Netflix and the like to replace Sat/Cab?

[cditty]

I cut my dish package down to top 120hd and used the savings to join netflix. For less money, I have more entertainment. Dish and netflix are a good combo. They should add that to the 922.

 

[olds403]

If everything in our country was left strictly up to companies and profits. Much of our infrastructure would not exist.

Broadband may seem like a luxury to some, but in the near future it will be as vital to the economy of this nation as our roads have been in the past century.

Without government subsidies and initiatives.
Satellite television would never have come into reality.
Rural electrification would never have happened.
Water projects such as hoover dam or Mississippi river flood control projects would never have happened.
Most rural roads would still be made of dirt.
If it wasn't for the gov, you would only have one choice in phone service (ATT) and I doubt cell phones would have ever have come into existence.
If it wasn't for the gov, rural hospitals and clinics would never have come into being. For that matter you could completely forget about rural anything. No one would want to live in areas with limited services of everything.
Without federal money, many states like the south and mid western areas would be pretty unpopulated.
And as many states are finding out now, without the federal subsidies their budgets are forcing them to raise taxes on their citizens to make up the diff.

Broadband service may seem like a luxury to some, but very soon it will be the needed norm in almost every area of the country.
Just like when cars first came out. There were some who refused to by a horseless carriage because they didn't need to get there that fast and they had seen the horror stories of those things exploding with all that gasoline in them. Besides who wants to have their taxes raised to pay for all those fancy roads them silly contraptions have to drive on. A good horse can go over anything.
Fundamentalist views of anything are short sided and most of the time ,self destructive. Just look at world history.
The United states got to where it is because we allowed visionaries the chances to explore their ideas and make them into realities.
Corporations only have one goal, make a profit.
Just study corporate history prior to the middle of the last century and you can see a perfect example of what a fundamentalist approach to business and government creates.

Please explain to me how broadband is a NEEDED NECESSITY, I'm not buying it. The Govt.(in its present form) does very few things well and I don't believe there is any constitutional basis for many of the things they are doing.

 

[riffjim4069]

70% of the programming we watch is free over-the-air, but we still pay for Cable (FiOS) TV service because the remainer of our "must have" programming is conveniently stuck in the highest priced packages. I would gladly dump cable/satellite altogether if there was an affordable way to view the remaining 30% of our programming needs. We also have Netflix that we occasionally watch online, but their online library is slim-picking and we may just cancel our subscription unless it improves dramitically in the coming months.

My solution: any programmer who accepts advertising dollars should not be permitted to charge MVPDs (i.e., Comcast, Dish Network, Verizon FiOS) for carriage of thier signals. MVPDs should be permitted to provide these ad sponsored signals to their customers. This places both the broadcast networks and cable on an even playing field. Additionally, programmers who do not accept ad dollars are permitted to charge customers directly, via the MVPD, for their programming. Cable, Satellite and Telco customers all pay the same price for the cable favorites and it will be up to the customer to establish how much they are willing to pay for this non-ad supported programming. Finally, all this "bundling" nonsense has got to go. People are paying for programming they don't want and should not have to subsidize them in any form or fashion. Let's these deadbeat channels die or let them develop a programming and business model that appeals to more than a handful of viewers. There is very little value in a channel that broadcasts 12-hours of informercials every day.

Back to the original questions...Netflix has done a great job, but they are not ready to replace Cable, Satellite or the Telcos.

 

[Laddyboy]

70% of the programming we watch is free over-the-air, but we still pay for Cable (FiOS) TV service because the remainer of our "must have" programming is conveniently stuck in the highest priced packages. I would gladly dump cable/satellite altogether if there was an affordable way to view the remaining 30% of our programming needs. We also have Netflix that we occasionally watch online, but their online library is slim-picking and we may just cancel our subscription unless it improves dramitically in the coming months.

My solution: any programmer who accepts advertising dollars should not be permitted to charge MVPDs (i.e., Comcast, Dish Network, Verizon FiOS) for carriage of thier signals. MVPDs should be permitted to provide these ad sponsored signals to their customers. This places both the broadcast networks and cable on an even playing field. Additionally, programmers who do not accept ad dollars are permitted to charge customers directly, via the MVPD, for their programming. Cable, Satellite and Telco customers all pay the same price for the cable favorites and it will be up to the customer to establish how much they are willing to pay for this non-ad supported programming. Finally, all this "bundling" nonsense has got to go. People are paying for programming they don't want and should not have to subsidize them in any form or fashion. Let's these deadbeat channels die or let them develop a programming and business model that appeals to more than a handful of viewers. There is very little value in a channel that broadcasts 12-hours of informercials every day.

Back to the original questions...Netflix has done a great job, but they are not ready to replace Cable, Satellite or the Telcos.

