Look single people, looking to cut costs? Your TV is one area where you can start slicing and dicing.
When I first moved in to my new place, I had internet only and was only really aware of Youtube, Netflix and Hulu. Nothing else had popped up on my radar as yet. I ran all of my entertainment from a DVD player or an iphone with an adapter I ran to my TV. This was a very basic set up and really, all I needed at the time.
But I did get the itch. For the new stuff. And that itch grew...
I can't tell you exactly what made me discover everything else although I had Game Of Thrones on DVD until the new season at that time, so that's a fair guess as to why I wanted to go above and beyond. Oh, and a nice healthy dose of The Walking Dead as well I'd bet.
I am human afterall, and I do have my addictions...
I started learning about the streaming sites from a the comment a friend of mine left on a Facebook post. I started checking them out. Some are popup heavy, so he suggested Google Chrome with adblocker. I I discovered Yify for movies and Couchtuner for TV shows and it went from there. Basic Google searches for "watch ______ free online" and the like brought me a new site here and a new site there. I found the dependable ones and stuck to them for my regular needs. I also found some of these sites allowed me to download the movie, which is a really nice benefit!
Is this legal? I'm not an attorney so I'll just state this: Anytime someone on the internet tells you to do something, automatically consider it illegal. Good, now we're covered. lol
THE LAPTOP
At my old workplace, they had a silent auction for old equipment. I put in a bid of $25.00 for an HP laptop and I actually won! It's not a bad latpop, just a bit old but it did everything I needed it to do. I will recommend you run at least Windows XP and have 4 GBs of ram to be safe. One like this here should do nicely if you don't have access to any cheap ones locally.
So I began preparing it to run my home entertainment system. I installed:
Divx (my go to movie player)
Adobe Shockwave (many sites use this, and that's why many won't come up on the iPhone but will come up on some Android devices)
Firefox w/Youtube downloader plugin
Fully updated Windows Media Player
And any codecs needed.
Mostly, like I said, I use Divx. If I'm having a problem trying to play a movie I may have downloaded, I try it in another player to see if it's a good copy or not. I rarely have any issues though unless it's just a bad copy.
The Youtube downloader addon is nice because my kids watch a lot of shows which are also on Youtube. I can download hours of entertainment for them so we have it on roadtrips, during power outages, or whatever. And thanks to cam rips, we also have the choice of watching movies that just hit the theaters thus saving money! My 5 year old doesn't like to sit through movies so much so yeah, it would be a horrible waste to take him and his big sister to the movies. This way they get to see it, we save money and if he gets bored he can go do something else.
TV & Movie Sites:
(the URLs change occasionally [.com, .whatever, etc] because they get found out and shut down. If a site doesn't work, just Google search it and you'll find the new address)
Yify-Great movie site!
Couchtuner-Where I catch TV shows I'm in to.
Putlocker-Another movie site I use.
WatchSeries-My back up TV show site.
FOU Movies-Where I download movies safely. A bonus is, if you have a DVD creation program and kids, you can make a plethora of dvds to take along on roadtrips.
Audio Sites:
Pandora-For music (there are ads)
TuneIn Radio-For the occasion overnight broadcast or local news
iTunes-For podcasts
Tons of free content on here. Some TV shows end up there but it's not reliable for adult stuff like TWD or GOT. Kids programming is where it's at for TV. I also use it to to follow my favorite Youtubers of course! This is how I watched the debates last fall since multiple channels were live streaming them! It's also a good source for music. If you don't want to use a downloader, you can copy and paste links in to KeepVid and download the whole video or just an MP3. This is how I get my MP3s for free to put on my player. Many podcasters are also putting their podcasts up on here as well as people puting up old radio shows. Art Bell is one of my faves I can only find on Youtube.
Special Events:
How I watch special events...this one can be tricky. Last night it seemed as if as soon as a stream went up for the fight, it came down. The best luck I had was a French stream on Canal. These are usually random hit or miss. The day of the special event, do a search for livestreaming. French and Russian streams are usually the best. Reddit is also a good resource and they combine multiple sub-Reddits in to one to keep track like they did last night (and where I got the Canal link). Some Facebook groups will have links as well.
Kodi:
This is what the Infinity boxes and Firesticks and similar found here are using. I know it works, but I've heard it needs to be updated occasionally. I have no first hand information on this because I never really played around with it. Eventually I will, but for now I'm content with what I have.
Bonus to downloading movies:
We have 3 Amazon Fire Tablets I got on sale last Christmas (about $33 for 4, sold one for $45 so each was about $29 in the end) and use them to watch downloaded content when on roadtrips as well. Micro SD cards are incredibly cheap and can provide kids with hours of entertainment to make trips go by fast and peacefully. I also suggest getting them special kid headphones (the kind that limits how loud something can go) so you won't have to hear what they have going and vice versa. Also more to come on the tablet topic, since the kids tablets are used for reading, playing educational games, etc all for free! Also keep in mind these are good for power outages, just in case! Playing games via lantern light will only get you so far! HA HA!
Free Local TV:
Many of us have local stations we can pull in for free over the air. Some TVs have the antenna built in while others do not. I'd suggest checking and, if you need one, getting an antenna here. They are less than $20.00 (linked antenna is $12.99) and are worth it if you need local TV in case of a weather energency, etc.
AM/FM Radio
My TV is hooked up through a stereo which is good enough for me. I can listen to local radio, CDs, etc. I'm also a ham radio operator so I have short wave listening capabilities just for the hell of it.
FTA (Free To Air)
There's always satellites broadcasting various TV shows out there. The signal can't be stopped. So with a dish (larger work better, but small throw away Dish Network dishes work fine as well), and this little gadget, you can receive the signal and watch various programs from all over the world. I rarely use this but normally I'll only take this set up with me if I'm away from home (like camping) in my vehicle and something is going on I want to keep up on.
I'm sure there's more out there, but this is good enough to get your started. This will help you completely eliminate the cable or dish bill, along with the movie theater, and give you complete access to any show or movie, anytime. Completely on demand!
Oh, and for anti-virus I use any free one that comes along with a good review rating as well as Windows Defender. Also you may need an HDMI to HDMI cable, VGA to RCA or any number of cable adapters. If you need any help figuring out what you need, please feel free to comment below and I'll try and get you an answer!
Enjoy!
SGSD
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@rulesforrebels here you go!