Is there anything worthwhile on History? The impression I’d got was that it had long ago degenerated into reality shows, UFOs and occasionally Nazis.
Sadly you are correct. It used to be great. Every network has gone over the top crazy with reality TV bullshit. History occasionaly had things I tuned into though.
I’m a war history junkie. I miss some of the shows related to that or general history.
It’s a mix of the two now, I believe. I haven’t watched since they went all reality TV and UFOs, but my brother tells me Vikings is his favorite show on TV right now, and that’s on History. And another colleague of mine loves WWII in HD, Vietnam in HD, and shows like Modern Marvels that are about architecture and engineering.
Yeah, I used a FireTV for a while and dropped it for a Roku. I can’t stand the UI on the FireTV. Do you remember when gamers were up in arms that the XBox 360 dashboard was like 10 things to do and 100 advertisements? The Amazon UI is worse.
Roku has 1 very prominent ad on the main screen but nothing otherwise and is completely great for navigating around.
Yeah, Vikings is pretty good (if of questionable historical accuracy)–there’s another season coming, I think.
Also there’s a new show called SIX with the awesome Walton Goggins of The Shield and Justified fame. I haven’t watched enough to know if it’s good yet.
Otherwise History still has way too much Pawn Stars and similar BS. I remember when it always had some interesting historical documentary on.
The new fireTV UI is much better, although I did prefer the old one to Roku’s antiquated UI. YMMV as always.
Roku UI was better. I’ve been using an Amazon fire instead thought as I gave my Roku away.
The Fire FINALLY integrated Netflix results on the voice search so it’s more usable. Hulu is still ignore thought. I think Roku will search all sources right?
Roku universal search is definitely better, but that’s a feature not really UI.
It really depends on how you use it. What I really want is a continuously-updated TiVo-style “now playing” listing every bit of content that I subscribe to, sorted with newest at the top. And I want it to work across everything.
Nothing does this, although the new AppleTV “TV” app shows some promise.
Roku’s feed basically does that, though it’s far from perfect.
Yes, it’s the streamer box holy grail. They’re all trying to do it-- remember AndroidTV’s original concept was to expose that list in their homepage, but Netflix, HBO, and the rest wouldn’t play ball. They wanted people to go into their apps.
Apple TV’s “TV” app still needs work, as Hulu and Netflix don’t talk to it. WatchAid is an independent app that mostly pulls this off on my Apple TV.
Since there’s no service or device which universally searches everything, I’ve started using trakt.tv instead. It’s really accurate in my experience for telling me which shows I want to watch are on which devices.
You can get the History Channel and watch their shows. This is how I’ve watched the seasons of Vikings. Lifetime also has a channel too. It’s true some cable networks don’t have a lot of channels but a number of them do.
I had it for a while via Sling. But for the 2 things I watched on either History or an occasional HGTV or Food Network show, that was a steep cost ($20/mo for the basic Sling tier.)
As mentioned earlier though, not all channels are accessible, and some aren’t easy to get content for without something like that at a steeper cost to do so. Consider the alternative for some shows on Hulu, which can be watched close to air date for MUCH cheaper.
EDIT: @Nesrie, wait did you mean they have their own stream alternative now? If so I’ll check out the details on it!
Yeah I don’t pay a thing for History or Lifetime. They’re free channels on Roku(likely other devices too). There are several networks like that that offer their channels, and content, without cost… including PBS and NBC. Please note their offerings are usually time sensitive so I can only watch an episode for maybe 2-3 weeks after it airs, starting the next day with many of them. To get the rest of the episodes does require a cable subscription which I don’t have.
I haven’t had any issues really watching it the next day for the most part. I don’t watch sports at all so I can’t comment on that piece.
I had no idea. I love you right now, this will make me extremely happy even with the limitations. I’ll try it out in a bit at the house.
I’m to happy to help. I’ve been a cord cutter since around for gosh probably pushing 7 years or so now. I can perfectly afford it but I refuse to support cable tv price gauging.
Life time, NBC, History, PBS… free on Roku and Amazon fire. PBS requires an account now I think, free so far. On the news front pretty limited but CBS News 24/7 is one i go to during the rare moments I want to hear chatter about news. There are probably other free channels but for the most part I use Hulu and those listed. I use PLEX to access CBS because they’re jerks and keep pimping their All Access crap. I won’t pay that monthly fee for the two shows I watch.
Now TNT, SyFy FXNOW require a paid login. CW might be free… not sure don’t watch those before or after cable cutting… those are the ones I just know off the top of my head.
Might be on a per-affiliate basis, but my local PBS station has a lot of free stuff, while also putting some stuff (like early access to the full season of Victoria, or older documentaries) behind a recurring donation/membership.
Yep, CW still lets Netflix or Hulu have old seasons, but the current season is through their app – and as you noted, the app doesn’t require a login like some other channels.
Same as you, my local PBS is awesome. In fact, my OTA channels are all quote good. And with nothing but an amped flat plastic wall antenna.
Thanks for the extra tips, @Nesrie.
No login required? I ignored most apps from individual channels like CW because I always assumed they required a login and a cable subscription. For example, the Fox channel apps are like that.
So if CW doesn’t require a login, what’s the catch? Do they have commercials? Or worse, do they have a few commercials that repeat over and over?