Date: 31 Jan, 2018
We all know Starhub is expensive and sucks! They even lost Discovery Channel.
We all know the Singapore government is passing laws to curb TV Set top box. Media box such as Unblock TV are now gone.
You can cut the cord by using Apple TV (4K) and run only Netflix. But that will not gives you latest TV shows and news and sports.
So, what can you do?
Well instead of paying to Starhub or MIO TV, you can consider to pay to Hulu Live TV. It is not cheap, but the program is surely American. 🙂 If you like American shows.
Not cheap at all. But really a bit cheaper than your local TV station. And they going to hike the price to US$44.99 next month.
The Experiment and the Experience
Since I am going to check it out and play play (i.e. experiment for education purpose) for 1-2 months. So, I subscribed using a new email account. (Because I do not want to disturb my existing account where I only paid US$5.99 instead of US$7.99. If you upgrade the Hulu Live TV, then, you will lost that US$5.99 promo price.)
Sign up is easy. You need a credit card, i.e. Amex. And then, remember to put the first 5 number of your postal code. (not 6, this is the Singapore postal code). Also, when they ask you where you are staying, you give an US postal code. I use “94087” Sunnyvale, my friend address. That’s it. Done! 5min job.
And of course, you will need some VPN that bring you to US, or some Smart DNS such as Freedom VPN from a local ISP provider to do the magic too. Otherwise, Hulu website will automatically detect you are in Singapore instead of US and band you from watching.
Once you done the sign up, when you launch Hulu on your Apple TV…
You will see this cute little “Live TV” icon on the top menu bar. This is the real deal.
Look at what you will get. I can immediately terminate my Cartoon channels and the News channels from Starhub. hahahaha
Surprisingly, Apple TV rendered these channel very nicely. And it is without buffering. (So far after watching the Hulu Live TV for almost 2 hours just now). It is amazing. Of course, it is like you are living in US now.
Operating the menu can be quite confusing. But since I stored some of the favorite channels in “My Stuff” menu, so, I can also access the show here.
Let’s try to launch a cartoon show. And the quality is excellent. No buffering.
And I just discover this wonderful feature.
Yeap! You can pre-record the show. I tell you why this is VERY IMPORTANT.
As this is called “Live TV” that means, that it is the TV show currently at this instant, this moment, showing on the TV in America.
Oh-oo… what about the time zone? Yeap! now is 9 plus at night in Singapore, and in California, it is about 5 plus in the morning. So, basically, there is not much choice of movies or TV shows you want to watch. It is not at the prime time.
So, your obvious option is to record down the show. You can record any show you like from the Live TV.
Not only you can record the show, in this example, ie. The Big Bang Theory, it can record the “NEW ONLY” show in the future, and forget about the reruns.
This is very powerful feature.
And you have 50 hours of Cloud DVR space for you to record the show. And it will automatically delete old shows to make space for new shows.
That is artificial intelligent ya. hahahaha
And to watch the recorded show, simply goes into this “Manage DVR” and watch it.
Of course, you can download “LiveNetTV”, “RedBoxTV”, “CloudTv”, Kodi, “Cyberflix”, “Mobdro TV”, etc etc APK (Androids Apps) and run Live TV or TV streams on your media box. But I can assure you the quality from these streaming TV and the “buffering” from these TV sources will make you very unhappy.
So, to enjoy really good quality of stream TV, I recommend pay a bit of money to Netflix, or Hulu or Amazon, pay a bit more for Hulu for the Live TV. It is worth it.
Super Bowl is coming next week. And it is on most of the Sport Channel that Hulu Live TV offers. Hahahaha
Don’t bother to pay more to HBO or other premium channels. All the movies from the Hulu streaming are there. Even the Korean shows too.
Enjoy!