Cord Cutters Thread

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

17 minutes ago, Baboontyme said:

I have YTTV, loving it so far. I am vetting it for my Father in Law. I found some answers on their Help site, but figured I would ask here for more specifics if anyone knows.

First, there is no limit on the number of devices right? Just that you can't watch more than 3 at the same time. They have their home, a place in AZ, an office, and a place on a lake in Northern MI, and he wants to use this in all locations but would never use more than 3 at the same time. 

Geographic location - I see that you can update your "home area" but can't do it more than twice a year so you can receive local broadcasts. There is also an "Update playback area" functionality. Anyone know if this is limited? https://support.google.com/youtubetv/answer/7129768

They are olds so they like the voice enablement capability they currently have on Comcast. I'm not sure what they're using but they like to say "Go to NBC" and it goes to NBC. I briefly tried this with the Alexa on my voice app but no luck. I see voice commands can work on phones, but what about a smart tv or a fire tv or roku, etc? 

No limit on total devices that I saw, just simultaneous.  The locals thing gets a bit messed up with traveling.  If you don't use it in your home area once every three months or so they kill your locals completely and you have to wait to get them back.  Otherwise, it's supposed to travel with you on local networks (including the time zone changes), but sometimes it doesn't update for a few hours or even half a day.  Sports blackouts (to the extent you care) can get weird, too.  I don' think you can record off the "visiting" local network, but you can still view previously recorded stuff from your home area while you're in the visiting area.

You're lucky they're open to it- my parents abandoned free DTVN for regular old (and pricey) DirectTV because it was "too confusing."  The reason?  No channel numbers.  They couldn't find channels in the guide because it didn't make sense to them that the channels were in alphabetical order, and they couldn't punch in "33" to go directly to ESPN or something like that. 

They both have advanced degrees from good schools, and my mother was in IT for 30 years.

[JimmyHoffa 1188]

1 hour ago, Baboontyme said:

I have YTTV, loving it so far. I am vetting it for my Father in Law. I found some answers on their Help site, but figured I would ask here for more specifics if anyone knows.

First, there is no limit on the number of devices right? Just that you can't watch more than 3 at the same time. They have their home, a place in AZ, an office, and a place on a lake in Northern MI, and he wants to use this in all locations but would never use more than 3 at the same time. 

Geographic location - I see that you can update your "home area" but can't do it more than twice a year so you can receive local broadcasts. There is also an "Update playback area" functionality. Anyone know if this is limited? https://support.google.com/youtubetv/answer/7129768

They are olds so they like the voice enablement capability they currently have on Comcast. I'm not sure what they're using but they like to say "Go to NBC" and it goes to NBC. I briefly tried this with the Alexa on my voice app but no luck. I see voice commands can work on phones, but what about a smart tv or a fire tv or roku, etc? 

 

I dropped DirecTV last month and switched to YTTV and loving it so far as well. 

-No limit on devices (you can have up to 6 separate accounts on the same plan) just 3 streams at the same time

-on the location issue I couldn't watch a network show when I was out of state but not sure how it works

-Depends on how they want to access it. Roku is the easiest if you ask me (has voice) AppleTV also has voice that works so so. 

 

I also have a question- I know Viacom is forcing YTTV to play their "ondemand" shows with commercials that you can't FF through but noticed it happen with a couple of other non Viacom networks as well but couldn't find out why looking. Any ideas?   

[Js1 85574]

1 hour ago, Liquor and Poker said:

No limit on total devices that I saw, just simultaneous.  The locals thing gets a bit messed up with traveling.  If you don't use it in your home area once every three months or so they kill your locals completely and you have to wait to get them back.  Otherwise, it's supposed to travel with you on local networks (including the time zone changes), but sometimes it doesn't update for a few hours or even half a day.  Sports blackouts (to the extent you care) can get weird, too.  I don' think you can record off the "visiting" local network, but you can still view previously recorded stuff from your home area while you're in the visiting area.

