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Hulu vs Netflix etc...


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In our ongoing budget effort to work toward a couple of goals, it pains me every time I pay the $250 cable bill (internet too but still) and am considering a subscription to one of these or another like it. Total noob and just wanted to get others thoughts. I did a trial of Hulu and wasn't impressed with the offerings. Is Netflix different or better?

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Since I do a lot of shopping on Amazon, using Amazon Prime is perfect for me. With a $79 per year Prime account I get "free" two day shipping on Prime eligible merchandise, which is darn near everything. With the Prime Account you also get Prime video with thousands of TV series and movies for free. You can also get a rental from 48 - 72 hours for a couple bucks or buy the movie or entire seasons or one or two episodes for anything from $5 and up (individual TV episodes costs $1.99 each). For older TV series I've bought an entire season for $10 (eg. Castle Season 1). You can get a trial membership for free to see if you like it. Kills two birds with one stone. :)

Edited by Tameiki
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We have AT&T Uverse for TV, net, and phone, but still use Netflix. Netflix has TV shows they are making now, plus, say you find a show two, three seasons in, and you want to catch up on the previous seasons (we're currently catching up with Sherlock, as long as we can keep everybody offline so it doesn't interfere with the dl of the video). I'm sure there are other shows I'd like to do that for as well - the first two seasons of American Horror Story for one. But you can do that with Hulu, too, can't you? Maybe we should have them send us the DVD's of the previous seasons, so we don't have to worry about net activity, but I don't know. Have to talk to the other half about that.

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I haven't had cable in years now. Netflix is definitely worth more than Hulu. Hulu gives you the current 5 shows of a season and Hulu Plus gives you access to all previous seasons....but you still get commercials. I really don't see the benefit. (especially when previous seasons are usually available on Netflix anyway)

Personally I use a hybrid of Amazon and Netflix. If it's not on Netflix I can likely rent it on Amazon Instant Video for a decent rate. Example being the latest season of White Collar, it's not available on Netflix yet. But, if I buy all seasons upfront on Amazon it's only 2 bucks a show. Not bad. (Especially because generally I don't watch a lot of TV shows) For phone I have Vonage (9 bucks a month) and in all honest you could simply use Google Voice which is free tied to your Android phone. (I only use Vonage for International calls) Honestly, there isn't much reason to keep cable around these days. Especially now that TLC, History Channel etc of all but gone to crap. The only downside of course is if you watch sports. I don't so it's not a huge deal for me.

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I am totally with you on that Carter. I pay $130.00 a month and I don't even watch any movie channels. I have been thinking about trying to find something cheaper but I, like you, have internet in the package and I do not know who else I could get a package with both. I've thought about Dish or a package like that but they are expensive too and I do not think they offer internet. I use to have Netflix. It was good as far as watching movies and cheap too but I love reality TV and Netflix does not have that. Let me know if you find something good AND cheap though.

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I am totally with you on that Carter. I pay $130.00 a month and I don't even watch any movie channels. I have been thinking about trying to find something cheaper but I, like you, have internet in the package and I do not know who else I could get a package with both. I've thought about Dish or a package like that but they are expensive too and I do not think they offer internet. I use to have Netflix. It was good as far as watching movies and cheap too but I love reality TV and Netflix does not have that. Let me know if you find something good AND cheap though.

If it's available in your area, I would recommend AT&T's U-Verse over dish. We've had it a year and a half now. Buried fiber optic cables, so your TV doesn't go out during a storm, or if there is snow build up on the dish, and you don't have to worry about a tree impending upon the "southerly" direction the dish itself has to face. When we moved in here, we had no choice but to put it, of course, directed toward where a tree would eventually get in it's way. The installer even said, "You're gonna have problems with that tree in a couple years," but he didn't put it on a pole or anything to get it up higher than the, hell, I think it was the first floor roof over the back porch, but I can't be positive. We had to have them come out a couple years later, get it on a pole, and put the pole up on the second story roof. But our U-Verse package is cheaper than the equivalent of Dish Network, and the other dish company, um, Direct TV (?) tends to raise rates frequently. We won't deal with the cable company here (Charter), and we've found that the net that comes from cable internet pales in comparison to what we get with U-Verse.

