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Online TV-watching options - help!

Online TV-watching options - help!

Old Dec 28th 2018, 4:18 pm
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Default Online TV-watching options - help!

Where to start. I live in somewhat rural Nova Scotia, and have cable TV. Unfortunately, most of the channels we get are SD (probably 70% of them). This isn't currently a problem because we still have a giant monster of a CRT TV, but I have a feeling it's on it's last legs and we'll need a replacement. When we moved house 2 years ago we thought we'd treat ourselves to a new TV, until we saw what the picture quality was like. TV went back to the store. (For reference, I'm quite happy with the picture quality from my CRT, but I can't stand pixelly TV).
It looks like a 32" would be a similar screen size to our CRT so we could get away with 720p, but that's still not going to be great with the SD channels, so I've started looking at what we can get online, and have realised I'm totally out of the loop with how all this works. We have a decent internet connection (10mb) and already watch SD Netflix. I know Netflix has HD options, but I'm wondering how I can watch other things. Looking at channels like Discovery etc. they have online options but you need to have a cable subscription to watch them (which I find a little bizarre). I've been reading about things like Roku and Apple TV but have no idea about the availability of 'regular' TV on those. Am I looking at having to pay multiple subscriptions? Part of this is also about saving money.
I have used Kodi now and then, through my laptop, but often find it more frustrating than useful when it lists shows and then can't find any streams, has glitches etc. I also find the HD listings the most likely to have issues. Not really condusive to slumping in front of the TV!
It seems like online options could be the workaround for our SD cable, but how do I watch the shows we currently watch on regular TV? (Examples would be History channel, Discovery channel, CNN, Big Bang Theory, that kind of stuff).

Edited to add: I don't know if a VPN would allow me to access some of the TV stuff online without the cable subscription requirement? (Yes, I just saw an ad on TV for a VPN lol).

Thanks in advance to anyone who can enlighten me! :-)

Last edited by izzi81; Dec 28th 2018 at 5:00 pm.
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Old Dec 28th 2018, 6:03 pm
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Default Re: Online TV-watching options - help!

We get our TV as part of a Fibe package (BellAliant) with internet and phone. It's not HD but on our Toshiba 32" 720p it certainly looks like it is.

I tried kodi on my laptop too and I didn't get on with it. I'll leave others to comment on apple and roku. It does seem to me that people have all sorts of equipment and gadgets but it works for them just as my method works for me.

BellAliant did a great deal for 3 years and I just got it extended for another year but I'm getting closer to the time we do without the TV.

Personally I'd be happy with my laptop, netflix, BBCiPlayer (free Beebs add-on) and the one or two trusted free (but not official) streaming sites I use and when I want the bigger screen, an HDMI cable to the TV. I get everything I want (except football) via the internet.

At the moment, the package I have is the cheapest (and reliable) way to include the Footie from England on the TV. But next season the Canadian channels don't have the rights anymore. I imagine that will be when the TV part of the package goes and we'll be internet TV (mix of official and unofficial) only.
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Old Dec 28th 2018, 7:37 pm
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Default Re: Online TV-watching options - help!

We can't get fibre here (as I said, rural, the only reason we can get 10mb is I contacted our local company when we built our house here and they put in cable so we could be connected!). That local company are considerably cheaper than Bell (our other option) and although they'd give us more HD I'm trying to avoid paying more for a lot of channels we don't really watch. It feels like there must be a way to get what we want to watch through the internet... I don't mind paying for app subscriptions if I can ditch cable altogether, but I can't quite figure out how to do that. (I should add that my husband is *really* not techy so if I said we were ditching cable for Kodi, for example, he'd say that was a no go lol).
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Old Dec 28th 2018, 8:05 pm
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Default Re: Online TV-watching options - help!

Originally Posted by izzi81
We can't get fibre here (as I said, rural.
Ah, right. I was a bit slow to see that. I think the point about our SD television service looking really good on our TV stands though. Although maybe fibe TV is somewhere between SD and HD if you see what I mean.

Have a poke around this site - https://ww2.watch-series.co/series/press-season-1 - and see if it's any use. It's one of my favourite streaming sites but you really need to know the name of something you want to watch although you can browse titles, like netflix. Stuff gets uploaded very quickly after original broadcasts. It's useful to have the uBlock Origin add-on. Sometimes you need to click a second time.
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Old Dec 29th 2018, 2:28 am
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Default Re: Online TV-watching options - help!

Originally Posted by BristolUK
I think the point about our SD television service looking really good on our TV stands though. Although maybe fibe TV is somewhere between SD and HD if you see what I mean.
Yeah thanks for the info about the TV. I suspect we might just bite the bullet and get a 720p TV, probably a 32", and see how we get on. If it's really bad I'll be more motivated to sort out more online options, but it might be manageable! I'll bear Toshiba in mind, and I'll also check out that website, thanks! :-)
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