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ESPN Channels and Disney owned ABC affiliates pulled from DirecTV right now


Macklemore

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1 hour ago, UTexasFight said:

like you, I have OTA. Live in a flight path so planes scramble the signal occasionally but it’s manageable 

Don't forget the true advantage of watching OTA: we get a 7-8 second head start to hysterically overreact in game threads while the rest of these suckers are watching in near real-time.

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1 hour ago, aggie08 said:

I'm digging Sling Orange as a cheap alternative. I have an OTA antenna, so getting ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC not an issue. $40/month for ESPN, ESPN2 and 3, and TBS/TNT for baseball and basketball. It also has a traditional guide that you can populate with just your favorites. I'll probably miss one or two decent games on FS1 a year, but I'll survive.

I gave YTTV a trial figuring that I'd appreciate what I assumed would be better game broadcast quality on the streaming Network channels than the 1080i OTA, but I honestly couldn't tell the difference.

My TVs already do screen splitting, so I can put a streaming game and an OTA game on at the same time.

so heres the major "GOTCHA" that sling doesnt tell you regarding that. and its the reason I left them after the LHN died.

All the orange channels only allow a single stream for a single channel. So if the Horns are on the SEC network, and there is a good game on ESPN, you cannot have both on at the same time... even IF you go ahead and purchase the Blue bundle, the ESPN family is only allowed 1 single stream period.   FS1 & FS2 allow for up to 3 streams, but thats pretty much it.

Yes you can have an OTA game on and a stream of another game. But with the SEC beholden to ESPN, its a lock out of everything else, especially if say, ESPN1 & 2 both have good games on at the same time while Texas isnt playing.

 

so yeah, thats the exact reason I dumped them in May.

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28 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

even IF you go ahead and purchase the Blue bundle, the ESPN family is only allowed 1 single stream period.   FS1 & FS2 allow for up to 3 streams, but thats pretty much it.

Ah, didn't realize that. Like you said Orange is already limited to one device, one stream at a time. But good to know that there are still limitations if I decide to fork over an additional $15 to add Blue for Fox Sports and multiple device streaming. But, with a 2 and a 4 year old at home, I'm far from a power user. These days, I'll take waking up before the kids to watch F1 (Pacific timezone), then half paying attention to 5 quarters divided between 3 different games over a weekend and call it good.

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1 hour ago, kevwun said:

I have used all 3 of the streaming platforms and Youtube was my least favorite interface by far.  Fubo and DirecTV are both fine.  I would pick DTV as the best.

As someone who has also used all 3 also this is crazy to me but to each their own.   Maybe DTV streaming has improved since I tried it 2 years ago (for regional sports) and thought it was complete dogshit.  I've had FUBO frequently outside of football season for regional sports and really don't like it at all but liked it better than DTV. 

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On 9/2/2024 at 4:29 AM, Macklemore said:

You don’t have control over the exact feeds you want on multiview or how it’s set up on your screen. I have Sunday Ticket with YouTube no YouTubeTV. You don’t get any multiview options with any feeds shown on your local affiliates which sucks. Didn’t have that issue with DirecTV and their 4 game or 8 game multiview.  I have 3 TVs in my living room and I want to have full screen action on 2  and the 3rd will do Red Zone or a multiview.

As long as your tvs take apps you can put slingtv on each one and get full screen on each

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I like the dvr layout a lot better on DTV than Youtube.  I don't watch much live tv, so that's where I spend most of my time in it.  My biggest complaint about DTV is exiting the app.  With roku, you have to press the back arrow twice with just the right amount of time in between to get the exit button to appear.  If you miss it, you have to hit the back arrow a million times before it comes back up again.

Edited by kevwun
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It’s a shame UVerse got too expensive and AT&T decided to get out of the business. The service itself is the best. No channel change delay. Astros, Rangers, Stars, Spurs, Mavs. Favorite channels, flip back, one step to another channel. Solid quality signal. We will turn out the lights on it once the Astros are done this year. 

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17 hours ago, Wishbone said:

I have Hulu Live w/Disney ESPN+ package form$89.00 a month. Not sure how many tvs that gives me in total but I’m using 4 currently. I get literally every college game live.

