Some Apple TV+ Episodes are viewable for Free

[leebase]

I still have cable so Hulu isn’t that attractive to me. I have free Hulu because I have Sprint. I keep forgetting I have it.

Live sports keeps me on cable. That and I have others in the house who like the tv to “just work” as it always has.

Disney+ looks strong. But I’ve seen all these movies before and the new Star Wars show...I’ll wait for the season to complete and then pay for a month and binge watch it. That’s what I used to do with Game Of Thrones on HBO.

I probably wouldn’t be paying for AppleTv either but I bought a phone this year so that’s free. I’ll probably watch all the shows in time.

I’m buying Disney+ as a gift to my niece and nephew for Christmas.

[OtinG]

The sport channels are one of the main reasons most live TV streaming services and cable services are so expensive. Also the local programming as it is rather pricey to get your local ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, CW etc. News channels also drive up the price. That is why Philo only cost $20, it doesn't have any sports or local network channels or news channels.

Pluto TV is free and it has a huge number of channels with commercials. I'm guessing it has a couple hundred channels or more. The streaming is good on some channels, but lower resolution on others. But it does have a few sports channels and music channels and news channels. Since it is free, it makes a nice supplement to any other service(s) you have.

ESPN+ is only $5/mo if you need a supplement for sports channels.

Also, don't forget that cable makes a huge amount of their money off of equipment rentals. Need a DVR? You have to pay a king's ransom to get one for every TV in your house. Streaming services tend to charge a little for cloud DVRs, but it is usually less than what you would pay to a cable provider.

Quite obviously everyone wants their cut of the pie, and that drives the costs through the roofs. We will get screwed over regardless of which type of entertainment service we chose to pay for. That won't change. The only thing that changes is the ways in which they screw us over.

One of the current trends is for channels/networks to offer their own channel(s) via a streaming service app. That is an alternative if you really like a particular channel, like MotorTrend because you are a total gear-head. But if you have to get multiple channels that way, then the costs are staggering. Paying $10/mo for each channel would add up in a hurry and be out of the price range of people like me.

[OtinG]

I just signed up for Disney Plus free trial. It has five main categories:

• Disney
• Pixar
• Marvel
• Star Wars
• National Geographic

I forgot Disney owns NatGeo, so that will be good if I switch to Philo TV which doesn’t have the NatGeo channel. I’ll probably give some of the new Disney designed Star Wars a try. I didn’t really like Lucas’s versions. They seemed too cartoonish to me. I always liked the more intellectual approach to SciFi that Star Trek used. Pixar is good, but I won’t watch Marvel stuff as I never even got into their comics as a kid in the 1960s. I’m not into caped heroes and what not.

I’m more into traditional TV where I look at a schedule when shows air/stream then build my viewing times around that. On demand is okay, but I never have really adapted to watching shows that way, although I do occasionally use it, especially for shows that are long since out of production like the old British comedies.

[pwalker8]

I think I mentioned that I dropped cable this past fall because they didn't carry the new ACC network that many of the games of my college team are on. Otherwise, I would have been fine with them.

Streaming is a different mind set. With cable and Tivo, I set things up to record what I wanted to watch (Tivo's watch list was a major improvement), then I watched them when I had time. Streaming live TV, I have to remember to records stuff ahead of time. Of course, on demand is a major change as well with the rise of binge watching.

The major issue that most sports have is that games are spread out over a number of channels. A college football game may be on CBS, ABC, one of the many ESPN channels, or on one of the FoxSports regional channels. You can't simply say "I want to see all Georgia Tech games". It's the same for pro Football, pro Baseball, and soccer.

