But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

yeah, I haven't had cable for a very, very long time (15 years?) and I was wondering how much of a difference it is these days to not have them bundled.

I recently saw a meme about how all these subscription services with unique programming is basically reinventing into a more tedious cable tv.

Yep. Thanks capitalism for taking an legitimately game-changing technology and just turning it back into the old overpriced thing we all hated 20 years ago.

Remember back in the 1990s when they kept promising truly ala carte cable packages? "Only pay for the channels you actually watch!". Well it's here now, finally, except you have to pay $9.99 to $12.99 for each of the channels.

2019 US pricing chart for now and future reference:

Netflix (standard plan, 2 HD screens) - $13 monthly
Hulu - $6 a month
Hulu/No Ads - $12 a month
Hulu/No Ads/Cable/enhanced cloud DVR - $61 a month <- recommend this for cord cutters as it is pretty solid for sports
Amazon Prime - $13 a month, $120 a year; comes with amazon's other stuff
Apple TV+ - $5 a month; free with purchase of new apple hardware
Disney+ - $7 a month or $70 a year; pre-order starts today
NBC Peacock - As yet unannounced
YouTube TV - $50 a month cable package
YouTube Premium - $12 a month
AT+T Watch - $15 a month cable package, free if you're on their network
HBO Max -Currently reported at $15 a month, presumably will offer a package deal with HBO Now
HBO Now - $15 a month
Showtime - $11 a month
Starz - $9 a month
Facebook Watch - Free at the moment
CBS Interactive - $6 a month
Discovery/BBC - As yet unanounced
Criterion - $11 per month, $99 per year
Mubi - $11 pre month
Fandor - $10 per month, $99 per year
Shudder - $5 per month, $48 per year
Acorn - $6 per month, $60 per year
Crunchyroll - Free option or $7 per moth with hi-def and better programming
DC Universe - $8 a month or $75 per year
AMC Premiere - $5 a month
Pluto - Currently Free
Crackle - Currently Free
Kanopy - Currently Free

On the sports tip:
NFL Sunday Ticket is $74 a month or $294 a year
NBA League Pass is $120 a year for one team or $200 to $250 a year for all teams
NHL Season Pass is $140 a year
MLB Season pass is $25 a month via Amazon, $90 a year for one team or $120 for all teams

We currently pay for Netflix (incl. dvds!), get Hulu through a friend's account, and HBO Go through a family account that was supposedly canceled but still magically works! All through PS4. Have never rented/bought a digital show or movie a la carte.

if you were to buy all the above with hulu as a basic cable delivery option, that plus hi-speed internet would run you around $275 a month for television.

I highly recommend just downloading PLEX as it's free. Basically, if you have any kind of smart tv option, you can stream whatever you download directly to your television.

That netflix standard plan for me is $8usd a month but it's another country's pay structure I guess.

yeah there's a "standard definition" single screen plan for $8

No, this is for 2 screens HD.

I just looked up the basic one screen it's about 6.50 USD.

torrent everything, $0

a given.

well ya gotta pay for internet and hard drives! plus not everybody is ethically down with / has the technical expertise / willingness to take the time to learn how to join better groups / etc

although do people really torrent tv shows and movies that much anymore when you can find a free stream of almost anything?

for me it's most helpful when the tv show in question just isn't commercially available in my region

Worth noting that YouTube Premium also includes YouTube Music (and formerly Google Play Music).

a recent streaming experience with hulu, trying to start an episode in the middle:

click episode, cannot seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
accidentally clicked on another episode while trying to close the app on my fone, 90 seconds of commercials starts
click original episode again, 90 seconds of commercials
close hulu, torrent entire season of show, cancel hulu

i won't front: all video streaming services are flawed in a dozen ways that piracy frankly is not.

My friends who are subletting my place have like 6 subscriptions and when I stay there I have to leave the room when they are trying to find something to watch (which always ends up taking a minimum of 20 minutes). A lot of the user interfaces are completely horrid.

wish the cinema was cheaper

xp -- ha - i have netflix, amazon, hbo (through amazon), britbox, acorn (which i should cancel because it's pretty much the same as britbox -- i had acorn first), and MhZ --

omg the user interfaces -- yeah some are really bad -- some are not awful, but are crap when it comes to subtitle options

i watch stuff via roku -- my roku is about 6 yrs old at this point and seems to be "dying" -- is this just standard planned obsolescence?

among the most frustrating things is that depending on your device, the interface and remote controls are totally different! You can't even play Criterion on an Amazon Fire and you can't play Mubi on a Playstation. Prime is easy to explore on a Fire but nearly impossible on a Roku. Everything's fucked!

