I use Amazon, HULU and Vudu. Vudu seems to have the best quality for my surround sound system but never had weird issues with the other two. I use PLEX too but that’s a different animal. I have not tried Vue, yet.
So for any of these services, how are you finding their DVR features? I’m mainly curious because the World Cup is coming up on June 14-July something, and so I’m going to want a service where I can record the games. For all the games, I’ll be at work when they come on Live, so I need a way to watch them after work, and be able to fast forward through them, because I don’t have enough time in the evenings to watch every second of every match.
Sling TV is so annoying in this regard. If I’m watching some shows live, I can pause it and then fast forward through the ads. But then if I’m watching On-Demand, that same show, Sling would make me sit through some unskippable ads that are separate from the on-demand show itself.
DVR on YTTV works great, when they allow you to use it. Sports and news doesn’t get replaced by VOD so you should be covered there.
For The Americans and The Expanse, DVR worked exactly as I wanted them to on both YouTube TV and PlayStation Vue.
The Expanse started at 9PM on SyFy. The Americans started at 10PM on FX. I set both to record.
I started watching The Expanse around 9:30PM, and was able to skip ads with no issue. At 10:15 I finished The Expanse and started watching The Americans - that show too allowed me to start watching from the beginning, and then skip ads all the way until I caught up with real time.
I don’t know whether this capability differs on other services or channels, and I don’t know the specifics about what might happen to these DVR recordings hours or days after the show stops airing. I’ve heard that some services replace your DVR recording with the on-demand version, and don’t allow you to skip ads at that point.
So, back to this thread again.
I’ve mostly cut the cord now, but I’m not clear on some things. We just moved into a new house in Troy, NY, which is nicely elevated, and I’m expecting to be able to get HD OTA for all of the major channels, but I haven’t actually installed the antenna yet (too many boxes in the way!).
I have an NVidia Shield Pro, currently using a week of free Sling. We’ve caught up on Colony and finished off 12 Monkeys. Been also watching this season of Luke Cage.
So questions: I gather one can record the OTA using the Shield. I’m not, however, finding any way to record from Sling (or Playstation Vue, whatever.) Is there no way to do that? Does Plex make it possible? Or Kodi?
For right now it appears that DirectTV Now is not workable on the Shield box, which is a shame, that was what I was really aiming for, but again, it doesn’t look like you can reoord from there anyway. I just don’t trust On-Demand–I still have no access to the Fall season of Gotham because I trusted fucking On-Demand from Fox.
I am open to suggestions for any of this, or other tips from those of you who have mastered this already.
(also, there doesn’t appear to be a Chrome that will run on the Shield. I’m using Puffin at the moment).
No, you can’t record from Sling, etc. They do offer cloud DVRs though. To record OTA, use Plex or HDHomerun’s software and an attached drive or NAS.
DirectTV Now supposedly does work on the ShieldTV but you’ll need to sideload it. Google for instructions.
You can sideload Chrome too if you want, but Puffin works fine.
Heh I tried watching a couple of You Tube videos on sideloading DirectTv Now. Man are those videos crap.
Yeah, I don’t know that I would pay for the service if they don’t support my device.
On a side note, if you prepay for 3 months of DTV Now they’ll send you a free AppleTV 4k, which is an amazing deal as the service costs $105 and the AppleTV sells for $179.
Damn, that’s a hell of deal. I’ve never owned an Apple device, but that might just tempt me. It would solve my streaming problems for sure, and it even gets the networks (I don’t give a flying f about local programming), so I wouldn’t have to mess with the antenna.
the only remaining issue is the On-Demand problem, but I suppose I could…find an episode or two I missed along the way.
AppleTV is a great device, but the remote control is just awful. Of course at that price you could easily resell it on craigslist, so worth a shot.
I’m very happy with my ShieldTV so I haven’t bitten, but if you have your heart set on DTV Now it’s a good option.
I subbed to DirecTV Now (streaming, not satellite) this month and have been enjoying it so far. It’s $40 a month, no contract, and you can apply a free month or discount on sign up if you pay for up to three months in advance.
They have other tiers, but the base had most of what we were looking for, covered. It has a pretty decent app interface on my Roku devices, and also works well streaming from my PC. Even the lowest tier includes a cloud-based DVR, so you can set to record shows on any of your streaming devices, then access them from again, any of your devices. I think the DVR shows will hold for one month prior to deletion.
But Skipper, why would we pay for this when we cut the cord? Well, several of us float between different services that do the same thing: Sling, PSVue, YouTube TV, Spectrum TV Streaming, etc. This is just one option out there. I’ve tired a couple of the others. The interface for DirectTV Now blows the others out of the water. The basic tier also covers a few things that are a pain to find with streaming, thus us subscribing at the house.
Since it requires no contract, I’m sure this might be something a few of you pick up on an as-needed basis if there is a show you can’t get otherwise.
I recall when DirecTV first launched they either didn’t have a DVR function or it was bad. That they have one now is a big plus. Given what my wife watches, we 100% need CBS, Comedy Central, and MSNBC.
