We have YouTubeTV, Netflix and a Disney/Hulu/ESPN package. My wife watches TV daily, while I only watch occasionally. Our total monthly spend is less than what I used to spend on DirecTv (IIRC they charged per TV hookup).
No dish or receiver required. Just a Roku and an internet connection. My only complaint is I wish they had more 4K content.
digital rights management ... my sony receiver refused to play copies of movies i legally purchased. stick the original media in or no go. my movie library is on my local Mycloud server. way more convenient than digging up vhs, cds, dvds. also, accessible from any room anytime upon request. i don't wanna go back to the bad ole days of analog. not a fan of the space, care or clutter.
I just want one app to rule them all. Hate having to open 6 different apps to find a show. I pretty much just scan the apps on my phone instead of the TV.
the roku stick is good at finding movies or shows across multiple streaming apps installed on the stick if you know what you are looking for. i haven't seen another as comprehensive a search like it that can get you where you need to go quickly from the search results. i'm fairly new to roku but i assume this is why many like it and it makes for a clean home app experience. I don't mind starting from the home base of roku and i love how it's just the receiver and the TV cutting out the other boxes (the heat generators...xbox one and directv dvr).
The Roku search is amazing. I can find the most random movies on the most random apps. Even if you don't have the app, you just click on it and it downloads and starts your movie.
No cords in my house. I share DirecTV streaming with a friend, and we split the bill 50/50. DirecTV doesn't seem to care...yet so we'll see how long we get away with it. Paying $60 for my share of the package that includes Space City Sports. I share a Netflix account with my parents. While Netflix did stop account sharing, they have a ~$30 plan that you can share and that saves a few bucks. My wife has a Firestick from Mexico that gives us just about any popular series or movie on demand.
You should be getting ESPN+ free through FUBO. I have FUBO, Netfilx (free through T-Mobile), Apple, Peacock (free from something else I have) and the Disney/HBO/Hulu package. Have a lot but don't pay for all of them. I stick with FUBO for Space City HN and the many futbol games that are always available. Was $59/month when I started and now paying nearly twice that. Yes, they've added a ton of channels but most of them are nonsense.
Roku search doesn’t find everything I noticed. I’ve come up empty searching for certain titles. Kind of lame.
Went back and forth between Sling TV and Fubo for a few years. When the Rockets were terrible I would cancel Fubo for half the year and go to Sling since it was cheaper. Recently switched to DirecTV Stream, since the last time I had Fubo they had cut out HGTV and a few other channels that my wife especially likes. No idea if it's back now or not, but DirecTV has them and at about the same price point (with SCHN). I'm happy with it overall, my only nitpick is that it seems just a little slower to respond to navigate through the guide/menus than the others. I can't stand any of the "non-sanctioned" ways of watching sports or premium stations (jailbroken firestick, Kodi, whatever everyone is using these days). Have tried in the past and someone in my family does this. I need to be able to turn the TV on and have the game on within 30 seconds, not navigating a bunch of foreign apps to find it and hoping they work.
Here's what I hate, and curious if anyone has a solution. I have YoutubeTV. Youtube TV no longer has NBA league pass, which I need to watch the Rockets because I am out of market, so I purchased League pass through amazon prime, i actually love the interface and the quality is great, but here's my problem... I can't flip back to a football game or something on Youtube TV! It's a whole ordeal to back out and get back in. Is there any systems that address this? I have a Samsung TV if that's relevant.
