TV shows and/or live TV streaming (1 Viewer)

[Towergrove]

I just signed on for the Hulu one week free trial and did some research on the programs they have. They don't have all the series I want but quite a few. What is disappointing is that most of the series are incomplete. They are only making available the last 5 or 6 something like. Not the whole series or even the whole season. There are a few exceptions, but they are exceptions.


I guess this is a licensing issue.

The good thing thought is that you can purchase most series via physical or electronic sell thru. So the ones you are missing you can pick up elsewhere. Noticed this the other day with Roseanne. Very few episodes but then again Netflix is not a end all repository of video and film but a temporary viewing service with limited runs as all series on the service have expiration dates and are contracted to be there. The best bet if your really enjoy a show that you want to re-watch, purchase it or another way to catch up is to check your local library as they usually can get anything you want via worldcat.

 

[Ejanss]

The good thing thought is that you can purchase most series via physical or electronic sell thru. So the ones you are missing you can pick up elsewhere. Noticed this the other day with Roseanne. Very few episodes but then again Netflix is not a end all repository of video and film but a temporary viewing service with limited runs as all series on the service have expiration dates and are contracted to be there. The best bet if your really enjoy a show that you want to re-watch, purchase it or another way to catch up is to check your local library as they usually can get anything you want via worldcat.

Netflix and Hulu have simply become the replacement for free scheduled TV, for when you didn't know what you wanted to watch, but wanted to watch something, and were happy to take pot luck or a weekly favorite.

The streaming catalog only offers the momentary choice at once, and takes the place of clicking channels or leafing through the TV Guide. (sigh...Remember when TV Guide talked about what was on TV?)


The fact that nothing is completely available or ever permanent just brings us full-circle back to the days when we bought shows and movies on VHS to keep on our shelf, just so we wouldn't have to wait for when/if the local station would rerun it!

 

[JasonLa]

I've been away for quite awhile now with all sorts of stuff going on in life that I hadn't checked this thread since about a month or so after my last post. I was surprised to see the discussion come back a year later. My original quest was for a free source of streaming (delayed) TV channels. More or less the common networks as someone had previously mentioned. But other channels such as history, discovery channel and maybe a few others I can't recall now I too was interested in. I found over a dozen different advertisements of so called stream TV things, like added to my roku, or apps for android, even websites. None of which I can even remember what they were called because they were all so bad that I can't even believe they advertised themselves as stream the TV you want to watch. They were all so bad that they didn't even really offer the basic definition of their claim of stream the TV you want to watch.

Side note It has always been my impression that everything was broadcast free and that cable/satellite TV providers were a "we are paying for the convenience of access to all those channels in one place and access to channels broadcast locations that exceed the broadcast range of said channels". But anyways that impression aside and my continued failed quest for a free source of access to broadcast channels; There still have been significant shows I have wanted to watch but had no way to stream them to watch at my convenience. To which my solution was to have someone record them for me to watch later.

Sometime after my last post in this thread I decided to give hulu a try. I think I got 60 or 90 days free. While it was not my ideal solution, the cost of both netflix and hulu are far cheaper than paying for cable/satellite. Unfortunately this still is not 100% viable for everything I have wanted to watch that is currently airing/aired. For examples: The Big Bang Theory, Bones, Doctor Who, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, American Pickers, Pawn Stars, and possibly others I can't think of off hand; have either been nonexistent in streaming form or sporadic at best. History and discovery advertise catch up on your shows but then they have one or two episodes of the current season on their sites. And that makes me have to watch them on my PC instead of my nice big screen TV. Hulu links externally for watching Big Bang Theory but the site I'm taken to never works and so I gave up trying to watch the show on that site.

Anyway, it would be interesting to know if anyone has found a good source of streaming TV aside from additional paid services such as netflix and hulu. And if so what those sources are.