TV/Cable Options...Anywhere

[frydaze]

I live in the Iowa City area but am curious to know of what your preference is for cable TV.

I've been long time with Mediacom and now South Slope and pay $130-$150 monthly for just basic cable channels-- many I don't even watch. I plan to minimally downgrade if I stick with South Slope but wondering what others that they find is a good deal and/or offers something as good or better than Mediacom or South Slope.

I am a total novice here so interested to hear.

Thanks much!

 

[mjtommy]

Why not go with YouTube Tv for around $70?

 

[Tenacious E]

I live in the Iowa City area but am curious to know of what your preference is for cable TV.

I've been long time with Mediacom and now South Slope and pay $130-$150 monthly for just basic cable channels-- many I don't even watch. I plan to minimally downgrade if I stick with South Slope but wondering what others that they find is a good deal and/or offers something as good or better than Mediacom or South Slope.

I am a total novice here so interested to hear.

Thanks much!

YoutubeTV. Assuming you have a decent internet connection, I don't think anything comes particularly close.

 

[QChawks]

Mediacom?

there’s your problem

YTTV bro

 

[frydaze]

Mediacom?

there’s your problem

YTTV bro

No, currently South Slope.

 

[Hwkfn1]

We are trying Youtube TV during the 2-week trial. So far we love it.

 

[Tenacious E]

We are trying Youtube TV during the 2-week trial. So far we love it.

Once you try it, it is hard to go back. OP, here is an old thread below on it. This has been brought up many many times on HROT.

Anyone have Hulu Live? Thoughts?

Comcast/Xfinity has pissed me off. Looking st getting rid of the TV package. If you have Hulu Live, do you think it's worth the $65/mo? It includes the major networks but is it the local networks? Will I get the DC network channels, or some other locality's local news? I already have...

iowa.forums.rivals.com

 

[frydaze]

Once you try it, it is hard to go back. OP, here is an old thread below on it. This has been brought up many many times on HROT.

Anyone have Hulu Live? Thoughts?

Comcast/Xfinity has pissed me off. Looking st getting rid of the TV package. If you have Hulu Live, do you think it's worth the $65/mo? It includes the major networks but is it the local networks? Will I get the DC network channels, or some other locality's local news? I already have...

iowa.forums.rivals.com

Thank you so much again!!

 

[archmage2002]

I live in the Iowa City area but am curious to know of what your preference is for cable TV.

I've been long time with Mediacom and now South Slope and pay $130-$150 monthly for just basic cable channels-- many I don't even watch. I plan to minimally downgrade if I stick with South Slope but wondering what others that they find is a good deal and/or offers something as good or better than Mediacom or South Slope.

I am a total novice here so interested to hear.

Thanks much!

What do you watch and how many tv sets will you have. That is the key because several streaming tv providers are excellent price-wise but have restrictions on the content or simultaneous streaming. If you don't already have a device you will need to buy one, some are cheap like Amazon Fire Stick, and Chromecast, still others are expensive like the Nvidia Shield, etc and then set it up, download the app, pay for it, and away you go.

Youtube TV sets the standard and is really good. Hulu Live is cheaper, but not as good as a channel selection as Youtube TV. FUBO TV is crazy good for sports, worldwide sports at that. Soccer(aka football to the rest of the world) can and will be streamed from Europe or South America for instance and entertainment channels are decent.

Philo is $25 and focuses on straight entertainment channels, no local channels or sports though.(BTW, Locals can be streamed using an antenna so if you don't care for sports it's the way to go.) Sling TV offers ala carte options but is limited to 720p quality and its channel selections maybe even smaller than Philo's.

Last is DirectTV Stream, the most expensive streaming service and the one that is basically: "Hey, it's your cable company channels but online. Yes, you heard me, it's cable tv online."

 

[JupiterHawk]

I have Apple TV which I love the platform and the remote for fast-forwarding through streaming. I also like Roku. It is to the point where I mostly watch streaming channels vs anything on cable tv. I have Amazon Prime, Apple TV, HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, Paramount, Disney, and Peacock. It's really a spectacular waste as most movies cycle from one streaming network to another. I plan to pare down to just one streaming network and change over to a new one the following month based on what new series I plan to watch. I also have cable tv but it comes with my HOA.

 

[ConvenientParking]

YTTV is better than any cable service I've ever had. Idk how Hulu Live compares to YTTV. YTTV is much better than Sling when Sling came out, but I tried Sling before YTTV existed and not since so they could have upped their game.

