Cord Cutters Thread

[Dr Fear 1268]

16 hours ago, tbone_ said:

I did the 4K thing on YTTV. Olympics looks pretty good.

IDK what NBC is doing, but the Thursday NLF games on Fox were in "4k" this season, but it was really just an upscaled 720/1080 (it still has a noticeable improvement).  I think ESPN was doing the same thing.  Things should look even better when they all legitimately upgrade all their equipment to native 4k.

[Dutchrudder 11136]

FYI, you can share your YTTV subscription with a few friends or family via Googles family share option. One person pays, and everyome gets it. Same goes for YouTube Premium, Music and Drive storage upgrades

[Nice Guy Eddie 13509]

Interesting. Beaumont is planning to sue several streaming companies (Netflix, Disney, Hulu) because of a 2005 Texas law that municipalities get to collect a franchise fee from video service providers. If they're somehow successful, I can imagine every other Texas city will want their share as well.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Beaumont-to-sue-Netflix-Hulu-and-Disney-16935993.php  (odd article in how it gives a background of each law firm. I guess the writer needed X number of words and decided to be lazy.)

I hope those services decide to cut off Beaumont residents until it's resolved. And ensure that the citizens know who is at fault.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Nueces River Rat 5537]

I finally "cut the cord" a few weeks ago and went with HULU...

Everything is good until last night when watching Lincoln on the History Channel, the picture freezes, but the audio is still going,

Flip the channels to see if it was occurring on Discovery and HGTV...  Ditto after a few minutes

 

Anyone have this same issue with HULU?

 

And this is with a brand new Firestick and I just upgraded my modem and router at the same time.  So I don't think it's equipment related.

[Goofyboy 3269]

Had it happen with YTTV. Resetting the fire stick seems to unstick most issues.

[tbone_ 14113]

Had it happen with YTTV. Resetting the fire stick seems to unstick most issues.

This. Once in a while I have to RE download the app

[Lurch 5922]

YouTube app on Firestick has same problem. Every few months I have to clear cache, uninstall, reinstall it. My guess is it has a bug in cache management and corruption occasionally happens.

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

On 2/17/2022 at 12:02 PM, Dutchrudder said:

FYI, you can share your YTTV subscription with a few friends or family via Googles family share option. One person pays, and everyome gets it. Same goes for YouTube Premium, Music and Drive storage upgrades

 

There are some limitations. Assuming everyone lives close by, you all are good.  Also, you are limited to 3 streams at a time no matter what kind of device (phone, laptop, streaming device) you are using.  You can buy the 4K package which gives you 3 outside streams + unlimited streams from your house.

From Google's support:

Location requirements work the same if you're sharing your YouTube TV membership with a family group. The family manager sets the home area, and all family members must primarily live in the same household. 

All family group members must periodically use YouTube TV in your home location to maintain access. If you don't, the family manager will either have to change the family's home location or you'll need to get your own individual membership.

Note: If you're using YouTube TV while travelling, you'll get access to certain programmes based on your location. Learn more about using YouTube TV while travelling. 

[DCLonghorn 244]

 
There are some limitations. Assuming everyone lives close by, you all are good.  Also, you are limited to 3 streams at a time no matter what kind of device (phone, laptop, streaming device) you are using.  You can buy the 4K package which gives you 3 outside streams + unlimited streams from your house.
From Google's support:
Location requirements work the same if you're sharing your YouTube TV membership with a family group. The family manager sets the home area, and all family members must primarily live in the same household. 
All family group members must periodically use YouTube TV in your home location to maintain access. If you don't, the family manager will either have to change the family's home location or you'll need to get your own individual membership.
Note: If you're using YouTube TV while travelling, you'll get access to certain programmes based on your location. Learn more about using YouTube TV while travelling. 

If you have someone in your family group that doesn't live in your area, you can log in to their Google account from your home area and reset it even if they are somewhere else.

It asks for a refresh every three months or so which I assume is for college kids away for a semester. I have a kid in college and a mom in Texas that use mine. I log in for them as needed.