You're lucky they're open to it- my parents abandoned free DTVN for regular old (and pricey) DirectTV because it was "too confusing."  The reason?  No channel numbers.  They couldn't find channels in the guide because it didn't make sense to them that the channels were in alphabetical order, and they couldn't punch in "33" to go directly to ESPN or something like that. 

They both have advanced degrees from good schools, and my mother was in IT for 30 years.

Alphabetical order?

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

22 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Alphabetical order?

Yeah, they hated that ABC, FOX, CBS and NBC weren't right next to each other.  But it lets you make favorites lists that you can organize and you could also just use the individual apps, like I do.  But my parents honestly don't get apps.  That's why they don't watch Netflix - it's not on their guide.

[Anton Chigurh 3319]

Default sort on YTTV does have the locals at the top of the guide.

[Landomatic 3813]

Cross-posting from another thread...

I just switched from almost 3 years with PSVue to YouTube TV.  I was really happy with PSVue but when I heard they were killing it, I decided to check out the YouTube TV free trial (after some research) as more of a what the fuck than anything.  Happy to report it’s way better than PSVue.  Better overall functionality and WAAAAAY better DVR.  Plus it’s a little cheaper.

As for channels, it doesn’t have LHN which I decided I could live without, at least for now, since all I ever really watched on it were the 1-2 crappy football games a year. I can cross that bridge next football season.  Other than that, if they’re missing any channels, it must not be a channel I watched because I haven’t seen anything missing.

To my knowledge, AT&T is the only other one that has LHN but from everything I’ve heard, their interface and DVR sucks.

Added bonus, PSVue didn’t have Judge Judy.  It had her channel and she was listed on the program guide, but for whatever reason, she was blacked out.  YouTube TV has her!

Took about 10 minutes of learning curve to figure out the very intuitive change in functionality.  Even the not so tech savvy wife picked it up very quickly and thinks it’s better.  So, went ahead and canceled PSVue.  Wish I’d done it a long time ago.

And agree a big part of what killed PSVue had to be their name.  Needed to change that shit to Vue TV or something.  I’m sure there was a conflict there, as most likely, certain departments of the company wanted people thinking you needed a PlayStation for it.

tl;dr - switched to YouTube TV, glad I did

[kevwun 15897]

Reddit streams work really well for any games you need.  Hook up a laptop, tablet or phone to your tv and you have it.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

Houston peeps - anyone else have problems with Fox via an antenna? Their broadcast antenna appears to be in the same location as everyone else, and my receiving antenna has no problems with the other channels. Still there is constant pixelation. 

just curious if others run into this problem or if the issue is with my antenna. 

[tokamak 6441]

No we always have trouble with Fox too. We just use a cheapo pair of bunny ears though. Seems like the same orientation that works for the other networks doesn't work well for Fox.

[dcbc 14509]

4 hours ago, tokamak said:

No we always have trouble with Fox too. We just use a cheapo pair of bunny ears though. Seems like the same orientation that works for the other networks doesn't work well for Fox.

Try a preamp.  We went to 1 channel to all channels with a preamp on the line. 

[Landomatic 3813]

4 hours ago, tokamak said:

No we always have trouble with Fox too. We just use a cheapo pair of bunny ears though. Seems like the same orientation that works for the other networks doesn't work well for Fox.

Or try a wad of tin foil.

[NoName 16405]

On 11/1/2019 at 10:32 AM, Baboontyme said:

I have YTTV, loving it so far. I am vetting it for my Father in Law. I found some answers on their Help site, but figured I would ask here for more specifics if anyone knows.

First, there is no limit on the number of devices right? Just that you can't watch more than 3 at the same time. They have their home, a place in AZ, an office, and a place on a lake in Northern MI, and he wants to use this in all locations but would never use more than 3 at the same time. 

Geographic location - I see that you can update your "home area" but can't do it more than twice a year so you can receive local broadcasts. There is also an "Update playback area" functionality. Anyone know if this is limited? https://support.google.com/youtubetv/answer/7129768

They are olds so they like the voice enablement capability they currently have on Comcast. I'm not sure what they're using but they like to say "Go to NBC" and it goes to NBC. I briefly tried this with the Alexa on my voice app but no luck. I see voice commands can work on phones, but what about a smart tv or a fire tv or roku, etc? 

