YouTube TV

[Shire hobbit]

I'm thinking of cutting the cable cord, here are a few pieces of information, live in a hilly rural area about 60 miles from any TV network, so very doubtful outside rooftop TV antenna will provide any access to airwaves, I am considering You Tube TV as I can access local channels, has cloud base storage if I want to record something to view later, a few questions is the picture as high quality as say cable tv? the HD etc, if I record something can you fast forward through commercials?...anything else anyway to offer in the way of information? I do not want to do Satellite TV, thanks in advance for any responses!

[bloom2708]

YouTubeTV has a very good picture quality.

What does your internet speed look like? What is your data cap?

Most everything can be "DVR'd" on YTTV. You create profiles, add to your watch list and all the episodes available are there to watch. Some shows allow skipping commercials. Some require commercials to be watched. It depends on the source and what they require.

I had YTTV for about a year, but price increases made it easier to stick with a few streaming packages. I do like the value of the product, but the price is creeping near cable. The nice thing is no box fees and DVR fees and stuff like that.

[Michael Patrick]

I’ve been using YouTubeTV for a couple of years now. The picture quality is fine, comparable to cable.

I can’t comment on the commercials in recorded content, I never recorded any shows.

[StAug1967]

We dropped Dish TV about a year ago and switched to YouTube TV at that time. We really like it so far and have never had any issues. The DVR feature is great.

[helwardman]

I have used YTTV and HULU with live streaming. In my experience HULU had a much better picture quality, but YTTV is still pretty good.
The user interface and overall 'usability' of YTTV is much better than HULU, in my opinion.

[CrossOverGuy]

I've had YouTube TV for about a year, and I really like it a lot. I'm in a big city, so not sure how reception might be by you, but they do offer 7 or 14 day free trials, which I'd encourage you to try. You can plug in your zip code to get some idea of what stations are available by you on their website as well.

Besides having the major networks available to me, I'm getting 3 PBS stations, plus TCM (I love classic movies), and many of the main channels from cable tv. Plus, the DVR is terrific -- there is no limit on the amount of stuff you can record. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I guess they record everything and your "recording" is most likely a quick link to what they've recorded of all their channel listings. If you want to watch "The Office" for instance, you click once on a "+" sign in a listing and then, whenever "The Office" is on, and possibly it's on multiple channels, it will record it for you. Plus it will order the episodes by season and episode number, so you know what you have and what you are missing/hasn't been recorded yet. If you watch an episode, it will mark it as "Watched". Very helpful. But after going through listings and clicking on movies/shows I want to see, I have a big selection of stuff to choose from when I want to watch something. They keep it for 9 months too before it disappears (unless the title is broadcast again in which case it will be recorded again).

I wouldn't recommend paying any more for 4K higher resolution add-ons, as there isn't enough broadcast in that yet. I don't miss cable tv, plus the regular YouTubeTV is cheaper. If you have T-Mobile for internet and/or cell phone, you might be able to get a deal like $10 off as well. The only drawback is you can't really flip stations easily like on cable tv, so it makes you a bit more mindful of what you choose to watch, as it take a few seconds for the picture to start going each time you select a station. Another good thing is that you can arrange the order of how the channels appear, with your most frequent and favorite channels at the top; you can do this on their website after you've subscribed. I just miss one local cable channel run by the cable company where I live, which runs local features, but otherwise, I think all the positives outweigh anything else. Plus, YouTube keeps adding stations -- The Weather Channel and some Lifetime, among others have been added over this year. Plus there's also quite a decent amount of sports offerings.

[TomatoTomahto]

I have used YTTV and HULU with live streaming. In my experience HULU had a much better picture quality, but YTTV is still pretty good.
The user interface and overall 'usability' of YTTV is much better than HULU, in my opinion.

I agree. I opted for Hulu after trying both.

[Chardo]

Can you pause and rewind?

[Optimistic]

You can pause and rewind live shows. If you DVR something, you can do that and fast-forward as much as you want and skip commercials. I have it and prefer it to cable, satellite, and any other live streaming service.

[MorgansRun]

What I like about YTTV is that there are no commitments (I like that with most things... ), so if I wanted 'cable' to get NFL Network for a few months in the fall and winter, I can do that and then cancel. Besides sports and maybe some news, everything I watch is streamed or recorded.