Not as easy if sharing with folks that don't want to let you do that.

It's a mild pain in the ass, but very mild. I think their goal is to stop third level/unknown password sharing like other apps and not so much concerned about what I'm doing. As it would be easy to stop that.

[Quagmire 2147]

My directv stream sub has gone from 35 in 2016 to 80 now. Still grand fathered in but shit it’s catching up to cable prices

[Nueces River Rat 5537]

On 2/21/2022 at 6:14 PM, Goofyboy said:

Had it happen with YTTV. Resetting the fire stick seems to unstick most issues.

I think the problem kind of fixed itself?   I was going to do a reset and reinstall thing after reading this and managed to watcha few things last evening without the issue showing up.  

[texas08 1599]

My directv stream sub has gone from 35 in 2016 to 80 now. Still grand fathered in but shit it’s catching up to cable prices

Gawddamn has it been 6 years now?

I’m also grandfathered, and I’m paying the same, but damn I love all the channels I have. Literally everything, you name it, I have it…except BEIN sports so I guess not everything lol

[Okie State 3815]

YTTV started around $35 and was awesome. I was grandfathered in for a while, but they eventually jumped it to around $60 and I said fuck it.

[tbone_ 14113]

What I can’t figure out is since the cable providers control the high speed broadband why haven’t they just jacked the price through the roof yet.

[Burt 4080]

4 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

What I can’t figure out is since the cable providers control the high speed broadband why haven’t they just jacked the price through the roof yet.

They will.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10230]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

What I can’t figure out is since the cable providers control the high speed broadband why haven’t they just jacked the price through the roof yet.

5G

[tbone_ 14113]

5G

Maybe in the future but before now I mean

[MonkeyDoughnut 10230]

20 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

Maybe in the future but before now I mean

I also think they saw benefit of removing satellite provider competition from their bread and butter TV company. Hoping to kill off "satellite" DirecTv and Dish maybe.

It's much easier to bundle add another service to someone who is already a customer. They are quick to offer cheap internet if you bundle with a nice TV package.

[LosIllini 91]

Had deals expiring, and was going to pay out the ass for Directv and ATT fiber.  Called in, and got some relief on Dtv.  Still not sure what I'm going to do--- sports channel coverage is just too good, but, pricey overall.  Sounds like a mix and match of providers to get everything streaming.

What was really surprising was that they were able to drop 1GB internet to $65/ month for a year.  Guess there's enough competition in Dallas, that they are trying to be more competitive.  (1GB is probably overkill, but, house is hardwired, and do a lot of streaming/ moving data, working from home, and it just works).

[DCLonghorn 244]

That's a good deal. Competition is good! I pay $81 for 300/10 for 2 years with Comcast, then it wil be $100. No real competition here yet. 

[Godzillatron 292]

What I can’t figure out is since the cable providers control the high speed broadband why haven’t they just jacked the price through the roof yet.

To an extent they have. I took my parents off the local cable provider that was screwing them on tv service, and put then on a streaming provider. Had to pay a $40 "tax" for their internet service upgrade to the cable guys for the privilege. They still came out over $100 / month to the good.

[Burt 4080]

On 1/22/2022 at 11:22 PM, Burt said:

I negotiated a great price for Dish last year and that finally ran out.  They've always been will to negotiate in the past but this time they're making it much tougher. So we finally decided to give YoutubeTV a try. When I called to cancel they offered me exactly what I was paying before the increase, but I'd already made up my mind.  Besides, YTTV was a few bucks cheaper.  Dish was willing to put a 3 month hold on my account in case I wanted to return so we did that.  This first week we've been mostly happy with YTTV.  There is one thing I'd like changed....for instance, I'd like to delete individual watched episodes from my Library rather than just have them marked as "watched".

But the real test came today, though - recording a football game.  I prefer to start it about 45-60 minutes after kickoff so I can skip commercials for at least the first half. However, I didn't get started on the GB-SF game until the game was already over.  I keep getting error messages when trying to play it, though.  Same thing happened to me with a basketball game a couple of days ago.  Is this a common occurrence when trying to watch sporting events? Because fucking around with watching games will drive me right back to Dish.

