Cord Cutters

[Devilmaycare]

Please watch the mentions of pirate sites. We don't want this site getting in trouble over it.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Please watch the mentions of pirate sites. We don't want this site getting in trouble over it.

Aye, matey!

 

[MadCardDisease]

I finally cut the cord a few months ago. YoutubeTV is now my primary for watching TV. Also I already had Netflix, and the Disney Bundle(Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu) in addition to Prime video that I get with my Amazon Prime account.

Saving hundreds a year now that I got rid of my old cable contract. Don't miss it at all.

 

[Ronin]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[Devilmaycare]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

$20/month

 

[puckhead]

$20/month

On top of that, video quality for live sports is terrible via streaming. Unless they can do a lot better than Paramount or ESPN+, I'm unfortunately going to be stuck with DirecTV a little longer until the live encoders catch up to broadcast. Live NHL is one of the few things keeping me with them.

 

[Covert Rain]

On top of that, video quality for live sports is terrible via streaming. Unless they can do a lot better than Paramount or ESPN+, I'm unfortunately going to be stuck with DirecTV a little longer until the live encoders catch up to broadcast. Live NHL is one of the few things keeping me with them.

It used to be that way in the early days but it's improved greatly. It used to feel like the early days of DirectTV. DirectTV compression was crap and the digital artifacts were horrible even when NFL Sunday ticket kicked off. Especially with faster moving sports. They improved year after year. Streaming is doing the same. You can even find some games in 4K and the compression is getting better all the time.

Streaming services vary for sure and your ISP speed is a factor but I watch most sports events with little to no problem. I would prefer to get OTA 4K over any of it if it was available. Anything else is just compressed.

 

[puckhead]

It used to be that way in the early days but it's improved greatly. It used to feel like the early days of DirectTV. Their compression was crap and the digital artifacts were horrible even when NFL Sunday ticket kicked off. They improved year after year. Streaming is doing the same. You can even find some games in 4K.

Streaming services vary for sure and your ISP speed is a factor but I watch most sports events with little to no problem. It will continue to get better as compression methods get better.

It absolutely varies. It's all about the investment in the infrastructure and maintaining integrity all the way through the chain. The big boys are certainly doing amazing work on platforms like Xbox Live and Apple TV (finally got one, yay!) but they can take advantage of the best encoding methods with pre-produced material.

I'm sure you're already aware that with sports, it is a lot more difficult due to the live nature, and the extreme fast-motion. Hockey in particular is extra challenging due to the pace and the need to identify a tiny black puck zipping all over the ice in unpredictable ways. I'm very picky and sensitive to compression artifacts. There is no hiding it on a huge slab of ice. I'll continue to monitor and I hope Bally's gives a couple of freebies out so I can make my own determination if I can live with it or not. I see artifacts on DirecTV too, but it's a lot less than the streaming examples I mentioned earlier.

 

[Devilmaycare]

On top of that, video quality for live sports is terrible via streaming. Unless they can do a lot better than Paramount or ESPN+, I'm unfortunately going to be stuck with DirecTV a little longer until the live encoders catch up to broadcast. Live NHL is one of the few things keeping me with them.

I wish we could get OTA broadcasts for them. It's still the best for the NFL games.

I haven't used Bally's streaming yet but I hope it's not based off of Fox Sport's streaming service. They were the worst. I used to try to use it for baseball but the ATV app would crash on launch 90% of the time. I think it had to do with not being able to reach their ad server due to my PiHole. Really bad experience.

 

[Devilmaycare]

BTW, since I mentioned it in the last post, for football I watch all the Cards games OTA using an old fashion antenna. It has as good, if not better picture than Cox and DTV plus less broadcast delay. Between the game threads and texting with buddies I'm always ahead on the action.

What I do for it is I have my antenna hooked up to an HDHomerun. It's a box that digitizes the the OTA feed and gives you a stream on your local network. I can then watch it through an app on any of my TVs, phones, tablets, or computers in the house.

 

[Covert Rain]

It absolutely varies. It's all about the investment in the infrastructure and maintaining integrity all the way through the chain. The big boys are certainly doing amazing work on platforms like Xbox Live and Apple TV (finally got one, yay!) but they can take advantage of the best encoding methods with pre-produced material.

I'm sure you're already aware that with sports, it is a lot more difficult due to the live nature, and the extreme fast-motion. Hockey in particular is extra challenging due to the pace and the need to identify a tiny black puck zipping all over the ice in unpredictable ways. I'm very picky and sensitive to compression artifacts. There is no hiding it on a huge slab of ice. I'll continue to monitor and I hope Bally's gives a couple of freebies out so I can make my own determination if I can live with it or not. I see artifacts on DirecTV too, but it's a lot less than the streaming examples I mentioned earlier.

I remember the first time I watched a Superbowl on DirecTV. It looked pretty decent until the halftime show. When they rained down confetti? My entire screen became a pixelated mess. The compression was so bad. Even when the motion on the screen was too fast? The same. It took years for DirecTV improving the encoding methods before that got better. Streaming has made pretty good improvements there as well. I think some streaming services are on par now with sports. I don't get that many artificats watching sports on Hulu at all. Then again, I also have a gig connection speed which doesn't hurt. So Netflix and other streaming services that throttle automatically if your connection is slow isn't an issue for me.

Bally may not have time to improve if they are not around for long. It's all going to depend on how many people jump aboard to pay that ridiculous price. It won't be me.