For recordings, you may have a choice between DVR and VOD. The VOD (video on demand) option will make you sit through commercials while the DVR option lets you skip the commercials.

[Woodshark]

We've been a fan of DirectTV and had it, with their DVR for over a decade. That is until a couple of months ago when they raised rates again and I decided to cancel and try YouTubeTV. The monthy cost is lower but I'm not as happy with their version of the DVR. One of the primary reasons is that we cannot skip commercials on a lot of the CBS shows we watch.

[runningshoes]

The only point around all the streaming packages that replace cable - you really need an unlimited internet package and while most packages are exactly that today your description of internet availability raises the question.

[sureshoe]

It really comes down to what you want. I would probably do ala carte streamers if we didn't want to watch sports. Do you have a list of what you actually want to watch?

My general opinion is that sports are the only real drivers for YTTV. I think the vast majority of content can be picked up through ala carte streamers.
YTTV is at least $65/month. You could get Disney, Hulu, CBS, Paramount, and Peacock for half that.

It's the darn sports they get you on.

But, it is a very good experience - 4K quality where available and a nice, unlimited DVR.

[twh]

I've had YouTubeTV for several years and on three different connections. Rock solid. Almost never do I get what they call tiling - that's where the screen sort of freezes, but not completely and you get some larger tiles. On cable that happened more than once a week. YouTubeTV maybe like once every 3 months. Better picture than cable, IMO. The recording capability is great. The things which I think could be improved are the guide is somewhat limited, there are no channel numbers and there is no go-back-to-the-last-channel function. The lack of channel numbers isn't so big unless you have someone who has limited eyesight. BTW, I use the Roku boxes on all of the TV's and it is pretty rock solid also. I've got about a year old LG OLED and the picture is great, but the built-in YouTubeTV app would crash every couple days, so I just use the Roku there as well.

[MGBMartin]

I switched to YTTV a few years ago and for the most part I am generally happy with it except 2 things…

If I leave the it in the same channel for a few hours the voice seems to get out of sync, changing channel and back fixes it.

When I started it was $49.95 a month, not a promotional price. Several price increases since then and they keep telling me they are adding more stuff, stuff that I don’t want. It’s becoming more like the cable tv that I wanted to get rid of to begin with.

[Hoosier CPA]

It really comes down to what you want. I would probably do ala carte streamers if we didn't want to watch sports. Do you have a list of what you actually want to watch?

My general opinion is that sports are the only real drivers for YTTV. I think the vast majority of content can be picked up through ala carte streamers.
YTTV is at least $65/month. You could get Disney, Hulu, CBS, Paramount, and Peacock for half that.

It's the darn sports they get you on.

But, it is a very good experience - 4K quality where available and a nice, unlimited DVR.

I agree with that. I have a teenager hooked on sports which is the only reason I have YTTV year-round.

I was happy with it at $40 but kind of cringe at $65.

[DJAlcatraz]

I was a DirecTV consumer for 20 years, finally cut the cord, and went YouTubeTV. I use it mostly with an APPLETV but also with Roku on a separate TV. $65 month/ records perfectly. No issues with picture quality, love that I can watch TV anywhere basically with an internet connection. I have a detached office and if there is a live event/game on, I can LogOn and watch while i work,etc. The best part in my opinion is that you can quit anytime. I have friends who like Hulu TV so it is the preference of what you want. Try it out, I am happy with it

[LiterallyIronic]

The only point around all the streaming packages that replace cable - you really need an unlimited internet package and while most packages are exactly that today your description of internet availability raises the question.

Hasn't Internet been unlimited use ever since we did away with the "1000 hours of AOL" era?

[sleepysurf]

One caveat with YouTube TV... if you watch a lot of local/regional sports, make sure YouTube TV carries those networks. YouTube
TV had a contract dispute last year with our regional sports network, so we no longer get local NHL or MLB games. Adding insult to injury, the monthly subscription price stayed the same.

[Stinky]

I’ve had YTTV for about 2 years, and I love it. No more cable boxes. We’ve attached Roku devices to all of our non-smart TVs, so they all can play YTTV.

The feature I like the best is the unlimited DVR capacity. I have a couple of network news programs I like to see on a delayed basis I occasionally. YTTV automatically records every episode of each show. We’ve also recorded all 400+ episodes of Law and Order, and play them when we want mindless entertainment.

