What Is A Good Alternative To Cable and Dish?

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TailGator911

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My wife went out and bought an Amazon Firestik based on a friend's recommendation. I have no idea what is the best, the worst, the most popular, etc., apps to download to get what we want. Any advice very much appreciated - thanks!
 

bharvey2

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We've had a Firestik for a few years but don't use it that often anymore. Although, my wife uses is with the Amazon Prime account to watch Amazon's selection of movies. If you're looking for CATV and Sat Dish alternatives, Youtube TV, Netflix and Hulu are decent alternatives. Some fo the apps may be available to use via the Firestik. As we purchased new TVs over the last few years, we've been buying Roku TVs that have the Roku app built into the TV. Since you have a recent Firestik, it's possible many of the sites like Netflix and Hulu are available.
 

prcguy

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I have a couple of Firesticks and find its ok for a person in no hurry to watch a movie but not so good for a family gathering to watch TV. It just takes too long to scroll through all the apps to find one that has the thing you want to watch, then going through all the servers to get the feed, etc. Its cool you can watch a new movie that just came out a few days ago but you better set aside some time to find it and get everything set up.

I like Netflix, for about $10/mo you can watch a lot of stuff and they have some great series that are produced by Netflix. Otherwise DirecTV was the best satellite service, although they have dropped some quality since ATT acquired them. I used to legally get everything, and I mean everything on DirecTV for free and even then there were times I couldn't find anything to watch.
 

JDrisc3480

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We've had a Firestik for a few years but don't use it that often anymore. Although, my wife uses is with the Amazon Prime account to watch Amazon's selection of movies. If you're looking for CATV and Sat Dish alternatives, Youtube TV, Netflix and Hulu are decent alternatives. Some fo the apps may be available to use via the Firestik. As we purchased new TVs over the last few years, we've been buying Roku TVs that have the Roku app built into the TV. Since you have a recent Firestik, it's possible many of the sites like Netflix and Hulu are available.
Be careful with YouTube TV. I heard they increased their price this week.
 

MTS2000des

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All the streaming services will go up. YouTube TV added Viacom channels by demand, this jacked up the price. Considering one still has to pay a cartel for internet service to use streaming, when the price of YouTube TV is added on top of a la carte internet, it's about the same as a cable/internet bundle.

I pay $125 for AT&T U-Verse internet (50mb is all I can get despite being in a major city) and U-200 which has HBO on a 2 year price guarantee. They discount the Internet access $30 (34.99) and the U-Verse TV is discounted $40 (54.99), with their junk fees like "HD programming fee", two additional IPTV boxes with DVR, it comes out to $124 and change. Now, to get the same Internet with no discount is $65 plus taxes and equipment fees (AT&T MAKES you rent their gateway at $5.99 a month), it's around $75 plus $64.99 for YouTube TV would come in at $139 a month, that's $15 more for around the same thing.
 

TailGator911

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Prices are going crazy everywhere. I made a good decision after talking to the retention people at Dish Network. Got my bill back to where it was 2 yrs ago and redefined my channel package to our liking, signed another 2yrs with them. We can live with Dish for the time being. If we're still here in 2022 then I'll deal with it then.
 

Audiodave1

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I made the switch from cable to streaming a couple years ago. To get a tast of what's out there consider downloading a free aggregator channel like Pluto TV, no subscription and lots of content. I use Roku's so also use the Roku aggregated channel. Again, all free. If you are considering ditching cable/satellite AND love sports you will need to go with one of the bigger services like YouTube or Hulu, Disney+ or AppleTV. We didn't need the sports and there is an excellent service called Philo that has about 50 quality channels from A&E, TLC, Discovery etc for $19mo. Add an amazon prime membership with that for access to their movies and shows. There is so much free content out there. I use a firestick for a couple amazon exclusive (to firestick) channels but all TV's have an outboard Roku box. Went from $250mo all in to $95 including Fios.
 

TailGator911

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Good ideas here. I haggled and dickered with Dish and got my bill back to where it was. Contract is up in Dec and I will have already decided and installed whatever I will be transitioning into. Thanks all
 

TailGator911

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Well, I think we went the route of least resistance - Hulu w/local news app. Has everything we need. So far so good. Wife loves it. You know what they say - if Mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy. ;)
 

TailGator911

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Well maybe I spoke too soon...having issues with hulu freezing up and buffering all the time to where it's sometimes unwatchable for 5-7 minutes at a time. Some of our friends with hulu say theirs does not freeze up all the time. I went into router app and deleted some devices that were no longer in our network and it seemed to work fine...for awhile. Now it's so bad we are about to give up and go back with cable. Any ideas? I have rebooted, reassigned, redid all and nothing helps. Suggestions! Thanks in advance ....
 

TailGator911

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Well, it was all ironed out during a Best Buy Geek Squad service call. I simply needed a WiFi Extender. Activated and plugged into an outlet in the center of my house and bad-bing-bada-boom the big TV is officially online. Problem solved. No more buffering, no more freezes. Mama is happy and we all know if Mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy.
 
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