Gadgetory

so I've never paid for cable but I'm still able to watch everything that I wanted a bunch of TV shows movies for watching West world on HBO right now you probably already know this because even enough money by streaming everything you want instead of paying for cable and I'm not talking about pirating things either guarding the streaming route to be a lot more selective about what you get and what you don't and that can save you a bunch of money average capable is over $100 a month but there are some decisions to make especially if you get a lot of channels it's not as easy just calling up Comcast and Verizon and ask them to turn your service but are you thinking about going to streaming route you'll find that you don't have to miss out on a lot and you can save a lot of money okay so first we need to talk about hardware but before you even get to streaming one thing you should know is that you can still get a number of channels for free using a digital antenna seriously it's legal and it's like 20 bucks but this is old-school TV it's in order with ads there's no DVR no on-demand so that's really helpful because it's free and always available but it's not going to be as convenient as streaming all right so what do you need to stream you already know how to do it on your phone or your computer but the real goal is to get these shows on your TV and if you already have a smart TV then you're basically set if you have something that can play Netflix or Hulu or has an app store that lets you download those apps then you're good to go and if your Smart TV is really confusing then don't worry about it everybody who doesn't have a Smart TV like myself you're just gonna have to buy a streaming box and that box will probably have a better easier interface I've got a Samsung TV from 2012 with absolutely no smart features and so to get streaming I have two boxes hooked up to it I have an Apple TV and a chromecast you don't need both I'm just a nerd the chromecast is super cheap it's like 35 dollars but it doesn't have an interface seriously you turn it on and there's just nothing you control it all through your phone so it's a little confusing and I really wouldn't recommend it for most people my favorite is the Apple TV I don't even have the lowest one my models from 2012 and it still works fine if you have a 4k TV though make sure you get the newest model and if you're not a big Apple fan Roku also make some really nice streaming boxes all these devices will let you stream whatever service you want you'll just have to look for it you'll usually have to browse app by app to see what's available which can be a little slow and frustrating if you're used to live channel surfing but I definitely prefer it it's certainly quieter and that's pretty much it the next step is to pick which services you want to pay for but before we get into that let's talk for a second about why streaming services are so complicated because they were supposed to be a dream or you pay for just what you wanted and nothing you did it and it's really not that at all sure you can subscribe to Netflix and Hulu on their own but that's just like HBO and stars they're basically premium cable channels that stand on their own and yeah you can rent anything you want from iTunes but it's basically just a modern DVD store if you actually want to stream traditional live TV then you're still going to be stuck with a bundle why is that the problem is TV is expensive and TV networks know they can make more money by selling channels together so Viacom might require your cable provider to offer MTV BT and vh1 together even if it just wants MTV do that over and over and over again and suddenly throughout the 200-some Channel cable package you have today streaming TV isn't that bad it still has bundles but streaming services know that consumers are looking for smaller packages and so they don't get too out of hand but it gets tricky when you bring in sports sports are really popular and really expensive and rights for them usually end up spread across a bunch of different networks that means streaming services have to go out of their way to get certain games and you'll have to go out of your way to make sure you pick the services that have what you want all right so what services you actually subscribe to what's too much and what's too little right now I'm subscribed to Amazon Hulu and HBO and I'm mooching off of someone's Netflix account between those I have access to most of the TV shows people are talking about and some huge back catalogs to watch I actually don't think any one service is amazing for movies so I like to rent them off of iTunes they're like three to five bucks apiece and just doing that once a week is still gonna be cheaper than subscribing to another service okay so that works for me but what about you what if you're watching a ton of TV shows on a bunch of different channels are you still gonna be able to go to the streaming route and save money the answer is probably as long as you're watching stuff on major networks Hulu is a live TV service with 50 some channels for $40 a month slink TV offers even smaller packages one starts at $20 and comes with a bunch of major channels you might not be missing out on a lot including AMC ESPN and CNN AT&T says it's gonna start an even cheaper service at $15 a month being able to choose from smaller plans is a really great opportunity to figure out which channels you actually need and pare down on the ones that you don't all of these streaming services are available on the streaming boxes I was talking about earlier they're gonna be more expensive than just paying for Netflix or Hulu but the point is that you don't have to limit yourself to just these newer streaming services you can still get old-fashioned TV and you can do that while spending less than you would on cable okay but the big question is sports and yeah with streaming services that can get complicated it's gonna pen down what sports you care about which teams you're following and where you live if you're fine with just watching some primetime and playoff games then any streaming service that just provides the major broadcast networks than ESPN probably get the job done most sports leagues offer their own streaming services so if you're really serious about catching everything you should check those out but just keep in mind they're pretty expensive and they have a lot of restrictions on them like game blackout so be sure to read up on that before you sign up and keep in mind if you get a digital antenna like I mentioned earlier you'll probably have the network that's broadcasting your local team that covers TV movies sports and the streaming boxes to watch it all on there might be a little bit of a learning curve at first but it's really not that hard and in the long run you're gonna be saving money you won't miss out on any of the season's biggest shows hey thanks for watching this is part of a new series workflow let us know what you thought in the comments and be sure to check out our new channel verge science