Baby boomers desperately clinging to cable or HD antennas could feel increasingly disenfranchised as the young folks leave them in the dust with their fancy-schmancy cable-cutting streaming TV.
Streaming what?
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http://www.arkansas…">Television evolution
Streaming TV is compressed video sent over the internet and displayed in real time by some sort of viewer device -- in my case, my laptop computer that I hook up to the TV with a cable so I can watch it on the bigger screen.
Nielsen reports that half of U.S. households already have streaming devices. I can foresee a day when all TV content will be delivered over the internet.
Getting caught up with the times is easy if you have (1) high-speed internet and (2) a streaming device to view the content. If so, all you have to do is subscribe to a streaming service and you're all set.
Of course, it helps if you also have a millennial child or grandchild to explain it all.
• Streaming devices. These little boxes plug into your TV set and connect it to your Wi-Fi to provide the signal. The new fangled Smart TVs come with streaming built-in, and most Blu-ray players can also stream.
There are plenty of streaming devices from which to choose, but Roku seems to be high on many lists. Check it out at roku.com.
• Streaming services. Again, there are a number of services out there, but to keep it simple, let's stick with the Big Three -- Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
Netflix: Still top dog, Netflix, which is commercial free, costs $7.99 to $11.99 a month and offers a mind-boggling array of movies and TV shows. Details at netflix.com.
Hulu: Plans range from the basic $8 a month to $12 a month for commercial-free programming. One major advantage is Hulu offers a large selection of the current seasons of many TV shows as well as hundreds of movies. Details at hulu.com.
Amazon Prime: Membership ($99/year) provides access to movies, TV shows, Kindle books and free two-day shipping on stuff you buy from Amazon. Details at amazon.com.
-- Michael Storey
Style on 03/21/2017