Dish had allowed me to put a 3 month hold on my account, but after 5 weeks of using YTTV we were happy with it.  Since I didn't need the whole 3 months Dish had given me, I called to make the break.  The transferred me to "the department that handles that."  They asked what it would take to keep me. I told them I want keep the same package I have (Top 200)...no dropping down to "save money", I want the lowest offer you can possibly make, and throw in some freebies for wasting my time the past month.

They put me on hold for a couple of minutes then came back with $40 off/mo for 12 months.  Sounds good on the surface, but their Top 200 package has increased to $132/month....so $92 would be the offer. That's still $27 more per month than YTTV, so I declined and told them to go ahead and ship me the boxes to return my Hopper. Put me on hold again, came back with $82/month.  Told them that was closer, but I'd still be paying them more $200/yr than what I paid for YTTV.  He said he'd also include a one time $100 credit on my next bill.  I got to cipherin' and with that $100 credit spread over the 12 months, my bill would average out to $73.67/month. I told him if he'd throw in Showtime and a couple of On Demand movies I'd stay with them. He said he could only do Showtime for 6 months, but he'd be willing to give us one free On Demand movie per month for the 12 month offer.

So we're back to Dish.  Yeah, it's $8.67 per month more than YTTV, but I get the Longhorn Network, Vice, and AxsTV back...plus the other shit he threw in.  I'll have to go through all this shit once again next February, but now I know YTTV is a viable option if Dish calls my bluff.

[DCLonghorn 244]

YTTV v Hulu with Live TV?

It looks like it's time to revisit this one. Hulu with live TV just announced unlimited free DVR to match YouTube TV. I'm a big fan of YTTV, but could save a bit I'd guess if I bundled...I already have Disney+, ESPN+, and regular Hulu with ads.

What say you Surly...how do they compare?

Hulu Adds Unlimited DVR

Edited March 13, 2022 by DCLonghorn

[Burt 4080]

4 hours ago, DCLonghorn said:

YTTV v Hulu with Live TV?

It looks like it's time to revisit this one. Hulu with live TV just announced unlimited free DVR to match YouTube TV. I'm a big fan of YTTV, but could save a bit I'd guess if I bundled...I already have Disney+, ESPN+, and regular Hulu with ads.

What say you Surly...how do they compare?

Hulu Adds Unlimited DVR

How much do you pay for Disney and ESPN?  I have them free through my cell service (Verizon) so I have no idea their cost. But if you're paying anything at all for those it may make sense to switch to Hulu Live since its only $5 more per month.  Not having to pay for Disney and ESPN would more than make up for it.

I made a spreadsheet of the top streaming options comparing all the channels we typically watch.  Looks like that only thing you'd be losing going from YouTube to Hulu Comedy Central, AMC, MLB and AxisTV....but some of that may have changed since I last updated it.

 

[DCLonghorn 244]

I was more asking about the user interface and pros and cons between YTTV and HLTV.

But to answer your question about cost...first...it took me this damn long to figure it out! With discounts and price hikes, it took a bit to figure out.

And it turns out that with current discounts, it's still cheaper for me to have YTTV than get the Disney+ bundle with Hulu with Live TV. It's still cheaper to go with YTTV and pay full freight for the D+ bundle annually with the $10 discount I get for YTTV.

Hulu with Live TV is $70 a month and includes Disney+ and ESPN+.

YouTube TV is $65 a month and has a few more channels, and 3 concurrent viewers instead of Hulu's 2, which makes a big difference with our usage.

I get $10 off of YTTV a month from T-Mobile

I get Hulu with ads for free from Sprint...T-Mo still honoring.

I am still on a 3 year intro deal for D+ that works out to $3.92 a month.

I pay full freight for ESPN+ $80/year or $5.83 a month

D+ bundle is $14 a month or $12.50 a month if you pay annually.

YTTV + D+ bundle is $77.50 a month, but only $67.50 with the T-Mo discount. So even if I lose free hulu and when D+ three year deal ends, it will still be cheaper to stay with YTTV.