1) number of devices should be fine

2) geographic location - you have to log into your "home area" every 90 days i think but outside of that you are pretty good to go

3) it works with google home (nest now?) devices pretty easily if you have a chromecast or your TV has a built in chromecast - vizio does this fwiw

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

Just a word of caution for Astro fans like myself about AT&T and their new streaming service they are rolling out.   You will not get the AT&T Sports Nets which makes zero sense.   They do offer LHN , but when I did  my channel search for my area, the only regional sports nets that came up were Fox SW and Fox SW+.  

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

44 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

Just a word of caution for Astro fans like myself about AT&T and their new streaming service they are rolling out.   You will not get the AT&T Sports Nets which makes zero sense.   They do offer LHN , but when I did  my channel search for my area, the only regional sports nets that came up were Fox SW and Fox SW+.  

What new streaming service is AT&T rolling out? 

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

4 minutes ago, Lobwedgephil said:

What new streaming service is AT&T rolling out? 

https://www.att.com/tv/

Edited November 4, 2019 by Nueces River Rat

[gsoda3 3282]

On 10/31/2019 at 11:20 AM, Quagmire said:

Dtv now price going up again, signed up when they started for their forever price of 25 bucks, now it’s going up to 60. Cunts

 

On 10/31/2019 at 11:52 AM, Liquor and Poker said:

I never got an email.  I'm in the grandfathered Go Big!.  Do they raise that $15 and then offset by giving me HBO Max for free?  If so, that's only $5 because I was paying $10/mo for HBO already.  I can handle that until the inevitable announcement that they're folding it all into DTV proper.

i got the email end of last week.  i'm grandfathered in to the go big $25 (actually $55 now i think and going to $60 next month).  don't have att mobile.  i think this is going to motivate me enough to cancel.  we don't really watch enough tv to justify that, and if yttv has something with espn we're pretty much set.  

[kevwun 15897]

It is rumored that AT&T wants to sell their regional sports networks.  That is good news for Astros and Rockets fans because it should be more widely available when that happens.

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

20 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

https://www.att.com/tv/

Thanks, forgot about that service. They don't have At&t sportsnet either on At&t Now, formerly DirectTV Now. Only good option to stream the Astros is FuboTV. Hopefully that changes in the future. 

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

6 minutes ago, kevwun said:

It is rumored that AT&T wants to sell their regional sports networks.  That is good news for Astros and Rockets fans because it should be more widely available when that happens.

I heard that too.    I've never figured out why the Astros and Rockets tied their hands the way they did with the current set up.  At least for the Astros, a significant chunk of their fan base live in where AT&T is not available via traditional cable.   San Antonio, Corpus, the RGV ,and Austin are all Spectrum dominated.   Other areas in between are served by other companies not affiliated with Comcast as well.   

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

7 minutes ago, Lobwedgephil said:

Thanks, forgot about that service. They don't have At&t sportsnet either on At&t Now, formerly DirectTV Now. Only good option to stream the Astros is FuboTV. Hopefully that changes in the future. 

I think the AT&T service is available in limited areas as of now.  I'll check into the FuboTV.  

[kevwun 15897]

I think they got fucked when AT&T went in to monopoly mode.  They are trapped in the middle of AT&T's bullshit now and most of their fans can't watch their games as a result. 

[Noah Fence 480]

23 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

I think the AT&T service is available in limited areas as of now.  I'll check into the FuboTV.  

I did the free trial of Fubo.  The main issue is they don't carry any ESPN networks.

[Updawg 2286]

It is rumored that AT&T wants to sell their regional sports networks.  That is good news for Astros and Rockets fans because it should be more widely available when that happens.

