The YouTube TV Thread

^This. Always pull up recorded shows from the Library tab rather than the Home menu, which will often feed you the VoD version. Also note, most VoD versions of episodes cycle off after four to five weeks, unlocking the recorded version that you can FF. You can also watch the recorded version same night it airs and FF commercials. That's what I do for my CW shows.
 
I have a DVR question. I tried YouTube tv and it looks like every recording goes to the on demand version next day.

Is there a way to stop that? I was hoping you could skip commercials but that doesn't seem to be the case next day. I know when I had PSVUE you had a choice. I would pick DVR and just skip commercials.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using the SatelliteGuys app!
As others have said, aside from cw and cbs choose the show from the library tab and you can choose the DVR or VOD version there.
 
I really liked Hulu Live for a while, but the quirks got frustrating.

- The DVR limit (50 or 200 hours) is shared across all profiles. Other people on your account can bump your recordings.
- Despite having to deal with limits, there’s no good way to see what will actually record unless you click though each show and see what the recording settings are. There is no “upcoming recordings” to gauge consumption.
- Assuming you have the $10 DVR “upgrade” - you can skip commercials on recordings, but only if you select them through My Stuff -> Manage my DVR. If you just go to shows under “My Stuff” it will default to the forced commercial VOD version of the shows most times.
- Pausing live TV on most channels results in unskippable commercial breaks, even if you’ve paid for the DVR upgrade.
 
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I really liked Hulu Live for a while, but the quirks got frustrating.

- The DVR limit (50 or 200 hours) is shared across all profiles. Other people on your account can bump your recordings.
- Despite having to deal with limits, there’s no good way to see what will actually record unless you click though each show and see what the recording settings are. There is no “upcoming recordings” to gauge consumption.
- Assuming you have the $10 DVR “upgrade” - you can skip commercials on recordings, but only if you select them through My Stuff -> Manage my DVR. If you just go to shows under “My Stuff” it will default to the forced commercial VOD version of the shows most times.
- Pausing live TV on most channels results in unskippable commercial breaks, even if you’ve paid for the DVR upgrade.

It is interesting the different internet TV providers and the different quirks that the services have.I have never been a heavy DVR user so having 50 hours of DVR ability should work out for me.
What I found weak with YTTV was their On Demand offerings,while Hulu Live looks to have a unbelieveable On Demand when Hulu Live is combined with Hulu,we shall see.
Maybe they need to come up with a better name for Hulu and Hulu Live combined,Hulu Plus,Hulu Complete.If and when Disney buys the other 30% of Hulu,reports say Disney owns 70% of Hulu now.
And yes they could call it Hulu Now or Disney Now,My bet is they will roll it all up in Disney+.
 
Maybe they need to come up with a better name for Hulu and Hulu Live combined,Hulu Plus,Hulu Complete.If and when Disney buys the other 30% of Hulu,reports say Disney owns 70% of Hulu now.
And yes they could call it Hulu Now or Disney Now,My bet is they will roll it all up in Disney+.

Disney has 66% while Comcast has 33% of Hulu.

Disney+ starting price will be $6.99, while Hulu Plus is currently $11.99 (without commercials). I think Disney will want to keep content separate, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a discounted price if both are taken together. CBS owns Showtime but doesn't really offer any discount of CBS All Access with Showtime together though.

My concern is if Comcast/NBC sells its share and then moves NBC primetime programs replays to the NBC streaming service, there will be a loss of content in the Hulu service (not the Live TV channels, but the regular Hulu On Demand). Hopefully there will be content added elsewhere to help make up for some of the loss in such scenario.

As for the Hulu Live TV side, I'd think Disney would eventually expand try to get the Hallmark suite of channels and more of the Discovery channels, but might be less inclined to pick up the Viacom channels.
 
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What I found weak with YTTV was their On Demand offerings,while Hulu Live looks to have a unbelieveable On Demand when Hulu Live is combined with Hulu,we shall see.

Having access to all of regular Hulu's on demand content is definitely a bonus when subbing to Hulu Live TV. YouTube TV pretty much offers whatever the satellite or cable TV systems would offer for the various channels on demand, so it's a bit like comparing apples and oranges and not a weakness per se. Just not a "feature," which only Hulu can uniquely offer.

For my needs, I could subscribe to commercial-free Hulu for $12/mo. on top of my $50/mo YouTube TV sub and be paying only $1 more (versus $61/mo. for Hulu Live TV commercial-free plus $10/mo for the privilege of fast-forwarding recorded content) while getting a much more robust (unlimited storage) and user-friendly DVR experience, along with the AMC channels.
 
It is interesting the different internet TV providers and the different quirks that the services have.
Agreed. The worst is that so many of them are hidden, and it takes a ton of research to find all of the details behind the difference.

What I found weak with YTTV was their On Demand offerings,while Hulu Live looks to have a unbelieveable On Demand when Hulu Live is combined with Hulu
Hulu does have more catalog items, but I'm not sure there's a more deceptively labeled package out there than Hulu with Live TV (No Commercials) for $50.99. What they don't tell you up front is that the video content breaks down into 5 different buckets:

1) Content to which they have exclusive commercial free streaming rights (Hulu originals, most of their movie catalog, back seasons of popular TV shows)
2) Content to which they have streaming rights, but are forced to include producer ads (this includes stuff like Grey's Anatomy, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and How to get away with Murder)
3) Live TV network provided VOD (Most of the VOD options for channels like Discovery, A&E, History, etc)
4) "Recorded" shows from live TV (Anything you've saved to your DVR)
5) Live TV (Including pausing live TV)

For your $50.99 for the "no commercials" plan, you only get commercial-free content in category 1. If you watch network VOD, you're stuck with forced ads there. If you record something to your DVR, you also have non-skippable forced ads. Likewise, if you pause live TV and it crosses a commercial break, when you go to fast forward up to live, you can't skip the tagged commercial breaks.