I do Netflix and will do Disney+. More often than not, if I want to see a movie badly enough I buy a physical copy or, if that isn't an option, just watch that shit on YouTube or whatever. I watched a shitty, washed-out '30s movie on Internet Archive this weekend because it appears to have never been released via any legit home video format. Does that count as a streaming service?

youtube and archive.org certainly remain the people's netflix if netflix isn't already the people's netflix

I still pay for cable (and the Criterion Channel) but need to talk to people who get TCM through other services.

i'm dumping cable as soon as we get fiber internet installed at the end of the month, and signed up for Hulu Live. This looks like it'll save me about $80 a month for basically the same channels and faster internet than the shitty Comcast service I have. Still have netflix, amazon prime, and hbo through hulu. I'll pick up disney as well.

oh yeah, and we use the latest generation Apple TVs. I had a Roku that was a few years old and yes, it crapped out. The apps developed by the providers become too resource intensive for the devices.

"That netflix standard plan for me is $8usd a month but it's another country's pay structure I guess." how is this possible?

i use vrv sometimes for anime and amazon until my last ill-advised prime resub runs out next year, and that's it.

Moving to the Los Angeles area with its video stores and cinemas means not having to really care about any of this shit and it rocks.

We cut the cable 2-3 years ago and had Vue for about a year until a price hike, then Sling. The current fight between Fox and Dish/Sling has cramped my baseball watching, so I'm going to drop all channel-package delivery in the next few weeks and not worry about it until the next season of Better Call Saul starts. Dropping Sling and not renewing MLB.tv next season will free up more than enough $$ for Disney, which my wife wants to get. Otherwise, we have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, CBS (for my wife) and Criterion (for me). Our donation to our PBS affiliate is just big enough to give us access to everything on the PBS channel.

When Filmstruck shut down, Fandor offered subscribers a special deal -- I think it was $25 for a year? Anyway, I got that but probably won't renew it.

Netflix & Prime, but in Australia we can also access iView and SBS On Demand, which are half-decent public broadcaster options.

I signed up for Youtube TV so I could talk my mom into ditching her cable bill (you can share accounts with 2-3 people) and it's been the best cable replacement I've experienced. No buffering, standard TV Guide style menu, good enough channel selection. I'm so used to going straight to Netflix or Prime I rarely think of opening the app unless I want to watch sports, though.

Netflix and mlb.tv are free w/ my cell phone, I keep forgetting to cancel HBO Now, keep Prime out of habit, pay for the Criterion Channel so I can feel guilty when I'm too numb at the end of the day to watch something with subtitles and just turn on a CW sci-fi show on Netflix instead.

I have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime. I watch all of these via roku as well as a fair amount of free YouTube and Twitch. I also use roku to play music via Spotify, as the TV plugs straight into my stereo.

The quality of film selections on Netflix seems to have really plummeted lately. Amazon has the best selections of those three.

I'm strongly considering Disney+ because I'm a sucker and want to watch the Star Wars shows.

akm xpost. I set up my netflix in Chile so the fees are 4,990; 5,990; and 8,990clp for the 3 tiers. There is currency fluctuation of course but it's been in the $8 range at least for the last year (I just checked) regardless if I am using it in the US or Europe.

"The quality of film selections on Netflix seems to have really plummeted lately. Amazon has the best selections of those three."

netflix has totally shifted their focus to original programming, only 1/10th of which is worth watching. but it's still so cheap I keep it.

we have netflix, hulu, amazon prime, and recently became members of our local pbs station to access content on the pbs app. I am constantly advocating to my partner that we pause one or all of them, bc we only ever use them to watch one show at a time and will often go months without opening the others. She doesnt want to be burdened with the annoyance of stopping and re-starting multiple subscriptions throughout the year as shows come and go, which is a reasonable thing to find annoying. For movies I almost entirely watch DVDs from netflix.