And yes, you can speed through commercials.

I highly recommend YTTV.

[retired-early]

Just signed up for YTTV about a week ago since AT&T jacked my rates again for U-verse. Immediately noticed the improved picture quality. On my LG OLED watching hockey is like being at the arena. Crystal clear picture. I can’t wait for football season. One thing I miss is channel numbers. With U-verse I could quickly switch around channels without having to scroll.

I digress but in a couple weeks I’ll have google fiber and can finally say goodbye to AT&T. That will be a highlight of my life . AT&T is a horrible company. Constantly raising rates, promotions and expired promotions. Endless calls with customer service to get rates back down. That on top of my internet going out several times a day.

[wunder]

YouTube TV is good product. Picture quality is very good. Sound quality is decent but surround (5.1) is rare due to limited support (this is finally improving but still doesn't support AppleTV or Fire sticks). The user interface for adding shows, teams, etc. and automatic recording is fantastic. You can skip ahead with commercials easily (actual skip, not just a fast forward). If you have an AppleTV for example you can use Siri on the remote and say "forward three minutes" and it will skip that whole block instantly.

If you're a sports fan their "key plays" feature to either catch up to live or speed through a recorded game in 10-15 minutes is great.

Fast stable internet is certainly needed but their infrastructure is great. I've never seen buffering or other issues on their end (conversely SlingTV was terrible).

[loghound]

The timing of this question is interesing as I'm sort of the middle of deciding.

I'm generally super comfortable with technology (I'm in high tech as a career) but I was super hesitatant to go to a streaming service for a few reasons

• Bandwidth cap concerns
• Quality concerns
• "teh snappy" -- I was worried that it would be slow to navigate and wouldn't have the WAF (wife approval factor)
• reliability (when I go to TV I basically want it to *always* work

I recently updated my internet to unlimited data (my family uses a *lot* of data) so I decided to try YouTube TV (like literally yesterday). Impressions so far

• Quality is generally very good -- as good or better than cable
• The YT TV app is very snappy -- shows start up quickly, changing 'channels' happens about as fast as my cable tv
• so far (again only about 24 hours of use) it's been 100% reliable. I've loaded it on my Apple TV (that works *great*) and my Roku (that works fine -- app startup is a bit slower and the roku remote is a little more clunky)
• the cloud DVR is sort of freakishly amazing - you just say 'record this' and 'record that' and it just does it. No limits --I think it will change how I consume TV as I can just record *all* of the shows I'm sort of interested in and just go grab the latest when I want
• I like the fact that I can watch on my phone, iPad, tv's, etc. They only allow '3' streams at once but that's more than enough
• the family plan is cool -- everyone can have their own profile (well I assume it's cool -- I've not had anyone try their own profile)
• the 'Guide' feature is sort of hard to get used to -- I'm used to a traditional type guide and for some reason the way YT TV does it is sort of, I don't know, wrong? For instance to get it you have to go 'back' and select 'live tv' -- then you sort of get a guide but it feels clunky to navigate? Maybe I'll get used to it
• I find it hard to get used to the lack of 'channels' -- I'm sort of been programmed my entire life to type in a number to get a channel and that doesn't exist -- Again, maybe I get used to it?
• The lack of a dedicated 'tv' remote is some of the 'problems' I have, apple TV & Roku remotes only have a handful of buttons (no channel up/down, no number pad, etc) so every navigation is multiple clicks (back, down,down, right, enter) -- that kind of thing - The apple TV interface is really good, supports voices, and when you want to search a keyboard pops up like magic on your phone so I may just put apple TV's everywhere (?)
• channel options are pretty good, annoying there are two channels I do watch that aren't available -- not a deal breaker but annoying.
• YT TV is modestly cheaper -- maybe about $40/month cheaper when it's all said and done?

I'm going to use it for another week or so (I think if you cancel within 14 days there is no fee) but I'm sort of suspecting I'll drop cable.

[ILnative]

We switch back and forth between Fubo and YTTV. We only go to Fubo during baseball season to get Marquee - otherwise I would just stay with YTTV as we prefer its user interface and other features (already mentioned). That is the beauty of this type of subscription model though - no contracts and can switch around at will to maximize your experience!

[mkc]

The only point around all the streaming packages that replace cable - you really need an unlimited internet package and while most packages are exactly that today your description of internet availability raises the question.