 

[Tenacious E]

YTTV is better than any cable service I've ever had. Idk how Hulu Live compares to YTTV. YTTV is much better than Sling when Sling came out, but I tried Sling before YTTV existed and not since so they could have upped their game.

During the great scare of 2021 when YTTV and ESPN were having a spat and there was a threat of missing the bowl game, I cancelled YTTV and went with Hulu, as they have shared ownership. I hated Hulu tv. Just sucks. It made me very happy when YTTV and ESPN reconciled and I could cancel Hulu.

 

[ConvenientParking]

PSVue was great while it lasted. I ended up selling my PS4 on Craigslist within months of Sony shutting PSVue down because I realized I'd stopped gaming entirely for about 2 years and was just using the PS4 like a Roku. YTTV is like PSVue but a little bit better. And much better if you like recording stuff to watch later.

 

[frydaze]

What do you watch and how many tv sets will you have. That is the key because several streaming tv providers are excellent price-wise but have restrictions on the content or simultaneous streaming. If you don't already have a device you will need to buy one, some are cheap like Amazon Fire Stick, and Chromecast, still others are expensive like the Nvidia Shield, etc and then set it up, download the app, pay for it, and away you go.

Youtube TV sets the standard and is really good. Hulu Live is cheaper, but not as good as a channel selection as Youtube TV. FUBO TV is crazy good for sports, worldwide sports at that. Soccer(aka football to the rest of the world) can and will be streamed from Europe or South America for instance and entertainment channels are decent.

Philo is $25 and focuses on straight entertainment channels, no local channels or sports though.(BTW, Locals can be streamed using an antenna so if you don't care for sports it's the way to go.) Sling TV offers ala carte options but is limited to 720p quality and its channel selections maybe even smaller than Philo's.

Last is DirectTV Stream, the most expensive streaming service and the one that is basically: "Hey, it's your cable company channels but online. Yes, you heard me, it's cable tv online."

Again, such great info! Thank you!

I have one TV now, will eventually have two TV sets, and ultimately maybe a 3rd in the house. Any issues with this if I go with YouTube?

 

[Tenacious E]

Again, such great info! Thank you!

I have one TV now, will eventually have two TV sets, and ultimately maybe a 3rd in the house. Any issues with this if I go with YouTube?

No. You can stream up to 3 simultaneously.

 

[mjtommy]

Thank you so much again!!

Sorry it took so long to get back to your dm. I started playing Skyrim and lost track of time.

 

[mjtommy]

Again, such great info! Thank you!

I have one TV now, will eventually have two TV sets, and ultimately maybe a 3rd in the house. Any issues with this if I go with YouTube?

Depending on your Wi-Fi strength and I’ve noticed quality of tv you might have a few issues with 3 simultaneous streams. I have 3 currently and ran cat 5 cables to all 3.
My Sony Bravia A80J is faster than my Vizio

 

[dgordo]

I went with fuboTV because I can’t watch the cubs on YouTube tv.

 

[Tom Paris]

Why not go with YouTube Tv for around $70?

I wish I had done this sooner. I don’t like change but this saved me about $100 a month.

 

[FranklinHawk]

We have YTTV at the cabin, but my biggest challenge so far is finding something resembling a traditional channel guide like you'd get with cable or Dish.

 

[mjtommy]

We have YTTV at the cabin, but my biggest challenge so far is finding something resembling a traditional channel guide like you'd get with cable or Dish.

The live tab at the top is your guide. You can even customize it if you open it up in Chrome. I have all the sport channels at the top followed by my locals.

 

[Tenacious E]

We have YTTV at the cabin, but my biggest challenge so far is finding something resembling a traditional channel guide like you'd get with cable or Dish.

What mjtommy said. The guide looks like any other guide. The only difference is that there are no channel numbers. Just reorder the guide and put the channels you watch on top. We also record everything we like so the shows are also queued up on the home page or whatever it’s called.

 

[mjtommy]

What mjtommy said. The guide looks like any other guide. The only difference is that there are no channel numbers. Just reorder the guide and put the channels you watch on top. We also record everything we like so the shows are also queued up on the home page or whatever it’s called.

Yep queued up on home or in the library for 9 months. When you first stay YTTV you’re on the home (middle tab) library is to the left and live is to the right. I don’t use the home tab as much as library and live.

 

[Tenacious E]

Yep queued up on home or in the library for 9 months. When you first stay YTTV you’re on the home (middle tab) library is to the left and live is to the right. I don’t use the home tab as much as library and live.