I hope they do

[Updawg 2286]

I heard that too.    I've never figured out why the Astros and Rockets tied their hands the way they did with the current set up.  At least for the Astros, a significant chunk of their fan base live in where AT&T is not available via traditional cable.   San Antonio, Corpus, the RGV ,and Austin are all Spectrum dominated.   Other areas in between are served by other companies not affiliated with Comcast as well.   

Wasn't it originally a Comcast sports network. I believe it was due to some litigation/ mergers and eventually became att and this mess. Same thing happened in LA with the Lakers and some other cities

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

On 11/4/2019 at 8:47 AM, Nueces River Rat said:

Just a word of caution for Astro fans like myself about AT&T and their new streaming service they are rolling out.   You will not get the AT&T Sports Nets which makes zero sense.   They do offer LHN , but when I did  my channel search for my area, the only regional sports nets that came up were Fox SW and Fox SW+.  

AT&T doesn't want to pay the Rockets and Astros for adding Sportsnet to the AT&T TV platform. This allows them to get the price lower for customers, or so they would say.

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

13 minutes ago, Updawg said:

On 11/4/2019 at 10:07 AM, Nueces River Rat said:

I heard that too.    I've never figured out why the Astros and Rockets tied their hands the way they did with the current set up.  At least for the Astros, a significant chunk of their fan base live in where AT&T is not available via traditional cable.   San Antonio, Corpus, the RGV ,and Austin are all Spectrum dominated.   Other areas in between are served by other companies not affiliated with Comcast as well.   

Wasn't it originally a Comcast sports network. I believe it was due to some litigation/ mergers and eventually became att and this mess. Same thing happened in LA with the Lakers and some other cities

It was  Comcast property, but not sure how it ended up being part of AT&T.    

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

2 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

It was  Comcast property, but not sure how it ended up being part of AT&T.    

 

from wikipedia:

Quote

On August 6, 2014, DirecTV and AT&T (which was in the process of acquiring DirecTV) acquired Comcast SportsNet Houston – which had earlier been granted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection placement through an involuntary petition filed by Comcast and NBCUniversal in September 2013[10] – as a 60/40 joint venture (with DirecTV as majority owner). The network was subsequently rebranded as Root Sports Southwest on November 17, 2014,[11][12][13][14] becoming the first Root Sports network to not be a rebranded Fox Sports Networks affiliate.

In April 2016, following the completion of the acquisition of DirecTV by AT&T, DirecTV Sports Networks rebranded under the AT&T name as AT&T Sports Networks. Following this announcement, the channels began to downplay the Root Sports brand by replacing their logo bugs with an AT&T Sports Networks logo, restricting the Root Sports brand to station identification only.[15] Three of the channels were re-branded as AT&T SportsNet on July 14, 2017, introducing new logos and on-air graphics. Root Sports Northwest adopted the new AT&T SportsNet graphics,[16] but remains under the Root Sports brand; it is the only network in the group that is not majority-owned by AT&T.[17][18]

Following AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner in 2018, it was revealed in March 2019 that AT&T Sportsnet would be merged with CNN and Turner Sports under the division of WarnerMedia News & Sports, led by CNN president Jeff Zucker.[19]

what sucks is that the other AT&T SportsNets are carried on almost all cable providers in their areas, and have some affiliate relationship with Fox Sports Networks. But in Houston, the 2 seem to be in conflict resulting in AT&T Sports not being carried very broadly.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Updawg 2286]

And fucking Drayton is still suing the Astros over the shit show network agreement he helped create

[Nonbryan 173]

Just got an email saying ATT now going up another $10 in December.  Looks like it's time to trial PSvue or some other.

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

1 minute ago, Nonbryan said:

Just got an email saying ATT now going up another $10 in December.  Looks like it's time to trial PSvue or some other.

PSVue is going bye bye. 

[skeeter 454]

SIAP ... site to assist in making choices

https://www.suppose.tv/tv?m=5&f=1l5ll250l50l1l1lll1&r=S1-cvZZjr

[Landomatic 3813]

9 hours ago, Nonbryan said:

Just got an email saying ATT now going up another $10 in December.  Looks like it's time to trial PSvue or some other.

