The PlayStation Vue Thread

[Zookster]

I finally started my 7-day trial. Not very impressed with the picture quality. It reminded me of the early days of HDTV when a lot of movies and TV shows were simply upconverted. I did A-B testing on sports (live MLB) and movies (Chronicles of Narnia, Ironman 2) between PS Vue and my cable service, and the difference was night and day. I'm certain it wasn't my system or Internet connection/speed, because when I'd go to Netflix on the same device (PS4), and start a show like Daredevil, it was its usual near blu-ray-quality self on my seven-year-old 1080p plasma TV. I honestly never thought much of my cable TV system's picture quality, but I've gained a new appreciation. (On a side note, PS Vue was almost a full minute behind live TV compared to my cable system's broadcasts.)

If I can't negotiate a good discount with my cable company in the coming weeks, I can live with PS Vue's quality (including the blah 2-channel stereo sound). However, I may need to sub to Hulu Plus to get as much of my non-sports programming as I can from them for the improved picture and audio quality.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Having NEVER interacted with PlayStation before, I went through a severe learning curve last night. You see, I neglected to say "YES" to the part where PlayStation Wallet automatically deducts the money from my payment choice so that I can pay for PlayStation Vue. It went like this, last night was when my 7 day trial ended & they were supposed to bill me the $34.99. When because I neglected to say "yes," they suspended my service. 10 minutes before the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 is a very bad time to find this out. So anyway, I fixed the "error" & they got paid, AND I WAS STILL LOCKED OUT. Finally calming down...eventually, I went on chat on their website & was able to sort it all out. I had to battle an error message which the person on chat had to do with zip code. After uninstalling it & then reinstalling it, upon suggestion of the person on the chat line(I'm using a Fire TV Stick), I was able to get it up & working again, thanks to the help of the person on chat, but I am very hesitant to give up my Sling TV account now. That was my fall back for watching Fear the Walking Dead.
Anyway, after all of that, I found myself grimacing through the entire Fear the Walking Dead episode because of the sheer stupidity of the people on the show.

 

[Zookster]

Anyway, after all of that, I found myself grimacing through the entire Fear the Walking Dead episode because of the sheer stupidity of the people on the show.

I was pleased I was able to watch FTWD without commercials, starting playback 40 minutes after the live show started like I would on a normal DVR. The system just needs a 5-second back button for when I overshoot the show coming back from commercial. Even better, my recording of FTWD started at 6pm (PST), so I got it out of the way early so it didn't ruin the rest of my evening. I'm looking forward to being able to watch Better Call Saul at 7pm tonight.

 

[Link]

I have been doing the free trial this week of PS Vue and I think it is pretty decent overall for being so new. The Core package for $34.99 is a pretty good price for all the channels you get including regional sports. I tried a DVR show I had marked today and it played decent and I could fast forward through it. I'm using the Fire Stick and the navigation is a little slow. I don't know if this is the PS Vue app or the Fire Stick in general as I never use it otherwise. I got it out of the drawer to try this service. I never was impressed with it and use Roku most of the time. I hope PS Vue comes to Roku soon.

 

[Ronnie-]

It is the Fire Stick itself that makes the navigation a little slow.

The fire tv box is lightning fast however. Like you I rarely used my Fire Stick, but after using it more to watch Vue, I actually find myself preferring the layout to the Roku. The only drawback to me between the two is the lack of Vudu support with the Fire.

 

[Mr Tony]

wish it would be added to roku so I could try it out

 

[jegrant]

It's too bad Sony isn't doing any deals like Sling where you could buy 3 months of service and get a Fire TV at half off.

 

[Zookster]

My 7-day trial is up today and I didn't see any way to cancel via the PS Vue website. So I made sure my wallet was set to not autofund from my payment method, and I deleted my payment method (credit card number). I assume that will be enough.

 

[slick1ru2]

I finally started my 7-day trial. Not very impressed with the picture quality. It reminded me of the early days of HDTV when a lot of movies and TV shows were simply upconverted. I did A-B testing on sports (live MLB) and movies (Chronicles of Narnia, Ironman 2) between PS Vue and my cable service, and the difference was night and day. I'm certain it wasn't my system or Internet connection/speed, because when I'd go to Netflix on the same device (PS4), and start a show like Daredevil, it was its usual near blu-ray-quality self on my seven-year-old 1080p plasma TV. I honestly never thought much of my cable TV system's picture quality, but I've gained a new appreciation. (On a side note, PS Vue was almost a full minute behind live TV compared to my cable system's broadcasts.)

If I can't negotiate a good discount with my cable company in the coming weeks, I can live with PS Vue's quality (including the blah 2-channel stereo sound). However, I may need to sub to Hulu Plus to get as much of my non-sports programming as I can from them for the improved picture and audio quality.

The quality on my PS3/4s is better than I got with Dish and light years better than Sling, its near OTA. What market are you in? What were you watching? Do you have resolution on Automatic or 1080p? Make sure it's on 1080p. And of course live tv over the Internet is behind OTA, cable and satellite. Different system with bottlenecks along with buffering. You'll find it the same with the WatchESPN app.

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Watched NBCSN NHL playoff game on PS Vue -- seemed a little crisper than my Mediacom feed, but well softer than I was getting with NHL GameCentre on Roku.

 

[Zookster]

The quality on my PS3/4s is better than I got with Dish and light years better than Sling, its near OTA. What market are you in? What were you watching? Do you have resolution on Automatic or 1080p? Make sure it's on 1080p. And of course live tv over the Internet is behind OTA, cable and satellite. Different system with bottlenecks along with buffering. You'll find it the same with the WatchESPN app.