I see they claim that the DVR is in beta - it says “not available for select channels” - what does that mean?
Also 20 hours max of DVR storage? That seems… a bit limited. Or would I care with VOD? We tend to record stuff on the DVR and let it pile up - but to be fair, a lot of what piles up doesn’t get watched, we simply delete it at a later date when we realize we’ll never watch it!
The DVR function is new, and technically they still claim it is “Beta.”
I was really really hoping to cut the cord with our new move and house purchase, but my wife has pretty much rebelled. Having to learn to use more than one remote, having to learn to use a separate app for each channel, having to remember which channel each program she wants to watch is on, all of this has proven to be too much.
Are you talking about DirecTV now? I thought that was one single app you ran that let you choose what to watch. And I assumed you’d access the DVR functionality through that too. My thought was to get the AppleTV deal and just use that instead of our current FIOS box.
Are the separate apps for VOD? I’m sort of used to that though if that’s the situation my wife will probably never watch VOD.
Thanks for the report! Do you have a PS4 or an Xbox to test those DirecTV Now apps as well? I don’t have a Roku, so I’d be curious to hear how it stacks up against Hulu LiveTV on those.
Oh yeah, and you didn’t mention Hulu LiveTV in your list. You should add that in your rotation sometime too. I’ve only tried Sling, PSVue and Hulu LiveTV so far, and Hulu was by far the best out of those three in terms of its ease of use on DVR and interface in general on Xbox and PS4 and android.
I do not. I do sub to Hulu as well, however, just the minimal streaming with commercials so we can watch Handmaid’s Tale and few other shows, non-live. DirectTV Now is much more similar to broadcast cable versus Hulu streaming, as quite obviously it’s based on that. To be fair, I didn’t EVEN realize Hulu now did broadcast streaming. The channel lineups look somewhat similar, you’d have to nitpick to find what’s different. DirectTV does have the capability to add more, however, including premium channels if you wish.
Roughly, with a Roku remote, the up arrow takes you to a Guide based view where you can scroll through channels and increment times. The down arrow takes you to more of a Netflix/Hulu based view where you can browse through categories/movies/shows, etc. Clicking on an item from either screen either takes you to the viewing of that channel (if current time,) or information about the show and possibility to record it (if future time.) The app takes just a smidge longer to launch than netflix. I’m assuming it is buffering the channel lineup at the time.
the Hulu app I have not used with broadcast streaming, so I’m not sure how they compare. It is certainly not my favorite streaming app, however. That might just be a Roku issue.
Quite honestly, I have no idea. So far, nothing for us has been blocked. Maybe that is if you add the pay channel tier? If so that’s kinda crappy.
As with all things … the extra money on the bigger tiers gets you more. :(
I’m not actually complaining here because it’s been nearly 3 years since we had any DVR function at all. We are far less driven by recording than we used to be.
I went through this with my fiance. She was a HEAVY satellite user, every pay tier, etc. She rebelled a LOT when first coming to my place and honestly I think that’s how she slowly got used to it. What sped it along was me having apps built-in on my TCL TV that has Roku. One remote, and apps are kinda like channels. The living room was much harder. “I use which one to see Netflix? How do I see live broadcast again? What button gives me sound for Hulu?”
Pain in the ass, for sure. Then we binged several shows between Netflix and Amazon Prime and she was sold. I distinctly remember the, “I don’t mind not having satellite,” comment she threw out one day. That being said, when I told her about this recent channel addition she seemed more receptive to it. Especially because we have two broadcast channels that seem to digitally fade in and out at times and it’s a real pain in the ass to be into something when it starts dropping out.
I know that on Sling TV, all Disney channels are blocked from DVR. That includes, obviously, the Disney Channel, but also the ESPN networks, so I can’t DVR the tennis matches that I get ESPN for. Instead, I have to go to the ESPN app, and watch the replays of the matches and broadcasts through that instead.
What’s interesting is that this restriction was only on Sling. Hulu’s Live version let me record ESPN broadcasts on their DVR just fine.
Spectrum has actually done something very interesting with their newest box and their channel line-up. They just threw Netflix in as a channel, rather than having to get out of the Guide and go find the app. Just go to Netflix channel, and assuming you’ve previously put in your ID and password, it just treats it like any other channel.
Never seen that before, strikes me as “Duh, why didn’t anyone else think of that.”
How does that work? We’re talking a linear TV guide here, right? So what does it actually show in the timeline?
For a while now, UK DVRs have had a feature where the VOD services are built into the guides, so if you try to “record” something from the past, it just loads the relevant app and takes you to the episode there. But that’s for linear channels.
Verizon has done this for both Netflix and Youtube for their FIOS service. I read somewhere that it’s simply a way for them to keep you in their ecosystem. Neither is too compelling for us because the search function in the embedded apps is much worse than our alternatives (built-in Netflix app for one and iPad youtube + chromecast for the other).