We are the opposite in that we record almost everything we like and we almost never watch it live, other than sports. Beauty of YTTV is it fits both styles like a glove

 

[bhawk24bob]

I made a life improvement this week with 5g home wifi (i'm not magnetic yet), so no more wired connections to hold leverage over me. All in with espn/internet is now under $60/month with a free mlb package and rabbit ears picking up the rest.

 

[Tenacious E]

I made a life improvement this week with 5g home wifi (i'm not magnetic yet), so no more wired connections to hold leverage over me. All in with espn/internet is now under $60/month with a free mlb package and rabbit ears picking up the rest.

How much data do you get a month?

 

[Tenacious E]

I made a life improvement this week with 5g home wifi (i'm not magnetic yet), so no more wired connections to hold leverage over me. All in with espn/internet is now under $60/month with a free mlb package and rabbit ears picking up the rest.

Also, how fast is it? I have "5g" on my phone and I don't think it is really 5g, or nearly as fast as my home network. I have an iphone 12 pro max, so it's not the phone.*

*edited to past an article that answers a lot of my own questions. Looks like verizon is the best service right now. https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/what-is-5g-home-internet/

 

[BrunoMars420]

Just get direct TV. These streaming services are about the same price and are 15 seconds behind in sports. I was a cut the cord guy but I plugged the cord back in due to the rise in pricing

 

[sober_teacher]

If Marquee ever reaches an agreement with YouTube I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get my parents to switch over from cable.

 

[sober_teacher]

Just get direct TV. These streaming services are about the same price and are 15 seconds behind in sports. I was a cut the cord guy but I plugged the cord back in due to the rise in pricing

The problem with Direct TV here is that the price hike in year 2 more than makes up for being similar in year 1.

 

[BrunoMars420]

The problem with Direct TV here is that the price hike in year 2 more than makes up for being similar in year 1.

Meh, I get more channels and nfl Sunday ticket so it’s worth it imo

 

[Tenacious E]

The problem with Direct TV here is that the price hike in year 2 more than makes up for being similar in year 1.

Also, I admit I have been off DTV for a few years now, so maybe they improved, but my monthly bill as close to $250, when you factored in all of the rental charges, fees, whole home dvr, etc. And, it did always go out in bad storms. No such issues with YTTV.

 

[Tenacious E]

I made a life improvement this week with 5g home wifi (i'm not magnetic yet), so no more wired connections to hold leverage over me. All in with espn/internet is now under $60/month with a free mlb package and rabbit ears picking up the rest.

Also, I am reading weather can be an issue. Let us know how it performs during heavy storms/blizzards.

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

The problem with Direct TV here is that the price hike in year 2 more than makes up for being similar in year 1.

It’s worth it to me. It’s at the top for live sports and that’s all I care about

 

[ericram]

During the great scare of 2021 when YTTV and ESPN were having a spat and there was a threat of missing the bowl game, I cancelled YTTV and went with Hulu, as they have shared ownership. I hated Hulu tv. Just sucks. It made me very happy when YTTV and ESPN reconciled and I could cancel Hulu.

During that scary time I added Uzzu channel to my Roku account and it allowed me to watch all sorts of sports. It runs subscriptions for a month at a time and does not automatically renew.

 

[BrunoMars420]

It’s worth it to me. It’s at the top for live sports and that’s all I care about

Also get all the Bally sports for baseball and free HBO max for a year

 

[bhawk24bob]

Also, I am reading weather can be an issue. Let us know how it performs during heavy storms/blizzards.

No data caps, i've consistently been getting north of 200 down, which is more than enough for us (we don't have 4k, run a server, etc.). We went with T-Mobile, I don't have any complaints yet but we don't use it for anything besides wfh, steaming 1080p, xbox, and surfing the internet. I haven't noticed any issues with rain but that could be that we don't push the bandwidth to begin with. I figure it'll get better over time as it uses more of the 5g network (i don't pretend to understand the way it's partitioned)

 

[themelrosemauler]

South Slope standard package is $70/month.
https://www.southslope.com/for-home/tv/channel-lineup/

 

[Tenacious E]

South Slope standard package is $70/month.
https://www.southslope.com/for-home/tv/channel-lineup/

True, but the "Superior" package at 96/mo is what is comparable to YTTV in terms of content. Also for the standard package, they apparently refuse to give them to subscribers in HD, even though they have the capability for the "superior" package. DVR is another $10 per month, plus whatever taxes/fees they charge on top of that, for whatever capability/storage it has. So really, you are looking at at least $130 per month, probably more. YTTV is $70 all in, with unlimited DVR. Plus, if you are traveling, you can log into it anywhere there is a smart tv, or you can just pack a roku or firestick and plug that into the tv. Great for traveling.