The YouTube TV Thread

[lparsons21]

Yeah, as I play around with going all streaming I'm finding the costs too close to what I'm paying now. And I lose a heck of a lot of convenience in the process.

Sent from my Google Pixelbook using Tapatalk

 

[SpaethCo]

2. Most shows, movies added to DVR won't commercial skip.

The only restricted content should be on VOD content, which primarily affects CBS channels (CBS, CW, Pop) because the DVR recordings are replaced with VOD the day after they air for those networks. What is different from standard Dish/DIRECTV is that when you add shows to your library it fills up with VOD episodes initially, then fills in with DVR as shows air.

VOD is FF restricted on DIRECTV and Dish as well, so it's pretty much the same situation no matter which option you choose.

You're right that if you're trying to re-create a full cable/sat package with streaming you can easily end up spending the same amount or more on programming. The biggest cost savings tend to come from not having per-TV equipment fees, HD fees, RSN fees, DVR fees, and broadcast network fees.

 

[Zookster]

1. No way to get program description while scrolling through live guide.

For live shows you have to tune to it and then arrow down to access info. For future shows, just highlight and select it in the live guide to see the description. At least on Roku.

Honestly, I can count the number of times I use the live guide in a month on one hand. Almost all my non-sports and news viewing is accessed through my library. Everything else is through the Home menu. It just takes time for YTTV to know what you watch and for you to build your library of recorded shows.

 

[harshness]

VOD is FF restricted on DIRECTV and Dish as well, so it's pretty much the same situation no matter which option you choose.

That's not particularly true in my experience with DISH. Perhaps there are some titles that are restricted, but I don't recall having run across one. Maybe this is related/restricted to device apps?

 

[SpaethCo]

That's not particularly true in my experience with DISH. Perhaps there are some titles that are restricted, but I don't recall having run across one. Maybe this is related/restricted to device apps?

It might come down to which networks you are watching? This has been discussed in a few threads, including this one: Picture quality- “on demand” -vs- recorded

Sometimes it's hit or miss, even with YoutubeTV. Smithsonian is under the CBS umbrella, so it also gets some forced VOD substitutions. What's unique there is I have yet to watch a Smithsonian VOD episode on YTTV that had commercials.

 

[Bruce]

By the way, putting up my outdoor Mohu antenna today, if I get a great signal from it I then will be buying a quad Tablo with a 8TB external Hard Drive and dropping You Tube TV, there is just so much content on the streaming services I cannot catch up.

Since we binge everything, we can wait till live TV shows on cable channels premiere on the streaming services, the shows on the main networks watch in full next summer on the Tablo when they are done.

Mohu up, every channel in the 90's percent strength ( except our CW station, 81% ).

Ordered the Tablo Quad last night, already have a 8TB Hard Drive that I forgot I had.

So, my services will be
Hulu Commercial Free-$7.20-gift card discount when I bought a year's worth last xmas
Netflix with 4k-$9.59-gift card discount when I bought a year's worth last xmas
Disney+-$3.92 a month-paid the discount 3 year prepaid price
OTA with DVR-free except for the equipment cost of the Tablo, so $8.29 a month over 2 years plus $50 a year for the guide, so $12.46 a month
for new movies, we share our Movies Anywhere account with four others, since we split the costs, average monthly to me is about $10 a month ( usually buy 4-5 new movies a month)
Amazon Prime-pays for itself with the free shipping

So total monthly cost-$43.17 a month
Will subscribe to CBS after Star Trek Discovery is done for the season, binge that and Picard and then drop it
As far as the new HBO/Warner service, will check it out when it is up, but as of right now no interest.
Sports-don't care
News-CBSN and ABC News on the Roku, Network Nightly News fills that need, if we did not have those I would be keeping a Live TV service.