Hasn't Internet been unlimited use ever since we did away with the "1000 hours of AOL" era?

Nope. Pretty much any cellular data plan, some cable modem providers, and definitely companies like HughesNet and ViaSat have data caps. Some cellular plans prohibit streaming services as well.

With OP in a rural area this is likely a concern.

[AerialWombat]

deleted

[peetsperk]

We have tried Hulu and Youtube TV. For us YouTube is best and what we have today. Hulu wants to force you to watch commercials under almost every circumstance. With YouTube TV, you can usually fast-forward unless it's live programming. Quality of picture is good with both.

[EagleI]

I also just tested out YouTube TV, as I’m moving and had to make a decision for the new house. I found the interface with my Roku was clunky as other people mentioned. It was missing some channels that we watch and the channel guide and lack of things like last channel watched were annoying. Even though I have fast internet now, it was slow to load channels and had buffering issues. In the end, it would have only saved us about $10 after I got internet access and YTTV, so I decided to stay with cable.

[dougger5]

• I like the fact that I can watch on my phone, iPad, tv's, etc. They only allow '3' streams at once but that's more than enough

This was the main question I had - which you answered. Thanks for the detailed rundown

We have DirecTV and are experiencing reception issues most likely to to obstructions - trees that have just gotten bigger/wider over the years. Been thinking if it's an expensive to correct or maybe even insurmountable, we may make the switch to either Hulu or YTTV.

We've been using T-Mobile's 5G home internet for almost a year, and it's been a vast improvement over DSL (and so far the only alternative to DSL where we live). Speed isn't consistent, but it's consistently better, ranging from 25Mb/s down to 250Mb/s, vs. 1.2 for DSL. I guess how well and consistently it would handle 2 simultaneous streams (the most we're likely to need) remains to be discovered.

And we'll have to get a couple more Chromecasts I guess.

[vfinx]

YouTube TV has worked nicely for us. The quality seems to be just as good as other providers. It matches capabilities of a traditional DVR. I would suggest not cheaping out on the device. Low end devices will have weak chips and it will feel noticeably slower. I use a Chromecast w/ Google TV and it feels sluggish there. I may try an Apple TV.

YouTube TV cost seems to now be at roughly traditional "Cable TV" levels, but for me what makes it worthwhile is that it is easy to pause the membership. Since I only watch at certain times of year (e.g. NBA playoffs), I don't have to pay for all the other months.

[dougger5]

Say - is there anyone here in the Philly market who has YTTV, and if so are you able to watch Phillies games? I see NBC SportsNet Philly as one of the channels, but I'd be interested in having positive confirmation.

For the last 17 years I've been relegated to watching the Phils in a tiny square in the multiple-game-view of DirecTV's MLB Extra Innings.

[investor4life]

We switched from Comcast cable to YTTV two years ago and haven't looked back. Great channel selection, amazing picture quality (using Apple TV and Roku on year-old Samsung TVs), ability to freeze/rewind live TV, cool DVR feature, etc. Like others have mentioned, the channel guide takes some getting used to. I found it helpful to customize the guide so that the channels that I watch are clustered at the beginning of the list. The only downsides so far: The price goes up periodically and YTTV tends to get into carriage/licensing disputes that cause some channels to disappear for a while as they hash things out.

[manatee2005]

I'm thinking of cutting the cable cord, here are a few pieces of information, live in a hilly rural area about 60 miles from any TV network, so very doubtful outside rooftop TV antenna will provide any access to airwaves, I am considering You Tube TV as I can access local channels, has cloud base storage if I want to record something to view later, a few questions is the picture as high quality as say cable tv? the HD etc, if I record something can you fast forward through commercials?...anything else anyway to offer in the way of information? I do not want to do Satellite TV, thanks in advance for any responses!

I don’t understand why you would want tv? You can get anything you want on YouTube. I just recently watched the napoleonic wars explained way better than my high school teacher ever did. I also watched a video with Ww1 monthly casualties by region and ww2 army size on each day of the war. All free (well other than YouTube selling that info to advertisers.

[Xrayman69]

Streaming live TV while on airplane now.

Have had YTTV for about 1 year. It’s a great and easy to use interface with a smart TV or fire stick. Can set up to my own preferences and it “learns” what I prefer and places it on a “home “ screen. Love the DVR.