Commercials are still where these companies are making money. Hulu's standard $5.99/mo plan actually pulls in about $9/mo in advertising revenue per subscriber.

It's no accident that YoutubeTV has focused on channels carrying live sports and news. Those are the channels that people tend to watch live, and being able to insert targeted ads on those channels is their pathway toward profitability.
 
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Correction to a previous post
According to this article, Disney does indeed own 70% not 66%
Comcast in talks to sell its ownership in Hulu to Disney

Nonetheless, Comcast is the only minority partner and interested in selling it's minority position. Unlike Hearst that does joint ventures with Disney, Comcast typically doesn't those and wants to launch its own NBC streaming service.

I'm afraid that the NBC content on Hulu Plus (like episodes of current season shows) will disappear Fall of 2020 season, after the transaction goes through, in order for Comcast/NBC to have some content so it can get subscriptions of its $12/month plan.
 
I'm afraid that the NBC content on Hulu Plus (like episodes of current season shows) will disappear Fall of 2020 season, after the transaction goes through, in order for Comcast/NBC to have some content so it can get subscriptions of its $12/month plan.
NBC is deluded about the value of their streaming package just as AT&T is dead wrong about the value of HBO.
 
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I finally got a hold of the current price list from my cable company, Cox (they never post this info online in my area). From it, I've calculated what I had before I cut the cord would now cost me ~$140/mo. That doesn't include access to the service and my DVR recordings on multiple TVs/devices in my house, or unlimited DVR tuners and storage (just one 2-tuner DVR and a "mini box" for the bedroom TV that only accesses channels 2-99, so not even all the channels I pay for).

The cable company's price has gone up by more than YTTV has in the past couple of years. Three years ago, I wasn't being charged for a broadcast fee ($10) or an RSN fee ($7). But now that's part of the equation. Yes, I would get 100+ more channels I have little interest in along with the 2 or 3 that would be really nice to have. And the ability to hoard some recordings on the DVR that I wasn't interested in enough to watch within a few months of recording them (and which have likely since re-aired). But for $90 extra per month? I don't think so.

YouTube TV would have to raise its prices $15/mo. each year for the next six years to get to $140/mo, but of course by then my cable company's costs would be well north of $200 at their current rate of increase.
 
Disney has 66% while Comcast has 33% of Hulu.

Disney+ starting price will be $6.99, while Hulu Plus is currently $11.99 (without commercials). I think Disney will want to keep content separate, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a discounted price if both are taken together. CBS owns Showtime but doesn't really offer any discount of CBS All Access with Showtime together though.

My concern is if Comcast/NBC sells its share and then moves NBC primetime programs replays to the NBC streaming service, there will be a loss of content in the Hulu service (not the Live TV channels, but the regular Hulu On Demand). Hopefully there will be content added elsewhere to help make up for some of the loss in such scenario.

As for the Hulu Live TV side, I'd think Disney would eventually expand try to get the Hallmark suite of channels and more of the Discovery channels, but might be less inclined to pick up the Viacom channels.


If you subscribe to both Showtime and CBS All Access on the same account (at least if you do so directly through CBS), they offer a $2 bundle discount. Showtime by itself is $11 and CBS AA is $6 but you can get both together for $15. (You still have to use the two separate apps for viewing, though.) They don't really publicize this though. I expect that might change in the future, especially if CBS purchases Starz and absorbs it into Showtime (which has more subscribers and is a stronger brand than Starz).

Comcast has agreed to sell their share of Hulu to Disney at some point in the next few years and they've committed to keeping their NBC content on Hulu for at least the next 3-5 years. How much Comcast will receive for selling their 1/3 of Hulu will be based on an assessment of Hulu's market value at that point in the future, so Comcast is actually incentivized to help Hulu grow until then. I think that's why their own NBCU streaming service that debuts in 2020 will mainly be positioned as a value-add service for cable subscribers (Comcast will give it away for free, with ads, to their customers taking a TV package). Cable subscribers will be able to watch NBC shows next-day on the service (with ads) but then they can already do that through their cable VOD platform anyhow. If cable subscribers want to remove the ads from the service, they'll have to pay extra. Non-cable subscribers to the NBCU service WON'T be able to watch NBC shows next-day on it. That will remain exclusive to Hulu. They'll have to pay about $10/mo just to watch past series (e.g. The Office) plus whatever new series the service offers, and still have to watch ads too. However, AFTER Comcast sells their 1/3 of Hulu to Disney, that's when we'll see them reposition their own streaming service as a full-fledged competitor to Hulu, going after not just cable TV subscribers but cord-cutters too. But that's 3-5 years away.

Given that Hallmark Channel is so popular, and DirecTV Now carries it (without also carrying Hallmark Movies & Mysteries or Hallmark Drama), I'm a little surprised that Hulu hasn't struck a deal to include it on their Live TV service. As for more of the Discovery channels, though, I doubt it. Discovery is launching their own $5/mo on-demand service next year (in conjunction with the BBC) and it should feature content from across their suite of networks (including HGTV, Food, Travel, Science, etc.). So that really doesn't incentivize skinny bundle streaming cable services to include any more of their channels.
 
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Was YTTV impacted by the YouTube outage yesterday?
I didn't experience any service interruptions but I heard many others around the country did. As with the previous interruption, I've noticed if you stay on the same live channel, the service continues to work.
 
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Google blames network congestion so hopefully we won't have to listen to assertions of unimaginable capacity for a little while.

With great capacity comes a overriding need to partition that capacity to serve high priority customers.