Of course every single price above will change within six months.

TBH, if not for sports, I could kill YTTV. There's enough on the streaming apps to make up for it. But sports keep me paying, and they know it.

But the above plus Amazon Prime (I consider this free as I would pay for Prime for shipping anyway) and Paramount+ ($5/month) is still WAY cheaper than my last DirecTV bill. DTV more than double.

[NoName 16351]

11 hours ago, DCLonghorn said:

I was more asking about the user interface and pros and cons between YTTV and HLTV.

note that i have a Chromecast with Google TV but i think YTTV has a significantly better UI than Hulu in just about every way

on one page you have live/"home" (suggested shows)/library. it's super super easy to get back into what you were last watching - hulu requires you to either click on "my stuff" then your show or scroll down past the top recommended show, "live now" row, "tv for you", "movies for you" then you get to keep watching. in YTTV it's literally "top picks for you" and one down button to "resume watching." this is the #1 most annoying thing for me with Hulu - i just want to jump back into watching my show, why am i having to scroll down that far? i guess i am spoiled by the YTTV interface from that standpoint.

if you roll with YTTV i would also invest in the Chromecast w Google TV just because they have their exclusive "live" area in the home of the streaming stick that shows you the channels, think channel surfing. plus the voice search is amazing and accurate - like actually it works, what a concept. plus the "continue watching" pulls you back into anything you were watching at least based on the services we have. if you have some rando one it may not but outside of that...

this is a small thing, but Hulu "forgets" where I am in a show fairly often, restarting the entire episode - of course with an unskippable ad block at the start. every time. meanwhile i can literally seamlessly jump from watching a show on ipad to my iphone while i walk into the living room to watching it on the TV basically perfectly. don't lose any time. don't get stuck with unskippable ads, picks up every time where i was exactly.

 

[DCLonghorn 244]

1 hour ago, NoName said:

... the YTTV interface

Thanks NoName. That's what I kind of figured. I really like the YTTV interface and GOOGL clearly has brought some experience with YouTube. I have regular Hulu and not a big fan of that interface. I assume Hulu with Live TV is just bolted on top of the regular Hulu interface?

I was able to boil the cost confusion above down a bit further. With the $10 YTTV discount from T-Mo, YTTV with any mix of D+ bundles is cheaper. Without the discount, HuluwLTV is cheaper than any mix of YTTV plus D+ bundles, even with current long term discounts.

 

[TXLNGHRN10 341]

Does anyone have any experience with the Superbox?

$330 and that includes the lifetime subscription fee to what looks like errr channel on cable?

Edited April 29, 2022 by TXLNGHRN10

[rage-a-holic 4382]

2 hours ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

Does anyone have any experience with the Superbox?

$330 and that includes the lifetime subscription fee to what looks like errr channel on cable?

You are paying for a $50 android box and $300 for a "lifetime" IPTV service subscription. You are gambling on how long this company will stick around. If they disappear in 6 months, no one is mailing you a $250 refund check.

Most IPTV services are about $10/month. You can use any $30 FireTv or Android box for IPTV and you have a choice of hundreds of providers. You don't like you current IPTV service? Cancel and switch to someone else. 

With the Superbox, you've already invested $300 in their service. I would pass.

[TexasEd 8066]

On 3/16/2022 at 7:37 AM, NoName said:

this is a small thing, but Hulu "forgets" where I am in a show fairly often, restarting the entire episode - of course with an unskippable ad block at the start. every time.

I learned a lot from your post but I wanted to point out the above is a feature, not a bug.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

I've been a cord cutter for about 13 years now.  MLB has made it more and more difficult to get around their blackouts.  I had YTTV just for the baseball playoffs last season and really liked it.  However Root Sports is only on fubo.tv.  Thought I would give it a go but the cheapest plan I find with Root on it is 70 bucks a month.  Seems steep.

