One of the best thing I’ve done was getting rid of cable and getting Netflix.
With the XBOX you can actually get ESPN with certain internet co. That’s how my husband gets his sport.
Unfortunately it is not true that after a while you will only see the type of movies that you like on your screen.
We NEVER watch horror movies and they still show me a selection after over a year.
I found a lot of good movies in the Christian bookstore catalogue that were available on Netflix. I also LOVE foreign movies, a tone of those available.
Am watching waiting for superman right now, depressing but interesting!!
Hm – what is available on Canadian netflix (streaming) must be different than US netflix, as many of the shows you guys say you are watching aren’t coming up. Oh well… will have to keep looking for ones you guys suggest that sound good!
Sue, a Roku is a streaming device if you don’t have a gaming system. My cousin was the first one to intoduce me to no tv and netflix only. She has a Roku and not a gaming system. It costs about $50-60, and can stream all the companies like Netflix, Hulu, and some others I don’t really know.
I would love to do this, but dh is not on board. The kids and I pretty much only watch netflix and only occasionally actually watch tv. Maybe onday we could get rid of cable.
I had never heard of anything like this (total non-geek) but right after reading about it here, I went to Amazon looking for a book. We are Amazon Prime members and come to find out, they have tv shows, movies, etc. which sounds very similar to what you are describing! Since we’re members already, it was nice to find out about that perk. Trouble is we have really crummy internet much of the time (satellite…our only option besides dial-up) so I don’t know how that will work. The internet has been too slow today to research it much
You do need to have pretty fast Internet for the streaming shows. We have not had satellite in about 6 years. It was only last year that dh got Netflix. Before that, we were always buying dvd’s of seasons of shows we like and others. We don’t buy much anymore unless for homeschooling. Dh likes Man versus Food and Bizarre Foods and the kids have watched it some for a cultural lesson. They also have:
Creatures that Defy Evolution vol. 1, 2, and 3
The Story of 1
God of Wonders
IMAX shows
Flipper
Mythbusters
Thomas and Friends
Leave it to Beaver (sometimes available)
many history documentaries
Dirty Jobs
Disney Nature Oceans
How Its Made
This time of year, my kids like to watch the Nutcracker ballet/movie on there.
We put what we like in the queue from the computer so that is what first comes up when we turn it on the tv. I like to watch Biggest Loser while using my elliptical.
As Ruth said, its a simple little box that streams internet content to your TV.
Robin, I believe the Roku also streams Amazon content.
As I mentioned before, we decided to stick with the Roku for streaming, instead of our Wii, because of the option to show only our Queue. For some reason you don’t get that option with the Wii – don’t know about other devices. So my husband and I browse and make selections on the computer and put shows/movies into our queue. Then that is all ds (almost 9) can see or watch when he is watching TV. Some of the shows he watches are:
Curious George (he still loves that monkey)
Spiderman and some other cartoons (yeah, that’s probably twaddle)
Some History Channel Documentaries like the Modern Marvels series
How Stuff Works
How Its Made
Dirty Jobs
Survivorman
The Jeff Corwin Experience
Emergency! (old TV series from the 70s)
various documentaries and movies that we deem appropriate 🙂
I have put things on there to watch myself, but rarely have time to actually sit down and watch. But they have some old series on there like The Cosby Show and The Wonder Years. I don’t really care what the latest popular movies and shows are, so it works well for me, on the rare occasion I do watch something myself. 🙂
Potpourri, I’ll ask my husband about the Wii. We usually connect our laptop to the TV. It’s just one cable that connects the two and uses the TV’s volume. I’ll ask him what it’s called and where he got it. It’ll be a few hours before he’s home from work.
Oh my gosh so many recommendations. I’m just going to bookmark this page and look through it later and ask my kids if they know of any of these shows! We have Netflix, but I think I use it the most
Apple TV is AWESOME! We love it here. You don’t need an ipad to use it and can stream Netflix from it, but using it with an ipad enhances the experience as you can stream content directly from your ipad (or other such I device)
The cable you need to connect your computer to your tv is called an HDMI cable. Make sure your tv has the input for it (the newer ones do). 🙂 Its fun to see how many people use Netflix! I love it – mostly for tv shows.
Potpourri we didn’t have cable for 3 years I think. My husband was watching soccer on ESPN on XBOX live but they stopped showing many of the games so we need to go back to cable.