A couple of summers ago, for some unknown reason, I found myself craving Star Trek: The Next Generation. I watched a lot of it growing up, and loved it, but I knew there were plenty of episodes I'd never seen. I started thinking it would be fun to watch the entire series, all 7 seasons, beginning to end.
My mind went to work. I knew you could buy the entire series on DVD. I began hatching elaborate plans to buy the DVDs, rip each episode onto my computer, transfer them all onto an external hard drive, and connect it to my Tivo, so I'd have every episode available with a few pushes of the button. I knew it would be laborious work, since I'd have to assign each video file with the right episode name and number, so I could tell what I was about to watch and what came next. But it would be worth it. Then I started figuring out what kind of external hard drive I'd need. How much space? What type is compatible with Tivo? How much would it cost? At some point I finally checked the price of the DVDs , and I was dismayed. It was way more expensive than I thought, and there were some negative reviews claiming a few of the discs didn't even work. My plans were ruined.
Which was a good thing. Because somewhere amidst that mental chaos it dawned on me that Netflix has the entire series available for streaming online, and it would only cost me $8 per month. Good grief! is what I thought. That would be so much simpler! What on earth had I been thinking? So I signed up for Netflix streaming and with almost no effort on my part (a few pushes of the button) I began watching Season 1.
And then I realized how much time this was going to take. Almost every season had 26 episodes. Each episode was 45 minutes. I planned to watch them casually, here and there, rather than marathon style. Getting through one season would take a long time. I couldn't even begin to guess how long watching all 7 would take.
Regardless, I started watching. Regularly at first, watching several episodes a week. But then summer turned to fall and college football consumed most of my TV time. I got back into it during winter, but then went through months-long stretches where I didn't watch any episodes.
At some point in there we switched our streaming service from Netflix to Amazon Prime. I discovered that Amazon had all the Star Trek seasons too, and was about the same price as Netflix, but also came with free 2-day shipping. So that sealed the deal. We switched and have loved it ever since. I was able to pick up Star Trek right where I left off.
Earlier this year, though, the Star Trek watching hit a snag, because of buffering. Episodes would pause at random places while more data downloaded. It was extremely frustrating. There were a few times an episode was unwatchable because buffering happened every few seconds. Around this time, "net neutrality" was in the news, so I figured Comcast was to blame. It had been shown they were deliberately slowing down Netflix traffic, and it wasn't much of a stretch to assume they were doing the same with Amazon. So I basically stopped watching for most of this year.
But then last month, a thought occurred to me. My wi-fi router was close to a decade old. What if the problem wasn't Comcast, but a router that was showing its age? That was reason enough to try, so I went to Best Buy and bought a new dual-band router that was able to optimize for streaming video.
And it worked! Not only is buffering gone, but the start-up time for a streaming video is much faster. I'm happy to report I'm back on the Star Trek watching bandwagon, and I just hit the halfway point! I'm three and a half seasons into the series, and season 4 is the best so far. It took me two years to get to this point, but I'm hoping the last half will go faster. I'm looking forward to it.
And in the back of my mind I keep thinking: maybe I'll watch all of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, too!