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What Is Your Favorite Video-Streaming Source?

Online streaming is quickly becoming a major source of movies and television shows in home theaters everywhere as TVs, Blu-ray players, A/V receivers, and game consoles add streaming apps to their slate of features. Of course, the quality generally isn't up to Blu-ray standards, but it's getting better all the time as codecs improve and more people increase the bandwidth into their homes. And it's tough to beat the convenience of streaming whatever you want whenever you want to any device you want.

If you watch streamed video content in your home theater, what is your favorite online source? Naturally, with so many sources available, I can't list them all here, so I've included an "Other" selection—if you choose that one, I really hope you leave a comment and let us know what that source is. Also, I encourage you to leave a comment explaining why you prefer a particular source—high picture quality, low cost, wide selection, short start-time delay, etc.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Is Your Favorite Video-Streaming Source?

COMMENTS
notabadname's picture

I watch various old episodes of TV on Netflix, which totals more time than my Vudu viewing of movies. But for me, I would give up Netflix to keep the top quality (as far as streaming goes) Vudu. Have really enjoyed the convenience and quality of viewing movies not quite good enough to purchase on blu-ray. Nothing beats blu-ray, IMO, and it is still the way I view, and own, more collectable movies. But Vudu has been very nice. If you haven't tried it, give their free movie demo a whirl.

Scott Wilkinson's picture
Thanks for the suggestion! I hear nothing but good things about Vudu, so I will definitely give it a try.
abentrod's picture

Streaming movies is downright evil and crazy but I will stream the twit network all day long. http://live.twit.tv it's best on Mondays at 1:30PST

Scott Wilkinson's picture
How kind of you to cite Mondays at 1:30 PM PT on live.twit.tv, which is when and where my podcast, Home Theater Geeks, can be seen as we record it. I'm very gratified that you enjoy the show!
mike1's picture

my fav was netflix put no more since price when up.

Jarod's picture

Notabadname took the words right out of my mouth. I use Netflix the most cause it's the cheapest but I hate its quality. Constant dropouts in video on every show I watch. Oddly the audio never does though. Netflix seems to monitor your connection speed on the fly and it's a pain. We have the top teir of Internet speed, 6g, and it still dropsout many times every movie. We have never watched a movie on Netflix without video dropouts. Vudo on the other hand has incredible quality with no dropouts, even in HD. The pq is comparable to DirecTV and I love the menu system. Many Blurays I purchase come with a Vudo voucher with $5 or $10 in credit that ive used. Its a great deal. We only stream movies on our Samsung LED in our bedroom. In my dedicated home theater it's Bluray or the occasional DVD only.

skirmash's picture

In the end, I have to vote for Amazon Instant Video. Why? Because a streaming service is only as good as the content and while I regularly enjoy Netflix, the streaming content is severely limited.

msardo's picture

I like Netflix for Content (while not perfect, they have a good selection of TV shows to stream - although severely lacking in CBS programming like NCIS) and movies is getting better, but they seem to be lacking in the more recent releases.

I like Vudu for top quality sound and picture experience. As many others have stated or hinted at, Vudu comes the closest to a Blu-Ray experience via streaming.

MatthewWeflen's picture

I clicked Hulu. And when I say Hulu, I mean Hulu, not Hulu Plus.

We have a Windows 7 desktop hooked into our 52EX700, and control it with a wireless keyboard. We use it for Hulu, PBS.org, and various niche sites (such as lifetime.com for Project Runway).

Regular vanilla Hulu is a great resource for time-delayed network television, as well as some cable programming from networks like Food, HGTV, and so on. I hope to the home theater gods that the media companies don't kill free Hulu.

We also use Netflix (through the TV and BD player), but Hulu gets more viewing time.

As far as Hulu Plus goes, I honestly don't know what the appeal is. I don't need Miramax movies or seasons of Three's Company. I want recent shows.

thx2468's picture

When $ is not a problem Netflix streams very welland has tons of content but real HD and 5.1 content will be more appreciated.

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