Best Streaming for viewing TV Shows

[icecream-guy]

Now that I've finally dumped Directv, got better things to do with $140 (US) a month.

Not sure what the best solution for replacement,   I understand there are aggregators like Amazon Firestick.
not sure where netflix and roku fit in,  they seem to provide some branded viewing solutions,
then there are the a la carte channel viewing, where I can watch what I pay for. probably using an aggregator,

trying to figure all this out, There seem to be many solutions, need some education and recommendations.

and I'm looking for a DVR solution. so I can watch what I want when I want.

[deanwebb]

We dropped Dish last year. We've replaced it with YouTube Premium Family - no commercials for my whole family on YouTube, regardless of platform, includes YT Music. Awesome value.

Next up are the streaming channels - Hulu and Netflix are the best for series watching. We have Amazon Prime for the shipping all-in and added BritBox on top of that. Paramount+ is good, but not as part of Amazon - it's get more stuff if you access it directly and do NOT have it aggregated with Amazon. Go figure... HBOMax is similar with Hulu - most of the stuff is on Hulu, but some shows/movies require a login to the HBOMax website, and that is not possible on all TVs. For that, I use my PC and then cast to the television or we use the PC directly connected to the other TV, depends on the room we're in.

Amazon Prime is pretty much my Blockbuster Video/RedBox alternative. Most rentals are $3-4 bucks, and I can choose to buy a movie that I plan to watch more than once, like a Christmas movie we want to watch every year.

My wife and kids enjoy Disney+ a lot, especially for the Star Wars and Marvel stuff. I could live without it.

But we had the Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix *before* we dropped Dish, so it's the Paramount, HBOMax, Britbox, and Disney that have replaced it. Paramount gives us the local CBS affiliate, so we still have local news and AFC football with commercials. But now I'm watching game highlights to keep up with football. Meanwhile, I get curling action in full on the Canada Curling YT channel and there are guys that get extended highlights of Australian Rules Football matches pretty quickly after the games, so I can follow those, as well. We are *not* looking to get any sort of sports packages.

With most hotels now having smart TVs deployed, I just need to log on when I'm in the room, and I have the full library to choose from. International travel is still tricky - they'll even track downloaded material and block it outside the viewing area, so I have to keep my Kindle Fire off the wi-fi if I've stored videos on it.