Travel a lot and it’s wonderful being able tomDVR my shows and watch from anywhere.

[twh]

if I record something can you fast forward through commercials?

Missed answer this one...

Yes, if you record something you can FF though the commercials. Aside from you recording a show, many shows will also allow you to see past episodes you did not record. Sometimes these will be On Demand and you may not be able to FF though the commercials in the VoD episode.

[SovereignInvestor]

Recently switched to YoutubeTV from DirectTV Stream, and YouTube is so much better and was cheaper.

Can pause and rewind mid show. Better searching for programs you'd like. Minimum price gets 3 Streams and once and a bunch of profiles. Its a great value.

[FedGuy]

I'm planning to quit YouTube TV both due to the price increases and due to the commercials on the VOD programs. I actually really don't mind commercials as a general matter, but the channels I usually watch are mostly VOD, and Youtube TV displays the same commercials in every commercial break, which tend to have loud, obnoxious, repetitive music. It's one of those things that you don't notice at first, but it's so repetitive that over time it drives you nuts.

And often during a commercial break they don't even show you a commercial, but instead display a screen that lists the channel you're watching while playing an annoying jingle for up to about two minutes. That gets extremely annoying as well.

[Parkinglotracer]

We pay 70 for YTTV, and the standard rate for Netflix. Internet costs us 49 from spectrum. We have considered trying spectrum streaming tv for 50 to save a few bucks but will miss the sports channels YTTV has I think.

YTTV is good.

[jdstripling]

If your internet is fast enough to avoid buffering issues and you dont have data limits YTTV is a good option.

For anyone who thinks YTTV is too expensive, one hack I use is that I split it with my in laws. We pay for the 4k upgrade which let's us stream unlimited number of tvs at my house and then there can be up to 3 simultaneous streams outside our home. YTTV makes it very simple to add family members to the account by linking their email.

If you didn't want to get the 4k upgrade then I believe the limit is 3 simultaneous streams across all households.

[Katietsu]

For anyone who thinks YTTV is too expensive, one hack I use is that I split it with my in laws. We pay for the 4k upgrade which let's us stream unlimited number of tvs at my house and then there can be up to 3 simultaneous streams outside our home. YTTV makes it very simple to add family members to the account by linking their email.

FYI, YTTV rules limit the family group to those who “live in the same household as the family manager.”

[miles2go]

I've had YouTubeTV for several years and on three different connections. Rock solid. Almost never do I get what they call tiling - that's where the screen sort of freezes, but not completely and you get some larger tiles. On cable that happened more than once a week. YouTubeTV maybe like once every 3 months. Better picture than cable, IMO. The recording capability is great. The things which I think could be improved are the guide is somewhat limited, there are no channel numbers and there is no go-back-to-the-last-channel function. The lack of channel numbers isn't so big unless you have someone who has limited eyesight. BTW, I use the Roku boxes on all of the TV's and it is pretty rock solid also. I've got about a year old LG OLED and the picture is great, but the built-in YouTubeTV app would crash every couple days, so I just use the Roku there as well.

You mention there’s no “jump” to prior channel feature. There isn’t but there’s a quick workaround. Hit the “back” button on your remote (on Roku it’s the curly back arrow) and then navigate down to TV Networks (usually one or two clicks on “down” button). That will show the last couple channels you were on.

Just got my parents hooked on YouTubeTV. Showed them the functionality and they said “To save hundreds on cable, I can figure this out” and they did.

My suggestion is if anyone is on the fence, try it via the 2 weeks trial before canceling anything. During that trial though, do not use cable — just use YTTV. Force yourself to see if the functionality and interface are acceptable. Most people won’t look back, especially with the cable savings. Remember, there’s no cable box fee per TV. That alone will save you $10/TV in your house.

[danaht]

Because you can't get the local channels with an antenna - You Tube TV is probably the best choice for you.
If you need all the channels (+ local channels) and unlimited DVR storage, or ESPN + Sports - YTTV is a great choice.
Otherwise if you are on a budget and were able to get some of the local channels via antenna - then I would recommend Sling TV Blue over YTTV. Sling TV is a little buggier and has less features - but it also costs a lot less especially if you don't need ESPN + the sports channels. You Tube TV is $64.95 per month while Sling TV Blue is only ~$38 per month. You might want to add some extra channels to Sling TV - which could add another $6.49 - but that is still $20 a month cheaper than YTTV with the added channels. However, if you need ESPN or the local channels- then it is worth getting YTTV over Sling TV.

