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My thirty something year old son told me that I should buy a PlayStation 4 and have Netflix, Amazon Prime, tv shows, etc streamed through the box. He said his father and I would save the money we currently pay for cable tv and we would only need one controller to take the place of our three remotes (tv remote, dvd player remote and cable remote.) We would also be able to play DVDs on it.
It sounds too good to be true. Has anyone done this?
I have a PS5 but don't stream anything through it because my smart TV has all those apps and more, and I just stream it that way.
In terms of saving money for cable, I think that would depend on your preference. Do you like your current cable option, in terms of channels?
I don't have cable and stream myself through various apps. One thing I don't get is live tv and premium channels like Nat Geo, and for access to that without cable (Hulu, etc.) the cost would be just as high if not more than cable. Plus you have to consider the costs of streaming through those other services. Netflix runs me $17.99 a month for the 4K streaming service. Amazon streaming comes with my yearly Amazon Prime membership but you still have to pay for the newest movies. There is a cheaper Hulu subscription but the best one with live channels runs over $65 a month.
So in my case it's definitely been cheaper getting rid of cable since I don't need live as well as premium channels. I'm perfectly happy with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the free movies my Vizio TV provides. I probably use YouTube more than anything else each day, but that costs me nothing (I don't do YouTube through my smart TV because I can't skip the ads like I can on my laptop with ad blocker).
^^^Thx Guy! The link you provided is great. Our son sent us a link also but it didn't go into the details that yours did. Our son made it sound like "Everything just comes through the box Mom, it's so easy!" So maybe there's some detail he left out.
Hmmm, he's a big gamer so maybe he would like to have a station set up for when he visits - just kidding - he's a good boy : )
This all came about when we attached a DVD player to our very smart tv (the tv has all the bells and whistles except for a slot for discs) but in the process we lost the ability to control volume/mute. That's been a game changer for us because watching anything without being able to mute or control the volume is torture. We use Sling for most of our tv watching and they recently added the ability to see local channels. It's not crazy expensive at all but if we don't need it I wouldn't mind getting rid of it.
... I don't have cable and stream myself through various apps. One thing I don't get is live tv and premium channels like Nat Geo, and for access to that without cable (Hulu, etc.) the cost would be just as high if not more than cable. Plus you have to consider the costs of streaming through those other services. Netflix runs me $17.99 a month for the 4K streaming service. Amazon streaming comes with my yearly Amazon Prime membership but you still have to pay for the newest movies. There is a cheaper Hulu subscription but the best one with live channels runs over $65 a month.
Right you are. And some of those streaming providers are moving stuff to OTHER apps you need to pay for. YouTube TV was a pretty good deal early on, but it keeps going up. A whole lot of stuff that used to be included with Amazon Prime isn't available anymore, either.
This all came about when we attached a DVD player to our very smart tv (the tv has all the bells and whistles except for a slot for discs) but in the process we lost the ability to control volume/mute.
Sounds to me like it was not set up correctly. This should continue to work as normal.
It's not a bad idea, and there are even normal looking remotes you could use.
However, a Roku or Chromecast TV device would be even easier. How often you watch DVD's these days?
Sounds to me like it was not set up correctly. This should continue to work as normal.
It's not a bad idea, and there are even normal looking remotes you could use.
However, a Roku or Chromecast TV device would be even easier. How often you watch DVD's these days?
Not often at all but our son brought us a few Westerns that he thought his dad would like and then realized we didn't have a slot in our tv or a DVD player so he bought us a DVD player while he was visiting. We also have some old dvd of the kids when they were young that I'd like to play once in a while and some great movies that aren't always available on Amazon Prime or Netflix so although it's not a necessity, it would be nice to have that option.
What we just can't abide is lack of the mute option
My thirty something year old son told me that I should buy a PlayStation 4 and have Netflix, Amazon Prime, tv shows, etc streamed through the box. He said his father and I would save the money we currently pay for cable tv and we would only need one controller to take the place of our three remotes (tv remote, dvd player remote and cable remote.) We would also be able to play DVDs on it.
It sounds too good to be true. Has anyone done this?
You dont need a Playstation to be able to stream Netflix or Amazon if you already have a smart tv. How does he figure this would save you money on what you pay for cable? You would still need to pay for a Netflix membership and you can already do this through your smart tv, just download the Netflix app.
Maybe he's thinking you guys could cut the cable cord and just have high speed internet. This is how you would save money. I dont have a smart tv but I did get a couple of Amazon Prime Alexa Fire Cubes. Got rid of cable and am just streaming everything.
You dont need a Playstation to be able to stream Netflix or Amazon if you already have a smart tv. How does he figure this would save you money on what you pay for cable? You would still need to pay for a Netflix membership and you can already do this through your smart tv, just download the Netflix app.
Maybe he's thinking you guys could cut the cable cord and just have high speed internet. This is how you would save money. I dont have a smart tv but I did get a couple of Amazon Prime Alexa Fire Cubes. Got rid of cable and am just streaming everything.
He knows we'll still keep Netflix and Amazon Prime. He was thinking we would save on Sling (about $90 per month) which has a bunch of channels that we rarely use. We do have highspeed internet for our computers and phones but we don't have cable tv - instead it's a service like Apple TV called Sling.
All this is so we can get the volume control back We went back through the tv set up steps and did it all over again. Still no volume control so we have to get up and find the little tabs on the side of the tv and adjust them.
When you say you are streaming everything does that refer to news channels also? I'd like to be able to watch the news, both national and local, once in a while.
There is no need to use a Playstation to stream these things. Most modern smart TVs will have an operating system to stream most services.
I would either do that or a Roku Stick.
I agree and we have that right now. Everything streams perfectly and I don't mind paying for Sling to get national and local channels. Our big problem is getting the volume control back from our remotes so maybe we're going about it the wrong way. We lost the volume/mute ability when our son attached a DVD player. We removed the DVD player and still don't have the volume/mute back. Maybe a new remote will solve the problem?
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So maybe there's some detail he left out. 
You would still need to pay for a Netflix membership and you can already do this through your smart tv, just download the Netflix app. 