This is where I'm leaning. Just haven't pulled the trigger yet. Anyone have any reason why I shouldn't? I'm gonna find somewhere to watch tomorrow's game, but I'm not going to wait much beyond that. 

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9 hours ago, immamac said:

You can record literally every game, automatically with one button. 

 

9 hours ago, dcbc said:

Or you can tell it only to record only UT Football games (again, you only have to do it once).  It's a great setup.

Thanks for the information.  I am old fashioned and used to a physical DVR.  So I guess you can set recordings for the future?

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9 hours ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Flip between games easily: hit the down arrow on your remote and select from your recently watched channels. Depending on your remote, briefly hold down the Select button to return to the previous channel.

Or, on your ‘you olds just dont fucking get it’ remote, hit ‘previous channel’….

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1 hour ago, NashLonghorn said:

 

Thanks for the information.  I am old fashioned and used to a physical DVR.  So I guess you can set recordings for the future?

 

Yes.  You just go to the channel in the guide and scroll into the future.  I can't remember how far it goes.  But once you record one program/game, it will record them all.

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10 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

I don't want to record the fucking game.  I want to watch the fucking games as they are happening like a normal fucking human.  And I want to be able to flip between games easily.

And, most importantly, I want to watch these fucking games with no pop-up commercials in the middle of a play and with no weird beeping in the background.

Yeah--that experience last night trying to watch the Texas State/Arizona State game and the NFL game at the same time was absolutely infuriating.  It has both me and Mrs.LL (who was very YTTV-curious) ready to get rid of it the second ESPN comes back on DTV.

Agreed. I’m not switching for similar reasons and will be riding out the ESPN blockade using my brother’s YTTV login.

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The thing is, once you watch a couple of games, and are toggling back and forth, it becomes super easy.  At least on a firestick for me

Hold the center button down and it will go back to your last channel immediately.  Like previous channel did in the old days.

Hit the down part of the circle and you get last channels to switch from (if your game of choice was two channels ago, or three)

Or you can quad box and watch four games at one time. 

I still had cable up until about 2 years ago.  I have my channel numbers still memorized.  I hated the YTTV usability/remote for about a month.  Now, its not even on my mind until I hear people bitch about not having numbers.  

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39 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

Agreed. I’m not switching for similar reasons and will be riding out the ESPN blockade using my brother’s YTTV login.

Pop up commercials?  The only thing I can think of as qualifying is when you get an advertiser during a normal commercial break that didn't pay to have the ad on YTTV, so it's a moment of zen with baby bears standing in a field or some such.  No ads during programming on YTTV unless there are ads on regular TV.

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32 minutes ago, dcbc said:

Pop up commercials?  The only thing I can think of as qualifying is when you get an advertiser during a normal commercial break that didn't pay to have the ad on YTTV, so it's a moment of zen with baby bears standing in a field or some such.  No ads during programming on YTTV unless there are ads on regular TV.

 

Might have been a Prime issue. I was only half-ass paying attention to it last night, but sounds like the shit prime does.

OTOH, enjoy the zen. Love those.

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34 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

 

Might have been a Prime issue. I was only half-ass paying attention to it last night, but sounds like the shit prime does.

OTOH, enjoy the zen. Love those.

I'm running it on a Firestick.  I don't know.  It works well for me.  Hope everyone else can find their zen service.

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Found a nice little hack for espn last night while I wait out directv.

For games that have the Spanish/espn3 feed, you can watch that with an espn+ subscription. I bought the annual pass for that earlier this year when I had a special offer/discount through my credit card I think.

so pull that feed up (worked for asu/texas st last night and unlv/Kansas tonight). Then either:

a) work on my Spanish or 

b) pull up one of the team’s radio call (usually free online poking around the team website) and broadcast to the living room speakers over Bluetooth. The problem is that you usually can’t pause either the espn stream or the online audio stream to sync up the two. But I also have a SiriusXM subscription and they usually carry one or both team’s radio call and/or there will be a national radio broadcast. The SiriusXM app does let you pause the stream, so sync that up and you’re golden. Plus you also get a chance to hear  something other than usual talking heads on espn (and, unless it’s Andrew/Elmendorf for A&M or the sooner jagoffs, I usually much prefer the local radio team).  I was impressed with the Texas St guys last night. I figured they’d be way more emotional/homer when they had a chance late but stayed even keel and really professional calling that game down the stretch.