[Jerry Callo 8699]

So instead of being a cord cutter, I've been the exact opposite - a dumbass.  AT&T Uverse U450 ($179), Netflix ($22), Disney+ ($14), Paramount+ ($99/yr), Peacock ($99/yr), HBOMax (included with some AT&T bundle).  We have AT&T for everything - internet, TV, phone, and wireless.  Not leaving AT&T for various reasons, but AT&T Fiber just added to our part of the neighborhood.

Our current AT&T Internet 75 plan gives us between 75-80 Mbps download which has actually worked pretty well.  I can choose AT&T Fiber with 300 Mbps, 1gig, 2gig, and 5gig.  The 1g fiber is about $25/mo. more than our current and, I suspect, will be a noticeable improvement.  Three to four users.  Little work from home.  I don't see any reason to bump to 2g or 5g.

With the higher speeds offered by fiber, I am looking at dropping the expensiveass Uverse and go full streaming.  Will be keeping Netflix and Disney+ (which includes ESPN+ and Hulu).  Also have Paramount+ and Peacock until the end of the year at which time I will drop at least Peacock.  Looking at either DirecTV Stream, Hulu+Live TV, and YouTube TV to fill in the gaps (local channels, some sports, AMC, FX, etc.)  Will be running whichever streaming service we get through an Amazon Fire TV Stick.

Questions for the cord cutting gurus:

Should 1g fiber be sufficient?

Which streaming service is best for user interface, ability to record shows, and have multiple users? 

What am I missing?

  

 

[chikin23 384]

Try youtubetv for a free trial. It’s the best streaming service.

[Lurch 5922]

So instead of being a cord cutter, I've been the exact opposite - a dumbass.  AT&T Uverse U450 ($179), Netflix ($22), Disney+ ($14), Paramount+ ($99/yr), Peacock ($99/yr), HBOMax (included with some AT&T bundle).  We have AT&T for everything - internet, TV, phone, and wireless.  Not leaving AT&T for various reasons, but AT&T Fiber just added to our part of the neighborhood.
Our current AT&T Internet 75 plan gives us between 75-80 Mbps download which has actually worked pretty well.  I can choose AT&T Fiber with 300 Mbps, 1gig, 2gig, and 5gig.  The 1g fiber is about $25/mo. more than our current and, I suspect, will be a noticeable improvement.  Three to four users.  Little work from home.  I don't see any reason to bump to 2g or 5g.
With the higher speeds offered by fiber, I am looking at dropping the expensiveass Uverse and go full streaming.  Will be keeping Netflix and Disney+ (which includes ESPN+ and Hulu).  Also have Paramount+ and Peacock until the end of the year at which time I will drop at least Peacock.  Looking at either DirecTV Stream, Hulu+Live TV, and YouTube TV to fill in the gaps (local channels, some sports, AMC, FX, etc.)  Will be running whichever streaming service we get through an Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Questions for the cord cutting gurus:
Should 1g fiber be sufficient?
Which streaming service is best for user interface, ability to record shows, and have multiple users? 
What am I missing?
  
 

1g is already massive overkill. It’s unlikely youll ever exceed 100Mbps for a sustained period

[Updawg 2266]

1g is already massive overkill. It’s unlikely youll ever exceed 100Mbps for a sustained period

This
You probably won’t go over 50 unless you are huge gamers and streaming 4K stuff

[Updawg 2266]

This bandwidth shit is just marketing at this point

[Celery Man 20933]

bumping to participate in the long standing thread, although really this thread should be moved to movie/tv imo

 

I turned off YTTV early in the year when I realized I was really only using live tv for news, and didn't need to pay for YTTV to be able to watch some news. Football season is coming. I was happy with YTTV for football season (except for the absence of LHN, not like there are any options anyways), but given that I would be turning on live tv only for football, I need to reinvestigate the options and look for the cheapest (legal) option. Before I go spelunking into what is available at the different places, any strong opinions about options for turning on the stream just for football (college most importantly but probably because fantasy I'd like redzone and nfl).

[tbone_ 14113]

I’d bet it’s still the cheapest option to be able to be able to easily click on just about any game real time.

