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Netflix and/or Hulu: Replace Cable
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2005
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My parents are dumping their satellite service from Bell. It's expensive and brutal. Slow channel changes, terrible menus, prone to blacking out in bad weather, etc.
I'm looking at other options. Right now, the Telus Optik TV seems like the best deal. Ya, that's right, Canada's fiber optic Internet is alive and well. For $107 per month, they'll a get landline phone (which they already have), fiber optic Internet and the base, Essentials Fiber Optik TV which includes about 55 channels (NBC, ABC, CBC, etc.). 14 of these are in HD. It all comes over fiber optic lines: no cable, no satellites.
Then Netflix/Hulu came up. True, my parents will get a couple free PVR set top boxes from Telus by singing up for the above bundle for a few years, where they'd have to buy a few TiVOs or something for Hulu Plus or Netflix... but that cost is negligible and the service cost with Netflix or Hulu Plus is much less than Telus's Optik TV.
I'd like to hear from people with experience with Netflix/Hulu Plus. One main question is, how soon after shows air are they available on Hulu/Netflix?
My parents want regular programming like A and E, the Cooking Channel, etc. Forgive me but I have no experience really with TV (don't watch it), especially with Netflix or Hulu or Hulu Plus. From what I see, these aren't really replacements for regulalry scheduled programs.
Optik TV, High Definition TV, On Demand, Internet, PVR - TELUS
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"Life is the crummiest book I ever read. There isn't a hook, just a lot of cheap shots, pictures to shock, and characters an amateur would never dream up." (Bad Religion)
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Moderator  Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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Can you even get Hulu in Canada now? I thought it was still US only.
In any case, I've found shows available on Hulu by midnight eastern time the night the show airs. Being in California, that means I've been able to start watching new primetime programming after 9 PM. I haven't cut the satellite cord just yet, but I'm really close. I don't watch sports, so real time is not an issue for me.
Steve
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Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
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Originally Posted by ibook_steve 
Can you even get Hulu in Canada now? I thought it was still US only.
In any case, I've found shows available on Hulu by midnight eastern time the night the show airs. Being in California, that means I've been able to start watching new primetime programming after 9 PM. I haven't cut the satellite cord just yet, but I'm really close. I don't watch sports, so real time is not an issue for me.
Steve
IP backflips gets you Hulu in Canada.
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"Life is the crummiest book I ever read. There isn't a hook, just a lot of cheap shots, pictures to shock, and characters an amateur would never dream up." (Bad Religion)
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
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I dumped cable for Netflix and hulu and after 9 months or so got it back. Still mostly crap on tv but like just picking something to watch with out thinking at times. Hotspur shield works for hulu too. Hulu better for tv shows Netflix for movies.
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Brian says (9:16 AM): I was looking at houses in Ottawa... I actually have a temptation in me to move
Jeff ******* says (9:19 AM): Eww, Ottawa is gross. It's infested with politicians, and presently, 1 Harper as well.
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by Athens
I dumped cable for Netflix and hulu and after 9 months or so got it back. Still mostly crap on tv but like just picking something to watch with out thinking at times. Hotspur shield works for hulu too. Hulu better for tv shows Netflix for movies.
What I suspected. Thanks.
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"Life is the crummiest book I ever read. There isn't a hook, just a lot of cheap shots, pictures to shock, and characters an amateur would never dream up." (Bad Religion)
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I also wanted the HD TV for the Hockey games lol now that I have it I realised how much I missed it. The idea was to kill TV, and buy the TV shows on DVD. The amount of Shows I actually watch made it cheaper to get the entire seasons. At 750 a year in TV, it was a no brainer. Now that I have TV back I dont want to do the no TV thing again. Since TV is back I hardly use Netflix.
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Brian says (9:16 AM): I was looking at houses in Ottawa... I actually have a temptation in me to move
Jeff ******* says (9:19 AM): Eww, Ottawa is gross. It's infested with politicians, and presently, 1 Harper as well.
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Toronto, Canada
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For me the main reason to ditch cable wasn't the cost, it was the commercials. We were watching a movie one night when, towards the end, we were being interrupted by a commercial break virtually every five minutes. I don't know if they do this in the States, but Rogers puts the bulk of commercial breaks at the end of a movie, simply because they know you'll want to watch the finale.
That particular evening, having a received a monthly cable bill of $125.00 in the morning, I switched off the TV and took my wife out to dinner instead. Next day, I cancelled cable and have never looked back.
Between hulu, the BBC iPlayer, netflix and iTunes, we're doing just fine. It works for us because we don't care about watching shows the day they come out on cable, so YMMV.
After a couple of years of living like this, the idea of watching none-time shifted TV becomes quite alien. We watch what we want, when we want it.
(Last edited by Phileas; May 23, 2011 at 10:36 PM.
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by Phileas
For me the main reason to ditch cable wasn't the cost, it was the commercials. We were watching a movie one night when, towards the end, we were being interrupted by a commercial break virtually every five minutes. I don't know if they do this in the States, but Rogers puts the bulk of commercial breaks at the end of a movie, simply because they know you'll want to watch the finale.
That particular evening, having a received a monthly cable bill of $125.00 in the morning, I switched off the TV and took my wife out to dinner instead. Next day, I cancelled cable and have never looked back.
Between hulu, the BBC iPlayer, netflix and iTunes, we're doing just fine. It works for us because we don't care about watching shows the day they come out on cable, so YMMV.
After a couple of years of living like this, the idea of watching none-time shifted TV becomes quite alien. We watch what we want, when we want it.
In other words, you're like me. But this is for my parents, older and stuck with the cable mentality.
As for me, I don't have any of this stuff. I just watch movies in the theatre and from iTunes, along with the odd TV show purchase, like Mad Men. I hate commercials so much.
That's why I have ClickToFlash installed and AdBlock on my computer.
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"Life is the crummiest book I ever read. There isn't a hook, just a lot of cheap shots, pictures to shock, and characters an amateur would never dream up." (Bad Religion)
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Bay Area of San Jose
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the only thing that kills is sports.
if you don't live where your favorite team plays, then you can get the online package (hockey and the NBA do not include playoffs, but I think the NFL and MLB include playoffs).
but if you do live where they play, then you have blackouts if you try to buy the online package. I thought about getting the NHL online package with the sharks, but I would have been blacked out every time the kings and ducks played against them. so i just resorted to watching them in bars and spending all the money I saved on beer and curry fries.
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Addicted to MacNN
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The big thing I hate about networks is how they jack the volume for commercials.
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Brian says (9:16 AM): I was looking at houses in Ottawa... I actually have a temptation in me to move
Jeff ******* says (9:19 AM): Eww, Ottawa is gross. It's infested with politicians, and presently, 1 Harper as well.
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