I'm constantly astonished at how shitty the movie offerings on all of these are, and yet somehow still seem to get worse every year. Was just flipping through hulu yesterday bc I forgot they had movies and the 'classics' tab included Poltergeist II, Mr Mom, and like 25 public domain westerns.

although do people really torrent tv shows and movies that much anymore when you can find a free stream of almost anything?

yes, I do this all the time for TV shows and movies. Wouldn't know where to look for free streams, and besides I value the picture quality and curated content of the big private torrent sites.

a recent streaming experience with hulu, trying to start an episode in the middle:

click episode, cannot seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
accidentally clicked on another episode while trying to close the app on my fone, 90 seconds of commercials starts
click original episode again, 90 seconds of commercials

This is all too real. Lots of the time if theres a TV show I like that is available on DVD i'll just buy the DVDs, which most of the time can be found used for <$10 on amazon or ebay, specifically to avoid experiences like this.

I mostly just use streaming services for TV shows. WRT movies, it's consistently baffling to me that streaming services should ever pose any real threat to physical media sales. The selection has always been spotty and terrible. The notion of just throwing up my hands and being all 'hey, if it's images moving on a screen, I'll watch whatever (dopey giggle)!' is so loathsome. I'm highly-selective when it comes to the garbage I view, thankuverymuch.

My local library added Kanopy access for cardholders and, while I have underutilized it, it's awesome. Up to ten films per month, pretty interesting selection.

yeah, new york public library opting out of kanopy was understandable given the cost, but a bummer

we can also access iView and SBS On Demand, which are half-decent public broadcaster options.

SBS On Demand alone is an incredible resource of more good films than any human can watch - foreigners can browse titles (but not play anything) at https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movies

Especially since they recently added a dedicated movie channel.

the only torrent site I know of anymore is 1337x and the selection is crap, venturing into the private tracker thing was awful when I wanted to download more movies, impossible to keep a ratio up and you probably ought to have a seedbox for privacy and blah blah blah
Easier, as it turns out, to just pay $5 to rent from iTunes or something.

I have Netflix and sometimes Mubi (through scribd) and Criterion Channel. Sometimes I split a crave tv account, which is a canadian service that includes HBO. I think these make more sense than cable, where you have to schedule what you want to watch and still have to sit through commercials. but come on people, bundle a bunch of these services together, there's too many right now.

i torrent tv shows that aren't on netflix or hbo. i just found 1337x a few days ago, when all the tbp mirrors went down together.

The biggest private torrent tracker for TV shows doesn't require you to maintain a ratio. I download all my TV from there, everything's properly curated and searchable with various HD and SD options available so no need to go with public trackers. For movies yes the biggest tracker requires you to maintain a ratio but I've never had any difficulty doing that and I don't have a seedbox. Just keep seeding and don't go overboard downloading and you're good.

Y'all mentioned PLEX upthread, its all we use in our household: 2 TVs, 2 playstations, 2 AppleTVs, a 2 TB server, and PLEX is the glue that sorts it all out. Tho we mumblemumblepiratebaymumble.

But without it how could we ever watch all 20 jillion seasons of Law and Order as we have been doing of late.

xp

I get that it's hard for a 20 minute sitcom to pull off, but the whole vibe just doesn't feel right, basically it seems more like the suburbs rather than the middle of a big city. I don't hate the show, but that specific element is off to me.

Like the mom who runs the most successful restaurant in the city but she's ultra conservative and it's this crappy generic place that sells steak nuggies, c'mon.

but the show *is* set in the suburbs tho, right — when we first meet evan’s ex, one of their topics of conversation is how he’s sold out to get a tech job in the city, and evan is on his soapbox about staying in the more conservative burbs so he can have a bigger impact on those kids’ lives

Are you guys talking about the shield from like the 90s?

Austin isn’t exactly midtown Manhattan. Much of it would read as “suburbs” on film.

i might've missed some Only Murders In The Building chat as I've been holding off on watching s4. but I liked spotting the Mulholland Drive apartment on ep1!

ENBB, it was the 00s but yes they're talking about the old show with Michael Chiklis

yep!

now on Hulu!

The most recent episode of The Franchise made me chuckle here and there. Sadly that’s the best the show has done after three episodes. I really want to like this show—I like a lot of the actors and the concept should be ripe for satire. But it’s just not taking off.

The most recent episode of The Franchise made me chuckle here and there. Sadly that’s the best the show has done after three episodes. I really want to like this show—I like a lot of the actors and the concept should be ripe for satire. But it’s just not taking off.

I've enjoyed what I've seen of it - reminds me a bit of a movie version of Mythic Quest crossed with Veep (it has Ianucci's involvement anyway right?) But yeah it feels like it's missing some kind of spark.

Except of course for Richard E Grant who is unassailably magnificent as always.