I may have overstated my dissatisfaction with PS Vue's PQ by comparing it to upconverted SD. I'll have to check my PS4/3 settings to make sure it's set to 1080p (it's likely on automatic or whatever the default would be) if I decide to subscribe later. Thanks for the tip!

This was my first attempt to watch live TV over the Internet (other than ESPN3 on my tablet), so yes, I'll need to take that into account that PS Vue will never be as good as OTA, cable or satellite. For some reason I thought it would be on par with 1080p streams from Netflix. Or you would think PS Vue's On Demand programs would be at least.

Anyone figure out a workaround for the 2-channel audio? On PS4 (over HDMI), the audio is delivered in a 5.1 wrapper, so I can't apply my receiver's Pro Logic II processing to get surround sound like I could to a standard 2-channel audio stream. Sony patched this issue on other video streaming apps that were originally released that way for the PS4. Why they turned around did this to PS Vue out of the gate makes no sense.

 

[slick1ru2]

I may have overstated my dissatisfaction with PS Vue's PQ by comparing it to upconverted SD. I'll have to check my PS4/3 settings to make sure it's set to 1080p (it's likely on automatic or whatever the default would be) if I decide to subscribe later. Thanks for the tip!

This was my first attempt to watch live TV over the Internet (other than ESPN3 on my tablet), so yes, I'll need to take that into account that PS Vue will never be as good as OTA, cable or satellite. For some reason I thought it would be on par with 1080p streams from Netflix. Or you would think PS Vue's On Demand programs would be at least.

Anyone figure out a workaround for the 2-channel audio? On PS4 (over HDMI), the audio is delivered in a 5.1 wrapper, so I can't apply my receiver's Pro Logic II processing to get surround sound like I could to a standard 2-channel audio stream. Sony patched this issue on other video streaming apps that were originally released that way for the PS4. Why they turned around did this to PS Vue out of the gate makes no sense.

Much of the Netflix content is movies. Or remastered tv shows. Live cable tv is broadcast at 1080i or 720p. So you'd expect the Netflix content, remastered to 1080p Blu-ray specs to look sharper than cable. That being said, I see a big difference between Sling and Vue in quality. Sony says you need min 10mbps speed for Vue which is more than Netflix needs for 1080p. And I think it looks better than Dish satellite too. I have seen it downgrade the resolution with it set to automatic resolution. And during one of the debates I had buffering issues and I changed the PS3 resolution to 1080i and that fixed it but the PQ did look softer.

Over Internet tv will lag 30sec to a minute on live tv. Don't notice it unless I'm in a chat room during football season.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Much of the Netflix content is movies. Or remastered tv shows. Live cable tv is broadcast at 1080i or 720p. So you'd expect the Netflix content, remastered to 1080p Blu-ray specs to look sharper than cable. That being said, I see a big difference between Sling and Vue in quality. Sony says you need min 10mbps speed for Vue which is more than Netflix needs for 1080p. And I think it looks better than Dish satellite too. I have seen it downgrade the resolution with it set to automatic resolution. And during one of the debates I had buffering issues and I changed the PS3 resolution to 1080i and that fixed it but the PQ did look softer.

Over Internet tv will lag 30sec to a minute on live tv. Don't notice it unless I'm in a chat room during football season.

PlayStation Vue has performed well enough for me with AT&T 6.0 Fast DSL. Yes, the picture appears soft, but that could be a combination of my DSL's 6 mbps plus my using a Fire TV Stick.
For me, serious lag time is Yahoo announcing the winner of a NCAA Men's Championship round game online while there was still a good 10-15 seconds left on the clock during the game I was watching on my Roku.

 

[Ronnie-]

I honestly think Vue looks at least on par with Dish HD, probably slightly better. Sling is the one that always appeared slightly softer to my eyes, and took a few seconds or so to ramp up to that quality.

 

[hahler2]

I have basically cut the cord. I dropped my Dish service down to the welcome pack and just the Hopper. That ended up being only a few dollars a month more than the early termination fee would have been. For now my plan is to use Hulu until my Dish contract is up, cancel Dish, and hopefully by then the Vue service will be on more devices. If it is I will try a Vue subscription then. It sounds really promising.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

The $34.99 PlayStation Cue package has everything that I need. I have added to that the Sling TV $20.00 Fox Beta Package with HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, & CBS Access, along with MLB TV, & I'm good to go. All of that added up altogether is still half of what I was paying Directv, & I'm paying for services that I watch.

 

[Mr Tony]

still waiting for Roku support

 

[Troch77]

I honestly think Vue looks at least on par with Dish HD, probably slightly better. Sling is the one that always appeared slightly softer to my eyes, and took a few seconds or so to ramp up to that quality.

SlingTV HD is horrible.
Don't be shy you can admit it.
The motion blur is the worst I've ever experienced.
A still Picture looks okay.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[efbrune]

SlingTV HD is horrible.
Don't be shy you can admit it.
The motion blur is the worst I've ever experienced.
A still Picture looks okay.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

SlingTV HD is fantastic.
There is no motion blur at all!
Don't be shy, you can admit it.

 

[Troch77]

SlingTV HD is fantastic.
There is no motion blur at all!
Don't be shy, you can admit it.

Yeah not buying that for a second.
And neither does the thousands of Sling TV customers reviews.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active