so, I signed up for netflix. was a bit underwhelmed. is there a better site?

[KG]

recent changes in technology have me thinking bout getting a TV (haven't had one for almost 20 years). being able to stream what i want to see instead of paying for mountains of useless shit i'd never watch has piqued my interest.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Watching your thread w. interest. Same dilemma, more or less.

Don't go for a "smart" tv. Apparently it watches YOU more than you will probably watch IT.

[avebury]

2. I love that Netflix has a lot of British

shows that are so much better then what is on American TV. I have the opposite dilemma that you have in that I am considering giving my my TV and cable in favor of Netflix. I know that there is a streaming site for British TV shows but can't remember its name. I need to research it and maybe try it out for the free month.

[Tobin S.]

3. There is a lot of uninteresting stuff on Netflix, however it's only $8 a month to stream.

And there is enough entertaining stuff on there that my wife and I feel that it's worth the small fee. We also have Hulu, and that is $8 a month as well. We stream both Netflix and Hulu to our 42" TV.

Netflix generally has older material and Hulu has the latest shows. We get all of our TV entertainment from those two sites. We do not have satellite or cable. We feel like it's a good deal for $16 a month.

[KG]

9. thinking bout adding Hulu - 16 bucks is about what i used to spend for a gaming site.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

11. Get Hulu if you want to pay to watch a lot of commercials.

[KG]

12. whoa - not paying for commercials

[Orrex]

18. I had a free trial offer for Hulu

I couldn't believe how awful it was. NetFlix on a tv has a pretty weak search engine, but Hulu is a new level of terrible.

The selection was no better--and often worse--and you have to deal with commercials, as we already noted.


NetFlix has some shortcomings (many "new" releases were in theaters in 2009, for instance), but it's not a bad value for the price.

[NewJeffCT]

4. It's a lot better for TV shows

than for movies.

Some excellent original TV on Netflix - House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Daredevil. Marco Polo, and others. And, you can also stream old shows you may have missed - Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Office, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, etc.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. If you haven't tried, or are unaware, you can get many movies on YouTube, pay per view.

If you are simply looking for movie content, YouTube does have quite a few on there and most are under $4.00 to watch.

You can watch entire episodes of John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" on Youtube for nothing. There is an amazing amount of content.

I'm almost embarrassed to say how much I spend, between phone and TV at home, and If I am in front of the TV for more than 4 hours a month, it's a lot.

But what I get for the money is access anywhere. I can watch HBO on my iPad in a hotel room in Bugtussle, TN if I want, or rolling down the road when I am in the sleeper bunk when I double team with this firm. I can watch "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS, it's just that I have to wait a day or so for the latest episode.

I've got Netflix, HULU, Amazon Prime and HBOGO

[KG]

10. longtime youtube watcher, have an acct and couple music playlists

[CBGLuthier]

6. The content wars have hit them hard. I found Hulu to be a rather good place

just for having an incredible amount of content. Yes, there are some ads but movies usually have no ads. they have over 800 Criterion collection films, most of the classic Dr. Who and a bunch of british and other shows. Better for TV shows than movies.

Where I live now I can not get Hulu or Netflix without using either a vpn or DNS service to disguise my location. So I have gone back to suing bittorrent which blows all the legal services away for content. If I were using that in the states I would have a vpn so they could not trace it to me but where I am now is pretty much outside of any legal issues.

Roku is your best bet for an interface to add to a tv to get this content. Even down here I still use my Roku to pull in some movie services and public domain channels.

[NV Whino]

7. Amazon and HBO Now

I use an Apple TV for the interface. Apple provides YouTube, TED and lots of other stuff I never watch.

HBO Now is a bit pricey at $15/month. Amazon is free with Amazon Prime. Both have pretty good content.

[sarge43]

8. PBS streaming

Masterpiece Theater, Nova, Frontline, Nature, American Masters, Great Performances and no ads.

[shenmue]

13. Hulu, Acorn

[mockmonkey]

14. There is a Netflix, Streaming Videos Group here in DU

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1143

You can see what others are looking at.

I find that I have so much stuff Queued on Netflix that I don't have time to watch it all. Browsing through the different categories can be kind of a pain.

There is also Instant Watcher that makes it a bit easier which also shows Amazon Streaming.

http://instantwatcher.com/

[dawg]

15. You might enjoy an HBO Now subscription.

HBO original content is the best, plus there is always a pretty good rotation of recent-ish movies to stream.

Personally, I love Netflix. I think it is one of the best bargains available today.

[Tom Ripley]

16. Xhamster

[Fla Dem]

17. Orange is The New Black, Grace & Frankie, House of Cards, Dare Devil

That's all original programming. Additionally you can get caught up on other TV series such as Scandal, Breaking Bad, etc.

Here's a list:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/04/the-50-best-tv-shows-streaming-on-netflix-2014.html?a=1

[mentalsolstice]

19. We love NetFlix streaming.

Right after my husband retired we started watching Breaking Bad while eating lunch, we caught up in time for the series finale. That alone was worth the $8 per month. Since then we have binged, at lunch, Dexter, Damages, and Sons of Anarchy. I tried to find something to watch by myself, Call the Midwife, but now my husband has gotten into, so now I have to watch it on his schedule. We've also subscribed to Amazon Prime, and between the two, we're not wanting for entertainment.

Eta: we've also enjoyed Netflix originals, House of Cards, OITNB, and Bloodline.

[csziggy]

20. I've been thinking about an Amazon Firestick or Google Chromecast

Then subscribing to a few services. Both the firestick and chromecast are USB devices that plug into your TV - so you have to have a TV with a USB port - and hook to your home WiFi - so you have to have a wireless home network.

With the devices you can put any streaming video and internet content on your TV. I've read more about the Chromecast - it uses an app on an Android smart phone to let you use the phone for a remote to select and control the videos. The Firestick comes with a dedicated remote and seems to have voice control, too.

The problem I have is that I don't have a smart phone so I would have to buy one and arrange for service. My husband and I want different TVs normally and the TV in the great room is a separate one, so we'd have to buy three devices. I'm not sure if our broadband would support two different streams at once without the extra broadband that we get with our current PrismTV internet service. My husband and I started adding up what it could cost for the different devices, smart phone (and subscription for it), extra broadband, subscriptions to streaming services, etc. and we pretty much decided that for us it's not worth the expense and learning curve.

But a friend that bought a Chromecast for her husband for Christmas says he loves it so it might be worth considering.

[BainsBane]

21. Netflix has the best interface, easiest to use

Hulu sucks. Almost nothing can be streamed and their interface sucks. It makes it very hard to find things. Amazon Prime is okay but you have to pay all at once, 100 bucks. Netflix is the best of those three IMO.

[OrwellwasRight]

22. I loved Netflix when I first got it.

Then I got to a place where I had watched everything I wanted and I was down to oddball documentaries, like one about the Helvetica font, and 1980s reruns. So recently I switched to Amazon -- which has some stuff Netflix doesn't, like True Blood, Alpha House, Falling Skies. May switch back after a couple years and I get bored with Amazon content. By that time, Netflix will have some more seasons of some of its exclusives, like House of Lies, etc.