by Adam Freedman of SOHO Office and Dunwoody PC
It’s too hot and virusy to be outside, so I’ve decided to hang out and home and answer the following question,
“How much does Adam’s family pay to watch TV and listen to music?”
Internet Service
First of all, you need good internet service. We recently switched from Comcast 350 Mb Internet Only ($99/month with no contract) to AT&T Fiber 1 Gb ($50/month for service and gateway router and HBO Max (streaming service) with a 12-month contract). A much faster service, free streaming service, for 1/2 the price. Seemed like an obvious choice. By the way, don’t believe the hype that you need tons of bandwidth for streaming. If you can get 25 Mb to your device wirelessly, that should be plenty. So, when AT&T and Comcast tell you that you need hundreds of Mb for service, just realize they are trying to SELL to you.
MESH Network
I have a standard Dunwoody “5, 4, and a Door” colonial with a walkout basement, making three floors. I have the older Netgear Orbi 3 unit whole house system. They don’t sell it anymore, replacing it with the WIFI 6 versions (support of 802.11AX on top of N and AC). Costco sells it for $499. This is not a true MESH system as the satellites only talk back to the main router and not to each other but I still get excellent coverage throughout my house. The internet comes in on the first floor. I have another satellite on the first floor and one on the second floor. Costco sells a competitor product, the TP Link Deco M9 Plus for only $199 with 3 pods. It is also very easy to set up. If you don’t have a huge house, I would try this first as it is a true device to device MESH.
Streaming Platform
I am a huge fan of using ROKU’s streaming appliances. I own several ROKUs (no monthly fees) even for a BRAND NEW Samsung 4K TV. I find the Roku interface that controls the power, volume and channels make it SO easy to use, you’ll be able to figure it all out very easily. ROKU requires an available HDMI port on your TV. Buy the top of the link ROKU stick here: https://amzn.to/3iExTEj
Streaming Services
I have the following services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, AcornTV, HBO Max, Locast, PlutoTV, The Roku Channel, NewsOn, Pandora, and XM Sirius. They are not all video services. Pandora and XM Sirius are audio-only. There’s plenty of others like Crackle, Tubi, WeatherNation, and more that are free on ROKU (and some that aren’t).
We do not have any streaming cable services like YoutubeTV, HuluTV, Sling, Philo, etc because, for an average price of $65/month for a fully loaded service (Sling is a little cheaper), that price has crept up to levels that would make it not a deal to leave your existing provider.
($15.99) Netflix: We have the $15.99/month version of Netflix. This gives us Ultra HD (4K) quality content when it is available. It also lets us stream on up to 4 TVs at a time. I could downgrade to 1080P and 2 TVs for 3 dollars less. Or, I could downgrade to standard definition and 1 TV at a time for 7 dollars less. Netflix content is ‘all you care to watch’ with no additional pay per view charges.
($18.99) Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+: We pay $11.99/month for Hulu with no ads. This is a $6 surcharge that I think is worth it to get out of watching ads. Then we add the bundle of the other two services for only 7 dollars more. Disney+ as you may know just added Hamilton which put it on the streaming map for older folk who don’t care about other content like PIXAR, Disney cartoons, Marvel comics and Star Wars. Disney+ also has National Geographic content.
($119/Annual) Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime has enough free content as part of Prime to make it worthwhile. I call it free because I really have Amazon Prime for their excellent shipping deals where most stuff will ship for free and quickly. Amazon Prime has your credit card on file and will offer up included and pay-per-view content that gets billed directly to your credit card.
($4.99) AcornTV: This is all British content. I don’t watch it so I can’t comment although my wife watches Agatha Raisin, Agatha Christie, Poirot, Doc Martin, and other stuff that lets me soundly sleep.
(FREE, included in internet service) HBO Max: This is the new service from AT&T who feel that having several products with the same HBO name won’t be confusing to their customers. I don’t really know what it has yet as they haven’t released a ROKU channel yet. More info to make it less confusing here: https://www.vulture.com/article/hbo-max-vs-hbo-now-vs-hbo-go.html
($5.50) Locast: Locast is a free service that requests that you PayPal them $5 + service fees a month so that you can get ‘rabbit ears’ local TV content. When you become stream only, this is the content I think that you miss the most. It’s only available in certain markets and Atlanta happens to be one of them. We can watch all of the locals along with some OTA (over the air) channels like BUZZR (old game shows). Locast is being sued by content providers and may be gone one day but I hope not.
(FREE) PlutoTV: Pluto has hundreds of random live content channels and some view on-demand content and is very worth the price of FREE. There are movies, news, sports, stand-up comedy, same-title streaming (a whole channel on Anthony Bourdain, for example).
(FREE) The Roku Channel: A smattering of free TV and movies, available through the ROKU interface.
(FREE) NewsOn: This allows you to watch live and pre-recorded local news from all around the country. My wife and I will pick something like Jonesboro, AR, or Boise, ID and recognize that every local news is almost the same just not as polished.
($3.99) Pandora One: Pandora One will let us stream music, news, sports, and comedy channels in our car, on our phone, on our SONOS speakers, and on our ROKU connected TVs. You can upgrade to a more selective service for 9 dollars more where you can build your own playlists.
($20.63?) XM Sirius: I dare anyone to understand their XM Sirius bills, especially when you have more than one vehicle with the service. We can play their channels on 2 cars as well as through our SONOS or ROKU players. In the car, on long trips, it’s fantastic because of the number of channels that you can float between.
Where Can I Find Stuff?
I use an app on my iPhone called JustWatch where you can put in the name of a TV show or movie and it should tell you where it is streaming for free or where you would have to pay for it. Also, the ROKU has an interface that allows you to find stuff on ROKU on the channels you may or may not currently subscribe to.
Wrap Up:
I love the fact that the ONLY component I have to return to AT&T should I ever change to another service is their gateway router. I can put TVs and speakers anywhere in my house. As long as internet service stays solid, I shouldn’t have any issues.
My total fees are:
Internet Service: $50
Channels: $15.99 + 18.99 + $119(year) + $4.99 + $5.50 + $3.99 + $20.63 = $80.01
Current Grand Total: $130.01
How do you compare?
Adam Freedman
Dunwoody Personal Computers, LLC
phone: 404-702-3726
website: www.dunwoodypc.com
facebook: facebook.com/dunpc
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