Streaming

It happened while I was Gone

Streaming TV

Of course, I know about streaming. I did streaming in the Philippines, at least to some extent. Fewer streaming opportunities (at least legally) there in the Philippines, but it is still available. One of the problems with streaming in the Philippines is that generally, the internet is poor and slow there (I’ll have more on that in a future article).

Cable TV

Of course, you don’t have to stream content, there is also Cable TV. But, from what I can see, cable TV is quite expensive, especially if you want the premium channels. I know people who spend $200 or more each month on cable TV, that, in my opinion, is just crazy.

Satellite TV

In addition to Streaming content and Cable TV, Satellite TV is available. In fact, along the street that we live on, most of the houses have Satellite dishes on them. There seem to be at least 2 competing satellite TV providers, based on the dishes that I see. However, I was not much interested in Satellite TV, so I did not look into it much.

We chose Cable

It did not take much thought for us, we chose to get Cable TV. However, our choice was not much about TV, it was more about Internet. We went with Xfinity (formerly Comcast) because they offer the best Internet service in our area. So, we got just the basic local TV channels and the 150 Mbps internet plan.

To be honest, we have had service for more than a month now, and have yet to even hook up the TV to the Cable TV box. 🙂 We only got the local TV channels because we got a good deal on the Internet part, and the local TV channels were included with that.

We do Stream though

Really, for most of the TV content that we watch, it is via streaming. Streaming is convenient, and also a lot of it is free. Of course, the more premium streaming services you have to pay for, but there is some decent content for free.

Amazon Prime

I have been an Amazon Prime member for years. Even when we lived in the Philippines I had Amazon Prime. I did not have it, at that time, for the streaming entertainment that was available, I had it for the free and fast shipping that it made available. During the times that Feyma worked in Alaska (2017 and 2018), I would often order things on Amazon and have it shipped to her in Alaska. So, Amazon Prime did not cost me money, it saved me money.

In addition to the shipping advantages, some Amazon Prime streaming is available in the Philippines, although the more premium content from the service is geo-blocked, and not available there. Still, we did stream some Amazon Prime Video in the Philippines.

Now that we are living here in the USA, all of the Amazon Prime Video content is available to me, and we do watch a fair amount of Amazon Prime Video. I find that the content they have is either really good or really bad. Unfortunately, I think the majority is really bad, but there are some real gems in there.

Hulu

We do not have Hulu, but the day may come when we sign up for it. Hulu is pretty inexpensive and has a lot of content. We did have Hulu in the Philippines at one time, years ago (although they don’t allow it to be streamed there, you can defeat that if you know how). Really, at this point, we don’t watch enough TV to justify the cost of it, although it is not much. Someday, maybe.

Netflix

 

At this point, if I were to sign up for another streaming service, it would be Netflix. They have some really good content, and the price is very reasonable. However, as I noted when I talked about Hulu, we just don’t watch enough programming to make it worthwhile.

Other Services

We bought a 50″ TV set (very cheap here compared to the Philippines) about a month ago or so. It is a Smart TV (all of them are now, I think), our first one ever. It came with lots of free streaming apps, and we use them. My son especially likes to watch YouTube streaming on the TV before he goes to work. Some of the other free streaming apps include:

• NBC (all of their programming is available since we subscribe through our Cable TV subscription)
• CBS News
• Other News apps
• YouTube
• Pluto Tv (free content)
• Others that I haven’t checked out much yet

I find that the things that are available for free, in addition to the paid stuff that we have like Amazon Prime gives us plenty to satisfy us for now.

Plex

In addition to these services where we can stream content over the internet, I also set up a Plex Media Center on my PC, and with that, we can stream TV and Movie content from my PC to the Television set. That is quite nice, and we use that probably the majority of the time that we watch TV. Plex is a nice media center setup. I had tried it maybe 6 or 7 years ago in the Philippines, but I felt that at that time it was not up to snuff. It seems to have come of age now.

Chromecast

The Vizio TV that we purchased has a built-in Chromecast. If you don’t know what a Chromecast is (I think nearly everybody knows that by now, though) it is a product made by Goole that allows you to sent content from other devices and watch it on your TV set.

For example, I can stream content from my PC, from my Phone, Tablet, or lots of other devices and watch that content on the big screen. I’ve had a Chromecast for many years already, but this is a nicer unit that is built into the TV, which is nice.

So, Streaming

The vast majority of the TV content that we watch and also movies are streamed from one service or another. I find it convenient, and reliable. When we lived in the USA in the past, there was no streaming at that time, but it sure seems like a mature technology now, and I’m loving it.

I am sure that in the future we will sign up for some additional streaming content. Particular Netflix first, and then, probably, Hulu. No rush, though.

Streaming is so common here. In the Philippines, it is done, but just in its infancy. It happened while I was gone. I like it.