Recommendations for Subscription-Based Online TV

Intl.Aperture

All-American
Aug 12, 2015
3,681
23
57
Chesapeake, Virginia
People here are pooping on Sling but it works great for me. It's come a LONG way since it was first announced (remember that it was one the VERY first internet live tv options). They have a DVR option and it is the cheapest of all the options. With the extra sports channel option it only costs me $30 a month. There is a delay but I don't really care. I don't wade into the game threads all that often and I don't text people - so a few seconds delay doesn't bother me. The signal has been strong and consistent for me and the interface has been easy to use on my Roku.
 

Intl.Aperture

All-American
Aug 12, 2015
3,681
23
57
Chesapeake, Virginia
BTW, I think Sling is offering a week free trial so you could easily test it out this week leading up to the game. Watch some U.S. Open tennis matches on ESPN and ESPN 2 and see how that stream is. The matches are often as long as or even longer than football games and run at the same FPS.

I've also got pretty good internet and a good system for handling this sort of service.
 

TideMom2Boys

Hall of Fame
Nov 17, 2010
20,214
398
102
Alabama
People here are pooping on Sling but it works great for me. It's come a LONG way since it was first announced (remember that it was one the VERY first internet live tv options). They have a DVR option and it is the cheapest of all the options. With the extra sports channel option it only costs me $30 a month. There is a delay but I don't really care. I don't wade into the game threads all that often and I don't text people - so a few seconds delay doesn't bother me. The signal has been strong and consistent for me and the interface has been easy to use on my Roku.
We would have tried Sling, except we needed all the local channels. We tried an antenna and just couldn't get the channels...no matter where we tried it. Sling definitely has some great options though.
 

imauafan

All-American
Mar 3, 2004
3,620
980
232
Huntsville, AL
All of you that are using Hulu or Youtube or ????? what are you using for internet?
AT&T gigafiber which is probably overkill for streaming to 1 device. Even a 30-50Mb/s internet service should be more than sufficient unless you are streaming to multiple devices at once. Also, other factors may play a role depending if you are using cable or dsl and how many other people around you are using the same service at the same time. Fiber (theoretically) should not be impacted by those around as much as cable or dsl.
 

TideMom2Boys

Hall of Fame
Nov 17, 2010
20,214
398
102
Alabama
I am done with cable, but I am not dealing with that garbage this week. I will decide on something when I get back from my trip in 3 weeks.
Welcome to the club, I am not sure why I didn't cut the cord earlier. When you get back, I just suggest trying the free trials. All of the streaming services offer a free trial. So you can see which interface and channel options you like best. Also, figure out which device you will use to stream it. We use a Roku for each TV.
 

BamaFanTN

3rd Team
Mar 1, 2011
233
74
52
Melbourne, FL
PlaystationVue for us. Where we are it includes local channels and has a cloud DVR. About $35 gets you ESPN and ESPN 2 $50 gets those and SEC Network and All ESPN channels (ESPNU) You can switch back to the cheaper version after the season as there is no annual contract.

I was nervious for obvious football related reasons but with the DVR and Youtube having the full games a day later, I am good. The only thing I miss is the ability to pause live tv for more than a few minutes. Sometimes I need to put the kids to bed during the game and I could pause it then come back thirty minutes later with cable but the wife is cool she takes care of that for me now.
 

Special K

All-American
Feb 8, 2008
2,803
1,294
187
Personally I still have cable but no cable boxes. I have a network-attached cablecard tuner (HDhomerun Prime) and roll my own PC-based solutions for watching, time-shift (i.e. pause/RW/FF live TV), and whole-home DVR. Saves a ton of money each month without compromising quality or flexibility. Yes, there's front-end cost and some research/time required for setting it up, but I pay about $87 monthly and get all the channels in Charter/Spectrum's silver package - includes HBO, Showtime, Cinemax. If you really get into it, you can set it up like I did with automated commercial removal and archiving recorded shows to a back-end server to store content centralized to everyone on the network, with Emby server managing content organization and watched states for each program (thus providing a whole-home DVR solution). Can't quite do that seamlessly for DRM-protected content (primarily premium channels like on HBO/Showtime/Cinemax) but works for vast majority of programming, including the sports channels. Sure is nice to have every Bama game recorded and archived with commercials skipped automatically, ready to watch the day after the game. And all that with no buffering, no picture quality issues, etc. Combine that with Kodi for a front-end and it becomes a very elegant solution.

At times, I've considering scaling back to the streaming services but just can't make myself give up the control and options this approach gives me to save maybe $20 a month. I totally understand why others do it and my approach isn't for everyone by any means, but I love it.
 

Bama_N_Va

1st Team
Aug 16, 2017
984
1,063
167
Big YouTube TV fan. Great interface with cloud DVR. Relatively inexpensive and offers all the channels we like.
I'm trying to determine how this works. My requirement would a device that has Youtube TV build-in that I can hard wired into my computer network and attach to my TV. Does it work this way???
 

