On Streaming TV Choices

[Ben]

I already have Netflix and Amazon. I'm looking for input on the streaming choices that best mimic cable/satellite.

I have been sorta spoiled in that I've been paying for DirecTV for my parents for the last 20 years, so have been able to use the login to watch all my stories through that. Now that I've moved, I decided to make my sister step up and pay for DirecTV for my dad, so I'm looking for some reasonably priced alternatives.

So far I see that my best choices might be: Hulu Live, Youtube TV, and DirecTV Now. They all seem to be similarly priced at around $40-$50 for the "level" I''d be interested in.

Do any of you use any of these? Things I'm looking for/not looking for:

Very important is some kind of On Demand/Cloud DVR that lets me fast forward through commercials or that are commercial free. Also on the FF, something not clunky. On my Roku, Netflix and Amazon let me do a sort of "frame by frame FF" so that I can easily stop at the end of the commercial. Regular Hulu on the Roku sucks, as you hit FF, and then you can't see what's happening. You have to guess at where to stop, and mostly guess wrong. I don't know if Hulu Live is the same or maybe it doesn't have commercials at all?

I don't need sports channels. I do want Fox Business and the major cable channels (AMC, TBS, Discovery, etc.).

I don't need any kind of streamlining across devices. I'm either watching on the TV in the living room, or I'm not watching TV.

I'd prefer month to month over any long contracts.

So any experience, recommendations, or advice? Any other service that I should check into?

[makattak]

I've used DirectTV Now because the people at the ATT store said I get it for 3 months for $10.

So I tried it for 3 months. And, if I was interested in watching TV, it would have been worthwhile. But since I found I had used it 5 time in three months, It wasn't worth the price.

It had the major channels that you required. Not sure about Fox Business, but AMC and the like were there. I think you can skip commercials, but I didn't use it all that much so I can't say much other than it appears to work like normal TV.


As another option for you, we subscribe to "CuriosityStream" which was created by one of the Founders of the Discovery Channel. (Mike Rowe hawked it on his facebook, which is how we discovered it. He's done the narration for one of the documentaries made especially for the service.)

If you're interested in Documentaries, it's an amazing service. (And better than the discovery channel, IMO). We have Sundays as our documentary day in our house and they have so many options, we will never see all the ones that interest us. (And many that don't interest us, as well, but other people may find them to their liking.)

As an example, I started watching a documentary about a volunteer-run, narrow-track, steam railway in Wales last night. Just random history about a small project to save an outdated railway. Very good production, used some original footage from the people who worked to save it and some good history of the area in Wales. Great visuals of the little steam engines, as well.

As I'm usually watching with the children, it's almost always nature/animals/geography/dinosaurs that we watch. Most have been excellent. There have been a few that have just been "good", but so far I haven't found a bad documentary.

[p12]

I’m using PlayStation Vue. Mostly happy.

Using Roku ultra box so I can plug in a cat5 cable. Do see some buffering issues from there server on live tv.


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[brimic]

I used YoutubeTV for a month for the National League playoffs last year. I got rid of it, as it was a bit spendy, but it was nice for the month that I had it.

[Ben]

I used YoutubeTV for a month for the National League playoffs last year. I got rid of it, as it was a bit spendy, but it was nice for the month that I had it.

As long as there's no contract, I'd actually also consider a service that I'm on and off of from one month to another. As long as they do some kind of on-demand archiving, I could sign up for a month after a series I want to watch has ended, binge it, then stop service until something else shows up. Might let me sample the various services that way as well.

[Boomhauer]

We use and like Hulu live and there is a trial period. It opens up a nice rotation of movies and shows on demand too on the “normal” side of Hulu that come on and go away with higher frequency than basic Hulu content.

Sling is also good.

[RocketMan]

We're currently using Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu Live.  That combination works well for us since we cut the cable cord a few years ago.  However, if they keep raising their prices we may drop one or more of them at some point.  Our savings from cutting cable are slowly being eroded.

[Ben]

Our savings from cutting cable are slowly being eroded.

That's something I'm definitely noting. You have to be careful in choosing of late, or a few streaming services suddenly cost more than an intermediate cable or sat bill.

Especially as every Tom, Dick, and Harry Network and channel begins to have their own streaming services, removing their content from the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. I also complained somewhere else here that I don't want to deal with 12 different streaming accounts to watch 12 shows.

When it comes down to it, there's a lot of stuff that I'm becoming more content with on waiting a year till it drops on Netflix versus watching it as soon as it's out. About the only things I like to watch realtime lately are a couple of Fox Business morning shows.

