How do you consume network TV?

We do HuluPlus for most of our network shows. We don't watch anything on CBS, so no big loss there. For NFL and MLB games, we use our antenna--comes in in HD with no compression--a lot better than I could say for Comcast HD. Sometimes if we're just dying to see something on a network, we watch the "live" broadcast on the antenna.

I was absolutely ECSTATIC to see the HuluPlus update on Apple TV the other day, because now we no longer have to mirror HuluPlus to the TV.

rlu929s said:

How is the quality on HuluPlus vs something like the ABC or CW app on the iPad?

Sounds like both have commercials you can't skip.

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HuluPlus has commercials you can't skip, but they are often VERY short and then get you right back in to the show. It's no 2 to 2 1/2 minute commercial break like you get on regular TV. Someday it may get that way, but I think HuluPlus is fine for now. I have found the shows themselves to be very good HD quality. I am using an Airport Extreme router and have a 20 Mbps connection from Comcast, so that helps.

As someone newish to Apple TV (we've only had ours for about a month) and coming from a couple years of Roku ownership, I have found AirPlay and cloud access to be the killer apps for Apple TV. That being said, I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with video apps that don't support AirPlay (such as NBC). You can do mirroring to the Apple TV, but only from certain devices like the two most current iPads, the iPhone 4S, and certain Macs that have Mountain Lion. I would rather have AirPlay integration into the app itself so that if my wife wants to watch something from her iPod Touch, she can.

Fortunately, almost everything we want to watch can be played on HuluPlus, Netflix, iTunes, or AirPlayed from an iOS device. We supplement that by watching sports and local news on the antenna. Even when you add in the cost of what I pay for iTunes to subscribe to shows I can't stream (like Breaking Bad, Dr. Who, etc.) we save hundreds of dollars a year by not having cable.

I have not had cable in three years now and I could not be happier. I had Netflix since they started, only to cancel them a few months back. I signed up for HULU+ as my only content source. I purchased one of those Antenna's Direct HD antenna for $50 for local OTA signals, which pick up 36 stations all in HD. My wife and I are very happy with the set-up.

rlu929s said:

How is the quality on HuluPlus vs something like the ABC or CW app on the iPad?

Sounds like both have commercials you can't skip.

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Yo get commercials with HULU+, but who cares. $8 per month is a sweet deal for what they offer. The quality is better using Hulu on the AppleTV due to the HDMI cable hooked directly to an HD TV. With a rock solid internet connection, the picture and sound are very good.

I capture all the network content via OTA antenna, to a TiVo DVR that I've upgraded to 2TB. I couldn't be happier with this.

Even if you pay TiVo a monthly fee it's worth it. Personally, mine's old enough (Series 3) that it has lifetime service on it.

bbc iplayer - the best
itv player
4 on demand
5 demand

tvcatchup.co.uk for everything else

its been years since we actually watched TV off the net.

R

rlu929s said:

I agree 100%. I also agree on the apps not supporting airplay. Mirroring works, but it doesn't fill the entire TV screen.

I will look into Hulu Plus and might cancel my Netflix Sub in place of HuluPlus.

I have to really hunt to find things to watch on Netflix.

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I canceled Netflix because their UI sucked balls. Really!! The content for streaming was horrible, the UI for most streaming content on a Netflix connected device was horrible. They took away the search option in the UI on the connected device. They took away the "add to DVD queue" from the UI. I hated to go upstairs to my PC, log into Netflix, brouse the same UI that was on my connected device, look through the same listings every day, Surf the net for Netflix fan sites for suggestions on what to rent or stream, go back to Netflix so I can search for the suggestion only to find out that it was "availability Unknown", just to watch something. Did I mention the lack of content? Netflix has slowly been loosing content for years now compared to what they had back in the day. Maybe some day when they figure out what hole they want to pull their head out of, I will sign up with them.

I am trying to completely cut out cable. I have just purchased a apple TV and I will be purchasing an iMac soon. What's the best way to cut cable at a low cost. I currently pay 50$/month in Canada.

Hulu is US only AFAIK
Netflix has a poor selection
Season pass would be more expensive
Network Channel Airplay apps works great but I am still missing out on some of my favourite shows
Airplay also has commercials and takes a toll on the iPad's battery life.

AppleDApp said:

I am trying to completely cut out cable. I have just purchased a apple TV and I will be purchasing an iMac soon. What's the best way to cut cable at a low cost. I currently pay 50$/month in Canada.

Hulu is US only AFAIK
Netflix has a poor selection
Season pass would be more expensive
Network Channel Airplay apps works great but I am still missing out on some of my favourite shows
Airplay also has commercials and takes a toll on the iPad's battery life.

