Trying to make something work for tv... Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, etc.

[mollerangela]

I've been a HughesNet customer for several years and in general I'm satisfied with the internet service, but have not found a good solution for tv. HughesNet customer service has understandably told me that they can't guarantee that Netflix, YouTube, or anything like that will work with satellite internet, but I've read some reviews where people do have good luck making those work. Birddog, it sounds like you've figured out something that's working for you. Can you tell me how exactly yours is set up? Do you have a Roku, or a tv dish, or anything like that? We live in the country and don't have anything but our antenna, a Smart tv, and our Hughesnet dish. We tried a trial version of Netflix and couldn't get it to play for more than a minute or two. Hulu works intermittently, but I'd prefer Netflix if we could get it, because our kids like to watch movies. YouTube, even on the computer, is very spotty. Any tips?

[BirdDog]

Hi mollerangela. We don't do anything much other than Netflix and YouTube so can'r really speak to any of the other services. Some short clips on news sites.

You must stream in SD (360p) or better yet LD (240p) or you will burn through all your data allowance very quickly. No HD! Even then you can't let your kids do it as much as they want, you have to ration it out to last the month. The lower definition also reduces the chances of buffering.

The nice thing about Netflix is you can set it to playback everything under your account in low definition as explained here: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87
If you have more than one user account setup under your main account then you need to set it for each one. After that any device that you connect to Netflix should stream at whatever your account is set to even Roku and a Smart TV since you still must sign in to your Netflix account.

YouTube used to have a setting in the account preferences but it is gone, so have to set the definition with the little gear icon on lower right when video starts.

All we have is antenna TV and HughesNet satellite, no satellite TV. No kids so that saves a bunch. You'll have to monitor their usage very closely no matter what definition you stream at. The truth is you won't be able to stream near as much as if you had cable internet or watch as much as if you where on satellite TV.

What size plan are you on? The lower the plan the less you'll be able to watch. Also going to depend on what other things besides streaming you're doing online. It all uses data and counts against you allowance.

[Chris11]

Hi mollerangela,

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community! I hope BirdDogs response was able to provide some insight. I'm sure other community members can chime in as well. If you need any help from us reps. We are glad to help as well.

- Chris

[scorpion511]

mollerangela
I also only use a outside antenna, a tv and Hughesnet. I watch all the Netflix,  Amazon Prime and Hulu that i want using NightShift  and PlayOn. Google them and check them out

[Gokartergo]

Nightshift works great for Netflix