[lynne]

We purchased a Fire TV Stick at the Marion of Market that had a pre-loaded program on it for Movies, TV Shows (not live, by season/episode) and Sports (live). This was while we still had a Dish contract to fulfill.

It was around $100 and then no further charges for what I mentioned above. This way we didn't have to pay fees for Netflix or other streaming devices and we were able to watch the NFL games and Big Ten Network etc.

Next we paid the same person to use his Premium program on the stick. That was $12 for a one month trial. We liked it so much we went for the $100/yr. contract. We get ALL the national and local stations - news from our stations back home, golf, tennis, hbo, starz, diy, hgtv, food network - you name it. However, you can't record with this type of service. It is streaming from our CL router and our speed is at 25mbps (I think that's the abbreviation). The picture is HD. We have a TV fire stick on each of our 4 TV's but can only watch 2 tv's simultaneously with their premium package. Not sure if you could watch a movie on a 3rd TV if it was using the non-premium streaming feature.

Streaming does not come without faults - and there is a learning curve to using it. However, we're retired - we've got plenty of time.

If you want to check it out for yourself - go to the Market of Marion - Aisle A - I think between C and D - facing towards Ocala. The guys are great. There are other vendors at the MofM, but their boxes are a couple hundred dollars - per TV and a monthly fee several X's more than we are paying.

If recording is a "must" then there's a unit on the market but it has to be used with an antenna or a couple designated streaming sites that are fee-based. I think it's called HD Homerun DVR. Or, stay with your cable or dish company and get the minimum channels that suit your needs for recording and do what we are doing for the rest.

Good luck!!!