Recent things I've seen:
- Sweetpea. 1st episode intriguing but I made mistake of reading up about this and apparently the show is a complete wet noodle compared to the comic its based off of, so...
- the Penguin. Well, I was paying this zero attention because I give zero fuxx about most DC universe stuff but yowsers, that 4th episode! It gets a 9.5 on IMDB and for good reason.
- AU version of the Office. I mean... WHY. It wasnt terrible. It was actually ok, except it felt too closely hewn to the US version and not in good ways. Zero chemistry between the "jim and pam" of this version. And we already have Utopia and Fisk for this kind of show.
- Agatha All Along. - mmmm...jury out. Loved Wandavision, loved Loki, thought I'd love this but... maybe it will coalesce. I realise theres prob talk about this on the Marvel thread though anyways.
- From. Could see this was turning into a constant "drag out the story with no resolve" BS like Lost or Manifest so bailed on this one.
- Tulsa King. Not as into it as I was S1 but it still has some good moments.

i get to watch The Substance on Mubi on Halloween.

Lisa Frankenstein - very much a Heathers homage with a little Edward Scissorhands, runs out of steam in the last third but worth sitting through a couple of commercials on Amazon Prime at the start + an excellent use of Galaxie 500 and Jesus and Mary Chain on the soundtrack.

whoa, just noticed that season 2 of Hellbound just appeared on Netflix. Also, have a clear weekend ahead

i'm watching a jigsaw puzzle tournament on espn...

I am 3 episodes into Nautilus and it seems to have nailed explicitly anti-imperialist trash fun

Just discovered that Tulsa King is available on Pluto dot TV, so I'm giving it a chance.

its fun.

but you never know with you...

Started watching Territory on Netflix. Starring the middlebrow man's Carrie Coon, Anna Torv. I have a thing for both of them. Also starring Longmire who is Australian in real life? I don't think I even knew that.

I like Australian westerns, let us know if it's any good!

I'm only 20 minutes in and there has already been a wild dog attack and a bar brawl, so, pretty rowdy so far. And dusty.

I'm enjoying Territory. It definitely keeps the pot boiling! Basically, an Australian Yellowstone. Very very dusty. High drama. Lots of action. Nothing mindblowing, but I'm in there. Longmire is evil!

I enjoyed Territory as well - like you said, not mindblowing but definitely entertaining. Australia puts out a lot of really good dramas.

Best season of Slow Horses so far? The odd for streaming pacing (3-4 episodes with almost too much room to breathe and then the avalanche of the last two episodes) really worked to its adantage and the last 20 minutes were incredible. Not the show I expected to have a moment like "he loved you and wanted you to love yourself".

I watched the series Achtsam Morden aka Murder Mindfully on Netflix. It was fun. I just thought I would try the first episode and before I knew it I had watched all 8. they are short episodes though. About a mob lawyer who uses the techniques he learns in his mindfulness class to deal with gangsters and his family. Some good relaxation tips along with the blood!

What a fool I was, thinking The Old Man might finish in two seasons. Frankly, Bridges doesn't look healthy enough to film a third.

It would already be finished if they said more than like 5 words per minute

"Did you ever think mom cared that much, though?"

Sighs, peers wistfully at distant object

"No"

Looks up

"That's your answer?"

Shrugs, looks into middle distance

"That's my answer"

Watched MAXXXINE on Max last night. I only made it about halfway through X and never bothered with Pearl, but this one was really good. A tribute to 80s slasher movies but also to Body Double — it even has Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the soundtrack.

Don’t mind me I’m just binging Detroiters as a distraction from despair

I started the second season of THE DIPLOMAT last night. I really like this show. It has fun, fast dialogue pacing, and I think Keri Russell does a terrific job of playing someone who knows their shit inside and out and does not waver in her decision making—and absolutely no one questions her expertise. I also appreciate that for an espionage/political intrigue type show, it generally stays true to its title and does not resort to shootouts to resolve its plots.

The fifth episode is great - a special guest star has a monologue that reminds me of Al Pacino tearing into Kevin Spacey at the end of Glengarry Glen Ross.

I started the second season of THE DIPLOMAT last night. I really like this show. It has fun, fast dialogue pacing, and I think Keri Russell does a terrific job of playing someone who knows their shit inside and out and does not waver in her decision making—and absolutely no one questions her expertise. I also appreciate that for an espionage/political intrigue type show, it generally stays true to its title and does not resort to shootouts to resolve its plots.