another internet and cell phone question

[AlmostBoatless]

I am still confused about obtaining internet, cell phone plans and downloading movies for our journey full time this winter. DH has a prepaid phone that needs to be replaced and I have a Droid mini with our telephone number we would love to keep. Verizon has a plan currently that runs out July 1 with 10 gigs a month. I stopped in yesterday to be educated and am still confused. If I sign up for this plan and buy a Verizon jetpack for my soon to buy laptop can I download and stream Netflix movies about one per week? Is this considered wireless or will I have to have a usb to plug into the soon to buy TV? or watch the movies on my laptop?

Should we consider bluetooth which I am not very familiar with?

I'm sure the phone plan will be enough minutes and texts as we are pretty low use.

Any advice and guidance would be so appreciated. I have read everything on Technomadia and JackMayer and appreciate the guidance so much. Guess I'm confused over the which comes first part and how it all plays together.

Thank you for any advice.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

I would not even try to download movies via Verizon mi-fi. All new Verizon plans are not unlimited. Eats up too much data. When we want movies, we rent pay per view from DirecTV or rent them from Red Box at Walmart, McDonalds, etc. You can rent a movie in one city and return it in another.

[strollin]

Streaming works great for me (but I have a grandfathered unlimited data plan on Verizon). You could use 10GB of data pretty quickly streaming movies.

Bluetooth is a generic way to connect 2 devices together so they can communicate. You could use Bluetooth to attach external headphones, speakers, mouse, keyboard, GPS and the like to your phone. You could use it to transfer files between your Phone and PC or even use it to tether your phone to your PC to give the PC internet access via your phone.

[wa8yxm]

Under the Federal Number Portability lay you keep your phone number no mater what you do

10 Gigs is not a whole lot of Netflix or streamin video (perhaps 5-20 hours)

Blue Tooth is used by the phone to connect to a headset/ear piece (primarly) or other device.... Makes it easier to use a headset/ear piece. Also used by OBDII adapters so you can run the TORQUE app on your pohne and turn your phone into a "Glass Dash" as it were.. But turn it off when you are not using it as hackers love it.

Most modern Smart Phones have blue tooth (Mine does, but it's off right now)

I would hate to pay for streamin video myself (The bandwidth charges). Verizon does not warn you.. they just KA-CHING you at the end of the month.

My carrir just throttles.

[GMandJM]

Streaming movies and videos is sure to devour your data allotment pretty quickly.

If you get a SmartTV you should be able to stream wirelessly. Some (if not most) BluRay players can do this also.

At least Netflix lets you choose Standard Def instead of HD. AmazonPrime makes you stream in HD which uses ALOT more bandwidth. You can buy movies via Amazon, but it still eats into your data to download them.

Waiting for NetFlix to send movies to a mail forwarding service and then having to pay/wait for them to be sent wouldn't work for us. We get our mail about once a month on the road.

We use a pay-by-the-month JetPack for Internet (mostly e-mail, bill paying and web surfing). It's 3G or 4G so it has gotten a fairly usable signal everywhere except The Everglades. If we're not on the road and using it, we don't have to pay for it, which is nice.

If we have time for a movie, we rent at RedBox. Huge computer updates we do at a library. Our phones are just phones (calls and texting) and TV is whatever we get OTA. We don't miss having more than that. (I only insist that we are somewhere with a good TV signal for the SuperBowl.)

This is what works for us. Different strokes for different folks. It all depends on what you really need and what you don't.

(PS: You might want to ask more questions before signing up for that Verizon plan. It may be$100+ per month for 10 GB of data to share and then an additional $15 per line charge - meaning $15 for your phone, $15 more for your spouses phone and $15 more for the JetPack.)

[MrWizard]

downloading and streamimg are not exactly the same thing

on netflix it is streamed.. you can only watch while connected to the internet

watch it twice..use twice the data

Amazon has downloading and streaming
streaming is a subscription, just like netflix
but if you BUY a movie you can DL to the PC and watch it as often as you want, its yours just like buying a disc, except its limited to only (2) devices

in netflix you can adjust the quality
use a lower standard def quality and you can watch more video/movies with your 10-gig

[2chiefsRus]

sorry for the multiple posts. hitting bumps while we are driving down the road. What works for us, is we each have a smart phone that we use as a Hot Spot. We can wirelessly connect our laptops to the Hotstop for internet access for the laptops. We discontinued using a jetpack when we got the smart phones. We also have two DirecTV DVRs that we use for our televisions. Our roof mounted in motion dome sat dish went out about a year ago so we are back to using the basic 18 inch round sat dish wired with coxial cable to the DVRs. We are content with standard definition reception but many NEED to have High Def.

If you go with the smart phone option and find that you don't like using it as a hot spot, Verizon will be happy to sell you a jetpack later.....

[2chiefsRus]

Streaming movies without a large data plan in a reliable service area will be frustrating. I don't watch a lot of movies but can tell you that internet on the road is a LOT different than high speed internet in a sticks and bricks home.

If you are planning to stay in one place for a couple months or more, just change your shipping address with Netflix to the campground and keep your billing address the same as your credit card billing address.

[AlmostBoatless]

2chiefsRus wrote:
You don't say where you are going this winter. If it isn't in a 4G service area (i.e. a larger city), then I would abandon the idea of downloading even one movie a week. You can still sign up with Netflix to receive DVD's in the mail sent to your campground which in my personal opinion would be better. It would give you more options of movies and no stress of worrying if you are going to exceed your data plan limits. I have found that downloading a one hour TV program (which is really about 40 minutes of viewing without commercials) is about one GIG of data usage.

Thank you! Didn't think of the mail forwarding Netflix to the CG! Awesome idea.

We have not yet decided on where we will winter, but are thinking near Ocala and points west. We are stopping in VA for 2-3 weeks first.

So the streaming idea isn't a good one? Would a better idea be to get satellite TV? I have seen topics on this.

[2chiefsRus]

You don't say where you are going this winter. If it isn't in a 4G service area (i.e. a larger city), then I would abandon the idea of downloading even one movie a week. You can still sign up with Netflix to receive DVD's in the mail sent to your campground which in my personal opinion would be better. It would give you more options of movies and no stress of worrying if you are going to exceed your data plan limits. I have found that downloading a one hour TV program (which is really about 40 minutes of viewing without commercials) is about one GIG of data usage.