[JonFund]

I "cut the cord" and went to YouTube TV about 3 years ago. I absolutely love it. The price has gone up a few times (about $70/month now), but it has tons of content, local channels, and about the best recording feature I've come across. Shows that are in my "library" (i.e., recorded) I can fast forward through the commercials. I still wish someone would come out with a 100% "a la carte" type of offering. There are many channels on YouTube TV I don't use, as I'm mostly a news and sports viewer. Overall, I highly recommend it.

[LiterallyIronic]

The only point around all the streaming packages that replace cable - you really need an unlimited internet package and while most packages are exactly that today your description of internet availability raises the question.

Hasn't Internet been unlimited use ever since we did away with the "1000 hours of AOL" era?

Nope. Pretty much any cellular data plan, some cable modem providers, and definitely companies like HughesNet and ViaSat have data caps. Some cellular plans prohibit streaming services as well.

With OP in a rural area this is likely a concern.

That's weird. How would I have any idea how much I'd used? What am I going to do - check how much I've got left before I let my video game download an update so I can play it?

[lazydavid]

That's weird. How would I have any idea how much I'd used? What am I going to do - check how much I've got left before I let my video game download an update so I can play it?

Yep. I switched providers to get a higher data cap--Xfinity in Illinois is 1.2TB, then it's $10/50GB with a maximum monthly overage of $100, regardless of speed. You can also pay a fixed $30 fee for unlimited data, on top of whatever your normal service fee is.

I think I got 2.5TB or 3TB with the 500Mbps plan on the new provider, and then went to their highest tier (1Gbps) to eliminate it entirely as we started edging closer to the cap. The local provider was recently purchased by RCN, and they eliminated data caps across the board.

Back on YTTV, switched almost 3 years ago and could never go back to cable. In addition to being a better service at home, we love being able to take "our TV" with us on vacation by just throwing a fire stick in our luggage. On shorter business trips, my iPad handles those same duties for me. I can't watch some local programming (including news) live when I'm out of region because my locals get replaced by the ones where I'm physically located, but I can watch the scheduled recordings once the airing is complete.

[MDfan]

We switched from cable to YTTV at the start of the pandemic when there was no sports and have not gone back. We tried Hulu TV as well but if you're a sports fan, YTTV is much better (Golf Channel, all the ESPNs, Fox, BTN, SEC, ACC, MLB, etc.) . Picture quality is very good and was no different than Hulu Live. Love the limited DVR. $65 is still a bargain compared to cable (ours is about $90 with HBOMax and Showtime) and there is no equipment to worry about.

[Chip Munk]

The feature I like the best is the unlimited DVR capacity. I have a couple of network news programs I like to see on a delayed basis I occasionally. YTTV automatically records every episode of each show. We’ve also recorded all 400+ episodes of Law and Order, and play them when we want mindless entertainment.

And yes, you can speed through commercials.

I highly recommend YTTV.

I also sometimes record news programs to watch on a delayed basis. I like to watch the recordings on my laptop at tv.youtube.com because I can increase the playback speed to 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 or 2.0 times normal speed. Between watching at 1.75 times normal speed and fast forwarding through the commercials, I can get through a recorded news program very quickly. I wish YTTV offered this option when watching recorded or delayed programs on the TV as well.

Another thing I like about the DVR is the ease of recording a favorite sports team. You can add your favorite teams and whenever they are playing on one of the YTTV channels, no matter the day of the week or the time of day, it will record the games. I added two football teams that I follow and now, rather than having to scan the schedule ahead of time to see if they are playing on Sunday afternoon or Sunday night or Monday night or whatever and then setting up my DVR to record the game, YTTV schedules them automatically. Supposedly, if the game runs long it will extend the recording time so that you don't miss the end of the game.

I'm not thrilled with the guide however. If I want to watch something right now and I scan the listings, there isn't much information provided about the shows currently airing. I can't tell if it's a new episode or a repeat. It's quite a step down from the amount of information I could get from the Fios guide which included a description of the episode and the original air date. Since I tend to record things so that I can watch them delayed and fast forward through commercials, it's not a huge problem but given Google is all about searching for information, it's kind of surprising they opt to provide so little information about the programs currently airing on YTTV.