[brimic]

As long as there's no contract, I'd actually also consider a service that I'm on and off of from one month to another. As long as they do some kind of on-demand archiving, I could sign up for a month after a series I want to watch has ended, binge it, then stop service until something else shows up. Might let me sample the various services that way as well.

Yes, its pay by the month, and works similar to regular to Youtube but with the added content.

[Calumus]

We're currently using Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu Live.  That combination works well for us since we cut the cable cord a few years ago.  However, if they keep raising their prices we may drop one or more of them at some point.  Our savings from cutting cable are slowly being eroded.

That's the combo we have. I don't really think about Prime as a streaming service for us since we buy so much on amazon that the free shipping pays for itself. Plus, we had that and Netflix on top of regular cable before I switched. So for fair comparison, I just put Hulu live up against cable. Even with the latest price increase, it's still around $120/month cheaper than TV through optonline.

[MechAg94]

I’m using PlayStation Vue. Mostly happy.

Using Roku ultra box so I can plug in a cat5 cable. Do see some buffering issues from there server on live tv.


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I used PlayStation Vue across my Amazon fire device through the recent football season.  I liked it and it had all the sports channels I wanted.  It had unlimited storage, but IMO, it was more like you were marking shows to pull from their database later, not recording.  I don't think you could record half a show.  It only allowed you to keep them for a month or so, but some I think stayed longer.  The one warning is for some shows you were prevented from skipping commercials.  I think there must have been specific content agreements for some shows/channels.  There might have been more to that I didn't grasp.  It was the exception, not the norm (for me at least). 

[AZRedhawk44]

That's something I'm definitely noting. You have to be careful in choosing of late, or a few streaming services suddenly cost more than an intermediate cable or sat bill.

Especially as every Tom, Dick, and Harry Network and channel begins to have their own streaming services, removing their content from the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. I also complained somewhere else here that I don't want to deal with 12 different streaming accounts to watch 12 shows.

When it comes down to it, there's a lot of stuff that I'm becoming more content with on waiting a year till it drops on Netflix versus watching it as soon as it's out. About the only things I like to watch realtime lately are a couple of Fox Business morning shows.

Ultimately it will come to that.

My response has been to baseline at Netflix and Amazon Prime, then add what I want as an adjunct, as needed.  Sometimes I buy episodes a la carte for things like Walking Dead, other times I subscribe to an additional service for a couple months if they have something I really want (we'll get Hulu when Handmaid's Tale has a new season, or get HBO Now via Amazon for Game of Thrones).  Then I cancel those services when the show I like is over.  Market forces and all that.  Gets rid of my money going to ESPN and BET and VH1 and CNN and all the other crap I don't want to pay for.

One thing I REALLY like... is Plex.  I run a home media server that is like my own private Netflix.  I can use it anywhere in the world as long as I have internet access.  I've ripped my entire catalog of movies, TV shows and music I have at home into digital format.  I augment that with another service called PlayOn that allows me to record anything I buy from Amazon or another streaming vendor, and add it to my Plex Media Server's library.  I have a hard time trusting the long term availability of a purchase from Amazon remaining available, so I keep a copy for myself locally.  Plex cost me $75 for a lifetime pass several years ago.  PlayOn was a $50 purchase about 2 years ago.  I have had no problems getting regular updates from those vendors.

I probably have about 4-5 terabytes of media on my Plex server at this point.  Even if my home internet is out, I can stream locally on the LAN to my main TV. 

[Ben]

I augment that with another service called PlayOn that allows me to record anything I buy from Amazon or another streaming vendor, and add it to my Plex Media Server's library.  I have a hard time trusting the long term availability of a purchase from Amazon remaining available, so I keep a copy for myself locally.  \

This is of interest to me, for the reason you mentioned. I all too often end up with "greyed out" Prime songs in my Amazon playlists. This makes me suspicious regarding Amazon videos.

[charby]

I think you might have a hard time finding a non cable/non satellite based streaming service that includes Fox Business and Discovery channels

I've been a cord cutter since Feb 2016, when my wife told me the Direct TV bill was $217 a month. We have Netflix, Hulu and Sling, with the latest price increases of Hulu and Netflix, we are spending around $50 a month for all of those.

Sling is owned by AT&T if I recall correctly. I'm thinking about dropping Sling for Hulu Live and give that a whirl.

[MechAg94]

PlayStation View has Discovery channel as of last year.  I can't remember if it had Fox Business. 

