My parents, being English in a French province with twindling rental options, being aware that most people don’t need to get in the car to rent movies anymore, and with ZIP.CA DVD mail rental service having folded, have asked me what their best option for streaming services is for them. But I haven’t lived in Quebec for more than a decade, and ourselves here in the UK usually just hdmi our laptop in for Amazon Prime at home, which wouldn’t work for them as their desktop is upstairs in a different room, far from their fairly modern LCD tv downstairs in the den.
What’s good? Amazon Prime and Netflix are obvious recommendations, but I don’t know how their library compares to the US or UK… CraveTV and Shomi seem legit, but a recommendation here would help from a native.
And then given that they have no tablet, playstation, xbox, or smart phone to stream something to the tv, what lowest cost option could my parents use to wifi a streaming service to the tv? Can Roku do any/all of those services? Chromecast needs a machine to drive it from. Are there other low-cost tech baubles that fit the bill? And that would be easy enough for 70-year olds to manage.
Doesn’t look like Shomi or CraveTV are on Roku. If they absolutely need those, Chromecast would be their best option, if the signal can reach the TV. AppleTV would work directly, but isn’t exactly low cost.
I’ve mostly ruled out Chromecast given that they’d have to run upstairs, queue their show, run downstairs, watch, and then run up again every time they want to pause it for a potty break or whatever, which is often. Unless a wireless mouse reaches all the way upstairs… too many unknowns.
Amazon Fire TV stick would be a better alternative to the Chromecast under the circumstances. Basically similar function, slightly higher price but not much, but it has an on stick OS with apps and storage space and comes with a little remote.
There is no video for Amazon Prime in Canada with Amazon membership.
Unblock-Us.com ($5/month) VPN service has stopped working according to a TheVerge article this week but let’s see if the VPN services can come up with a permanent fix.
What about chromecast with an el-cheapo android tablet? It will be a poor performing tablet but it’s essentially operating like a remote control. Netflix and Shomi is definitely supported by chromecast in Canada (I just looked at the box sitting on my desk). It makes no mention of Crave.
In terms of streaming in Canada, the choices are essentially Netflix, Shomi and Crave. Which to choose is really going to require your parents to have a look at what shows and movies are offered by each.
With territorial license deals, some of the Netflix content in the US licensed to Shomi or Crave in Canada. Streaming TV is a growing revenue area. Shomi and Crave are going to be putting a huge amount of effort in to ensure that people in Canada cannot bypass the region restrictions and use Netflix USA. The VPN services may find away around the current problem but I imagine that there will be a never-ending set of attempts to stop/disrupt this type of service so if you go this route, be aware you might experience prolonged periods of inability to access the Netflix US service.
I know you mentioned ‘lowest cost’, but the new Apple TV Siri integration is actually quite good for searching (though it doesn’t do a lot of in-app searches, mostly just iTunes / Netflix from what I can tell so far).
I thought I saw CraveTV / Shomi on my Roku 3, but that could have been on my old Apple TV.
Huh, so part of the Netflix library is split off to these other two services? Bummer. I guess I’m used to bouncing between Channel4, BBC and Amazon Prime here, but that’s because of original UK shows that don’t overlap, but it’s annoying to hear of actually diluting the content.
But yeah, I had pretty much settled on telling them a Roku with Netlfix and Google Play is probably their best bet, provided they like the library from where they’re sitting. I discounted the tablet/chromecast since teaching them to use a tablet sounds like too many frustrated phone calls in the future.
For what it’s worth, Amazon streaming is now available to Prime members in Canada, although the offerings are extremely sparse, and don’t even seem to include Amazon originals like Goliath (but do have other recent offerings).
