Yesterday I Cut the Cord and found something Surprising

[dreamcastrocks]

Just jumping in to say YT TV is fantastic, but if it wasn’t for Cardinals and the NFL, I have absolutely ZERO reason to watch cable TV. It’s all boring nonsense used to drive commercials to you, why pay for it? Netflix, HBO Max, Prime, etc., have no commercials and you get what you want on demand vs a scheduled lineup during the day. Also it gets you reading the news instead of partaking in the terrible 24 hour news cycle of various networks.

The one thing that absolutely sucks about YT TV is their quality. They don't use the same codec across all platforms. For example, if I want to watch YT TV on my XBOX, the most I get with most shows is only 720p. Where as the same show/program on a Chromecast could display in 1080p or even 4k.

 

[Devilmaycare]

I cut the cord about 9 years ago now and haven't missed it at all. I was getting sick of the bills DTV was charging at that time for how much I actually used it. Now I'm watching mostly YouTube content or movies/tv shows on Blu-ray. That covers the majority of my screen time. I only keep Amazon Prime year round due to it being part of my prime account. The other streaming services get added and removed based on if there's a show I want.

There's one other option that I have too that works great in your in Phoenix for the Cards but unfortunately it doesn't cover the other sports, and that's OTA. You get all of the Cards games since we're not getting blacked out and I use it a little for live TV. There's a bunch of SD channels that still broadcast old TV shows, movies, etc. You get the games in HD with 5.1 sound. Great picture quality and almost no delay. A lot of the streaming services have 5, 10, or more second delays to their feeds. It's the quickest way to see the game other than being there.

You can get "fancy" with it too. I have my antenna plugged into an HDHomeRun box instead of going straight to the TV. What it does is takes the signal and makes it available as a stream on your local network. With that I can pull up the feeds on any of my TVs through the AppleTVs or Nvidia Shields that I have on each one. My Emby server also acts as a DVR on it so that I can record stuff if I want to.

 

[Mainstreet]

I don't know if it's been mentioned but your internet download speed (Mbps) needs to be able to handle computer and streaming needs.

If I didn't have DirectTV I'd have to purchase a more expensive nternet plan. It's another factor that might need to be considered.

Also the cost of new TVs might be a factor.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Constant buffering. Constant packages changing. Impossible to get Ballys sports. Channels that don't meet my wife and I's viewing habits. Really poor comparative ability to record shows.

I have never had an issue with Direct TV and receivers freezing.

I am paying $168 a month with Direct TV, the Sunday Ticket, HBO Max, the Enhanced Sports Package, and 3 receivers.

I tried Youtube, Hulu, and Sling and quickly hated them all.

This one is just not true. Youtube TV has the ability to record shows, any shows with literally unlimited DVR space. YoutubeTV slaps DirecTV when it comes to recording.

 

[MrYeahBut]

I'm likely a sucker but I've had Directv for 15 years and can't bring myself to try and change it because I don't have a clue about all these tricks you guys use. My wife complains about the bill every month, $180+/- but I tell her where else are going to get all your crime shows and how do we get NFL games? Have Netflix and Prime and we use them frequently. I got Topic because I had to sign up for a show we wanted.. I just realized I'm an idiot for not figuring out how to cancel it now.

I dunno, I guess Directv is just easy and I'm too lazy to try and figure it all out to save, what, $50 a month. As soon as buying individual NFL games happens, I'll get around to it.

 

[Mainstreet]

I suspect when everybody gets streaming figured out we will all meet in the middle on cost.

DirecTV will want to remain competitive.

And internet service providers will raise their prices to get their share of the pie as well.

After this all happens, there will probably be some new technology and we start all over again.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

This one is just not true. Youtube TV has the ability to record shows, any shows with literally unlimited DVR space. YoutubeTV slaps DirecTV when it comes to recording.

I wasn't able to DVR and record missed shows.

It could be that I didn't understand how but it's simple with Direct TV

 

[Ronin]

My dtv bill is north of $200 during baseball, football, and hockey season. Lol
My bill is usually around $160 when sports season is quiet.

 

[MrYeahBut]

My dtv bill is north of $200 during baseball, football, and hockey season. Lol
My bill is usually around $160 when sports season is quiet.

Yeah mine would be too if I wasn't getting Sunday ticket free this year. I don't have any premium movie channels, HBO, Showtime, etc either.

 

[Ronin]

Yeah mine would be too if I wasn't getting Sunday ticket free this year. I don't have any premium movie channels, HBO, Showtime, etc either.

Me neither. I have the sports packages for my dad.....it gives him something to watch during baseball season.

 

[Mainstreet]

I read YouTube TV told customers overnight they will no longer be carrying ESPN.


Chris Coppola Arizona Republic:


YouTubeTV, one of several popular live-television streaming services, told customers overnight that it no longer will provide any of the ESPN networks along with the local ABC affiliate and other networks owned by Disney.

The change is the result of a failure to reach a new deal with Disney, which ownes ESPN, ABC and other networks, by Friday.

YouTubeTV customers lose ESPN, other Disney-owned networks, local ABC affiliate

TV streaming service YouTubeTV says it failed to negotiate new deal with Disney-owned stations. ESPN networks, Ch. 15 lost locally

www.azcentral.com

 

[SeattleCard]

I dropped YT TV. It was a good deal when it was $50 bucks, then they dropped Fox Sports AZ (aka Bally sports), and raised prices.

