I had never heard of this before, @Von Jones ; so I just looked it up to see what Vudu was. It looks like it works similarly to Amazon Movies, in that you can either rent or buy the movie. Does it have movies that you can't get elsewhere, and is there some kind of a movie sharing part to this ? You were saying that your son selects from your movies and downloads them for $5; please explain how this works ?
From how my son explained it to me after you sign up you can download DVDs or blu-ray movies to your account for you and a select few to view. You can also buy or rent movies online via the site. There are two types to download SD (standard definition) costs $2 and $5 for HD (high definition). How it works. After you log into your account you select from the pull down menu to download a movie. The DVD or blu-ray disc is inserted into the CD drive. The program will search its database of movies to let you know it can be downloaded; it also tells you if something is wrong with the disc like if it is a bootleg movie which are not accepted. If you have a DVD and you want it downloaded in HD you can for $5 otherwise $2 for SD. It's really easy. I've bought DVD movies at the flea market for $1 and my son downloads them in HD, if available on VUDU which most are. There is no fee to sign up you can find more information on the website VUDU.com.
I wasn't aware of the download feature, but I'm not looking to store most movies these days, so it never occurred to me to look into something like this. There are a few favorites that I'd be willing to collect, but for the most part, I'm going through and selling or donating a lot of the ones I already have. I might have to purchase a few disks so I could download those I would like to store.
I was discussing my plan to cut my cable television service, and a friend shared this with me. It's an article about how AT&T plans to cap data on plans. It seems as if they're targeting cord cutters aka streamers, in order to recoup some money lost when customers cancel their television service. The numbers seem high to me, so I'm not sure I'd ever exceed this amount of data even once I cut the cord, but I really need to sit down and analyze my use, adding in extra for a higher level of streaming than I currently do, before I can determine how it would affect me. http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/29/11326728/att-u-verse-unlimited-home-internet-service
I think that Comcast has done something like that as well. I remember getting a notice from them a while back that there were several levels of internet service, and not just for the internet speed; but also for the amount of treaming that a peron did. Thankfully, we don't have U-verse, although we do have ATT internet now; and we are locked into the price for the next two years; so they shouldn't be doing anything with our at all.
We have U-verse. I read the link @Diane Lane posted and there it had AT&T's blog within the article. It basically stated that if you have internet through AT&T movie or U-verse that rates are going to increase beginning May 23, 2016 based on usage and the maximum amount you could be charged is $100. It also stated that if you have both AT&T and DirecTV on a combined statement there's no charge.
$100 is a lot. I would hope I wouldn't use nearly that much data, but then again, who knows. I'm sure it would be worth it for large families that do a lot of streaming to just pay for the maximum plan. When I had a cell phone, I hated overage charges, and would just pay for flat rate plan maximum everything, to avoid extra charges, but since I'm on a tight budget these days, I have to really cut back as much as possible.
Hey I just thought of something when I was getting ready to call and combine AT&T and DirecTV billing. If and when we cut the cord that would eliminate the option of no charge for internet service from AT&T. So the only other option would be paying the $30 for unlimited data usage each month with AT&T U-verse. That means the money saved from the satellite service would be going to the internet service and there would be no real savings achieved by cutting the cord. We would only save the charge of $30 by keeping both services and combine billing.
If you have a Sam's Club close to you, @Von Jones , you should go there if you are going to change over to DirecTV and ATT bundle service. You can save money by doing that, plus get a $300 gift card from Sam's. We haven't received our gift cards yet; but they were giving us over $400 in gift cards, plus the discounts on the bill and the for the friend referral. Even if you don't have a Sam's membership, it might still be worth it if you have a friend or relative who dies have one, and they can take you in as a guest. I think that the cheapest membership is about $50; so even if you joined Sam's, and got the $300 card that way, you would still be getting the membership cost back, plus the extra $250 from the gift card. Even though there are just the two of us, there is a lot of things that we save money on by purchasing through Sam's Club. We share my daughter's membership, and that works great for everyone.
The service bundle is only for new customers. There is a very small fine print on the promotion description. I've heard a lot about Sam's Club but no one that I know has a membership and there is one located about 20 minutes away. I might check and see if my credit union has this as a perk. I have been with them for a couple of years and may be AARP has something too.
We're still corded and got Time-Warner Cable services for our television. We had to move just apartments for our old apartment was damaged by the new building being built next door to us. Just our side got damaged and we were on the second floor of a three story apt. home. We were told that eventually they'd had to renovate and we had to move. Luckily a neighbor moved and we got to have their first floor apt. We got to talking some neighbors and I and we laughed for they told me it's a popular place first floor apt. and we beat out many people. We like the first floor a lot too. It's near the trash bin and mail boxes too. I bus so it's so very convenient for shopping too! So when we moved to the first floor apt. at the same apt. home we had to stop-start at old and new addresses. Got to talk with the customer service at Time-Warner and I jokingly asked if they had Senior Citizen discount, they apologized and said no.
@Krissttina Isobe, it doesn't hurt to ask these days if there are senior discounts. I ask all the time now especially for any type of service.
@Krissttina Isobe I guess the place where you live doesn't offer a package deal for the cable/phone/internet? I know some places do. I really wish my whole neighborhood would work out some sort of deal with one provider or another (they're about equal these days, and there are only two in this area), so that our bills could be lowered, and also have some sort of neighborhood wifi, so anywhere within the subdivision, including the park and beach, wifi would be available. I know some apartment complexes have the discount bundles available, and some cities have city-wide wifi, as well. I'm sure that will never happen here, since people in the area can't agree on anything, but lower bills would sure be nice. A friend has a $30/month phone/cable/internet deal, but pays for his own plan on top of that (the $30/month is required), so he can get sports and other higher level programming.
I was just reminded of the reason I don't use Google Play very often. Although I stream movies from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and several other channels all day, every day, through Roku, nearly every time I pay to rent a movie from Google Play, I am unable to watch it because it immediately says, "Could not play "Whatever the Movie Is" due to network conditions." It's the same network, and the same device, so why are "network conditions" okay for everyone else, but not for Google Play? Taht error pops up immediately, so quickly that it seems clear that it's not even trying to stream the movie. It's not like it buffers a bunch of times and finally gives up. It's more like it's saying "We don't think your connection is good enough so we're not even going to try to let you watch the movie you just paid us for."
Ken, I had this same problem with my Kodi streaming box when I was trying to access Netflix. My gut tells me that it's more of a set-up issue which I'm going to talk to my son about it or check it out on YouTube.