Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Which tv service to get

Painter Lady is done and gone. You shouldn't have to ever hear about her again.

Now. back to normal life stuff:

I'm still trying to decide what to do about tv service once we get into the house. I want to save money compared to what I was spending, but I also want it easy for DH to access.

When we moved and I put our Dish satellite service on "pause" for $5 a month, we were paying $83 a month. I can't remember which channel package. I think Top 240. The reason I like Dish is DH can push the power button on the remote and easily go to whichever channel he likes.

There are cheaper Dish plans I could probably switch to, but to get local channels (which I want) and cable news (he likes Fox News) added to their $37 "flex" package, it would be $60 a month.

We also have Netflix (well, when my DD gives me a gift card for a gift, which she usually does now)  and Amazon Prime, that I access both via our Firestick. DH doesn't understand how to switch over to those, even though I've shown him numerous times, so he never watches anything on there unless I'm watching or I do it for him.

I'm also considering dropping Dish and going with either Hulu Live or YouTubeTv with live tv. Hulu is $45/mo and YouTubeTv is $40.  Hulu I could access with my Firestick that I already have (but pay an extra $5 more than YouTube. If I go with YouTubeTV I'd either need to get a Google Chomecast or Roku device to stream the service. Neither are super expensive, but on the flip side, Amazon Prime isn't available to watch through either of those, is my understanding. Plus, from my understanding the Google Chromecast is only operable from your phone or tablet, not a remote control.

Plus, I want turning the tv on and getting to his favorite channel(s) as easy as possible for DH, without him having to ask me to do it every time. He likes to watch tv after I go to bed and the last thing I'm going to want is to have to keep getting up to change the channel for him! LOL.

I'm thinking of just sticking with the Firestick (though maybe getting an updated one. The one I have I got several years ago). With that we can do Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. I will have to just keep showing DH how to use it, until he figures it out. That would save $38 a month over what I was paying for Dish.

When we moved and I put the service on "pause" we were 6 weeks from our 2 year Dish contract being up, so it's not over yet, as far as I know. We are still under contract. I'm probably wrong, but my understanding is if I cancel the service before our contract is up, I have to pay $20 a month for the 2 months I'm short. At least, that better be all it is!

DH keeps telling everyone, "I haven't missed tv a bit!". Whatever!! He doesn't tell them he watches Fox news every night on our computer screen, via signing in my mom's xfinity account. Same way he was able to watch Gold Rush every Friday night the past few months, Hello! that's tv you are watching! haha. We are getting tv service. I like watching shows in the evenings and I like watching them on a tv better than a tiny ipad or a computer screen. I sit at my desk all day long. The last thing I want to do to watch a tv show is sit at my desk some more.

I know there are other streaming options out there, that are cheaper, or a combination of more than one might be cheaper, but to get the channels we actually watch Hulu or YouTubeTv are the best options. It will be hard enough teaching DH how to access one, I'm not going to have more than one.

22 comments:

  1. We found a workaround to get amazon prime through to our Chromecast - we simply put it up in Chrome on our desktop, and Chrome lets you cast to the chromecast - super simple with literally two clicks. No remote control though ;)

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    1. that's smart! I do actually think DH could handle using his phone as his "remote" for the shows he watches, for the Chromecast option.

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    2. One downside with using the phone as a remote on the chromecast is that there is a lot of delay. This may be because our chromecast is a few years old, or it may be that we have very 'cluttered' wireless living in a condo complex, but if your hubby is impatient with technology, it would make me hesitate. Overall though, it was a fabulous 30$ purchase about five years ago.

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    3. I'm a bit afraid of that too. He has zero patience. My DD has the chromecast, but they just purchased several months ago and they are on fast internet. We are not, so something to consider. We were using their chomecast as a "guest" for a couple of months, but I was just accessing and watching it via my desktop computer, not using my phone. We didn't have any problems that way....(other than DH not knowing how to get to it, LOL)

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  2. Have you thought about getting a smart tv. They have netflix, youtube and other services built right into them. To access them you just press the service you want right on the remote.

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    1. Eventually we will get a new tv, but it's just not in the budget right now with so many new house build expenses happening. Our 55" older tv still works great, so I don't want to have to replace it until we have to.

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  3. We are able to stream our Amazon Prime through our Roku box.

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    1. thanks for the info! I'm keeping that open as one of my options

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  4. We can access those thing through our blue ray player. Do you have one of those?

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    1. We have an old one, that does have internet capabilities but it's probably 8-10 years old now. We do have the firestick, which steams me Amazon,Netfilx and I could get Hulu thru it.

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  5. I'm like DH, I guess..if I want to watch t.v., I want to press the remote, and hit up or down for my channels. We have Dish, but when my husband got a new t.v., we were able to get Netflix and watch YouTube, all accessible with the remote, easy-peasy, or else, like your DH, I wouldn't bother. Where I am unlike your DH is that I would never, ever select Fox News! I think when we are going to have to pause Dish for a bit when we move. I, however, will not place that call, as I could do without Dish or any service, frankly. (Dish is all we can get out here.) If it were up to me, I'd cancel it. I do like Netflix, though, but prefer to watch it alone on my laptop.

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    1. We have Dish or Direct tv, but it appears directv is using internet now, too. Since we spend most of our time at our home, I like to have tv available to watch. We can't get local channels with an antenna, too far and too many mountains in the way.

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  6. Your DH sounds just like mine. Whenever he is home, I always have to set up the TV for him. Fox is also the only thing we watch.

    As for contracts, when we had Direct TV (years and years ago) we put them on pause several times. Unfortunately, it didn't pause our contract. We were still obligated to those months and ultimately did pay $20/month to break our contract.

    My comments on blogger have been a bit squirrly. Sorry if this is a duplicate.

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    1. Yes, I think I will probably have to pay the $40 for the last 2 months of our contract, but that's ok. will save me in the long run. When I put it on pause, they did say our contract would pause, also.

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    2. We had to pay for a lot more months than that and for us it was still worth it. Now I refuse to do contracts!

      Oh, and congrats with getting rid of the painter lady! Woohoo!

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    3. OMG - it's so nice and quiet here today! DH got to just sleep in this morning until like 9:30am. He sure needed that.

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  7. I am sure you'll be glad when all the work is done and everyone is out of there! I just have AT&T - phone/cellphone, internet, TV.

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    1. the only tv options we have here are satellite or stream something thru internet. Cable is not an option in our rural area.

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  8. YAY! THE PAINTER LADY A.K.A THE WICKED WITCH IS GONE! BRIGHTER DAYS AHEAD!

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  9. Ah, what a relief to be rid of the painter lady! I am relieved for you! :-)

    We went to an antenna and streaming services, but it sounds like that's not an option where you are. We lived where the only option was satellite for a while and it was pretty frustrating and expensive. Now DH watches some of his *stuff* on his laptop and I pay for the Golf Channel for him ($9.99/mo) via Prime. I have to say I don't miss the cable channels and political rantings, and we're both more calm without them.

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    1. I checked into antenna for local channels but not an option. too mountain-y LOL.

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