And I’m the same here. I watch YTTV for live news (which is almost never except for CNBC) and sports.

Oh and I have dvr set for ACL and Better Call Saul. But that’s it.

[justhookit 4191]

4 hours ago, Celery Man said:

bumping to participate in the long standing thread, although really this thread should be moved to movie/tv imo

 

I turned off YTTV early in the year when I realized I was really only using live tv for news, and didn't need to pay for YTTV to be able to watch some news. Football season is coming. I was happy with YTTV for football season (except for the absence of LHN, not like there are any options anyways), but given that I would be turning on live tv only for football, I need to reinvestigate the options and look for the cheapest (legal) option. Before I go spelunking into what is available at the different places, any strong opinions about options for turning on the stream just for football (college most importantly but probably because fantasy I'd like redzone and nfl).

Sling sounds like your best bet and it’s got Longhorn Network too.

[Saint Tacky 1614]

Does Sling fall on the DirecTV Stream, Hulu+Live TV, and YouTube TV spectrum? If so, where (yay or nay)?

[Billy Pilgrim 1960]

Does DirectTV stream “Choice” package have LHN?

Also read somewhere that DirectTV steam unlimited DVR automatically deletes recordings after 90 days. Is that true?

[UTCzech III 2907]

Looks like yttv added a few channels including the Weather Channel.  Only way I found out was because KVUE was gone from my guide so I went to go investigate, not sure why but it was at the bottom of the channel list, you will have to go manually add it back to your grid.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

Weather channel has been there for a while,.. I don’t adventure to the bottom of the grid often

[HornOnTheBayou 8919]

YouTube TV update will reportedly let you watch four channels at once

I'm going to need a bigger TV before next Saturday.

[leaf 684]

Someone in the LHN thread mentioned IPTV.  Anybody have experience with it?

[Dahobbs 17527]

16 hours ago, leaf said:

Someone in the LHN thread mentioned IPTV.  Anybody have experience with it?

kinky. 

[rage-a-holic 4382]

22 hours ago, leaf said:

Someone in the LHN thread mentioned IPTV.  Anybody have experience with it?

Here's a forum on a bunch of IPTV providers if you want to do some research. 

https://tinyurl.com/yck9yhh4

[DCLonghorn 244]

It took a damn spreadsheet for me to work all this crap out...heads up that pricing for the Disney Bundle and the three services is changing at various dates moving forward. And for those of you like me that got Disney+ with the three year discount when it launched, that ends in the middle of all of this. Check when your subscriptions end/renew and figure out if it's worth it to get a bundle or keep what you have.

 

8/23/22 - ESPN+ went up to $9.99 month/$99.99 year

10/10/22 - Hulu with ads goes up to $7.99/$79.99

11/3/22 - date that new Disney+ ad tier can be selected $7.99, effective Dec. 8

11/12/22 - Disney+ 3 year deal ends/renews at annual rate of $6.99/$69.99 until 12/8

12/8/22 - Disney+ goes up to $7.99ads/$10.99/$109.99...bundles also go up:

     $12.99 for all 3 with ads

     $14.99 bundle with ad free D+ $1 more...only existing bundle customers eligible

     $19.99 bundle with ESPN+, ad free Disney+ & ad free Hulu

[thunderlounge 7815]

On 5/5/2022 at 3:01 PM, Jerry Callo said:

So instead of being a cord cutter, I've been the exact opposite - a dumbass. 

 

I've been in that boat myself. It's been a battle to get the wife to even think about taking that TiVO needle out of her arm. Finally happening though. Tried out streaming tv concept in general with vidgo (for LHN.) Got that set to cancel, and signed up for YTTV. Calling the cable peeps tomorrow to cut the cord. I'll look into other internet options in the area and see what's available.

Turning off cable, keeping their internet ($100/mo for half gig) for now, saves $215/mo.

To stay where I was at with channel coverage I only need to add YTTV, bringing it to $150/mo net savings.

 

Works for me.

 

 

[tbone_ 14113]

What’s to keep someone else from using a YTTV login? My GF has been using mine for like a year now with no issues.