Prior to our TV upgrade I experimented a bit with video streaming. The first show I ever streamed was an episode of "Dancing with the Stars" during the era when my Tivo was having a communication problem with the cable box. I was able to watch an episode I missed for free the next day on my laptop computer through the abc.com website. Streaming to my laptop worked fine but who really likes to watch a TV show or movie on their computer other than college students in their dorm rooms? I prefer a larger screen with better sound while sitting on my comfortable sofa.
More recently I streamed free episodes of "Bunheads" on my iPad using the ABC Family app. Episodes were only available for a limited time so I had to watch them before they expired. I was the only one watching the show so the small screen size was acceptable but it would have been better if I could have watched the show on a big TV screen.
Armed with the streaming capabilities of our HD Tivo and our new widescreen HDTV I set out to catch up on "Downton Abbey". I had already I rented the DVDs for Season 1 with my DVD-only Netflix subscription. At the time Netflix did not offer "Downton Abbey" on their streaming plan. However, my husband is an Amazon Prime member ($79.99 per year, which includes free 2-day shipping on all Amazon orders), which entitles him to unlimited instant videos. The good news was Season 2 was available for free on Amazon Prime. The bad news was I couldn't watch it on my new HDTV because my HD Tivo could only stream Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and Hulu Plus but not Amazon Prime. I gave in and downloaded the Amazon Instant Video app, which includes Amazon Prime access, on my iPad so I could start watching Season 2. Since we bought the new TV with the intention of streaming video to a widescreen we decided to sign up for a free trial of Hulu Plus ($7.99 per month), which did offer Season 2 of "Downton Abbey". Finally, after many starts and stops, I finished watching Season 2 by streaming it on my new TV. When I was ready to watch Season 3 of "Downton Abbey" I found out neither Netflix nor Hulu Plus offer it as part of their streaming service. Amazon Prime does have Season 3 but even Prime members have to pay $1.99 per episode and I'd have to watch it on my iPad. That's when my husband bought a Roku 3 box ($99) so we could stream Amazon Prime on the new TV. I'm still holding out for PBS to re-broadcast Season 3 so I can record it on my Tivo.
Navigating streaming media services is quite a challenge. We already pay a lot for cable TV so my first instinct is that I don't want to pay extra for streaming. But that limits me to TV shows available for free on the internet and whatever TV shows or movies Tivo can find on broadcast TV. If you're willing to pay for streaming service your options are much greater. Streaming is definitely worth investigating, especially if you are considering giving up cable service altogether. One problem is the content provided by various services changes over time as companies gain or lose rights to content. Another problem is trying to figure out which service best meets your needs based on cost and content. Yet another problem is that not all streaming services are compatible with all electronic devices (TV, iPad, Xbox, etc.). In the end you might need to subscribe to multiple services or invest in additional devices (Roku or Apple TV) to have the most options.
Currently the most popular streaming media services are Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Prime Instant Video, Netflix, and Hulu Plus. With Amazon Instant Video, iTunes and Vudu you pay per show/movie you want. Amazon Prime Instant Video charges an annual subscription for for unlimited content. Netflix and Hulu Plus charge a monthly subscription fee. Despite the subscription fee, Hulu Plus forces you to watch commercials during the video. While most services work with a wide variety of devices, iTunes streaming only works on Apple devices. Pay-per-content services tend to have the best selection, especially for recent movies, but they tend to be more expensive. Subscription services are more reasonably priced as long as you don't mind waiting a little longer to see the latest releases.
John's streaming test cases
To test the availability of content on the various streaming services, we decided to search for several movies and TV shows John wants to watch. We limited our search to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video and Amazon Prime, which we could stream to our TV, and iTunes, which we could stream on my iPad. We discovered it's not necessarily easy to search the various service providers for specific content. John decided the Roku user interface was slightly faster than the Tivo user interface. In both cases you had to use the up, down and sideways buttons to enter your search term on the TV screen and there was a significant time lag with Tivo. Searching in this manner was a tedious task. We found it was much faster to search the streaming service websites (netflix.com, hulu.com, amazon.com) or apps (iTunes) on my laptop computer or iPad. The biggest obstacle we came across is you can only search Netflix streaming content if you have a subscription to the streaming service (although a Netflix customer service rep I spoke to suggested trying instantwatcher.com). In the end I changed my Netflix account from a 3 DVD plan to a streaming plus 2 DVD plan. All of the other streaming services allow you to search content without a subscription. Well into our search I found the website canistream.it, which allows you to search for a specific title and reports the format availability.
Here are the results of our less than scientific survey:
Movies
1) Star Wars Episode 1
- Netflix: DVD only
- Hulu Plus: not available
- Amazon: not available
- iTunes: not available
2) Iron Man 2
- Netflix: DVD only
- Hulu Plus: not available
- Amazon: $2.99 to rent instant video (which can be streamed or downloaded) on Amazon, even with a Prime membership
- iTunes: $19.99 to buy high definition version and $14.99 to buy standard definition version
3) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Netflix: DVD only
- Hulu Plus: not available
- Amazon: $1.99 to rent instant video (which can be streamed or downloaded) on Amazon, even with a Prime membership
- iTunes: $14.99 to buy or $3.99 to rent the HD version and $9.99 to buy or $2.99 to rent the SD version
TV shows
1) Star Trek Original Series
- Netflix: streaming and DVD
- Hulu Plus: streaming
- Amazon: free streaming on Amazon Prime
- iTunes: $2.99 per episode for the HD version (or $34.99 for whole season), $1.99 per episode for the SD version (or $24.99 for whole season)
2) The Andy Griffith Show
- Netflix: streaming and DVD
- Hulu Plus: not available, but they direct you to tvland.com where you can view 5 episodes for free
- Amazon: free streaming on Amazon Prime
- iTunes: not available
3) The Brady Bunch
- Netflix: DVD only
- Hulu Plus: not available, but they direct you to cbs.com where you can view all episodes for free
- Amazon: not available
- iTunes: not available
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