[OtinG]

Thankfully I’m no longer eat up with watching sports like I was when I was growing up. I’ve got two college alma maters, but I never attended any sporting events for either of them. I was too busy trying to put myself through college and earn my degrees. Being from a poor family I had to work my backside off to supplement my scholarships, grants, and student loans, then it took a couple of decades to pay off the student loans. In graduate school I taught a couple of years making what amounted to way less than minimum wage (by the time you add in the hours of preparation, grading papers, and administrative stuff). My first alma mater is a small private school that at the time didn't even have an athletic department, although 35 years later they have one. My second alma mater is a former Southwest Conference and Big 12 conference team which is now in the SEC getting the daylights beat out of them nearly every year in football! I grew up a Dallas Cowboys fan, but they have sucked much since that jerk owner bought them 30+ years ago. Having struggled so hard financially to get my degrees while watching the athletes get pampered at Texas A&M and the coaches earning ten times more than full professors who were tops in their fields, and having taught several of those athletes all of whom were below average HS intelligence and were there only because they could play football, well lets just say my love of college sports died in the 1980s. My love of NFL sports died even before that after the second major strike that got pretty ugly. I rarely even make it through an entire game on TV any more, although I do enjoy Alabama getting the snot beat out of them (kudos to Clemson last year and LSU). I think Saban makes more than the all the rest of the people in Alabama combined, and that is sick on many levels. I understand people being eaten up with sports fan stuff, I was like that growing up, but thankfully I’m long passed that now and it no longer influences my TV package choices.

[OtinG]

I’ve been trying out Disney Plus the least few days with a free 7-day trial. The quality of their streaming seems good on a 1080 HD TV. (I don’t have a 4K TV to test it on.) The app seems well written and fairly easy to navigate. I did notice that the few recently (past year or so) released movies that I looked up won’t be added to the Disney Plus service for another year or two. It looks like it will take 2 to 3 years after release before they become available. I was hoping to watch the sequel to Mary Poppins and Incredibles 2, but I’ll have a long wait for either.

Over all I think Disney Plus will be a good supplemental streaming service for families with kids young enough to enjoy the content they have, and adults also as far as that goes. But I don’t think there will be much new stuff there which will peak my interests at all, so I already cancelled my trial. This service is basically similar to the older Disney Vault they had on their cable channel way back when, but with much more content from sources like Pixar, NatGeo, etc.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I’ve been trying out Disney Plus the least few days with a free 7-day trial. The quality of their streaming seems good on a 1080 HD TV. (I don’t have a 4K TV to test it on.) The app seems well written and fairly easy to navigate. I did notice that the few recently (past year or so) released movies that I looked up won’t be added to the Disney Plus service for another year or two. It looks like it will take 2 to 3 years after release before they become available. I was hoping to watch the sequel to Mary Poppins and Incredibles 2, but I’ll have a long wait for either.

Over all I think Disney Plus will be a good supplemental streaming service for families with kids young enough to enjoy the content they have, and adults also as far as that goes. But I don’t think there will be much new stuff there which will peak my interests at all, so I already cancelled my trial. This service is basically similar to the older Disney Vault they had on their cable channel way back when, but with much more content from sources like Pixar, NatGeo, etc.

Pretty close to my take. Of course, there is a lot of their more recent movies that I haven't seen. I think the big draw for Disney with those who don't have kids will be the series from the various Star Wars and MC franchises. I've watched a couple of episodes of their new Star Wars series and liked it. They apparently have a number of other series scheduled to start next year. If they are of the same quality, they should be watchable at least. It will also be interesting to see if they add the Fox library to the Disney +, or put them on Hulu. I see the Simpson's listed, so I expect other Fox properties as well. These include shows like House MD, Alley McBeal, 24, and the X-Files.

[John F]

I'm giving YouTube TV a try. I would have stuck with PlayStation Vue (even though I often get stuttering).

YTTV seems fine for actual streaming quality, but they really need to tweak the UI. It is very easy to get lost, and the only way to get to the home screen is to use the back button, but if you press it too many times, it will exit the app. And they don't even use the context button on the FireTV remote. And no prev channel. And no Alexa voice control. And searching, On Demand shows only the title, duration, and a picture. ...

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by John F

I'm giving YouTube TV a try. I would have stuck with PlayStation Vue (even though I often get stuttering).

