In fact it is the way I watch TV that has changed really. I have a TV in my "man cave" where I spend most of my time, but I have not watched anything like traditional broadcast TV for over a year now, not even Sky. There is one small exception exception of when I was on TV and wanted to record it. Even that, the last few times, was not actually done using my TV - instead someone managed to capture it for me, or the TV station provided a link to youtube, etc. For a lot of people, only watching TV when you are on it is not watching any TV!
I do watch TV, and I have TV in the background, but it is Netflix or iTunes.
For news and current events I catch up on Facebook, Twitter, and so on. I do not watch TV for that.
For background I have some TV series on Netflix with the annoyance of ever few hours clicking that yes I am watching still. I have just finished ignoring Voyager, the whole series...
For more direct entertainment, that I actually sit and watch, I have iTunes and Netflix, and some newer films and TV shows. Some I still watch, but not traditional broadcast TV in any way.
Seriously, if not for my wife and occasional grandchildren watching live TV, or iPlayer, I could ditch the TV licence. She pays for it anyway!
The world has changed, and as an ISP that is important to us - we see more and more streamed video as main IP traffic. The world is changing is many ways, and it is interesting to be a part of it.
Glad it's not just me that ignores whole box sets while working. These days I very rarely watch live TV - now it's mainly iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube.
ReplyDeletePretty much the same goes for radio - I listen to Today in the morning and then PM in the evening. All other radio/speech-audio are podcasts played from my phone.
The times they are a changin'.
You are quite the same as me, it's Netflix and Amazon all the time now. I haven't watched any traditional TV at all for the last few years. The BBC had become unwatchable and Channel 4 seemed to have deteriorated too.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting commentary in New Scientist (18 Nov 2016) on the effect of "62 per cent of Americans getting their news from social media at least occasionally": Facebook and similar platforms offer new material to the user based on the history of that user's preferences. So we end up reading predominantly the news that re-inforces our existing opinions.
ReplyDeleteNot a new problem, of course, but a new degree of refinement to an old one. And one with dangerous implications for the polarisation of society and the future of democracy.
No TV licence here, as we have no perceived need for broadcast or iPlayer TV; occasional films and such like via DVD or download. I have a projector and rolling screen rather than a great dark lump of plastic taking up space in the room. (Which also means no HDCP, built-in spyware, or any of that nonsense: just a Linux box.)
ReplyDeleteI don't watch live TV, but I do watch recorded TV on a Freeview HD PVR. There's enough being broadcast to interest me for the time I spend watching TV.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with internet streamed TV is the bit rate is too low. The picture quality is poorer than Freeview HD and the audio is stereo only whereas I like 5.1 audio on my surround sound system. Even so-called 4K streamed TV has an actual picture quality worse than Freeview HD because it is compressed so much.
Streamed TV is a feast of mediocrity as far as picture and audio quality.
It is clearly going to depend on your connection, and I have no problem with the quality of netflix or iTunes, but that is the point - more bandwidth needed.
DeleteI see slightly higher bitrates from Netflix than Freeview HD offers, plus I get 5.1 surround from them where available. All4, however, is awful.
DeleteAmazon is quite often higher than Netflix again. Some of the h265 2k streams can reach 10 megabit/s. You need a full FireTV for those.
DeleteI've seen the 4k with HDR streams on Amazon Video peak at 30mbit with 20mbit averages - this is not dissimilar to the Astra 4K HEVC test transmissions over satellite.
DeleteUnfortunately there is no decent HD streamable alternative for live sports. For me, until that happens I will continue to watch TV. All my other media is consumed via streaming however (TV, Movies and Music).
ReplyDeleteWe do have a DVB-T coax feed into our TV just incase.. but it hasnt been used in ~2yrs. Our NVidia Shield TV (awesome little boxes) streams 100% of our tv content now. Netflix/SALTS/Downloaded torrents. I dont miss broadcast TV one bit :) It even lets me stream new PC games at 1080p 60fps from Nvidias Cloud. Its almost magic knowing all your inputs and all the video are going to a DC somewhere and back and you cant tell 99.9% of the time
ReplyDeleteI often have Twitch on in the background. If not that, netflix. Live TV isn't something I've watched in a while.. not felt the need.
ReplyDeleteI am starting to find 1Tb a month isn't enough though :p
Well, we hope we can move on from 1TB some time. Always a challenge.
DeleteI managed to find the options in Netflix account settings eventually to set default bandwidth per Netflix profile. We now have a profile we watch run of the mill non visually impressive stuff with set to Medium B/W and a HD profile for when we know a movie or TV Show warrants the extra detail. Just doing that has almost halved our b/w usage on the 1tb service. Was close or over a month or two and since the change has been few 100GB left each month.
DeleteN.B. the default "Kids" profile lacked this control so i deleted it and created my own Kids one with maturity settings and it then allowed B/W default setting
DeleteThis is exactly why I have opted for SoHo 2TB. I am regularly watching streams from Netflix, Amazon, etc and if that's not enough my missus is normal watching a separate stream to me!
ReplyDelete