Cutting the cord

[mr_hunt]

really liking youtube tv so far. over the weekend it was much more reliable that my usual crappy cable. sixers' games would always glitch for me...cut out for a few seconds several times per game. they were perfect with ytv. live tv using their guide isn't much different than traditional cable. one small thing is that the stations don't have channel numbers assigned...so you lose the ability to just type in the channel number you want. i have to scroll through the ytv guide to find the station & then select it. minor thing though.

searching for specific shows is really simple too...and i guess it's tied into "on demand" because it showed me every season for the shows i looked up, which was cool.  the "dvr" function seemed good too. maybe not as specific as what i have now where i can extend the end time or only record a certain episode..but it worked & there's no limit on what you record. 

one more thing...i have a sheetload of tv's in the house. i tested the 4 we use regularly and only 2 were new enough models that they had the youtube tv app built in. those are simple since we can just use the tv remote.  for the other 2 tv's, we used a firestick on one....and chromecast from my phone on the other. both worked fine. just a few extra clicks & you need to now how to connect to ytv depending which tv you're using.

overall, i'm very impressed with it & definitely plan on keeping it and getting rid of traditional cable. it should save me around $100-125 per month. 

[mr_hunt]

oh...idk how it would work with getting philly stations if you don't live in the area. i guess you'd have to set your location as philly when you first sign up. (it does ask for your zip code.) if you do that, you'll only get the local stations for philly though. you won't get the local abc, nbc, cbs, etc for where you live. 

 

 

 

[BFit]

12 minutes ago, mr_hunt said:

really liking youtube tv so far. over the weekend it was much more reliable that my usual crappy cable. sixers' games would always glitch for me...cut out for a few seconds several times per game. they were perfect with ytv. live tv using their guide isn't much different than traditional cable. one small thing is that the stations don't have channel numbers assigned...so you lose the ability to just type in the channel number you want. i have to scroll through the ytv guide to find the station & then select it. minor thing though.

searching for specific shows is really simple too...and i guess it's tied into "on demand" because it showed me every season for the shows i looked up, which was cool.  the "dvr" function seemed good too. maybe not as specific as what i have now where i can extend the end time or only record a certain episode..but it worked & there's no limit on what you record. 

one more thing...i have a sheetload of tv's in the house. i tested the 4 we use regularly and only 2 were new enough models that they had the youtube tv app built in. those are simple since we can just use the tv remote.  for the other 2 tv's, we used a firestick on one....and chromecast from my phone on the other. both worked fine. just a few extra clicks & you need to now how to connect to ytv depending which tv you're using.

overall, i'm very impressed with it & definitely plan on keeping it and getting rid of traditional cable. it should save me around $100-125 per month. 

Nice thing about the dvr is it's somehow smart enough to know to keep recording into overtime, or with nascar, through rain delays. Also, I have a bunch of shows that I added to the dvr. it records every time the show airs reruns, but only tells me when there's a new episode recorded. 

[E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles]

YouTube TV is really pretty good.  I've had Sling and Playstation Vue by comparison.  Vue was favorite (now defunct).  Sling was least favorite.

[mr_hunt]

ytv allows up to 3 streams at the same time...anybody know what happens if you try to stream a 4th?  just curious. i might test it out tonight. 

 

[wholesale_Melvin]

2 hours ago, mr_hunt said:

oh...idk how it would work with getting philly stations if you don't like in the area. i guess you'd have to set your location as philly when you first sign up. (it does ask for your zip code.) if you do that, you'll only get the local stations for philly though. you won't get the local abc, nbc, cbs, etc for where you live. 

 

 

 

couldn't care less about local station, only would use for Eagles games. Chickie and i barely watch tv and if we do, it's all streamed content. 

A VPN should be able to take care of this if ytv gets picky, I believe. VA ?

[BFit]

1 hour ago, mr_hunt said:

ytv allows up to 3 streams at the same time...anybody know what happens if you try to stream a 4th?  just curious. i might test it out tonight. 

 

Gives you a screen saying you have too many devices watching and won't let the new stream happen. I seen it once, I was watching tv in the living room, wife was watching tv in the bedroom. I went to my phone to check in on the sixers game and didn't realize my brother (who I gave the sign in to for random things) was also checking in on the sixers on his phone. 