The cheapest option is to get a good antenna, then buy an AirTV 2 as a DVR, and use the Sling app to watch your recordings. No monthly fee... https://www.sling.com/whatson/announcements/airtv2-makes-streaming-local-channels-easy

 

[Luciano]

I wonder if the long term plan is to drop Disney channel and Disney Junior from cable.

In Europe UK and South East Asia already happened, you can only get Disney via Disney+

I don’t think they can do it here yet but long term make sense.

 

[TheCardFan]

FYI - you can share YoutubeTV with a friend or family member. They actually encourage it. Downside is you get 3 devices streaming at same time (limit)

For $10 more a month (4k plus package) - you can get 4k, free recording, and unlimited streams.

It's a no brainer for anyone unless you have to have Sunday Ticket. Of course there are other options for that as well.

 

[Bada0Bing]

I had Youtube TV for a couple years, but my family finally revolted because they were tired of streaming Suns games from the computer to the TV. Currently giving Directv Stream a shot. It's a bit more that YTTV, but it's awesome to be able to pause/rewind Suns games again. It has a fraction of the dvr space compared to YTTV, but I never really used that much storage anyway. Loving the 3 free months of HBO max. Holy crow...so many great shows on there.

 

[Mainstreet]

I had Youtube TV for a couple years, but my family finally revolted because they were tired of streaming Suns games from the computer to the TV. Currently giving Directv Stream a shot. It's a bit more that YTTV, but it's awesome to be able to pause/rewind Suns games again. It has a fraction of the dvr space compared to YTTV, but I never really used that much storage anyway. Loving the 3 free months of HBO max. Holy crow...so many great shows on there.

It would be fantastic seeing you post more on the Suns forum.

 

[FB94]

dumped DTV and went to Sling couple years ago. Everything works well with fire stick. Only bad part is regional sports network was dropped three days after the switch, but there’s was around that

 

[Russ Smith]

I'm likely a sucker but I've had Directv for 15 years and can't bring myself to try and change it because I don't have a clue about all these tricks you guys use. My wife complains about the bill every month, $180+/- but I tell her where else are going to get all your crime shows and how do we get NFL games? Have Netflix and Prime and we use them frequently. I got Topic because I had to sign up for a show we wanted.. I just realized I'm an idiot for not figuring out how to cancel it now.

I dunno, I guess Directv is just easy and I'm too lazy to try and figure it all out to save, what, $50 a month. As soon as buying individual NFL games happens, I'll get around to it.

Definitely not an idiot. They make it easy to sign up and damn near impossible to figure out how to cancel. Lots of channels do that

 

[Bada0Bing]

It would be fantastic seeing you post more on the Suns forum.

Challenge accepted!

 

[SissyBoyFloyd]

Well, I have had youtube tv for 2 weeks now, I seem to get all the sports networks I can think of except the Red Zone. I even get the different conference networks like SEC, CBS Sports, Golf, Olympic, besides all the ESPNs, FS1 & 2, the different league networks like NFL, NBA, MLB, plus others. There is nothing I know of that I am missing out on. Even got all the news channels, all local channels + PBS, TCM, BBC America, kids stuff, science, and all the usual other shows and networks.

I like their Library system and how you can tell it to save all of a particular team, sport, or TV show without having to go searching for when they are on and that you want to record each single show. I also like that every youtube TV you have on different TVs in your house, laptops, pads, and phone are identical to how you set up each of the others. They even let you put your account on hold for awhile if you want.

I have no negative thing to say about it. I will add that you need to play and look around through the different heading and choices under different menus to familiarize how it all works for you. It is different in some ways, but seems to have all the little things for you to customize plus many I have never seen before. I really like it, and especially for the cost and savings.

I think some of you that aren't high on it should try the free trial now. You might change your opinion. Maybe they have added things since you last checked it out?

 

[Resin07]

So I cut the cord a while ago, and the last couple years I would sign up for Hulu Live to watch Cardinals games. However, any Suns game that were on Ballys I couldn't watch, so I would use a streaming website which had pop-up adds, and would randomly time out. It was beyond annoying how spotty it was.

In late September, while browsing a Suns Group on Facebook, I browsed into a post about this TV service. https://www.vanquis-store.com/. I drug my feet for a bit, but finally in December I decided to try the $13, one month subscription. I figured if it was crap, that I'd only be out $13, because I could just send the fire stick back, which I needed to enable the vanquis app on my big screen. Well, it wasn't crap. I now have the $45 (one time payment), 3 month subscription that has 3 connections. I can watch the games on all my smart devices. Yesterday, because I've been feeling sick, I laid in bed and watched the game on my phone with vanquis.

Because I have 3 connections available, I can watch up to 3 screens at a time on my big screen TV. I could have watched the Suns and Cards game at the same time yesterday on a split screen.

Hulu Live was costing me $60+ a month because I also paid for the sports package so I could watch NFL Redzone. Vanquis also has Redzone for no extra charge. Needless to say I'll be using this TV service for as long as possible.

Just thought I'd pass on the info to all you. Happy New Year! Go Cards! Go Suns!

 

[Resin07]

Couple more things I'll add. I have 5 kids, and there is access to adult channels, which is content I want no part of in my home. However, there is a parental lock on it to make any channel non accessible. It takes them completely off the list and also makes them not show up in searches.

There is also access to PPV sports. Like fights if you are into that.