Streaming alternatives to cable TV?

I've been looking at various streaming services and not really been finding what I want. With cable, to get the Science channel, I have to get "The Variety Package" For some reason (probably contract issues) I haven't seen Science on any of the streaming services. I haven't waded through all of them and was wondering what people have, are they satisfied, and do you know if they offer The Travel channel, Science channel and Destination. Those as well as the History channel seem to be the ones I watch most. Thanks.

P.S. I'd probably keep cable internet.

Playstation Vue will get you everything you want except History Channel: https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?111710-Streaming-alternatives-to-cable-TV I can save you some time on History Channel: Hitler didn't escape to Argentina, there's nothing on the bottom of the Money Pit on Oak Island, Todd is still going to try to kick some a$$ on Gold Rush, Amelia Earhart didn't survive the crash and wasn't taken prisoner by the Japanese, and the Zodiac Killer isn't going to be caught as a result of their latest show.

we got rid of cable a number of years ago.

We have Netflix and Chromecast and Plex.

Plex has a number of official apps - HGTV etc and a number of unofficial ones as well - the unofficial ones so far aren't illegal in that it is a streaming service not downloading. I have some issues with it because my computer is not really fast enough to stream - so I get a lot of buffering.

Most TV channels actually have online streaming of their shows. It looks like you can watch the Science Channel live online - I then cast it with Chromecast. (apple TV and ROKU I think do the same thing.)

I actually cast with my phone as it is quicker than the computer.

We have Dish Network and get all the channels we want. Must be over 300 channels, but we only watch about a half dozen of them. Trying to figure out how to dump all the garbage channels and just pay for what we watch. PJ

Paul - that's called Pick and Play, or A La Carte cable. You choose the channels you want, and only pay for those. John McCain sponsored a bill in Congress back in 2013 to allow that, but the bill was defeated in the House. You can actually do "Pick and Play" with streaming services, but it might be more expensive than the cable packages. Depends on what you choose.

Oh well.
Tom M.

I have a Vizio monitor it has no tuner bulit in
have it connected to internet wireless
the monitor has what they call smartcast
its quite a few apps Netflix amazon Ect.
It was a bunch of hdmi and USB ports all so if the channel i want is not on the list I can “cast it from a old iPad I have that acts as a remote
‘not having to record a program and watch it at will
is pretty cool
and 4k wow
what i found very cool is for old fart like me is that it’s so clear you really only need about half the size tv compared to 5 years ago
so now when I want to sit and watch the tube which when it’s crappy weather I can unlike with sat tv.

love it

So after trying a couple trial offers, I have settled on Playstation Vue for the time being. Thanks Rick for that. Bought a Roku Ultra since my router is right next to the TV and figured a wired connection will be faster than WIFI. The menu interface is a little different than I'm used to, so it'll take a while to wrap my brain around it and customize my feeds to my liking. So far no buffering, picture and sound quality is nice. Digital antennas suck in my area, who'da thought in the Los Angeles area. With cable internet (100Mb/s download) and Playstation subscription, I have chopped my monthly bill literally in half. Yea!

Greg - now you've got my attention! I've been looking for an alternative to cable packages (like Basic, Advantage, Super Duper, Ultra Platinum, Mega Atomic Hyper, etc.) for years. Always wanted to be able to pick and choose specific channels.

Can you point me to a list of what channels you can choose from with your Playstation Vue setup? I had no idea they offered a way to get only the channels you want.

Thanks.
Tom M.
PS - poor digital antenna service in LA? Wow - imagine digital antenna service in the non-flat parts of the country.

NutmegCT said:

Can you point me to a list of what channels you can choose from with your Playstation Vue setup? I had no idea they offered a way to get only the channels you want.

Click to expand...

Well, they still have packages, 4 tiers. Channel line-up shows the basic for Vue. You can use the Line-up menu at the top of that page to see what the other tiers have as well as other providers.

NutmegCT said:

PS - poor digital antenna service in LA? Wow - imagine digital antenna service in the non-flat parts of the country.

Click to expand...

I have a 2 story building just East of me which is probably blocking a lot of the signals. I'd have to put an outdoor antenna on top of that to get a better signal and there is no guarantee it would work. Vue gives me the local channels anyway so I wouldn't gain anything by doing that.

Thanks Greg. I checked that link and seems the "packages" are similar to most others.

Jeez - even my "basic" cable (Charter/Spectrum) has 125 stations - but only a few are actually worth watching. Very clever they are too, staggering shopping channels between the network channels. Great business model: even the basic package has 125 channels, so Charter gets part of the ad revenue for each of the 125 channels - even tho' few people watch them.

grumble grumble

Do any of you utilize over the air broadcast television?

Over the air is almost useless here. The "signal maps" I've tried all give similar results. One station at best, the others weak or non-existent. I tried a roof top antenna, and still got nothing.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

Sadly for me, the local cable company that I use is the only source for the local minor league baseball and hockey teams which I watch, and they also carry a lot of local high school and college sports which they originate. This company, Service Electric, was the nation's first cable TV company starting in Mahanoy City PA to show people who came to see TV's in their Service Electric appliance store what TV was all about. They put an antenna atop the local "mountain" and ran a cable down to the store. Soon they were finding that buyers of the TV's wanted to connect to their cable, and that is where it all started. I have been using their service since I bought my first home in 1977, and my parents had it before then. The founder used to buy me drinks each week when I arrived at the Village Inn restaurant's bar before Kiwanis meetings. Until I find another way to pick up these local events via another service, I will keep paying the high rates to get the programs I want. I also have Netflix and Acorn on various Roku units too allow us to not have to add more cable packages to see many shows and documentaries we want to watch. I do not pay for cable boxes on the TV's in the basement family room or in my slot car room, and just watch the streamed programming there to keep the cable price down some.

NutmegCT said:

Over the air is almost useless here. The "signal maps" I've tried all give similar results. One station at best, the others weak or non-existent. I tried a roof top antenna, and still got nothing.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

Click to expand...

Roof top antenna is useless where I live. We're down in a valley east of Albuquerque. If I lived 1/2 mile further north, I’d be in good shape.

Terrarium is a good app for streaming tv shows that arent on netflix. Im always gone , due to work, and it works great. Id say a jailbroken firestick as well but those kinda get illegal. It beats only being able to watch AFN overseas though, thats for sure.

elrey said:

Do any of you utilize over the air broadcast television?

Click to expand...

we do, but we are pretty much in a line of sight with the CN tower - we get about 13 channels - with the antenna in the attic

antenna are useless here because apparently I live in the middle of nowhere. I might be able to pick up the one Lawton channel if the weather is just right but everything else is sixty plus miles away and so no signal. I have found that Netflix keeps me mostly happy with programming; I just can't watch anything that is brand new but that doesn't hurt my feelings.

I'm within a handful of miles from all the broadcast towers here in OKC so get more local channels than I need or even want. Wife has Amazon Prime for other stuff so we can get much of what they offer for TV, including the Grand Tour. The only "paid" streaming service I have so far is Sling which gets me the OKC Thunder games.

Rub it in Bayless.

Sorry Walt. Just wanted to say I am mostly happy with what I have now but still miss a few shows, particularly on the velocity channel. But I am saving about $75/month so far. If I can bring myself to cancel the land line phone it may be another $40. I understood the phone was $25/month but careful study of the most recent cable bill showed another $15 as a "fee" apparently just for having a phone line. This really is a complicated undertaking, cutting the cord.