인터넷을 검색하다가 이것을 보게 되었다.
항상 음지만을 찾고 다니는 것도 한계가 있다.
다른 사람에게 알려주기 위해서 이것을 찾은 것....
찾는데 시간 투자하기 싫으면 돈을 내고 편하게 보라는 진실!!!
The problem with cable? Expensive and not very customer-friendly. The worst part of cable is the fact that you have to pay for hundreds of channels you don’t want just to get the ones you do want like Showtime, HBO etc. This has been subject of scrutiny for some time now, that laws be passed to force cable companies to allow an à la carte of channels (see here as well) instead of forced premium packages.
Comcast, DirecTV, Dish and others really don’t want us to have that option. But, the FCC thinks we should have that right. Either way, since this isn’t going to happen anytime soon (although I wouldn’t be surprised to see more cable companies offering friendlier options in the next five years as streaming inevitably starts hitting their profit margins), what are our options? I’ll go over what’s available now from what I believe to be the best:
Netflix
Selection
In my opinion, Netflix is already the best possible entertainment service you can have beating out all cable companies and subsequent channels. Netflix has a huge and respectable streaming collection of movies, TV shows, documentaries and more (including many from Showtime). And almost anything else that hasn’t gone streaming yet you can get on DVD or BluRay.
Where/How You Can Watch
Netflix
also currently supports the most ways to watch than any other service;
TV (through devices like Roku, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and several others,
even directly through some newer TVs and DVD/BluRay players), your
computer or laptop, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV and more.
See all devices.
Price
$7.99/month for unlimited streaming. You can also put your account on hold at anytime for up to four months. So say you’ve already watched everything and don’t want to pay for a service that is just sitting there… put it on hold until there are some great new movies and shows. I watch movies and TV like crazy and I haven’t run out of things to watch yet.
What’s the Catch?
Netflix almost made a crazy move to split it’s company forcing you to maintain two separate accounts that were billed/managed separately. Read that story here. Other than that it’s a wonderful service.
Hulu Plus
Selection
Doesn’t have the greatest stock of movies and TV shows, certainly not nearly what Netflix has. How it makes up for this in return is new episodes airing a day after they air on TV. If you hate cable like myself it’s worth seeing the latest episode of The Office, House and Family Guy a day late.
Where/How You Can Watch
You can watch Hulu Plus on about all the same devices as Netflix minus Wii (although that will probably come at some point). See all devices.
Price
$7.99/month for unlimited streaming. You can also put your account on hold at anytime for up to four months. You might actually need to do this with Hulu Plus because it doesn’t have the most amazing selection. I currently have mine on hold.
What’s the Catch?
There are ads! I know it’s crazy, but you still have to watch ads throughout your programs. Not everything in the Hulu collection is available on Hulu Plus. Some items are marked either computer only or online only (if I remember correctly).
Zune
Selection
Great premium selection. Latest popular movies and TV episodes AND music.
Where/How You Can Watch
Microsoft as you might expect kept this really proprietary. So besides on your computer with Zune software you of course you can only watch on the Zune itself, Xbox 360 and the Windows 7 phone.
Price
You pay for everything separately and it’s not cheap. There is a season pass option for a whole TV show season, but it’s over $20!
What’s the Catch?
There is no low monthly price with unlimited streaming. You pay for everything separately and it’s ridiculously expensive.
iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/whats-on/
Selection
Great premium selection. Latest popular movies and TV episodes AND music.
Checkout iTunes massive media collection of Music, Movies, TV and more…
Where/How You Can Watch
Apple as you might expect also kept this really proprietary. So besides on your computer with iTunes software of course you can only watch through your iPhone, iPod, iPad and Apple TV.
Price
You pay for everything separately and it’s just about as expensive as Zune. There is a season pass option for a whole TV show season, but it’s over $20!
What’s the Catch?
There is no low monthly price with unlimited streaming. You pay for everything separately and it’s ridiculously expensive. The reason this is a downside to Zune is because Zune is available on Xbox 360 which more people already have than an Apple TV box so it’s slightly more convenient.
Amazon Prime
http://www.amazon.com/gp/prime
Selection
Great premium selection. Latest popular movies and TV episodes.
Where/How You Can Watch
Computer, Roku and several TVs and DVD/BluRay players.
Price
$6.50/month for media that is included.
What’s the Catch?
The big catch for this one is the classic bait and switch. If you look at the Amazon Prime instant video collection it’s not bad. Now all of this media is available through Amazon Prime and it’s connected devices. However available means for purchase. Only 10% of Amazon’s video collection is included for your subscription. The rest you pay for individually as you normally would.
When I went to cancel I had to talk to a really annoying salesman that thought he was being clever and personable (though he just sounded really phony, to the point where I wanted to ask him to stop). He tried to keep me on, it was almost reminiscent of how cancellation-retardant old school AOL salespeople were. Remember that? ;)
Blockbuster
Are they even worth mentioning? Haven’t used them since Netflix killed them. Blockbuster store fronts everywhere are closing. My local Blockbuster is desolate, falling apart. I know they’re trying to get back in the game by copying Netflix and trying to one up them… but it just doesn’t seem to matter. With Netflix and Redbox I hardly see the use of Blockbuster any longer. For years now.
Conclusion
That’s about it for the serious streaming services. Did I miss anything? You might now be asking: Well, we still can’t get Showtime and HBO without cable? Actually it’s already possible.
Showtime Anytime – You can watch directly on your computer which means you can hook it up directly to most modern TVs and watch on your TV. I haven’t quite figured out the workaround to order it just yet, but there must be a way (I’ll update if I find a way).
HBO GO – Same deal, can’t quite figure out how to order directly. Update. HBO GO is coming to Xbox Live, so you’ll have to be able to order just HBO directly. I hope the same deal happens with Showtime Anytime.
UPDATE: As an experiment I just emailed Comcast, DirecTV and Dish with the following message:
“Hello,
I see Showtime listed for individual sale.
I’m only interested in Showtime and not any other channel. Please help me order Showtime.
Thanks, Bryan”
And that’s actually true. I found Showtime for individual sale on each site for around $10 – $13 a month. However, the catch seems to be when you go to order you have to log into your account and the only way to create an account is to already have purchased one of the packages.
Now, there must be a workaround. Say I purchase the cheapest possible local cable package; like channels 1-13 just to get an online account, then order Showtime to get synced up with Showtime Anytime. Once that’s done cancel the basic cable so I just have Showtime on my account. Since legally I’m not doing anything wrong and they’re the ones in fact being shady I wonder if it just might fly. In a technical sense and them not terminating my account kind of way…
I’m also going to contact Showtime and see if they will ever offer a way to order Showtime directly and even be available on devices streaming. My guess is not anytime soon because the big cable companies probably pay the big bucks for cable exclusivity.
I’ll update everyone on the responses I get.
UPDATE UPDATE: Either I didn’t receive a reply, received an off-topic canned response or received an “Unfortunately…” type response. Not to my surprise of course.
What streaming services do you use? What’s your magic combo? How do you feel about cable?