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Since you are in Canada, I would stick with the cable.

1. you cannot use HULU+
2. Most ISP's severly cap your internet up North
3. Sorry. Stick with the cable.

I have heard that some ISP's up North have enabled a cap of 25gb of data per month. OUCH!!! If that is true, you might as well stick with cable TV.

I use only the AppleTV with iTunes & Netflix. I tried Hulu Plus and didn't care for it. I'm too spoiled with Netflix not having commercials and I loathed even the 1 or 2 commercials on Hulu.

Overall I live very easily without network TV (no OTA) and have more than enough content between Netflix and iTunes to satisfy my TV watching desires.

I cut the TV cord a couple of years ago and haven't looked back.

I was using a combination of Roku and AppleTV for HuluPlus, Netflix and a few iTunes season passes.

This past winter I tried to cut Hulu Plus off by picking up an Elgato EyeTV/HDHomerun package. It works extremely well - records on dual tuners from OTA or the basic cable that comes with your internet only connection. I record shows with a scheduler and EyeTV dumps them into iTunes for viewing on my AppleTVs once they're encoded. I use a couple of different programs for MetaData tagging - I kinda like "iflicks" right now.

I was happy to see HuluPlus as an option on the AppleTV - if we need to go back to it for some reason I would be okay with it. I prefer my current setup - No commercials at all and the price is reasonable.

Now that MLB and Netflix are on my AppleTV boxes (I use 3) I rarely turn the Rokus on anymore.

rlu929s said:

How do you consume network TV?

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Tivo but it sounds like your needs/wants are entirely different than my own.

For all of you saying you cancelled Netflix--I totally see why. I do think their streaming options have been lacking, however, it has been getting better again. I feel like it was bad at the beginning, got better, got way worse again, and now it's back on the upswing. They're getting some newer movies again and adding some good shows. But I've found that Netflix is great for old seasons. Hulu seems to kill the old season availability a LOT faster than Netflix does. A lot of times, you only have a short window on Hulu to catch up, and then it's back to just the current season.

I don't go to Netflix for movies generally--they are mostly garbage. But we've found that cancelling our disc by mail portion of Netflix to be a good move. A lot of times we would get a bluray in the mail and it would sit for 2 months before we got a chance to watch it. Now we just rent the new movies on iTunes. No 30 day waiting period for the new ones, and no disc to mail back. Also, lower monthly cost.

Looking forward to downloading torrents of my shows and then AirPlay mirroring my MBA to the tv. There are torrent clients that will auto download shows as they become available.

JoeBlow74 said:

Since you are in Canada, I would stick with the cable.

1. you cannot use HULU+
2. Most ISP's severly cap your internet up North
3. Sorry. Stick with the cable.

I have heard that some ISP's up North have enabled a cap of 25gb of data per month. OUCH!!! If that is true, you might as well stick with cable TV.

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That's not my case. I pay for 300gb a month and 12mbps up/0.5mbps down. Often times I get 20+mbps down.

Most ISP offer plans between 15gb-250 gb a month.

mellofello said:

Looking forward to downloading torrents of my shows and then AirPlay mirroring my MBA to the tv. There are torrent clients that will auto download shows as they become available.

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I'm thinking of doing the same thing. What's your plan for when you run out of space on your MBA? Delete the episodes or load them elsewhere?

mellofello said:

Looking forward to downloading torrents of my shows and then AirPlay mirroring my MBA to the tv. There are torrent clients that will auto download shows as they become available.

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Why not just add the shows to iTunes and watch them from your ATV? Well, I guess if you only plan to watch them once then you don't need to go through the trouble of encoding and tagging. Makes sense now that I think about it.

WesCole said:

Why not just add the shows to iTunes and watch them from your ATV? Well, I guess if you only plan to watch them once then you don't need to go through the trouble of encoding and tagging. Makes sense now that I think about it.

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it get's expensive.

AppleDApp said:

it get's expensive.

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I was talking about adding the torrents to iTunes, not buying them through iTunes.

WesCole said:

I was talking about adding the torrents to iTunes, not buying them through iTunes.

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In that case video formats are limited in iTunes VLC and Plex offer much better support for various file types.

AppleDApp said:

In that case video formats are limited in iTunes VLC and Plex offer much better support for various file types.

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And that's why I said it wouldn't be worth the hassle of encoding the video if you only plan to watch it once.

WesCole said:

And that's why I said it wouldn't be worth the hassle of encoding the video if you only plan to watch it once.

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And now I crawl back to where I came from