Go with "some other" as PSVue is shutting down Feb 1.  YouTube TV appears to be best alternative.

[Landomatic 3813]

Cross posting as this thread seems to get more traction.

Using YouTube TV now for a couple weeks.  I think it's still probably better than PSVue overall, but I have run across some things I really don't like...

1. When you pause the screen, it shadows everything out so you can't really see it.  PSV would let you exit out of that while keeping it paused.  I can't get YTTV to do that.  I often pause because I want to read something long or study something in more detail.  This makes that pretty much impossible.  Kind of sucks but more annoying than anything.
2. There are no program descriptions at all.  Just the name of the show and the name of the episode (which is worthless).  This sucks when picking certain shows.  For example, something like a Dateline or 20/20.  I'd like to know a little what the episode is about to see if it's anything I'm interested in.  Without it, the only way to really find out is to sit through the intro, but by then, I feel like I've seen the whole damn thing.  That sucks.
3. There are far more commercials on YTTV than PSV.  Seems like a ton of shows make the recorded version "unavailable" after it airs and force you to watch the on demand version, which has all the commercials yellowed out so you can't forward through them.  That really sucks!

[Dahobbs 17682]

1 hour ago, Landomatic said:

Cross posting as this thread seems to get more traction.

Using YouTube TV now for a couple weeks.  I think it's still probably better than PSVue overall, but I have run across some things I really don't like...

1. When you pause the screen, it shadows everything out so you can't really see it.  PSV would let you exit out of that while keeping it paused.  I can't get YTTV to do that.  I often pause because I want to read something long or study something in more detail.  This makes that pretty much impossible.  Kind of sucks but more annoying than anything.
2. There are no program descriptions at all.  Just the name of the show and the name of the episode (which is worthless).  This sucks when picking certain shows.  For example, something like a Dateline or 20/20.  I'd like to know a little what the episode is about to see if it's anything I'm interested in.  Without it, the only way to really find out is to sit through the intro, but by then, I feel like I've seen the whole damn thing.  That sucks.
3. There are far more commercials on YTTV than PSV.  Seems like a ton of shows make the recorded version "unavailable" after it airs and force you to watch the on demand version, which has all the commercials yellowed out so you can't forward through them.  That really sucks!

As to 3, on YTTV, you have to select the "recorded" version when playing content in your video library. Otherwise, it defaults to the playing the "on demand" version (if it exists), which means unskippable commercials. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Dahobbs

[Landomatic 3813]

7 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

As to 3, on YTTV, you have to select the "recorded" version when playing content in your video library. Otherwise, it defaults to the playing the "on demand" version (if it exists), which means unskippable commercials. 

Yeah but a bunch (most?) say the recorded version is unavailable and it forces you to watch the on demand version.

[Dahobbs 17682]

27 minutes ago, Landomatic said:

Yeah but a bunch (most?) say the recorded version is unavailable and it forces you to watch the on demand version.

That is usually because you didn't record one or it has been a significant length of time since you recorded it (I think they are replaced around the 6 month mark? I can't remember). 

[Landomatic 3813]

2 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

That is usually because you didn't record one or it has been a significant length of time since you recorded it (I think they are replaced around the 6 month mark? I can't remember). 

Well, since I've only been on YouTube TV for a couple weeks, I'm pretty sure that's not it.

[Dahobbs 17682]

48 minutes ago, Landomatic said:

Well, since I've only been on YouTube TV for a couple weeks, I'm pretty sure that's not it.

Well, then it is almost certainly that you hit record on a series, and while perhaps an episode or two has played since then, everything else is only available via on demand. Once they play again, they'll be recorded and you'll have the option to select the recorded version. 

[Landomatic 3813]

1 minute ago, Dahobbs said:

Well, then it is almost certainly that you hit record on a series, and while perhaps an episode or two has played since then, everything else is only available via on demand. Once they play again, they'll be recorded and you'll have the option to select the recorded version. 

Maybe, but this seemed to be a few fairly new episodes.  But alright, I'll be patient and see if it gets better or was just an isolated issue.  

