Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden
I also have a 1st generation Fire Stick, but it is total garbage. The stupid thing will not allow HDMI control access to my TV/entertainment system after control is given to the Stick. In other words, once I change the input to the TV to be the Stick, it keeps control and refuses to allow the TV to change inputs. So every time I used the Stick, I had to get up and physically unplug it from its HDMI input port to regain control of my TV. PITA, and that little Stick went back into its box to collect dust. I got it during the initial offering for $20 I think, so I kept it hoping a FW update would fix it. I haven't tried it in a year or two, but the last time I used it it was still being a PITA. The FireTV box works very well though. I really like it.
The main issue with FireTV, AppleTV, or any other streaming device and/or service is the availability of material one wants to watch. For a lot of people, they seem to find happiness in services like Netflix, Hulu, Acorn, etc. There are a boat load of these services today. But for me, they don't come close to providing the programming I enjoy to watch, nor the channels I like to watch. They all have a lot of gotchas. I've tried many/most of them over the years, and they are always disappointing to me. Netflix never seems to be able to stream the movies/shows I want, but for another monthly fee they will gladly mail me a DVD. Arrgh! Same with with Hulu and the rest--they rarely have much content I care to watch. I already have Amazon Prime, so I get their video streaming for free. Otherwise I wouldn't pay for it as they have little interesting content. The problem with these services is they seem good for the first week or month, but soon you run out of decent programming and they become a boat anchor to your pocket book. And by the time I pay for high speed internet service along with three or four streaming services, I'm up to nearly the same I amount I pay for cable, but I won't have many of my favorite channels nor will I have DVR ability. Like I said, this works for some people, but I've never been able to make it work for me. Sadly I still have to be stuck with my cable.
In a perfect world we would be able to purchase any single channel we wanted for delivery via streaming or cable or satellite, and pay a small monthly fee. Then we could build our dream stream system with just the few channels we wanted rather than paying for 5 channels just to get 1 we want. But we all know that perfect world will never exist. Big cable/satellite/streaming will never go along with that as they would not be able to sell most of their garbage channels without packaging. And the owners of the channels will never agree to sell the rights to cable/satellite/streaming without getting a huge profit. And Congress will never correct their attitudes because of the powerful lobbyists. To make it work would require a huge amount of regulation and price control, and that will never happen.
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In a perfect world every Tom Harry Dick would not have their own show.
If you don't like streaming/cable/satellite, you can always buy a cheap antenna and watch broadcast TV. Or have you looked on you tube. They have pretty good videos sometime.
Oh and by the way, DISH changed up their programming packages where I do pay for the channels I watch and not for the ones I didn't.
I have no premium channels,and cutting out the kid tv and the science channel dropped my bill by $50.
I don't count my internet bill as part of my TV service since I use the Internet for so much more than streaming. Yes, they are separate.