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Online Video Sources?

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Felasco

Guest
Original poster
Oct 19, 2012
372
2
Hi all,

I hope this is posted in the right section.

My wife and I are fed up with Cable TV, and hoping to make the move to Internet entertainment. Hooking a laptop up to new TV now.

I was wondering if it would interest you to suggest net sites and services that provide video that can serve as an alternative to Cable TV.

I know YouTube and Vimeo, after that I'm clueless. Any suggestion you might make will probably be educational here.

Many thanks!
 
F

Felasco

Guest
Original poster
Oct 19, 2012
372
2
Many thanks for these suggestions. I've been checking them out, and it looks like they will help.

Maybe we could expand the scope of the investigation. Let's say you just killed your cable TV account, and you don't really care for old TV shows and movies.

You're sitting on the couch after dinner, with your laptop hooked up to the Net and your new 30 inch TV.

Now what?
 
T

testerdennis

macrumors member
Aug 7, 2011
97
0
PhilTanny said:
Many thanks for these suggestions. I've been checking them out, and it looks like they will help.

Maybe we could expand the scope of the investigation. Let's say you just killed your cable TV account, and you don't really care for old TV shows and movies.

You're sitting on the couch after dinner, with your laptop hooked up to the Net and your new 30 inch TV.

Now what?
Click to expand...

Go to abc.com, nbc.com, cbs.com, etc... pretty much all tv stations have full length episodes online.
 
M

Mak47

macrumors 6502a
Mar 27, 2011
751
32
Harrisburg, PA
It's often overlooked, but in general, it's still far less expensive than cable to just buy the shows you like on iTunes. Most titles offer season passes that give you the latest episodes the day after they air on broadcast/cable.

Figure it this way, in addition to the content from Netflix/Hulu, maybe you follow 10 shows a year. At an average price of $35 per season on iTunes, that's $350 per year. You're getting just the shows you like, no commercials, 1080P, and you get to keep them forever. If you're ok with standard definition content, they'll be even cheaper.

For most broadcast shows, Hulu+ offers episodes the day after they air at a subscription rate of $7.99/month. Bear in mind that these are just the major broadcast networks, not cables channels like FX or AMC.

The other smart investment for you is Apple TV. You can run Netflix and Hulu+ from it, plus access all of your iTunes content either from your Mac or from iCloud. You can also (assuming you're up to date on hardware & software) use Airplay to mirror your MBP's display right on the TV wirelessly. This way you can watch other content like live news streams or other web based content quickly and easily. It also works from iPhones & iPads.
 
F

Felasco

Guest
Original poster
Oct 19, 2012
372
2
Many thanks for the iTunes idea, hadn't thought of that. I'm behind the times, and have only bought music from the Apple store.

Just got the TV connected to net last night, so it shall be fun moving past the research stage.

Thanks again!
 
S

slothrob

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2007
443
0
PhilTanny said:
Let's say you just killed your cable TV account, and you don't really care for old TV shows and movies.

Now what?
Click to expand...
How do you define old? 20's, 30's, 60's, 90's, 00's?

By some measure aren't they all old unless they're being shown for the first time? If you haven't seen them yet, aren't they new to you?
 
F

Felasco

Guest
Original poster
Oct 19, 2012
372
2
Sorry, my bad, what I really meant to say is that the vast majority of all TV shows and movies don't interest me too much. Thus, I'm questioning whether net access to that programming will really change things for me.

To argue the other side, if using the net allows me to zero in on those few TV/movies I do like, and play them at times of my choosing, and thus actually watch them, then maybe it will be a winner.

As example, my favorite TV show is Charlie Rose, but it runs at midnite here, so I usually miss it. If the net solves that problem, I'll be on the right track.

I'm especially interested in how my relationship with YouTube and Vimeo might change. Typically I don't make a lot of time for exploring those sites when on the computer, but once I plunk down on the couch in front of the TV I've got a different mindset.

I'm wondering how many niche video sites I'm missing. As example, there's Bird Cinema, a YouTube like site with nothing but zillions of bird videos. Ideally, I hope to find more niche video sites like this over time.
 
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