[pallidrone]

Been using ytv for around 2 years now. Did PSVUE (which was the best) and Fubo (did not have ESPN/ABC at the time) but ultimately went to ytv. I live in Jersey but was ale to get all the Philly games. Just use a VPN (Windscribe while wonky at times, seems to work the best) on a PC and update your location to Philly every 3 months. You just have to be on for a moment for it to recognize the update and it will work on all devices for another 3 months.

When I traveled it was great because where ever I was at, I was able to get the Philly games. You will need the VPN if you travel overseas and it is really slow, but it still works.

[Bwestbrook36]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:24 AM, mr_hunt said:

oh...idk how it would work with getting philly stations if you don't live in the area. i guess you'd have to set your location as philly when you first sign up. (it does ask for your zip code.) if you do that, you'll only get the local stations for philly though. you won't get the local abc, nbc, cbs, etc for where you live. 

 

 

 

@VaBeach_Eagle is the master to which you seek on this.

[VaBeach_Eagle]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:24 AM, mr_hunt said:

oh...idk how it would work with getting philly stations if you don't live in the area. i guess you'd have to set your location as philly when you first sign up. (it does ask for your zip code.) if you do that, you'll only get the local stations for philly though. you won't get the local abc, nbc, cbs, etc for where you live. 

Using a VPN, it gives you the local channels for whichever VPN server location that you're using. If I use a Philly server (and it recognizes it as Philly, which sometimes it doesn't), then I get Philly locals. If I turn the VPN off, I get my own locals. If I switch to Atlanta, I get Atlanta, and so on. 

Fubo has altered their system a bit though, and I wasn't able to watch live channels unless I had the VPN turned off. But I was able to turn my Philly VPN server on, go to the guide and set Eagles games to record to my Fubo DVR. Then, once the game began recording I could watch what was being recorded (live), even though I had my VPN turned off. So if I wanted to, I could skip around the servers for various NFL cities and set recordings for each of their local games, then turn my VPN off. Once all of those games began and my recordings began, I could switch to any of those games that I wanted to by going into my Fubo DVR recordings and click on whichever game it was that I wanted to watch. 

[mr_hunt]

33 minutes ago, VaBeach_Eagle said:

Using a VPN, it gives you the local channels for whichever VPN server location that you're using. If I use a Philly server (and it recognizes it as Philly, which sometimes it doesn't), then I get Philly locals. If I turn the VPN off, I get my own locals. If I switch to Atlanta, I get Atlanta, and so on. 

Fubo has altered their system a bit though, and I wasn't able to watch live channels unless I had the VPN turned off. But I was able to turn my Philly VPN server on, go to the guide and set Eagles games to record to my Fubo DVR. Then, once the game began recording I could watch what was being recorded (live), even though I had my VPN turned off. So if I wanted to, I could skip around the servers for various NFL cities and set recordings for each of their local games, then turn my VPN off. Once all of those games began and my recordings began, I could switch to any of those games that I wanted to by going into my Fubo DVR recordings and click on whichever game it was that I wanted to watch. 

thanks.  i'm good since i live close enough to philly that i get the sixers & eagles games...but dot fil was asking & i believe he lives somewhere in the outer realm of hades. 

 

[NOTW]

So semi-related.  I called AT&T to ask about new customer rates that I'm looking to save money.  Not only did they give me discounts, they upgraded me to their 1000mbps plan for $25 less than what I pay now and even after a year when the price goes up it's still less than what I pay now, but I will have much faster internet.  It also includes free HBO Max streaming service for life as long as I'm an AT&T customer so that made it a no-brainer.  

[Agent23]

13 hours ago, NOTW said:

So semi-related.  I called AT&T to ask about new customer rates that I'm looking to save money.  Not only did they give me discounts, they upgraded me to their 1000mbps plan for $25 less than what I pay now and even after a year when the price goes up it's still less than what I pay now, but I will have much faster internet.  It also includes free HBO Max streaming service for life as long as I'm an AT&T customer so that made it a no-brainer.  

yeah, the AT&T/DTV merger, while upsetting many, has given me free ish and discounts for years now. Fried with iPhone X (10) just took advantage of a $700 device trade in promo with them to get the 12 Pro, and go from capped data to unlimited data. She is paying like $20 or $25 a month LESS (with the $300 difference for the new phone over 24 months factored in) and now gets unlimited data as well as getting HBO Max. 

