce you get the system up and running, and know you won't be missing any of your favorites, i hope you enjoy the switchover and find it was worth it.
ReplyDeleteWe have Comcast, movies and tv shows on demand, and Amazon Prime via Internet. But we really just mostly watch TV.
ReplyDeleteWe do Netflix bu5 without dongles and such. We have watched a number of older series, and are currently in the seventh season of Morse.
ReplyDeleteperserverance rules the day.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are done for a while. Drink Bottled water. Clean out the septic tank, and have a piece of chocolate. Just do not push that button.
ReplyDeleteI did too. Now no one can change the radio stations. LOL
Our internet provider is Consumer Cellular, which is available from Sears and runs on the AT&T network. It works very well and is the cheapest service we can get here in Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteI have been streaming programs off Amazon lately, and a lot of it's free if you have Amazon Prime. I can even download a lot of stuff from Amazon to view later.
I'm glad my husband handles all this stuff, because it's mostly too complicated for me.
I miss the old days and still prefer to watch Saturday Night Live late Saturday Night rather than tape it, not that I could if I wanted to. I do like Netflix movies coming in my mailbox and recently checked out the Newsroom HBO series and LOVE it.
ReplyDeleteI have not stepped onto that platform, yet. This January will be 2 years w/out cable TV.
ReplyDeleteRoku, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Netflix all add up - but still cheaper than cable, I guess.