We've cut the cable (1 Viewer)

[ChiefD]

I would get a firestick.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Looking for any advice. Finally moving on from DirecTV and my $160 a month bill.

I've zeroed in on Youtube TV as having most of the 32 or so channels I care about most. Missing History Channel, A&E. And ATT Sports Southwest that has Rockets and Astros but that may change next year. Other services seem to be missing more or more important channels for me.

Any gotchas to know about Youtube TV?

I have an older TV with great picture (though not 4K), so it doesn't support newer apps. I still have an old receiver that my surround sound runs through. I use a Logitech Hub universal remote to tie everything together. Have a PS4 that I use with Plex for my media collection, and also watch Thursday football on Prime with it. Use the PS4 controller for both.

Any input on using the PS4 for Youtube TV, versus getting something else like a Fire Stick? Leaning towards getting something else so can use a remote. I'm hoping the Youtube TV DVR lets you do stuff like jump 30 seconds ahead, 6 or 10 seconds back, etc. Also can you skip past commercials in a recording or if you paused live TV? I saw some mentions on other services they wouldn't let you in some cases. I have wired ethernet available behind the TV which is much better than my wireless bandwidth there, so would prefer something with an ethernet port available.

Thanks!

I've never used YoutubeTV and know nothing about the PS4 player, but I agree with @ChiefD - get a firestick or a Roku. I have a Harmony universal remote that runs everything.

I had an older receiver that had issues "talking" to all of my mismatched components - not always, but sometimes. I got rid of that and got a Bose sound bar. My ears are so wrecked that speaker quality doesn't much matter anymore, but others have told me the sound bar sounds as good as my old Onyx surround.

 

[GregR]

Appreciate it. So anything about Fire Stick or Roku to favor one over the other? I have a little experience with a Fire Stick, set up one for my parents though that was a few years back now. But at least I know the gist with it.

 

[Hawks64]

I would get a firestick.

No offense but they suck if you're using them with Plex (I had a 4k FireTV, the cube one, and it would choke on streaming from plex). I would go with the Nvidia Shield TV or TV Pro if you use your Plex a ton.

 

[ChiefD]

I have no idea what plex is

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Appreciate it. So anything about Fire Stick or Roku to favor one over the other? I have a little experience with a Fire Stick, set up one for my parents though that was a few years back now. But at least I know the gist with it.

I've only ever had a Roku, so can't compare. It's not a stick, but an actual device (about the size of the old Walkman CD player). It's a model #3, I think, and I've had it for years. My TV is smart, but I just use the Roku since I'm used to it.

My mother has a firestick and, based on my limited experience with it, it looks like it does the same things as my Roku does. At least, it does on stuff like performance and the apps you can load. I don't know anything about voice control or phone control.

I don't know what Plex is, either.

 

[FairWarning]

Appreciate it. So anything about Fire Stick or Roku to favor one over the other? I have a little experience with a Fire Stick, set up one for my parents though that was a few years back now. But at least I know the gist with it.

I prefer the cube or Apple TV box because there is more memory, less freezing up. There are more apps for IPTV on a firestick and cube vs Apple.

 

[GregR]

Plex is a media player. So if you have your own collection of movies, tv shows, sports, etc, it becomes your streaming service for your own copies essentially. Has its own player apps on most operating systems, consoles, etc. Will download metadata and subtitles for you, play lists and search capabilities and such.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Youtube TV is great. Love it.

Underrated bonus is how easy it is to sign up for/drop premium channels.

 

[fruity pebbles]

Good deal right now for Paramount + and Showtime. $60 for a year.

 

[GregR]

Youtube TV is great. Love it.

Underrated bonus is how easy it is to sign up for/drop premium channels.

Paramount+ often has some things (ND games or national team soccer) that I might like to add it to see, then drop it again. Can you just get a day's worth then or do you get stuck paying for a month or something?

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

No idea how often you can add/drop -- but I know the sports package with RedZone is prorated when I add and drop.

Regardless, you could definitely do it a month at a time.

 

[skol asylum]

If you're a Verizon user check what they offer for discounts on streaming services. For example quite a while back they gave me free Hulu/Disney+/ESPN+ (I upgraded to the no commercial version for a few dollars a month) and a few months back I paid for a year of Paramount+ ahead of time through them and got a free year of Netflix. Not sure what their current offers are but worth checking out.

 

[GregR]

I haven't made a change yet. I wanted to clear off my DVR first. Though, finding out the YoutubeTV's DVR doesn't do well at like, frame by frame, is giving me some pause. I mean when I watch football I'm always pausing it and doing that to watch line play or coverage, not to mention questionable calls. I think that would wear on me quick. I might look into cable TV so I'd have a hardware DVR still, or even just, back to the DirecTV customer retention line and see if they cut me a big enough break.

 

[3C's]

Anyone running into this issue with yttv and firestick?

YouTube is No Longer Working On Some Amazon Fire TV Models, Here is Everything We Know | Cord Cutters News

Yesterday an update for the Fire TV YouTube TV app was pushed out. Now, many Fire TV owners are finding that the YouTub app on the Fire TV no longer works. Readers flooded our contact email with complaints about this, and DownDetector is also reporting a growing number of complaints about...

cordcuttersnews.com

I have new sticks and haven't hit that but I have the baseball playoffs set to auto record and some of them aren't showing up in library on the firestick app but do show up in the app on my phone. Could be somewhat related.

The article is mixing both YouTube and YouTube TV but I think they mean TV.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Maybe a Honda but download the PlutoTV app for some more options of movies/shows. It's free.