[Dahobbs 17682]

1 minute ago, Landomatic said:

Maybe, but this seemed to be a few fairly new episodes.  But alright, I'll be patient and see if it gets better or was just an isolated issue.  

It is how the system works both in theory and in my experience. I can't tell you more than that. The most frustrating thing is having to select "recorded" version, but it is a fairly minor annoyance for me. 

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

2 hours ago, Landomatic said:

Maybe, but this seemed to be a few fairly new episodes.  But alright, I'll be patient and see if it gets better or was just an isolated issue.  

Once the show is available on demand, you have to watch it on demand and with commercials. Depends on the network. 

 

Note about recordings: In certain rare cases, if you've recorded a program that's also available on-demand at the time you're watching, recorded content may still have unskippable ads. This is because the network requires the video on-demand version to be played back instead of your recording. However, for the vast majority of networks, you'll be able to watch a recorded version by default, and can skip a

 

[Dahobbs 17682]

1 hour ago, Lobwedgephil said:

Once the show is available on demand, you have to watch it on demand and with commercials. Depends on the network. 

 

Note about recordings: In certain rare cases, if you've recorded a program that's also available on-demand at the time you're watching, recorded content may still have unskippable ads. This is because the network requires the video on-demand version to be played back instead of your recording. However, for the vast majority of networks, you'll be able to watch a recorded version by default, and can skip a

 

Ah, so that is the issue. I guess I'm not watching those networks. 

[Landomatic 3813]

1 hour ago, Lobwedgephil said:

Once the show is available on demand, you have to watch it on demand and with commercials. Depends on the network. 

 

Note about recordings: In certain rare cases, if you've recorded a program that's also available on-demand at the time you're watching, recorded content may still have unskippable ads. This is because the network requires the video on-demand version to be played back instead of your recording. However, for the vast majority of networks, you'll be able to watch a recorded version by default, and can skip a

 

Yep that’s exactly what I’m running into.  It really blows

[Celery Man 20996]

Just cut the cable out of my Fiber subscription.  Watched the NFL Red Zone signoff screen's last gasps.  And bought HBO on Amazon.

I think there are only a few channels where it makes you watch the On Demand version.  CW and maybe CBS?

[NoName 16405]

On 11/8/2019 at 10:41 AM, Landomatic said:

Yeah but a bunch (most?) say the recorded version is unavailable and it forces you to watch the on demand version.

its done by the providers, not by YTTV. CBS is the worst about this - there is also a time limit to it, so some providers let you watch the recorded one for a while then force you to the on demand version after X days/weeks

[WithoutAClue 15438]

Here is a pretty good summary of the online streaming services available now.

all the options

Amazon Prime + Hulu + Netflix + ESPN Plus seems to be a pretty good starting point.

[ChickenSandwich 9852]

Will the ESPN + only be their “+” content or will it include all ESPN channels?

in the Hulu/Disney bundle?

Edited November 11, 2019 by ChickenSandwich

[Lobwedgephil 1139]

2 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Will the ESPN + only be their “+” content or will it include all ESPN channels?

in the Hulu/Disney bundle?

Just ESPN+. 

[Neonmoon 38130]

I’m loving YTTV so far. 

Glad we cut the cord 

[iodeac 138]

A little late on this thread but the wife really wants to cut the cord.  As of now our Spectrum bill with internet, HBO, and the silver package which allows us to get RedZone is about 211.  I have a good friend who cut the cord a few years ago and he went with PS Vue, and he was mentioning that he bought his own cable modem which pays for itself eventually, and an antennae for the OTA stations.  What kind of equipment will I need?  Looks like YTTV is a really good option, and based on my zipcode in NC they have all the local affiliates plus NBC Sports Network for soccer, and ACC Network as well.  Just curious if you all had to buy your own cable modems, antennae, etc and what device do you use to actually stream?  We watch a lot of Netflix and HBOGO streamed through the Xbox.  Sorry for all the noob questions but would greatly appreciate some info, thanks!