Frankly, the majority of the shows we watch aren't on network TV, and especially with Doctor Who, I don't know how quickly the episodes show up on Netflix, and well, we generally all like gathering around the TV Saturday nights to watch it. (Except for the Christmas Episode is on Christmas Day, so hardly ever on a Saturday.) And with Doctor Who, I'm plugged into several boards/pages, so spoilers will abound if it isn't IMMEDIATELY available on Netflix.

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I would keep the basic cable and internet package. Its just that I have 3 HD DVRs in 3 different rooms and am subscribed to every channel they offer. I am mainly talking about catching up on series and having movies available that I would lose if I dropped the premium channels.

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In my area, we've played the game of bouncing back and forth between u-verse, comcast, Dish..... They all have their advantages and disadvantages and the costs wash out in the end. They're all expensive. Between that and cell it's a small fortune, lol

But, I gotta have my sports during the playoff seasons. For as little TV as we watch it's hard to pay that bill

Streaming does appear to be the future, though. Maybe netflix, amazon et al will get sports packages in the future.

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I would keep the basic cable and internet package. Its just that I have 3 HD DVRs in 3 different rooms and am subscribed to every channel they offer. I am mainly talking about catching up on series and having movies available that I would lose if I dropped the premium channels.

Yeah, I would go with Netflix or amazon prime, then. Best availability for what you want IMO

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I have been an Amazon Prime member for a few years. I thought that allowed you to watch the free stuff on a kindle, can you also link that to your TV? I am NOT a tech expert when it comes to things like that. My son got a WII U for Christmas that had Hulu and NetFlix on it and that was the first time I realized I could watch it on my TV and not just on the computer monitor.

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I would keep the basic cable and internet package. Its just that I have 3 HD DVRs in 3 different rooms and am subscribed to every channel they offer. I am mainly talking about catching up on series and having movies available that I would lose if I dropped the premium channels.

That's why we have Netflix, mainly. We can't afford to go to the movies but a couple times a year. So Netflix swoops in and lets us watch movies.

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I have been an Amazon Prime member for a few years. I thought that allowed you to watch the free stuff on a kindle, can you also link that to your TV? I am NOT a tech expert when it comes to things like that. My son got a WII U for Christmas that had Hulu and NetFlix on it and that was the first time I realized I could watch it on my TV and not just on the computer monitor.

Yeah you just need a streaming device, like a roku, or a sony. Play station, etc Then link it to your amazon account and away you go. Lots of free older movies, and reasonable rental rates on newer stuff. For brand new movies in HD you'll pay $6 or so

Edit: pretty much all the smart TVs out now have streaming built in if you want to go that way. Super convenient if you like linking a laptop to the big screen as well.

Edited by Bebop12
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I dumped the cable/dish about 4 years ago... I just didn't see the value anymore. I use the internet for news, etc... then have Netfix and Amazon Prime for entertainment and they both have aps on my TV. I found the Netflix/Amazon combo work well together because they seem to have on one what the other does not. I won't go back to cable or dish... it is just not worth what they charge anymore.

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I have been an Amazon Prime member for a few years. I thought that allowed you to watch the free stuff on a kindle, can you also link that to your TV? I am NOT a tech expert when it comes to things like that. My son got a WII U for Christmas that had Hulu and NetFlix on it and that was the first time I realized I could watch it on my TV and not just on the computer monitor.

We have our 52" TV hooked up to a computer so it's used as a giant monitor -- from which we watch movies and TV shows on Prime. As long as your TV has access to the internet you can log into your Prime account and watch whatever you want. :)

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