Intl.Aperture

All-American
Aug 12, 2015
3,681
23
57
Chesapeake, Virginia
I'm trying to determine how this works. My requirement would a device that has Youtube TV build-in that I can hard wired into my computer network and attach to my TV. Does it work this way???
Not sure I take your meaning. If you purchase YoutubeTV service you would download a YoutubeTV app on your Smart TV, Roku, Amazon Firestick, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, Playstation, or Xbox One and play your content from there. Likewise you can also access your account from your laptop or desktop computer.

The service is hosted online so all you need is internet to access it. That's why those devices I mentioned above that plug into your tv (Roku. Amazon Firestick etc etc) are essential.

Technically you could also tether your laptop to your tv via HDMI if you have the available ports. There are a number of ways to make it happen.


Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

TideMom2Boys

Hall of Fame
Nov 17, 2010
20,214
398
102
Alabama
I love the unlimited DVR for YouTubetv that comes with the standard price. You don’t have to pay extra for that.

It is also really easy to add shows to automatically record. I also added Alabama Football to have it auto record the games.
 

theballguy

Hall of Fame
Nov 5, 2012
6,268
1,083
187
Roll Tide Roll, Colorado USA
$40/month to me seems like a lot but I'm going with Youtube TV today some time. Need a good 24 hour walk-through before games start tomorrow. From all research, it appears that I can use it on me phone, laptop and TV. Thanks everyone for the recommendations. You guys are the best! RTR!!!
 

TideMom2Boys

Hall of Fame
Nov 17, 2010
20,214
398
102
Alabama
$40/month to me seems like a lot but I'm going with Youtube TV today some time. Need a good 24 hour walk-through before games start tomorrow. From all research, it appears that I can use it on me phone, laptop and TV. Thanks everyone for the recommendations. You guys are the best! RTR!!!

Good plan. Yes, you can use it on all of those. If you have a MacBook like I do, you just have to use it on chrome. It doesn’t work on safari.
 

CHATTBRIT

Hall of Fame
Dec 3, 2003
5,762
504
237
Falling Water, TN
I cut the cord a couple of years ago. I have our local cable company for networks and PBS. I got a Fire TV stick and downloaded Kodi with Sportsdevil and Placenta (Exodus used to be great but has gone down in the last year). Sportsdevil is great for any football/soccer/NCAAF/NFL game. Sometimes the quality is not optimum if there are too many people watching a certain game. The EPL has 700 million viewers each week around the world so those games can get busy but as NBCSports carries all those games it's not an issue. I have a wonderful neighbor who allows me to use her log in information so I get the ESPNs, NBC Sports (EPL), TNT (Champions League), etc. I have Amazon Prime for entertainment as well as use my son's log in for Netflix. One time cost of $40 for the firestick and $120 year Amazon Prime ($10/mo) and that's it. My local cable provider also provides internet with minimum of 100 megs and for a few dollars more can be 1 gig. I usually go up to 1 gig in football season.
 

Special K

All-American
Feb 8, 2008
2,803
1,294
187
I cut the cord a couple of years ago. I have our local cable company for networks and PBS. I got a Fire TV stick and downloaded Kodi with Sportsdevil and Placenta (Exodus used to be great but has gone down in the last year). Sportsdevil is great for any football/soccer/NCAAF/NFL game. Sometimes the quality is not optimum if there are too many people watching a certain game. The EPL has 700 million viewers each week around the world so those games can get busy but as NBCSports carries all those games it's not an issue. I have a wonderful neighbor who allows me to use her log in information so I get the ESPNs, NBC Sports (EPL), TNT (Champions League), etc. I have Amazon Prime for entertainment as well as use my son's log in for Netflix. One time cost of $40 for the firestick and $120 year Amazon Prime ($10/mo) and that's it. My local cable provider also provides internet with minimum of 100 megs and for a few dollars more can be 1 gig. I usually go up to 1 gig in football season.
Of course, you know certain Kodi add-ons like Sportsdevil and Exodus (and Exodus clones like Placenta) are illegal in the U.S. since they are essentially streaming pirated content. This is why the official Kodi repositories don't carry such add-ons and the Kodi development team won't provide support for any Kodi builds that have them (Kodi itself is perfectly legal of course). And please don't take me the wrong way, I'm not trying to preach about legality, but just wanted to point out that your example is not apples to apples with legit streaming services or cable subscriptions.
 

cuda.1973

Hall of Fame
Dec 6, 2009
8,506
607
137
Allen, Texas
Hmmm...........interesting site.............

Starting with FoxSports SW (so I can watch the useless stRangers), best choice is Sling, at $30.

Add in SEC network, and now Sling goes to $50. Hulu beats it at $40.

Outside of that, I watch the free dreck on OTA TV.

Think I will pass, for now (and continued freeloading off of family members who can afford cable). But, thanks for the tip!
 

DzynKingRTR

TideFans Legend
Dec 17, 2003
42,229
29,394
287
Vinings, ga., usa
AT&T gigafiber which is probably overkill for streaming to 1 device. Even a 30-50Mb/s internet service should be more than sufficient unless you are streaming to multiple devices at once. Also, other factors may play a role depending if you are using cable or dsl and how many other people around you are using the same service at the same time. Fiber (theoretically) should not be impacted by those around as much as cable or dsl.
not available for me. it looks like my only choice is comcast (which i currently have)
 

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