When I thought about getting rid of cable I thought it would be a good idea to subscribe to a movie/TV streaming application. So the question was between the top 3 streaming companies which was best? Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon Instant Video.
After looking into all of these options I found the subscription fee for each one to be about $8 a month so not too bad, but the content included can be tricky. Let’s start with Netflix. We have been using Netflix for years now, but we have been using the DVD in the mail version of it. I know it’s kind of old school but we like it. It’s nice to have a list of movies just sent to us and most of them are not available on Netflix Streaming. After reading up on Netflix Instant Streaming and looking at what was available (through a friend’s account) I realize the content was pretty limited when it came to new TV episodes and new movie releases. If you can wait until your favorite show’s season was over Netflix Streaming was a good option. I don’t want to wait, however. I want to watch new shows soon after they have aired. This was my main deference from Netflix, the content just wasn’t up to par. If I’m going to pay for something I want it to have the shows I want. So with Netflix looking out of the running do we keep our DVD subscription?
Before that though, let’s talk about Hulu Plus. I have never been a fan of Hulu so subscribing to Hulu Plus did not seem like an option to me. There are plenty of things on Hulu I can watch without logging in. With Hulu being so spotty with rights to the material it has never been a place I go to watch TV. I would much rather get to the point and go straight to the network’s website. That being said it was not a hard decision to not pay a monthly fee for Hulu Plus. Honestly I don’t know why anyone would pay for Hulu Plus. Am I missing something here?
The real decision came between Netflix Streaming and Amazon Instant Video. One of the things that sold me on Amazon Instant Video was that it had TV shows one day after they aired. This did not seem possible on Netflix. Amazon’s content seemed to be constantly updated. So after looking at Amazon Instant Video a lot and then seeing we could stream it using our Playstation 3 I decided to get a free month of Amazon Prime.
Amazon Prime is a membership Amazon offers that allows you to watch newer movies and TV on Amazon Instant Video at a discounted price or for free. If you wanted you could just watch content on Amazon Instant Video without getting Prime but there seemed to be too many perks to Amazon Prime to pass it up. Signing up with Amazon Prime got me access to Amazon’s Kindle Library where you can rent books for free. It also gives us free standard shipping on our Amazon purchases (and we seem to make a lot of those). It is $8 a month. Amazon seemed like the way to go for us because of all the perks. Kindle Loaning Library, free shipping, newer updated content and being able to stream it from our PS3 made Amazon Instant Video the most appealing.
So lately I have been checking out some of the shows and movies that are offered on Amazon Prime. It’s exciting. There’s some really good stuff on there. Sometimes you might have to pay for a movie or a show here and there but so far it’s been great.
Also, for the time being we have decided to keep our subscription to Netflix DVDs just because it is nice to have the DVDs available and it isn’t too expensive especially if we are getting rid of cable.
Next up in Part 3 of Getting Rid of Cable I’m going to talk about HD Antennas!