 

[osu1991]

Might be a good time to try it out, if anyone is interested. YoutubeTV is offering a Kickoff special 3 week free trial today through the weekend

 

[Zookster]

Might be a good time to try it out, if anyone is interested. YoutubeTV is offering a Kickoff special 3 week free trial today through the weekend

I just came here to post this. To make it official, here's the link with the offer:

 

[docdaddy]

This thread has been interesting. Been a Directv and then Dish subscriber for years. Honestly, I really like the Hopper 3 plus Joeys system, and I like the Dish software (I was not a fan of the Genie from Directv.)

But it seems like every month I lose a couple of channels to Dish carrier disputes; we lost NBC for over a month, now the RSNs are gone and Dish is saying they may just not bring them back, currently there's a Fox stations dispute, etc. Which led me to look at options. Looking at the OTTs, it appears that YTTV is the most attractive option in terms of channels, all the local networks, the unlimited DVR, etc. I pay $125 per month, and that's with a discount. I have to pay for a ton of channels we don't watch including the shopping channels, religion channels, etc. to get the ones we want.

One question though: Someone posted earlier in this thread that you can't just pick a show and record just that show; i.e. if you want to record a movie on one channel it will end up recording the same movie on other channels, often in a form you don't want, etc. Is that still true?

 

[SpaethCo]

One question though: Someone posted earlier in this thread that you can't just pick a show and record just that show; i.e. if you want to record a movie on one channel it will end up recording the same movie on other channels, often in a form you don't want, etc. Is that still true?

Yes, it will record all showing on all channels. Different providers deal with this differently; for example, Vue keeps replacing your item with the most recent recording. This could mean that the version you wanted to watch gets bumped out of your library entirely.

In your movie example, with Youtube TV you'll end up with a single entry in your library of that movie, and once you select it you'll be presented with all the versions of that show that are available from your DVR library and VOD. Here's what it looks like on the Apple TV:



Coming from Dish/DTV, it's easy to think that recording all episodes of everything would end up with a "List" view that would be a mess, but streaming providers like Youtube do a pretty good job of categorizing the content so it's still easy to find what you're looking for.

 

[schneid]

After 22 years with DirecTV, YTTV is the winner. I kissed a lot of other suitors over the last two years to get here.

 

[camo]

Luckily hadn't tried all just PSVUE (barely Ok), NOW ( Bad), a trial period of SlingTV (Bad) when I discovered YTTV (Great). When HGTV came onboard it pretty much sealed the deal for me. History channel, NFLNet, Pac12 network would be just icing on the cake should it ever happen. Won't hold my breath for Pac12 Network for sure. They have pretty much self-destroyed itself along with the conference recruiting by not having a national audience. The perfect business model on how not to do it.

 

[Zookster]

One question though: Someone posted earlier in this thread that you can't just pick a show and record just that show; i.e. if you want to record a movie on one channel it will end up recording the same movie on other channels, often in a form you don't want, etc. Is that still true?

Yes, it will record all showing on all channels. Different providers deal with this differently; for example, Vue keeps replacing your item with the most recent recording. This could mean that the version you wanted to watch gets bumped out of your library entirely.

In your movie example, with Youtube TV you'll end up with a single entry in your library of that movie, and once you select it you'll be presented with all the versions of that show that are available from your DVR library and VOD. Here's what it looks like on the Apple TV:

YouTube TV only retains the last five recorded airings, which can be a problem if you subscribe to a premium like Showtime and prefer to watch movies uncut. A couple months ago, I recorded "Pulp Fiction" from Showtime, it left the service, and then started re-airing repeatedly on one of the cable nets, so my Showtime recordings got pushed. Otherwise, I don't have a problem with this setup. Even though it's a 9-month DVR, any re-airings extended that expiration date, so you end up with continually refreshed complete libraries of certain shows because of re-airings, marathons, and shows in syndication. I keep several of the Marvel movies in my YTTV library, as they keep re-airing.

Coming from Dish/DTV, it's easy to think that recording all episodes of everything would end up with a "List" view that would be a mess, but streaming providers like Youtube do a pretty good job of categorizing the content so it's still easy to find what you're looking for.