[Gannan]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:22 AM, mr_hunt said:

really liking youtube tv so far. over the weekend it was much more reliable that my usual crappy cable. sixers' games would always glitch for me...cut out for a few seconds several times per game. they were perfect with ytv. live tv using their guide isn't much different than traditional cable. one small thing is that the stations don't have channel numbers assigned...so you lose the ability to just type in the channel number you want. i have to scroll through the ytv guide to find the station & then select it. minor thing though.

searching for specific shows is really simple too...and i guess it's tied into "on demand" because it showed me every season for the shows i looked up, which was cool.  the "dvr" function seemed good too. maybe not as specific as what i have now where i can extend the end time or only record a certain episode..but it worked & there's no limit on what you record. 

one more thing...i have a sheetload of tv's in the house. i tested the 4 we use regularly and only 2 were new enough models that they had the youtube tv app built in. those are simple since we can just use the tv remote.  for the other 2 tv's, we used a firestick on one....and chromecast from my phone on the other. both worked fine. just a few extra clicks & you need to now how to connect to ytv depending which tv you're using.

overall, i'm very impressed with it & definitely plan on keeping it and getting rid of traditional cable. it should save me around $100-125 per month. 

We do Hulu liveTV. Sounds exactly the same. Same cost too. We tried hulu lve and said if we didnt like it we'd just get cable. We are three years in now. No desire to go back to cable.

[NOTW]

Interesting how things have changed.  This thread on the old board had some of you swearing against streaming and sticking with cable/satellite.

I do think the market will settle at some point.  People don't want too many multiple streaming services, but I suspect the ones that are less successful will be bought out or merge.  I'm not interested in just NBC or CBS alone, now there's a Discovery+ and others.  Bundles, deals like I got for HBO Max free with my AT&T, things like that will continue.

My first major was Communications and I had a TV Programming class back in 1995 and we were discussing back then the future would be completely on demand viewing.  The ability to just search and watch whatever you want, whenever you want instead of relying on live tv or having to record it.  It's progressed pretty well considering.

Back in the days of going to Blockbuster and hoping the new VHS rental wasn't sold out, driving to a store to get it and driving back to return it.  Couldn't imagine back then surfing it all via a streaming app and also being able to watch on a tablet or phone wherever you go.  

[Gannan]

20 hours ago, NOTW said:

Interesting how things have changed.  This thread on the old board had some of you swearing against streaming and sticking with cable/satellite.

I do think the market will settle at some point.  People don't want too many multiple streaming services, but I suspect the ones that are less successful will be bought out or merge.  I'm not interested in just NBC or CBS alone, now there's a Discovery+ and others.  Bundles, deals like I got for HBO Max free with my AT&T, things like that will continue.

My first major was Communications and I had a TV Programming class back in 1995 and we were discussing back then the future would be completely on demand viewing.  The ability to just search and watch whatever you want, whenever you want instead of relying on live tv or having to record it.  It's progressed pretty well considering.

Back in the days of going to Blockbuster and hoping the new VHS rental wasn't sold out, driving to a store to get it and driving back to return it.  Couldn't imagine back then surfing it all via a streaming app and also being able to watch on a tablet or phone wherever you go.  

The cable companies have done this to themselves. Overpriced, bad service, paying for too many useless channels. One live sports came to Hulu and YouTube it was all over for the cable companies. 

[mr_hunt]

3 minutes ago, Gannan said:

The cable companies have done this to themselves. Overpriced, bad service, paying for too many useless channels. One live sports came to Hulu and YouTube it was all over for the cable companies. 

this was it for me. i was stuck with cable in order to watch 76ers' games. but that's no longer the case. 

[mr_hunt]

just made it official....canceled my service electric cable & now have their internet only.  the switch to youtube tv is complete. i am now paying $146/month less for my cable + internet.     

[NOTW]

I just couldn't justify the spending, and yes I used to call DirecTV to get all the discounts I could, free stuff added on and all that.  I didn't even WANT cable/satellite because I didn't watch anything on it anyway.  I realized most of what I would want was on Hulu which I don't pay for, I share my sister in laws.  And I was more drawn to Netflix.  I also didn't like having to have a satellite dish, receiver boxes for every TV.  I like the convenience of apps and streaming right from the Smart TV or Chromecast mobile app.  And can watch anywhere, it came in handy on work trips to watch on tablet.  Scrolling TV in a hotel room everything sucks.

Live sports is a deal breaker for many, but I don't get Philly sports here anyway.  I watch Eagles games online or sports bars, and I watch highlights on their social media pages, YouTube or the Roku apps for free.

