Online Television - What's the best option...?

[Darcy7]

Gday all

OK...I've finally cracked it with Foxtel and will be handing it back in about a month's time. (Have to watch all the recorded episodes of Game of Thrones first...!)  Its just too expensive, everything's a repeat, the content is old, and there's so many bloody ads it is no longer value for money in my books...!  So we're going to go with an online TV option.  But which one to go for.

Before it was just Nexflix but now there's so many more.  What's the best deal?  I heard the US Netflix is totally different to the Australian version and that I should go that way.  I would like a PVR but so that means looking at Fetch or something similar.  There's too many options...!

I would like to get content that has documentaries, movies (new releases and on demand), and maybe some local content as well.

What do you guys have or recommend?  I have unlimited broadband so bundling with a service provider is not an issue.

Thanks

Darcy

[paceman]

what is your internet speed like? 

quota is one thing, but actual download speed will be an important factor for streaming services like netflix, presto, stan, etc...

i'm on an adsl2 connection that syncs between 4 and 7mpbs and the streaming performance is not the best...

YMMV...

[Darcy7]

yeah don't know just yet.  I've recently changed providers in the hope of getting better speeds.  Change happens tomorrow so I'll see what its like.  Currently its totally crap.  Drop outs galore and less than 2mbps. Telstra steadfastly refuse to upgrade their infrastructure near us. New provider uses Optus and by all accounts they can be between 8 and 10mbs in the same area.

[paceman]

yeah don't know just yet.  I've recently changed providers in the hope of getting better speeds.  Change happens tomorrow so I'll see what its like.  Currently its totally crap.  Drop outs galore and less than 2mbps. Telstra steadfastly refuse to upgrade their infrastructure near us. New provider uses Optus and by all accounts they can be between 8 and 10mbs in the same area.

you may be disappointed... 

depending on the exchange setup, it might not be the exchange itself that is causing your speed issues, but rather the copper to your house...

drop me a PM if you like, with your full phone number and i might be able to provide a bit more detailed info... up to you, of course...


you might be better off going all in on an itunes-type setup instead, where your files are downloaded (rather than streamed) and then you can view on your TV (via an apple TV device) or on and ipad, etc... their range is quite extensive (not 100% sure about local content, though)...

[Bird]

I've finally cracked it with Foxtel and will be handing it back in about a month's time. (Have to watch all the recorded episodes of Game of Thrones first...!)  Its just too expensive, everything's a repeat, the content is old, and there's so many bloody ads it is no longer value for money in my books...!

Sadly true on all counts..
but agree with the statement that online isn't the pot of gold at rainbow either. FTA should just close the doors.

[tk421]

I'm quite happy with AU Netflix - but I don't actually have time to watch a lot of TV. So the ability to watch what I want, when I want is great and I've discovered some new stuff I would never have bothered with (Sense8 is gorgeous).  There's nothing I'm missing from the line up - but I'm not a big fan of sit coms that seem to dominate normal TV. As I said I've never been able to commit to watching series on normal TV so I have missed a lot of stuff. YMMV

My kids love it -  They haven't turned on the Foxtel box / Cartoon Network since we signed up to Netflix.

There are some doccos on there but I haven't really looked at them.  The good thing about it, is that you 'have' to go through a free trial month, so sign up - if you don't like it, cancel it before the month is up.  We'll be keeping the service. Note that the basic $8,99 service is SD only - I have no issues streaming on normal ADSL / iinet.

I believe the service will expand over time. there's about  1120 titles in AU vs 7000 in the US.  You'll see more stuff coming over when the exclusive rights here lapse.  Also new programmes on Netflix are released at the same time worldwide. 

I've since downgraded Foxtel to the basics package which still give me Discovery and Nat Geo and Lifestyle which is all we watch really. They told me I couldn't change unless I signed up to a 12month contract. I told them to cancel the service. They moved me to the basic package and no contract.

I won't sign up to Stan as its part owned by Fox. Murdoch's not getting my money twice

TBH I think there's a lot of cross over between them all as there's a lot of providers providing non-exclusive rights to programmes.

[noel_w]

I have recently signed up with Netflix and so far so good. This won't be a long term thing however. There are a few caveats.....
I am on a iinet naked dsl account with 16MB+ download speed. So far no buffering whatsoever.
Local content from Netflix is not that great so far but there are a few programs that have watched. Lots more on the US and British Netflix
If you are savvy enough to be able to subscribe to a dns service (like unblock-us) and be able to set it up in your router,you can change regions to watch US or British content (plus quite a few other countries)
Local Netflix content is in iinet's freezone so not metered, other content from the US etc is counted in your download.
Depends on what device you stream it on too. I have a Blu Ray player with inbuilt Netflix client and works well. I also watch it on my Samsung tablet. Both work fine.
I could never get Foxtel. Why pay to watch the same old stuff, still with ads and still when they want to program it. I see a dinosaur looming very quickly.

[Paul (SA)]

Family Feud 

[me217]

i signed up with netflix a bout a month ago and its alright. but then i found tunnelbear. its another 6 bucks a month but it lets me access US netflix. which takes the library from about 1100 titles to 7000 titles. well worth the 6 bucks extra

[dales133]

Play box HD if you have an android device

[Jasman]

We've got Netflix, Netflix is better than I expected with a lot to watch and growing, if you have speed issues you can make Netflix default back to low quality (360p?) which is a bit grainy but watchable.

I'm lucky to be on NBN and we use Skymesh who provide unmetered Netflix which is nice, I run the the higher quality on the standard account (576p, same as DVD) and it looks great and uses about 700MB per hour which is actually pretty good for what it is.

[Trrrumping Beast]

Why not save your money and do something else?  On line TV will rob you of time on myswag.  Priorities mate!!  ...Jokes aside I got rid of Foxtel about 3 years ago and have hardly watched TV outside of sport since. ABC4Kids sorts the youngsters out, the wife has her ipad and I have other interests.  We dont miss it at all.  The dumbest thing I did was go and buy a tuner/HDD recorder...lol I haven't recorded a single show!  Good luck, but I reckon we have enough bills in life without adding more. 

[Darcy7]

Why not save your money and do something else?  On line TV will rob you of time on myswag.  Priorities mate!!  ...Jokes aside I got rid of Foxtel about 3 years ago and have hardly watched TV outside of sport since. ABC4Kids sorts the youngsters out, the wife has her ipad and I have other interests.  We dont miss it at all.  The dumbest thing I did was go and buy a tuner/HDD recorder...lol I haven't recorded a single show!  Good luck, but I reckon we have bills in life.

HA...true enough.  Actually another reason for ditching the Foxtel is that we just don't have the time to watch that much to make it value for money.  Very rarely are we at home on the weekend sitting around watching telly.  Weeknights are a bit different. 

[loanrangie]

Netflix and Getflix, you can change your location in Getflix to get whatever countries content you like.

[zzzaaazzz]

A link to free presto for 6 months

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/204097

... I tried it and it works.

[jmorgan1981]

We have Aus Netflix. I was thinking of getting the US and maybe trying to get HBO now for GOT, banshee, silicon valley and strike back (if anyone has HBO now let everyone know how they got it working).

The main reason I didn't go and look more into the US is because I have about 20 shows I would to watch on the OZ. When I run out I will look more into it.

[Bird]

torrents and download movies watch em when you like....

don't look for yify either..

[jmorgan1981]

torrents and download movies watch em when you like....

don't look for yify either..

What is wrong with YIFY??