 

I get this may seem overly complicated but really pretty seamless if you already have the subscriptions for espn+/siriusxm and a setup that allows you stream audio in your home from your phone.

Edited by UTexasFight
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22 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

can someone please make a comparison chart for all the options?

including enshittification "features" (random beeps, random ads in the middle of live events, all of the navigation crap, app switching speed, etc.etc.)

Here’s my chicken scratch from August 30 when I pulled the trigger on directv stream without realizing they were about to lose espn.

this was focused only on sports (primarily espn and fs1, not caring about the conference networks…I have no bandwidth or interest to care about making sure I have the BIG Network to catch shit like Indiana/Northwestern or ACC Network for Wake Forest/Pitt) and getting through the CFP playoff for the cheapest way possible. Other caveat is I have OTA for CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX so don’t need any package for the conference championships when anything I want to watch that weekend will be on those networks. I guess I’ll have to figure out something if I want to see Ewers win the Heisman live on ESPN in mid-Dec

If this thread has taught anyone anything it’s that what you’re asking for is pretty much impossible without defining what your “must haves” are and/or being a software developer who can build a database that allows you select what you want and spit out what options are available

IMG_2481.thumb.jpeg.c2f2807e75ad7f6f4d45b928dfc0888d.jpeg


 

Edited by UTexasFight
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33 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

can someone please make a comparison chart for all the options?

including enshittification "features" (random beeps, random ads in the middle of live events, all of the navigation crap, app switching speed, etc.etc.)

did you try suppose.tv?

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You can thank me. I got rid of my direct tv Wednesday and missed the shit back from the fed ex store on Thursday. Almost guaranteed this was getting worked out now. I think it’s the message I left for the direct tv ceo that did the trick. 
the lady in retention was laughing as I was talking about all the terrible things I wish would happen to him for taking away my college football last two weekends. 

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“Under the terms of the deal, Disney receives increases in the fees it charges DirecTV to carry its networks and local ABC television stations, the companies said, while DirecTV has more flexibility in how it sells Disney’s channels to customers, which was a key sticking point in the deal.”


I’ll be interested to see what “sports-centric” packages they are able to provide and how much the cost 

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31 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

You can thank me. I got rid of my direct tv Wednesday and missed the shit back from the fed ex store on Thursday. Almost guaranteed this was getting worked out now. I think it’s the message I left for the direct tv ceo that did the trick. 
the lady in retention was laughing as I was talking about all the terrible things I wish would happen to him for taking away my college football last two weekends. 

God bless you sir. You’re a great American. I love my setup at home and never wanted to switch. I didn’t get anywhere yelling at Indians at their call center.

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3 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

i'm still going to switch to something

the irreparable injury rule was reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in eBay v. MercExchange, 547 U.S. 388 (2006)

i will be using this with @@ retention when i tell them to fuck off because they are rapists and theives

Threaten but don’t actually cancel. I’m going to call on Monday to retention to get some more of my bill to get comped. Truth is DirecTV is the best option for big time sports fans who want their local RSNs and want to watch all the college football that is broadcast. They show every 4K feed for college football. No other service can match that. DirecTV with my Verizon unlimited plan comps me all streaming platforms other than Prime which I will pay for Amazon shipping alone and Peacock which I use my Mom’s Xfinity login.

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5 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

Threaten but don’t actually cancel. I’m going to call on Monday to retention to get some more of my bill to get comped. Truth is DirecTV is the best option for big time sports fans who want their local RSNs and want to watch all the college football that is broadcast. They show every 4K feed for college football. No other service can match that. DirecTV with my Verizon unlimited plan comps me all streaming platforms other than Prime which I will pay for Amazon shipping alone and Peacock which I use my Mom’s Xfinity login.

they also charge 240 a month (with fiber net included) for less than 20 channels i care about and several hundred (standard def + hd) that are worthless and need to die

this debacle has made me decide the nba and baseball can fuck themselves; if i ditch uverse then i can rationalize paying for the cock for prem and go hulu plus the V-thinngy that has the Stars; unfortunately i will have to keep @@ for net because the fiber is theirs and i'm sure they'll just start jacking that up until musk finally breaks them with starlink

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