[Bwestbrook36]

23 hours ago, Gannan said:

The cable companies have done this to themselves. Overpriced, bad service, paying for too many useless channels. One live sports came to Hulu and YouTube it was all over for the cable companies. 

It will come back around.. youtube tv and hulu live tv have gone up 10/15 bucks a year for the last 2/3 years straight. It will be up around 100 bucks in no time and then you still have to pay the cable company for their internet so you will be up around 200 bucks a month again and for less channels. 

I've had the live tv streaming services since it started and it gets more and more expensive every year and everytime the networks push for a new contract the live tv streaming services have to either drop a few more channels or add 1 or 2 channels and bump it up another 10 bucks. 

I actually went from having only steaming apps to just getting cable. Having 10 different steaming services gets annoying and expensive as hell. 

[Weaponx01]

It’s a shame slingbox is going out of service in two years. That’s been gold for me the last few years. 

[Gannan]

57 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

It will come back around.. youtube tv and hulu live tv have gone up 10/15 bucks a year for the last 2/3 years straight. It will be up around 100 bucks in no time and then you still have to pay the cable company for their internet so you will be up around 200 bucks a month again and for less channels. 

I've had the live tv streaming services since it started and it gets more and more expensive every year and everytime the networks push for a new contract the live tv streaming services have to either drop a few more channels or add 1 or 2 channels and bump it up another 10 bucks. 

I actually went from having only steaming apps to just getting cable. Having 10 different steaming services gets annoying and expensive as hell. 

It's still way more expensive. They get you for the box, the dvr, etc. The other thing that was annoying about the cable is that the bill always changed with no rhyme or reason to it. With hulu its a flat $65 with no hidden fees or add ons. I just checked. Adding TV to my internet would cost me just about twice that.

[Bwestbrook36]

3 minutes ago, Gannan said:

It's still way more expensive. They get you for the box, the dvr, etc. The other thing that was annoying about the cable is that the bill always changed with no rhyme or reason to it. With hulu its a flat $65 with no hidden fees or add ons. I just checked. Adding TV to my internet would cost me just about twice that.

I had fubotv it was 60 bucks a month for almost 100 channels. Flat rate thought it was all good but, every few months they would add channels and take channels away. The last time they added espn and abc but took away tnt and tbs and increased it to 70 bucks. 

So at that point it was 70 bucks and still didn't have all the channels I liked. So 70 for fubotv, 15 for netflix 8 for hulu and 15 for HBOmax. So 108 bucks to get bits and pieces of what I wanted to watch on 4 different platforms and still doesn't include the internet I need to stream all of that. Internet is more expensive just buying it outside of a bundle so that's another 80 bucks. 

So 188 bucks for half ass tv and internet when I can get a bundle from the cable company for all the channels I want and don't need 3 of those streaming services because of what cable provides and pay 130 all together. 

[Gannan]

Just now, Bwestbrook36 said:

I had fubotv it was 60 bucks a month for almost 100 channels. Flat rate thought it was all good but, every few months they would add channels and take channels away. The last time they added espn and abc but took away tnt and tbs and increased it to 70 bucks. 

So at that point it was 70 bucks and still didn't have all the channels I liked. So 70 for fubotv, 15 for netflix 8 for hulu and 15 for HBOmax. So 108 bucks to get bits and pieces of what I wanted to watch on 4 different platforms and still doesn't include the internet I need to stream all of that. Internet is more expensive just buying it outside of a bundle so that's another 80 bucks. 

So 188 bucks for half ass tv and internet when I can get a bundle from the cable company for all the channels I want and don't need 3 of those streaming services because of what cable provides and pay 130 all together. 

What cable company includes netflix and hbo for free? By the time I paid the cable company to get all of the stuff I stream it would cost me hundreds more. I get my internet through verizon. If I wanted just basic cable with DVR it would cost me 130 without any premium channels or streaming services. 

[mr_hunt]

mine might be an extreme case but i just went from paying $280/mo for cable + internet to paying $140/mo for youtube tv + internet.  i have 85+ channels including all the ones i actually watch.  cable bill was ridiculous...extra charges for hd tier...rental fees for each cable box (we had a LOT of them)...and the cable would cut out now & then. if you only have cable on 1 tv, i can see the cost difference not being much...but if you're like me & have an unhealthy number of tv's, dropping cable saves a ton of $$$.