Cutting cable-which streaming media player?

[happyhomemaker]

DH have considered cutting cable, but are really going to do it when our cable promo is over and the price sky rockets. We live in a rural area so even with an antenna I don't think we will even pick up local channels. That being the case we would should be able to watch most of what we want on hulu plus and netflix. Sadly I have a few shows that I don't think are available on either (elementary, Big Bang theory, devious maids, american idol, say yes to the dress, four weddings and love it or list it). CBS has an app where we can watch elementary and TBBT, but I would like to be able to watch it on our tv I think we could do that with Apple TV). DH has an xbox but we have two tvs and would like something for the second tv (we have wifi). Anyway, we are not sure which streaming media player to get (Amazon Fire, Apple TV, roku). Right now I am leaning toward Apple TV so use can watch the CbS shows we like on our tv.  What do you have if you have a media player? What do you recommend?

[kath16]

We have Hulu+ through my husband's old Wii, but I want to get Apple TV for Christmas. If you have an iPad already, you can tons of stuff that way. For us, it is important to have a way to watch sports, so we're currently using just our iPad for that. An Apple TV is in our near future.

You might be surprised by what you can pick up with an antennae. We have a cheap one (another thing I want to upgrade for Xmas) and we get channels I've never even heard of.

Cable bills were always the WORST to pay. We don't watch a ton of TV, but I don't miss cable at ALL.

[nomad100]

We use Chromecast for our TV that doesn't have built in WiFi. I pull up whatever I need on the laptop and "throw it" up onto the TV. It is great for shows that are only on the internet websites (like PBS or History Channel, for example). And the $35 price was hard to beat.

We have Hulu+, Amazon streaming and Netflix and haven't missed cable at all.

Though we did have to upgrade our wifi in the house because the signal went to crap when we were trying to stream to more than once device.

[dr.girlfriend]

I love Roku. I haven't tried many other systems, but the Roku is super-compact, easy to use, and has some great features in the newest model (e.g., automatic subtitling when you take it back a few seconds, ability to plug earphones into the remote to listen without bothering other people in the room, etc.).  My sister had some system where she streamed from her iPad (AppleTV or Chromecast maybe?) and I found that to be way clunkier.

[hausfrau]

We were in-between on the AppleTV and Roku and ended up getting a Roku. We had a Chromecast someone gave us for Christmas that we also used for a little bit. The Roku gave us better streaming-from-the-computer options, a wider variety of apps, and there's an actual remote rather than having to use our phone or laptop.

So far, the Roku has been great. The only thing it doesn't replace for us is sports. We've still been paying for just our local cable channels so we can watch those, but we've been thinking of just giving up and going to a local bar to watch games if we really want to.

[orangeblossom]

We have a Roku 3 and a Roku streaming stick. We love it. We have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. We already had Amazon Prime. I like each for different things, but probably use Hulu the most. Amazon second and Netflix last.

There are some times I miss cable, but for the most part it's okay. I like being able to watch shows whenever I want to. It'd be nice to be able to get the few CBS shows we watch, but it's okay that we don't.

www.cnet.com/news/chromecast-vs-apple-tv-vs-roku-3-which-media-streamer-should-you-buy/

www.cnet.com/news/which-roku-streamer-should-you-buy/

www.cnet.com/videos/amazon-fire-tv-vs-roku-3/

[cjeanette]

We have used a Sony Media Player or our Xbox for the TV set. Both worked fine.

Now I mainly just use my kindle

[emoflamingo]

My husband thought about getting a Roku, but we already had a PS3 we use to play stuff off our external network storage through our smart TV in the living room (we can play Netflix and AmazonPrime through it as well).

Our bedroom TV is older so we have a chromecast for that and I really like it. We've had it for about a month and I generally don't use it to cast myself (I make H do it because I'm lazy and I just want to keep my hands under the blankets) but it works well with Netflix.

[FoxInFiji]

I'd recommend a Roku 3 and a way to connect either a laptop or an iPad to your TV.

We just cut our satellite (we're out in the country) a couple months ago. We're planning to install an HD antenna in the attic for the local channels and hard wiring it to the TVs. We use an Xbox in one room and a Roku 2 in another but we're hoping to upgrade to a Roku 3 for Christmas since the remote will work through the wall (where we'd ultimately like to place it). We also have a small smart TV in the basement workout area but we primarily just use it for Netflix so we haven't needed anything else down there. The other TV upstairs is also a smart TV but it's super slow and clunky despite being a far better brand than the cheapo one downstairs. Go figure.

We also have a long HDMI cable and an iPad to HDMI convertor cable that we use all the time as well. We bought it so we could easily facetime with my sister who moved away. It is kind of pricey at $50 but we use it for nearly every family gathering and now for all of the online only shows we like to watch like the DIY Network so it's been well worth it.

[Velar Fricative]

Aside from Hulu etc., we are going to get bunny ears for our TV when we move to the new house and see how that goes. We're doing some research now but it looks like we'll have some success watching CBS shows and the like with this.

[Deleted]

We have a blu-ray player in the LR and a Roku in the BR, and stream from those. For streaming services we have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I get a pretty sweet deal on cable/internet because I work for my provider so I haven't canceled it yet.

[adhdfashion]

I have chrome cast and ps3. Both work great.

[bunnymendelbaum]

I'd try an antenna if I were you. We got a big one and get a million channels. Order it on amazon and then just return it if it doesn't work.

We have an appletv and our tv is internet-enabled. That is fine for us, but we don't use hulu because we don't watch that many network shows.

[happyhomemaker]

Thanks for the help. I decided to order the Apple TV. They have a good free return policy so if it turns out not to be for us no problem. I think we will like it. I am glad that so many of you have had success with an antenna. I think we will try that too. It can't hurt right?

[craftyone]

We use a HDMI cord to hook our laptop to the tv for one tv, a XBox 360 on another, and a sony blu-ray player that has a bunch of built in apps (netflix, youtub, amazon etc)

[kitty]

We have an AppleTV but before we got it we just used a long cord to plug in the laptop. I like how I can play a full episode on hgtv.com on my iphone and then send it to the TV without getting off my butt!

You can go to antennaweb.org and put in your address and it will tell you which channels you should be able to receive over the air and what type of antenna you would need to pull them in.

[happyhomemaker]

We decided on the Apple TV and love it! Thanks for all your help. We are officially cutting the cord at the end of the month!