Netflicks

[mike31154]

Preamble...

I cancelled the cable TV portion of my Shaw service some time ago due to the rising cost & lack of choice with regard to channels I wish to pay for & those I don't. I despise the 'bundle' or 'package' concept. At the time I had an older 1st gen flat panel LCD TV with an analog tuner & was unable to watch the new ATSC digital programming available over the air. Purchased a HomeWorx digital converter ($65 or so) & was able to get the one & only digital channel broadcast in the backwoods of Vernon here, Global. Free uncompressed digital TV with an indoor, amplified rabbit ear antenna. Better picture than the compressed signals pumped through the cable companies' wires. The HomeWorx box packed it in shortly after the 1 year warranty expired & is now a bookend. Bit the bullet & got a new TV with ATSC tuner, set up a larger, unamplified antenna in the attic, works great. Our venerable national broadcaster the CBC is too cheap to maintain a digital transmitter here in the BC interior back country, so still pull in only Global, owned by Shaw!

NETFLIX...

This brings me to my 3 month experience with Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed it & certainly recommend it to anyone wondering if they should give it a try. The cost is very reasonable for what you get & cancelling is super easy, as opposed to cancelling anything with a major cable provider! Fairly sure both Netflix & Shomi offer a 1 month free trial, so nothing to lose really. I cancelled after 3 months because I ran out of programming of interest to me. I'm not big on watching (binge?) any old TV series so none of those offerings were worthwhile. I mainly watched movies & within a couple of months I ran out of movies to watch. They only bring up 1 or 2 new ones every month so didn't seem worthwhile to keep paying. I reckon the more folks per household, the longer the program offerings will be of value.

A few things to consider when opting for a streaming provider.
Make sure you have sufficient bandwidth. I was able to get by on my current Shaw internet service, but came very close to bandwidth limit (150Gb) during the second month of Netflix.
You need a good router, one that can handle the bandwidth & speed required to stream the signal without bogging down. Shouldn't be a problem with anything less than 2 years old. If you have a newer AC standard router, you're golden. It's good to have an ethernet (wired) connection, but as mentioned, any newer AC router will easily handle the bandwidth wirelessly without interruption. At the time I used an older router & it did fine using the ethernet connection. It helps if your TV is relatively new with ethernet and/or wireless capability that's capable of joining your home network.

Epilog...

Go for it, but also don't hesitate to look into the possibility of OTA digital reception, particularly if you live in a major metropolitan area close to the US border! A ton of programming available FREE with the right equipment. Since cancelling Netflix, I find I'm using the YouTube app on my new TV a lot. I can watch what I want, when I want. Of course most YouTube stuff is clips & doesn't include many newer movies, but there is a surprising amount of HD programming available.