 

[puckhead]

BTW, since I mentioned it in the last post, for football I watch all the Cards games OTA using an old fashion antenna. It has as good, if not better picture than Cox and DTV plus less broadcast delay. Between the game threads and texting with buddies I'm always ahead on the action.

What I do for it is I have my antenna hooked up to an HDHomerun. It's a box that digitizes the the OTA feed and gives you a stream on your local network. I can then watch it through an app on any of my TVs, phones, tablets, or computers in the house.

Oh, man. I remember when I got my first rear-projector TV in '01 or '02 and an OTA tuner. The images back then were glorious! Minimal compression, no sub-channels, as good as consumer HD distribution could be. I seem to recall something like 17-20Mbs streams were being sent from PBS. Even at 1080i it was beautiful. It's amazing how many steps back it's taken us to try and get near that quality again without physical media.

 

[Covert Rain]

BTW, since I mentioned it in the last post, for football I watch all the Cards games OTA using an old fashion antenna. It has as good, if not better picture than Cox and DTV plus less broadcast delay. Between the game threads and texting with buddies I'm always ahead on the action.

What I do for it is I have my antenna hooked up to an HDHomerun. It's a box that digitizes the the OTA feed and gives you a stream on your local network. I can then watch it through an app on any of my TVs, phones, tablets, or computers in the house.

When they first rolled out HD it basically sucked on DirecTV and cable. I bought an OTA HD Attenna and used to watch games like that because the picture was light years better. Nothing compared. My buddy used to ask me why I had DirectTV and OTA. Until he came over and watched an OTA game. He was amazed. Problem was when things like Suns games and College football moved to Cable or Fox Sports AZ, there wasn't much reason for me to deal with the OTA any longer. I held on for a bit to watch some major network shows but the wife hated the bouncing back and forth. Then OTA fell behind the move to 4K.

I got tired of it all and said screw it (including listening to the wife LOL). Dumped DirecTV, stop using OTA and went all in with streaming. At the time it was way cheaper too.

Streaming was a major mixed bag until 4K. Now that most of the streaming is in 4K it looks pretty damn good now and IMO is now better than my old HD OTA. AppleTV hands down has some of the best 4K performance out of all the streaming devices I have used (which is all of them). The way I figure it is that I am happy with the quality I get on streaming but when I want to watch something like a movie I pull out my 4K discs anyway because nothing beats optical. Nothing. If I really really love a show, I will buy that on 4K but it's mostly movies. My kids watch a bunch of 4K movies on Moviesanywhere platform out of convenience but I always pull out the discs.

Now 8K is on the way. I can't wait to watch Suns and Cardinals games in 8K but most networks struggled just to get to 4K.

 

[BigRedRage]

$20/month

LMAO no thank you

 

[BigRedRage]

I have noticed 0 issues watching cardinals games on youtube tv

 

[Ronin]

Streaming NBA league pass is no for me unfortunately. Black out rules apply in my area. Unless I want to watch the game 3 days later.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Streaming NBA league pass is no for me unfortunately. Black out rules apply in my area. Unless I want to watch the game 3 days later.

Sucks.

 

[Ronin]

Sucks.

Pain.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Pain.

I experience it with YoutubeTV. Since I share with BRR and I do not live in the PHX area. I can't watch the Cards games until it has finished recording.

Better than 3 days, but I choose to go on media blackout until I'm ready to watch.

 

[Devilmaycare]

Streaming NBA league pass is no for me unfortunately. Black out rules apply in my area. Unless I want to watch the game 3 days later.

This is where a VPN is your friend. Most offer SmartDNS now for devices like an AppleTV that you can't run a VPN on too. Basically it'll allow you to look like you're in another part of the country or world to get around blackout rules or content that geolocked. I do this with my MLB.atBat to get the Dbacks games through it.

 

[jbjarko]

Who uses HuluTV? I've been on YT since I cut the cord (plus Netflix, HBO (max or whatever it is now), Showtime, and of course AppleTV+); I've never had Hulu but there is a show I want to check out. Considering all the streaming services are pretty much month to month, considering how people like HuluTV as a service. If you have had both YT and Hulu that would be great as a comparison

Thanks

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Who uses HuluTV? I've been on YT since I cut the cord (plus Netflix, HBO (max or whatever it is now), Showtime, and of course AppleTV+); I've never had Hulu but there is a show I want to check out. Considering all the streaming services are pretty much month to month, considering how people like HuluTV as a service. If you have had both YT and Hulu that would be great as a comparison

Thanks

Which show is only available on HuluTV that isn't available with regular Hulu? I didn't know they did that.

 

[jbjarko]

Which show is only available on HuluTV that isn't available with regular Hulu? I didn't know they did that.

There isn't. Just thought I would give Hulu TV ago if I sign up for Hulu as both TV and Hulu together are cheaper than Youtube TV. Was just looking for a comparison.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Unless I roped myself into some unbeknown contract with DirectTV, I think I’m finally cutting the chord next month.

 

[Covert Rain]

Who uses HuluTV? I've been on YT since I cut the cord (plus Netflix, HBO (max or whatever it is now), Showtime, and of course AppleTV+); I've never had Hulu but there is a show I want to check out. Considering all the streaming services are pretty much month to month, considering how people like HuluTV as a service. If you have had both YT and Hulu that would be great as a comparison

Thanks

I do.