[MechAg94]

That's something I'm definitely noting. You have to be careful in choosing of late, or a few streaming services suddenly cost more than an intermediate cable or sat bill.

Especially as every Tom, Dick, and Harry Network and channel begins to have their own streaming services, removing their content from the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. I also complained somewhere else here that I don't want to deal with 12 different streaming accounts to watch 12 shows.

When it comes down to it, there's a lot of stuff that I'm becoming more content with on waiting a year till it drops on Netflix versus watching it as soon as it's out. About the only things I like to watch realtime lately are a couple of Fox Business morning shows.

I can't wait until the 2018 Fox Business shows hit Netflix.   

[Ben]

I think you might have a hard time finding a non cable/non satellite based streaming service that includes Fox Business and Discovery channels

One of the reasons I mentioned the three above is that they all advertise that they carry those channels. I'm not sure if any others do. If there was a way to just pay for Fox Business through Fox, I would consider having that as a separate service that I'd suck it up and pay for, but from what I can tell on their website, the only way to watch them live through Fox is to first login in to a service you already have that carries them.

Minus Fox Business and maybe having another news channel, I'm caring less and less about watching stuff "now!". Similar to AZ, if I do want to watch something I really like, such as the Game of Thrones example, I'll buy the service for a month to watch it. Or else what I have done for series I really enjoyed (e.g., Justified, Longmire, Archer) is just bought them on Amazon as each new season came out.

Anyways, thinking about the OP, it seems like a good way to proceed would be to get each service for a "sample month" to see how they might work out. Then choose a winner after I've tried them all.

[p12]

PlayStation View has Discovery channel as of last year.  I can't remember if it had Fox Business. 

Vue second tier has Fox business. Don’t know about 1st tier. I’m on 2nd tier.


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[Chester32141]

As another option for you, we subscribe to "CuriosityStream" which was created by one of the Founders of the Discovery Channel. (Mike Rowe hawked it on his facebook, which is how we discovered it. He's done the narration for one of the documentaries made especially for the service.)

If you're interested in Documentaries, it's an amazing service. (And better than the discovery channel, IMO). We have Sundays as our documentary day in our house and they have so many options, we will never see all the ones that interest us. (And many that don't interest us, as well, but other people may find them to their liking.)

After reading your review I checked out "Curiosity Stream" and liked what I saw and signed up for it ... it was the same day the cable company came over and put in a new router.  During the entire first 5 days my laptop's connection was very weak from only about 12 feet away.  I could see the signal strength pulse on the indicator in the tool bar.  It seemed to be the same with the channel playing or not.  Removed the channel from my Roku account and my signal strength has been stable and strong ever since … is it possible that a streaming channel could have that effect or was it just a weird coincidence ?

I'd pay up to $100 per month for a channel that had everything and anything commercial free.  

[lupinus]

I recently picked up with Hulu with the live TV option. It's decent enough, interface is ok.

So far my biggest gripe is that I can't use the Hulu app on my phone to control Hulu on the TV like I can with Netflix. It has to be controlled via remote.

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[Frank Castle]

Now Disney

Disney, tired of sharing all of its shows and movies with Netflix and other services, is building its own streaming service.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/disney-streaming-faq-price-release-date,news-27711.html

[Ben]

I recently picked up with Hulu with the live TV option. It's decent enough, interface is ok.

So far my biggest gripe is that I can't use the Hulu app on my phone to control Hulu on the TV like I can with Netflix. It has to be controlled via remote.

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I'm actually okay with that, as unless I'm traveling, I only watch on the teevee. One thing I have to further research is that my Roku2 is potentially not compatible with a couple of these options. New Rokus are pretty cheap though, so that's not a deal killer.

[Ben]

Update.  I signed up for Youtube TV a few days ago. For the most part, I like it, but one part blows: There are a LOT of shows that you can't FF through commercials. I was recently watching NCIS and The Orville, and both had mandatory commercials - at least six 1.5-2min breaks. That is unacceptable. Other shows, I was able to FF through fine - both live and recorded on my virtual DVD. But it has been totally hit or miss on which show will let me FF through the commercials and which one won't.

I'll pay $50/mo for a service like this with no commercials, or with the ability to FF through commercials. A service with mandatory commercials, even if only for some content, is worth $0 to me. I'm thinking I might kill it off after the 5 day free trial and cycle to Hulu, then DirectTV and see which works out best. Too bad - the streaming quality has been excellent and there's a lot of good movie content.