It's like a Netflix queue, but with categories (New Recordings, Shows, Movies, Sports, Events). Then you select a program, then the episode etc. And because it's unlimited you never have to monitor your storage space or fuss with staying on top of deleting individual episodes weekly. I can record every college football game this season if I want with a click of a button, or just my hometeam's games, or an entire golf or tennis tournament, and not worry about recording space.

 

[docdaddy]

YTTV sounds very receptive to customer input; I wonder how difficult it would be to add a "Keep this recording" button that let you keep a specific recording?

 

[schneid]

Dumped DirecTV after 22 years after three weeks on this. It's great. I have discovered:

No CW in the Guide for me but I can Search CW shows and watch them.

No PBS Local but you can subscribe to PBS on other Streamers for free IF they broadcast in your local area.

Not a deal-breaker but no American Pickers and no Ridiculousness. I know that's ridiculous. I'll survive.

I best like the platform integration meaning seamless whether live, OTT, or recorded. Also like standard and seamless app presentation whether on streamer, device, or TV.

 

[Zookster]

No PBS Local but you can subscribe to PBS on other Streamers for free IF they broadcast in your local area..

YouTube TV will be the first and only live TV streaming service to offer PBS affiliates legitimately in almost all markets in the coming month or two. The only other semi-legit option is Locast, which is only available in a very limited number of markets and may not be around much longer.

 

[SpaethCo]

YouTube TV only retains the last five recorded airings, which can be a problem if you subscribe to a premium like Showtime and prefer to watch movies uncut.

This is a good example of where streaming "DVR" is very different from a device with a hard drive operating at your house.

YoutubeTV, in particular, has one common content source. They are ingesting digital streams from all of their channel providers and storing those streams as a "gold" copy that all subscribers reference. When you make a recording, all you're getting is an authenticated pointer to a specific start and stop point in a common global video stream. (If you and I "record" the same thing, we both get the exact same media files when we watch it) What's really interesting with Youtube is they can modify those pointers at any time, including long after the "recording" was made. If you notice a show was cut off on the DVR, you can contact support and they can extend the playback pointer to a later stop point (or an earlier start point), because they always have the full 24x7 feed of that channel going back 9 months.

For Showtime (or HBO, or any channel really), this creates 2 things that happen on streaming that don't happen on a traditional cable/sat DVR:

1) When you unsubscribe from an add-on channel like Showtime, your content in your library immediately drops out at the end of your subscription period. You can't, for example, make recordings during a free preview week and watch them months later; at the end of that preview week, the content will be unavailable.
2) As content expires from various channels, it will drop out of your DVR before the end of the 9 months. It's rare for this to happen on regular broadcast channels, but for premium channels, movies will drop out as the viewing window for shows expires.

 

[Nominal]

YouTube TV is Now Available on Amazon Fire TV - Cord Cutters News

 

[mackie99]

YouTube TV is Now Available on Amazon Fire TV - Cord Cutters News

This is great news. Although I just went through the process of side loading YTTV on 3 fire sticks yesterday.

 

[Zookster]

1) When you unsubscribe from an add-on channel like Showtime, your content in your library immediately drops out at the end of your subscription period. You can't, for example, make recordings during a free preview week and watch them months later; at the end of that preview week, the content will be unavailable.

My understanding is the content from add-on services like Showtime remains in your library but is locked when unsubscribed, so when you sign back up you don't have to go to the hassle of adding everything back in. To get it to "drop," you need to manually remove each item from your library.

2) As content expires from various channels, it will drop out of your DVR before the end of the 9 months. It's rare for this to happen on regular broadcast channels, but for premium channels, movies will drop out as the viewing window for shows expires.

This only applies to on demand content. If you recorded an airing on a live linear channel, in theory, it should remain in your library for the full nine months like any other recorded content— of course, provided it doesn't get replaced by newer recordings on broadcast channels (as I mentioned above).