YTTV seems fine for actual streaming quality, but they really need to tweak the UI. It is very easy to get lost, and the only way to get to the home screen is to use the back button, but if you press it too many times, it will exit the app. And they don't even use the context button on the FireTV remote. And no prev channel. And no Alexa voice control. And searching, On Demand shows only the title, duration, and a picture. ...

One issue that I've noticed on some of my devices is that once you get past the primary video streaming platforms (Apple TV and Roku), the quality of the apps tends to be very spotty and gets very little attention. Netflix on Apple TV worked much, much better than Netflix on Tivo, my smart TV or my 4K DVD player. Before Amazon Prime came to Apple TV, I use to watch it on the prime video app on my Tivo. Yea, that might have been why I rarely watched Prime Video.

[OtinG]

Yep the streaming apps tend to be rather lackluster compared to more refined apps. Hulu is okay, but navigation is not great. And functionality concerning the cloud DVR is rather nonsensical, to say the least. I trialed (turning noun into verb) DirecTV Now last year and it was not a good app either as far as navigation goes. Amazon Prime and Netflix were so so as well. Amazon has too many ads that try to distract you into buying more Amazon stuff! To be honest, to get a cable like experience pretty much requires a cable service. Netflix has a separate movie rental service for DVDs and most of the movies I wanted to see were only available through that service, so that was a washout for me.

Amazon streams are solid and rarely have issues. Ditto for what I saw on Disney Plus. Hulu generally has good stream quality as far as resolution, but their live TV can get jittery on occasion, but their on demand is fairly stable. Netflix was pretty stable the last time I used it. CuriosityStream is pretty stable and so is Pluto TV. BritBox on Amazon is stable.

I never tried YTTV since they don’t have several channels I want. I trialed Sling way back when but this long afterwards I really can’t remember if it was stable.

Over all I would say the average streaming service I have tried has had better resolution than cable/satellite, but live TV streaming is often a bit flaky and usually a 2-5 minute delay behind cable, which only matters if you are watching live sports and friends text you a final score before the game finishes on your streaming service.

BTW, if you like watching documentaries and science shows, then CuriosityStream is a great and inexpensive option. I think it is $3.99/mo. A lot of the content is from Europe and it isn’t unusual for documentaries to have foul language or even nudity, so if you have kids be aware of that. Different rules in Europe than in USA! But the content is good. I periodically get it for a few months, then cancel until they get new stuff in.

[John F]

Originally Posted by OtinG

...

Over all I would say the average streaming service I have tried has had better resolution than cable/satellite, but live TV streaming is often a bit flaky and usually a 2-5 minute delay behind cable, which only matters if you are watching live sports and friends text you a final score before the game finishes on your streaming service.

...

Interesting, the two Services I have used, PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV, the live stream seems right on time: 6:00 News comes on at 6, the 7:00 news comes on at 7,...

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting, the two Services I have used, PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV, the live stream seems right on time: 6:00 News comes on at 6, the 7:00 news comes on at 7,...

First of all, you can’t go by what your clocks say the time is, even if your household, and/or internet calibrated clocks, are synced to atomic clocks for more accurate time keeping. Your internet service provider has their clocks set, but who knows whether those are truly accurate, and that internet time shown by your network provider often gets propagated to devices like streaming boxes and cable boxes, etc. But again that is not a true measure of any delay. A better way is to turn on a local network TV channel you are receiving OTA and side by side use your cable/streaming service provider to view the same channel. You might be surprised that the latter is delayed by many seconds or even more. Another reason not to trust your clocks is that some channels, especially local ones, start their programming whenever they want to. Some in my area try to get the jump on other stations and actually start broadcasting a minute or more before the half hour or full hour. Our ABC affiliate is bad about that. If I’m watching a show finish up on say CBS then switch to ABC for the local news I’ll likely miss the first 30 seconds or more. So if you want to check if there is a delay between OTA broadcasting and your cable/satellite/streaming service then you need to do a side by side viewing. BTW, I’ve noticed at least a little delay in every cable/satellite service I had in the past. It was usually just a few seconds. But my Hulu service is between 1 and 2 minutes delayed. When I trialed DirecTV Now and Sling they were delayed too, but I can’t remember by how long. Again this doesn’t really affect anything unless you are watching live sports or something similar, and even then it doesn't matter unless you can hear your neighbors reacting to sports plays many seconds before you understand why. with Hulu Live TV I’ve grown accustomed to looking for a time that is 1 minute beyond the half hour or full hour to indicate the start of a new show. With Hulu Live TV I know that shows will start at XX:01 or XX:31 (or later) due to the delay. No big deal, you get used to it after a while. However, it an screw up recording time though by chopping off the ending to shows on occasion, but that is rare since most shows actually end a minute or two before the next one begins.