I don't think there is anyone paying carriage for infomercials. The infomercial producers are paying to be carried as are the home shopping nets.

 

[topcat5]

I find that I am watching less and less cable programming mainly because it is being dumbed down so much it doesn't interest me now. i.e. No history on history channel, no SciFi on SyFry, BBC is showing Star Trek, etc etc. And since I have to buy a package of 100s of channels to get the few that I do like, I am thinking of dropping Dish all together, getting a good antenna, and some sort of internet connected DVR to purchase programs al la carte. I realize it might have issues, but I have a big internet pipe and for the 100+ dollars I'm paying Dish/month for not much watchable content, IMO, I can buy a lot of alternative programs.

I've got 6 months left on my current contract with Dish. So still some time to think about it. I do think they are shooting themselves in the foot by not offering more options to purchase programming and they risk going the way of land line telephones in a few years.

 

[patsfan72]

IMHO netflix streaming is pretty worthless,the movies that are allowed to be streamed are the movies that no one wants to watch.If they ever start streaming new releases then we would have something.

 

[Blackloz]

I sure hope not. I can't stand any type of streaming video. I always want the physical media(BD). As far as renting movies in the mail. The only movies I want to receive in the mail are the ones I buy from amazon.

 

[Coach Knight]

Netflix streaming has actually been very good quality for me. This may not apply to everyone but I have no complaints. And they have tons of movies and TV shows (granted, not the newest releases) on streaming that I have never seen...and of course, lots more I have no desire to see.

Dollar for dollar...my opinion is that Netflix is the absolute best deal anywhere for your entertainment dollars. Having said that, I'd never drop Dish for just OTA and Netflix. However, I do understand those who do.

I personally will never pay for a premium movie channel at such a high per-channel rate when I can watch nearly any movie I want anytime I want for cheaper on Netflix (streaming or DVD).

 

[Remote1]

I have netflix but my satellite internet bandwidth sucks so streaming does not work for me. Has anyone checked out www dot XstreamHD dot com ? It is a satellite service that provides full 1080P downloads. There are some startup cost like satellite service in the early days and $10 bucks a month for the service. It might be an option for guys like me that live in BFE.

 

[8bitbytes]

This is my last month of Dish.

I have A Dell 580s with a Core i3, 4GB RAM, an ATI HD4650, an AVERTV HD Dual tuner card for OTA and WIndows 7 Ultimate 64bit with Media Center.

It's slim so it fits on the shelf my 622 was on and I have been recording OTA, watching Netflix and Amazon VOD, as well as Hulu and TV channel websites. Netflix is adding more streaming content every week. I have it connected to my home desktop with my 200 plus cds ripped on it and gigs of digital photos and videos by pointing the media libraries in Media Center to network shares on my main desktop and that works quite well.

For us, we get more than enough tv and can enjoy all our other media as well.

I have the s-video port jacked into my 32" CRT and the HDMI out to my Home Theater projector with 8 foot screen and surround sound system.

Last month and it feels good!

 

[iliketj]

Netflix streaming sucks for my needs, I actually prefer redbox over netflix (most of the dvds i get from netflix are scratched and don't play well). Also the turnaround time for netflix sucks if i return too many dvds at a time there seems to be a deliberate lag. lastly, I enjoy channel surfing and need live tv

 

[ediemash]

netflix streams good over the roku hd boxes, ive had it for almost 3 yrs since roku first came out and now you have all these new channels on the roku like you tube, archive, pandora is a great addition,so is sunimi. they have some news.radio time for RADIO STATIONs all over the us is nice, nasa. sunimi has alot of old cartoons , tv shows,and old movies. and then you got ufc,nba,etc

starting to get a nice collection. if they could start getting real channels fox news channel. cable and dish would be history.

netflix streams pretty good over wireless connection. i know of several people who are sick n tired of the high cost of cable and dish, and dropped em and pick up the netflix/roku combo. with that they dont have to worry about commercials, and most kids forget about cable once they get hooked on netflix

 

[oboewan]

The only reason I'm with E* right now is because the one cable company in our area will only offer analog service to us. No digital service, no broadband. And we can't get DSL. We've looked into a WISP but no go (no line of sight, too many trees). So we're with WildBlue. Anyone who seriously believes that streaming is a valid option in our situation is delusional.

 

[Ghpr13]

...now you have all these new channels on the roku like you tube, archive, pandora is a great addition,so is sunimi. they have some news.radio time for RADIO STATIONs all over the us is nice, nasa. sunimi has alot of old cartoons , tv shows,and old movies. and then you got ufc,nba,etc...

Are all of these in HD with the HD Roku box?
Thanks,
Ghpr13