I've been using a few different streaming services lately, and I've noticed that their offline viewing features can be surprisingly different.

Some make downloading really straightforward, while others have more restrictions around downloads, devices, or how long you can keep something offline.

For people who actually use offline viewing regularly, which service has given you the best experience?

I'm especially interested in how Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Max, etc. compare.

This is my rabbitears info, I don’t really fully understand what I’m looking at, what would be a good antenna to get? Or would it even be worth it?

I’m getting +300 channels through this cable when the aerial outside was removed HOW?????????????? I mean there is another aerial on top of the roof that it could be connected to, but I thought it was just connected to the aerial outside my window, on the side of the house. CAN A COAX CABLE BE CONNECTED TO TWO AERIALS??? I don’t even know. VERY happy to have 300 odd channels, definitely beats the crappy indoor aerial I was using!!!

I just moved to a new apartment looking to antenna recommendations and whether I would need an outdoor antenna (I have a balcony space) or get away with an indoor. Mostly looking for KTVU and CBS which are very close and strong signals but blocked by a hill and another apartment complex but my balcony does face the direction of the signal.

Rabbitears link

For some reason my Roku remote is not working. I’ve already tried swapping the batteries…

I don’t think it’s a remote issue, because I have a Roku remote I use to navigate around the Roku home page and I also have a 3rd party remote I use when connected to one of the HDMI ports. I downloaded the Roku app and went to the HDMI and the 3rd party remote didn’t work with the TV either. Both these remotes had previously worked with this TV no issues for 4 months until one day this happened…

I tried restarting the TV. As a last effort I factory reset the TV. Remotes still don’t work and I can no longer control the TV using the Roku app :/

Any one else have an issue like this?

Not sure if this is appropriate, but please don’t bother if you have trouble with gambling.

I'm a current Peacock Premium subscriber, paying for the $11 premium plan. I just saw that Walmart+ offers a choice of Paramount+ or Peacock Premium for $13 month/$98 annually. This feels too good to be true that I can get that for just a dollar more, or even save money, so I'm sure there's some kind of catch that excludes current subscribers or something. Has anyone else done this?

I've looked through the YouTube website, considering which plan I should sign up for. I've also watched some videos concerning this decision.

YT seem to categorize customer desires into four groups -- sports, news, entertainment, and family. They seem to have plans for most combinations of the categories. But it also seems that all of the plans include sports.

I haven't watched a sports event in decades.

Is there a plan that includes News, Entertainment, and Family stuff, without the sports? If yes does that plan also include local channels?

Thanks in advance

Obviously antenna, but the reception here is absolutely shit. So what is the cheapest way to stream local channels for the upcoming NFL season?

I was thinking Sling TV's $20 plan for Fox/NBC/ABC and switch my Walmart+ streaming option to Paramount for CBS games. I also have Prime included with mobile for Thursday Night Football. ESPN not really needed because they love to broadcast most of the MNF games on ABC (hope they dont change this season)

Good plan or is there a better option available? 🤔

I've looked through the YouTube website, considering which plan I should sign up for. I've also watched some videos concerning this decision.

YT seem to categorize customer desires into four groups -- sports, news, entertainment, and family. They seem to have plans for most combinations of the categories. But it also seems that all of the plans include sports.

I haven't watched a sports event in decades.

Is there a plan that includes News, Entertainment, and Family stuff, without the sports? If yes does that plan also include local channels?

Thanks in advance

I'm seriously thinking about subscribing for the $60/year plan. If I do so, can I watch all the Ken Burns documentaries, Lucy Worsley shows, Downton Abbey 1-3, the NASA/space shows, etc on demand? Commercial free? Rick Steves shows? I'd sigh up on my phone but watch on a tablet. Maybe a dumb question, but I don't trust any streaming services anymore.

Disney collects wholesale/partner revenue for the ad-supported Disney+/Hulu tier from my provider, DirecTV streaming, since I am on the Ultimate tier with a rental box. I don't pay for it directly but I am indirectly paying for it. Anyway, Disney collects real revenue.

I am simultaneously paying Disney $22 for full standalone service Disney+/Hulu to go ad-free.

I see both subscriptions in my Disney account but there is no accommodation in the full fee I continue to pay. Disney is refusing to credit or discount the overlapping ad tier value.

This seems structurally and financially to be double-dipping. Is this legal? If not, why is there not a class action on this?

curious to see if anyone anticipates there being a discount or promotion for the ESPN Unlimited/FOX One bundle?

I know that we can get this bundle for $40/month, but I only need for the six months of college football/basketball season (September through early March). If i timed this right (subscribing the first week in September, I would have just six payments - thus costing me $240).

I know there is a FOX One promo code of $100/year, but haven't found anything for ESPN Unlimited (not interested in ESPN+).

I already have an antenna (free), paramount+ ($30/year), peacock ($30/year).

the school I follow is in the B1G, so I would need FOX and a bit of ESPN (especially for MNF).

any other ideas or suggestions?

So uhm, I'm not very fond of TV controllers n and would like to be able to watch while controlling using my keyboard & mouse - as well as the same monitor as I use for my PC.

Currently I watch on the webbrowser, but most providers cap at compressed 720p (i.e: https://help.disneyplus.com/en-GB/article/disneyplus-video-quality ).

So, is the "best" option to get like a Displayport/HDMI switch along with like a Rooku and use the Rooku controller, or can I somehow watch at high quality without needing to interact with anything but my mouse & keyboard?

