Television in the 21st century

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Well, the other day, I had got busy, and let my cable bill lapse-- they shut it down.

Not a big deal, a phone call would have re-connected it in minutes, for a fee of course.

But I took that opportunity to just leave it off (I did reconnect my internet, obviously).

I looked around, and have decided to give Hulu Plus a try, $8 a month, for all but a very very few shows I normally watch.  (Mythbusters and Big Bang Theory are not available).

So far?  I've re-watched a show I like, Almost Human, on my Samsung 10" Note tablet-- the detail is stunning, better even than my 34" flatscreen TV (which is dated enough, that it does not possess the HuLu app inside...).   It's kind of cool, sitting there in my easy chair, with the "tv" on my lap, with better sound, better resolution, clearer picture than ever (this particular Samsung has better resolution than the best Apple, by the way... by quite a bit...).

Star Trek cool, in fact. 

I will be saving approximately $32.50 a month over my former cable (which isn't even as good-- I must adhere to their schedule, not mine).  I get advertising with either media, so that's the same.   But with TV-on-my-tablet, I can pause (as I have done to write this post), re-start, scroll back, jump forward, etc.  You *can* jump forward through the show, using the little progress bar.  But every so often, it pauses the show, and brings you 2 ads, at approximately 30 seconds long total.  A lovely count-down timer lets you know when your show's back. 

I'm not finding a down side, here-- except that my old, aging TV may not be of much use anymore.   

I've tried it on my PC, but the resolution there, is, frankly, crap.  About YouTubeish-- in spite of the fact I have a state-of-the-art HD monitor (3, actually).  So I doubt I'll be using the PC much.  I *may* see about connecting the Tablet directly to the TV-- I know there are ways of doing that very thing.

Or more likely, next summer, I'll shell out for a new TV-- a Samsung-- so I can "flick" the show from my tablet to the big screen.  Besides, my old one has a dead sound amp, so I had to use an external amp for sound anyway (fortunately, it had an audio line-out that still worked).   ((I told you it was old... heh..))

I'll write more, later.   Anyone else had experience with alternatives to Cable/Satellite/Antenna TV?

[Aggie]

Yes, I gave up video. There's not a TV in the house.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Day two, and I'm loving it.

I already watched 2 episodes of Doctor Who-- the very-very first one (of which I was not impressed, it made me wonder why it survived, actually.  )  and one I'd seen, but was the first of a new series which I hadn't seen yet.

I also watched a (to me rerun) of Almost Human, to kind of check out the detail-- and it's full-on HD.  So much so, I could easily see the flaws in the actor's makeup...  <heh> 

I'm liking HuLu Plus quite a bit, so far.

[Griffin NoName]

I get TV over the Internet via BT. One big advantage is that there is a short summary of what the program is about, so when recorded and I can't remember what the program was about from the title, I can just read the blurb. It also logs the actors names. The only downside is that every so often I go to play a recording and find it blank. I assume due to bad internet glitch.

I am interested that you find the Samsung tablet better optics than Apple. All the technical reviews say so, but it's good to hear confirmation. I keep telling my father it is better - he has deteriorating sight, bad - but then he reads some glowing report on Apple yet again so we have the repeat discussion - it really annoys me. The stuff he reads is general consumer stuff which Apple has pretty well saturated, rather than detailed technical detail. I suppose it annoys me because why would he believe the media/press rather than me !

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

If your TV has HDMI you may want to try Chromecast (although I don't know if Hulu works with that). It's a bit twitchy with certain routers but it complements Android (phone, tablet) well.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I am interested that you find the Samsung tablet better optics than Apple.

I love my samsung tablets--yes, I have 2, and a samsung smartphone too (S3).   The smaller tablet is a media-server, feeds via bluetooth, music to my van radio.  I almost never listen to actual radio anymore-- just my own collection, or the occasional Audio book.

The resolution on my big one is about 2 times that of the latest apple tab, and is true HD.   I find it's better than my 34" flatscreen TV.  Imagine that?  

If your TV has HDMI you may want to try Chromecast (although I don't know if Hulu works with that). It's a bit twitchy with certain routers but it complements Android (phone, tablet) well.

How does that thing work?  Does it simply plug into the HDMI port?  My TV's audio is shot, but it's audio-line out jacks work, would it feed the sound properly?   I'd hate to invest in a dongle, only to have to send it back...

I've been thinking about stringing my 8' HDMI cable from by desktop box to the TV, and trying that-- but I bet I'll not like it as well as my Tab (which is eminently portable)

Edit:

Looking at the Amazon ad for Chromecast, it appears to bypass the need to connect my main box-- which is nice.  It's $35, which is cheap enough.  I may see if I can find it locally, my preferred shopping method.

Thanks for the heads' up, Zono!