[leebase]

One of the reasons I still pay for cable is the whole house dvr. I record up to 6 shows at once. I almost never watch anything live...I even wait an hour or so before watching sports so I an ff through the commercials.

I thought streaming was synonamous with "binge watching". I can't imagine having to go back and watch a show at a particular time. Or watch commercials.

[John F]

Originally Posted by OtinG

First of all, you can’t go by what your clocks say the time is, even if your household, and/or internet calibrated clocks, are synced to atomic clocks for more accurate time keeping. Your internet service provider has their clocks set, but who knows whether those are truly accurate, and that internet time shown by your network provider often gets propagated to devices like streaming boxes and cable boxes, etc. But again that is not a true measure of any delay. A better way is to turn on a local network TV channel you are receiving OTA and side by side use your cable/streaming service provider to view the same channel. You might be surprised that the latter is delayed by many seconds or even more. Another reason not to trust your clocks is that some channels, especially local ones, start their programming whenever they want to. Some in my area try to get the jump on other stations and actually start broadcasting a minute or more before the half hour or full hour. Our ABC affiliate is bad about that. If I’m watching a show finish up on say CBS then switch to ABC for the local news I’ll likely miss the first 30 seconds or more. So if you want to check if there is a delay between OTA broadcasting and your cable/satellite/streaming service then you need to do a side by side viewing. BTW, I’ve noticed at least a little delay in every cable/satellite service I had in the past. It was usually just a few seconds. But my Hulu service is between 1 and 2 minutes delayed. When I trialed DirecTV Now and Sling they were delayed too, but I can’t remember by how long. Again this doesn’t really affect anything unless you are watching live sports or something similar, and even then it doesn't matter unless you can hear your neighbors reacting to sports plays many seconds before you understand why. with Hulu Live TV I’ve grown accustomed to looking for a time that is 1 minute beyond the half hour or full hour to indicate the start of a new show. With Hulu Live TV I know that shows will start at XX:01 or XX:31 (or later) due to the delay. No big deal, you get used to it after a while. However, it an screw up recording time though by chopping off the ending to shows on occasion, but that is rare since most shows actually end a minute or two before the next one begins.

Dude, you're right. There is this big clock conspiracy perpetrated by the Illuminate!

My phone says the time (internet, I assume). My microwave says the time (non internet). My oven says the time (non internet). My wall clock says the time (non internet). My local news (through Youtube TV) says the time. And guess what. They are all in sync, within 1 minute, for probably over six months (we do occasionally lose power).

Lucky, I don't have screaming sports watching friends in the next room, so whatever unnoticeable delay there is acceptable to me.

YMMV

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by John F

Dude, you're right. There is this big clock conspiracy perpetrated by the Illuminate!

My phone says the time (internet, I assume). My microwave says the time (non internet). My oven says the time (non internet). My wall clock says the time (non internet). My local news (through Youtube TV) says the time. And guess what. They are all in sync, within 1 minute, for probably over six months (we do occasionally lose power).

Lucky, I don't have screaming sports watching friends in the next room, so whatever unnoticeable delay there is acceptable to me.

YMMV

There can be up to several minutes delay in live sports streaming. On Hulu, both the football and basketball games are a bit over a minute behind the radio feed (for local teams, I like to listen to the local radio broadcast rather than the national broadcast). This is true for football, basketball and baseball on various ESPN channels and Fox Sports.