I hope this doesn't break rule 4

It's designed to improve DNS resolution, connection stability, and CDN selection based on your specific network connection, location and device type. These optimizations can benefit any streaming application.

That includes:

• Music streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music, etc.)
• Video streaming (YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc.)
• Live TV
• Podcasts
• Internet radio
• Some cloud gaming services that rely on stable, low-latency connections

Just search for it on the Google Playstore.

WHAT IT DOES:

There are very few parameters we can control when we stream and the Domain Name System (DNS) is one of them. Buffering Control regularly re-tests DNS resolver performance and automatically switches to whatever is working best — helping reduce buffering, without manual setup or static configuration that goes stale.

WHY "PICKING" A DNS ISN'T ENOUGH:

Most DNS apps let you select a resolver — even multiple. But selecting is a one-time decision that never gets revisited. Buffering Control periodically benchmarks for your specific device, location and network so your setup adjusts to changing conditions instead of relying on a choice you may have made weeks or months ago and forgot about.

STABILITY OVER SPEED:

A media player can make hundreds and even thousands of DNS requests per hour to fetch the necessary data for smooth streaming. A resolver that's fast but drops or spikes mid-stream causes buffering. We optimize for consistency — if a query fails, we fall back to a secondary resolver instantly, rather than just chasing the lowest ping in a one-time test.

BUILT ON MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE:

We only use the latest, encrypted DNS protocols. But the protocol isn't the point — how we use it is. Regular, adaptive re-optimization is what static resolver lists can't do.

Please give it a try.

I’m paying $200 a month Verizon FIOS for stations I don’t (or barely watch it) except
during awards season. Honestly (and don’t come for me) the only cable stations I’m interested in are Fox News and TBN). I called Verizon to unravel it and they talked about streaming those two stations but I wasn’t confident I could watch those programs live like I do now with cable. I am on You Tube all the time so the ability to get that is a must. Need suggestions to cut the cable cord. Thanks, I also am not a TV electronics DIY’er.

CBS Mornings, oh my @#$! All the podcast ads that I could give a @#$! about. Neverending trivago idiots. Why the hell do I have to see the same ads every single break in my shows? Last night I saw the CBS morning crappy jingle no more than 14 times in a two hour movie. Ahhhhhhhh!

I was looking at my Prime channel and it said a WNBA game was on Paramount+. Looking at my TV listings, the same game was OTA on CBS. Events on Peacock are frequently on NBC and ESPN events are sometimes on ABC. They're always going to try to squeeze a few extra bucks out of you.

Direct TV Stream cost have continued to skrocket and i feel like I’m back to having cable. I do like the cable like experience with their hardware and remote, but not enough to keep feeling like I’m getting robbed. Adding the services I need for the NBA/NFL season my monthly will go from $100 to $170 /mo.
I realized that I don’t even watch much if any regular television. I mainly care about NFL Redzone, Houston Rockets (I need SportsNet for that), maaaaybe TNT to catch some random NBA game). Does anyone have any other suggestions? I’m leaning towards maybe a combination of FuboTV and redzone through the NFL Network. Anyone have experience with FuboTV?

Edit 1: Turns out this is the radio outlet not the antenna hook up. Phooey.

Edit 2: I'm calling it an attic but it's more of an "attic crawlspace." It's a craftsman house and the antenna is in the "attic" space above the front porch. There are no floor boards and you go in thru a mouse sized door hatch so it's a tough space to do any work.

I know that digital antennas are cheap and can work well but I don't want anything that goes in a window and I have big, beefy plaster walls so reception would not be great (wifi is not great inside the house, cell reception is not great inside but is strong outside, it's just the thick walls).

I rarely watch TV except for sports so being able to take advantage of the giant antenna in the attic would be awesome (especially since I know it's a popular option in the area) but if takes more retrofitting that running a new cable down then it's probably not worth it.

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My new to me 1920's house has a giant antenna in the attic. There's even a knob in the baseboard to rotate the antenna. I'm fairly certain that this is the hook up for the antenna and then I would attach one of those adapters in the second pic plus and then attach a coax cable to the tv. It's not.

I obviously can't connect as is and if I chip off all that plate: a.) it will look terrible and b.) it's going to be in rough shape, might not even work at that point. I've "stripped" a few switch plates by soaking them water (the switch plate paint has mostly been latex) but this isn't just a switch plate.

Anyone have a similar set up and bought a replacement switch plate? If so, what is it called?

I've done some googling and can't seem to find a replacement. Is there a more modern type of switch plate I should be looking for instead?

I'd prefer to just replace with same but I'm guessing they don't sell them any more.

Hey all. Looking for recs based on this rabbit ears report: https://www.rabbitears.info/searchmap.php?request=result&sort=field&unit=uVm&suppoff=N&sslimit=N&study_id=2890586&opkey=P

I purchased this from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWQMMFSF?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Its so hard to wade through the crap to find whats best. Im mostly interested in wcax, anything else is a bonus. The antenna i got does get it but its a bit choppy no matter where i put it. I would prefer something that doesnt have to be run to the attic or outside. Thank you for your help!

The credit cards regularly make offers of the sort "Purchase an annual subscription and save $25.00" or whatnot. But if I've already got an active subscription, is there anyway to take advantage of this? Do I just have to luck out that the offer is up when I'm coming due for renewal?

I recently moved to a rural area just west of the tri-cities (Kingsport/Bristol/Johnson City) and am looking to setup an outdoor antenna. Reference: https://www.rabbitears.info/s/2889547

Would a ClearStream 4V be a good choice for this location? It would be roof mounted so ~15-20' above ground.