[loghound]

I'm about 10 days into my 'free' trial and thought I would update from my earlier post (scroll up)

Largely my opinion hasn't changed (which is a good thing -- I was pretty favorable). I do have a few thoughts.

• As mentioned previously the 'guide' feature is an adjustment -- I can't exactly explain how except I think I'm used to a 'guide' button on the remote that brings up a scrollable list. You can do this with YTTV but it's usually a few button presses (back-up-right) to get to it. In fairness it's faster than my cable box (my cable box took many seconds to come up once pressed -- on my streaming boxes it's basically instant for a button press)
• Picture quality and speed of streaming (how fast channels come up -- how fast you can 'skim' the shows) continue to impress -- better than my old cable system
• The Apple TV is probably the best experience in terms of fluidity and speed but it's sort of pricy ($170) -- for my main TV it's more than worth it to me (but see below)
• I've discovered that walmart sells a 'onn android tv' that is a (very, very) close 2nd to an apple tv for only $20. it's really quite a nice experience and has the advantage of a specific 'live tv' button which is great when you just want to bring up YTTV. It's not quite as smooth as the Apple TV but honestly, it's very close and a great way to outfit tv's in your house. It also has a channel up/down which is pretty nice if you are used to flipping between a handful of channels.
• I've had some surprises -- I sometimes like watching Bloomberg which I used to get on my old TV but isn't offered on YTTV. I discovered, however, that both almost all streaming platforms offer the Bloomberg app which get's you the same thing (at no cost) -- it means you run a different app but it's not big deal to me
• the only problem I still have is that they don't offer A&E networks on YTTV -- I've figured out two work around: First I could just 'buy' the shows that I care about on Apple or Amazon (they run ~$25/season). A potentially better option is to also subscribe to https://try.frndlytv.com/ for $7/month which offers about 40 channels including A&E
• I've had to sort of shift my thinking about watching tv -- I used to have just cable, then over time I added things like Netflix,etc. Now I mostly have apps on a streaming box which is actually sort of OK but an adjustment if you are used to just a cable box.

Anyway I'll be stopping by xfinity tomorrow to disconnect my tv service (I'll keep it for internet)

[ramink]

The best feature in Apple TV (in addition to far superior picture quality and Dolby sound) with Youtube TV is Siri with DVR. Press the button and "Skip 3 mins" "rewind 3 mins" etc..

I'm about 10 days into my 'free' trial and thought I would update from my earlier post (scroll up)

Largely my opinion hasn't changed (which is a good thing -- I was pretty favorable). I do have a few thoughts.

• As mentioned previously the 'guide' feature is an adjustment -- I can't exactly explain how except I think I'm used to a 'guide' button on the remote that brings up a scrollable list. You can do this with YTTV but it's usually a few button presses (back-up-right) to get to it. In fairness it's faster than my cable box (my cable box took many seconds to come up once pressed -- on my streaming boxes it's basically instant for a button press)
  ...

Anyway I'll be stopping by xfinity tomorrow to disconnect my tv service (I'll keep it for internet)

[hvaclorax]

I'm thinking of cutting the cable cord, here are a few pieces of information, live in a hilly rural area about 60 miles from any TV network, so very doubtful outside rooftop TV antenna will provide any access to airwaves, I am considering You Tube TV as I can access local channels, has cloud base storage if I want to record something to view later, a few questions is the picture as high quality as say cable tv? the HD etc, if I record something can you fast forward through commercials?...anything else anyway to offer in the way of information? I do not want to do Satellite TV, thanks in advance for any responses!

I don’t understand why you would want tv? You can get anything you want on YouTube. I just recently watched the napoleonic wars explained way better than my high school teacher ever did. I also watched a video with Ww1 monthly casualties by region and ww2 army size on each day of the war. All free (well other than YouTube selling that info to advertisers.

Suggest you try antenna app, there are several. Put in your address and it will tell you what you are likely to receive. OTA TV is a good stream, higher quality feed. Better than most internet services. Cost is just antenna, few hundred dollars. TiVo works to time shift and commercial skip. Not every thing but a good addition. Big 5: CBS, ABC,NBC, FOX and PBS are available in most markets. We’re watching Stanley Cup currently. Love that PBS as well.