Streaming
 | Author:
Victor Sample
Vic Sample: MT43 News Treasurer |
For many years we were Dish customers, and for many years we complained about how much we were paying for over 200 channels with nothing to watch.
Then Covid hit and production companies were shut down and no new shows were being made. We still had over 200 channels and even less to watch. At that point, we decided to try streaming. We don’t have a smart TV so I did some research and decided to try the Amazon Firestick. Since we already were Amazon Prime customers we automatically had the Prime Video channels. We found there were a number of free streaming channels. We really like Tubi, FreeVee and Roku.
We love PBS and British shows and were able to subscribe to two streaming services (BritBox and Acorn) that are British and Australian shows for very little money.
In addition to the free streaming services, we subscribed to eight others. We also get ABC, NBC, FOX and The CW for free. We do have to pay for CBS.
With all of these services, we are spending about half of what we paid for Dish and have plenty of movies and TV shows to watch.
Why isn’t everyone switching to streaming and leaving the Cable companies and Dish/Direct TV? Why haven’t you switched?
Well, if you are under the age of 50 you probably switched to streaming a long time ago. But if you are older, or just technology-challenged, streaming can be very difficult. My wife loves the shows we can watch and she certainly loves paying less than half of what we paid for DISH, but she would not do streaming if I wasn’t there.
The first hurdle to overcome is WiFi bandwith: Netflix says you need a minimum of 8 megabits service. I found you have to have closer to 20 to be happy with streaming. So, streaming might be cheaper but if you have to upgrade your internet to get higher bandwidth it is less cheap.
Since we didn’t have a smart TV we chose the Amazon Firestick based on reviews, but the Firestick does not work well. After months I determined that the Firestick WiFi has very poor service. Most of our problems went away when I switched to using an ethernet cable instead of WiFi.
The streaming apps are not as reliable as Dish. There are various problems, especially with syncing the sound with the picture. Netflix, Paramount and, surprisingly the free services Tubi and Roku handle it pretty well. Any of the Amazon channels have problems syncing voices with the pictures. It’s easy to get them back in sync (just hit the backup button) and they get synced again but it is very irritating.
Is streaming for you? If you don’t mind dealing with new technology, and the frustrations, you can save money and find a world of entertainment to watch, but it can be challenging.
