home theater, cord cutting, video streaming, a/v tech, and more!

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:55 am

We signed up for Hulu Live last night, so we could get ACC Network for the Clemson-GT game. We'll cancel before the trial ends, but it seems like a good service. Thankfully, Clemson will be on regular ESPN and other normal networks most of the season.

Postby **NAN** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:27 am

2TB is the maximum allowance it says on the Armstrong site, even if you go to the Zoom business level.

Says Zoom III is best for HD streaming on multiple devices.

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:30 pm

That’s some back woods ****. What kind of Canaan company caps internet TV data?

Postby **NAN** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:46 pm

That’s some back woods ****. What kind of Canaan company caps internet TV data?

Armstrong

Postby **iamjs** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 1:36 pm

what happens if you go beyond 2 TB?

Capped speeds? Higher bill? Operation shutdown?

Postby **Viva la Ben** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 2:07 pm

Just watch TV in 240p, problem solved.

Postby **NAN** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 2:17 pm

what happens if you go beyond 2 TB?

Capped speeds? Higher bill? Operation shutdown?

Higher bill

Postby **NAN** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 3:41 pm

Yonder.tv people! Need help. Will it block my KDKA, etc. How do you install?

Postby **nocera** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 4:08 pm

Redeemed the Disney+ D23 offer today so huge thanks to @blackjack68 for the info and laying out the steps. Now, it better not suck.

Postby **tifosi77** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 6:32 pm

what happens if you go beyond 2 TB?

Capped speeds? Higher bill? Operation shutdown?
Higher bill

You have to do something like 1200 hours of full res HD video streaming to hit a 2 TB cap. But if you do a lot of 4k and gaming on top of that, you might hit issues. I think you're more likely to have issues with device limits, which vary by service.

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Aug 30, 2019 7:19 pm

More like 750 hours if we’re talking streaming 1080p content, but this is only accounting for bandwidth dedicated to TV. No internet (phone, laptop) being accounted for.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Sat Aug 31, 2019 1:46 pm

Got my new TV...arrived with the bottom corner of the screen shattered...dummmmmmmmmmmbbbbbbbbb...

Postby **Willie Kool** » Sat Aug 31, 2019 8:13 pm

That sucks.

Price dropped another $200 on the 65" X950G, so I got one. Hopefully I'll have better luck when it gets delivered next weekend.

Postby **NAN** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:03 pm

More like 750 hours if we’re talking streaming 1080p content, but this is only accounting for bandwidth dedicated to TV. No internet (phone, laptop) being accounted for.

I was told by Armstrong that less that 2% of all Armstrong users have ever went over the 2TB limit, and there are many that just have streaming and use multiple devices.

They said the 2TB would be far more than enough unless I was constantly gaming on top of that, which I do not plan to do.

Postby **dodint** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 8:58 pm

Is there a website that allows for comparing a la carte services to multi-channel offerings in terms of content? We still subscribe to PS Vue, and I've been wondering if there's a magic combination of Hulu, Netflix, etc that gets us all the same content at a better price. Vue isn't nearly as expensive as DirecTV was, but I'm just curious as to what other OTT option there might be.
How you liking Vue? Does it have commercials?

Oh the commercials....! Not only does it have most of the regular commercials you'd see on cable or satellite, but for every ad slot they don't sell they just insert a PlayStation ad. It can be for a game, or for upselling your Vue sub, or a little 30-second video detailing features of the service. So it's common for every 2-minute break you see 2 or 3 PlayStation-related ads. But it was only about two weeks ago I noticed that they started running new spots. So every commercial break for the last year I'd see at least one spot that I actually worked on and cleared. Woohoo.

That said, it's pretty good value for money, imo, if you have the bandwidth. (They recommend 10 mbps for the main stream, and if you're on a PS4 using Multi-View you can add two additional PIP streams for which they recommend 5 mbps per; 20 mbps isn't a problem for most people in 2019.) Check channel avail by ZIP code (I think the Pittsburgh DMA offers local channels). I strongly recommend using a PS4 as your home device if you sign up. Account level stuff is better managed via web, but they sorta kinda optimize the user experience for console. The biggest asset to the service is a virtually unlimited capacity cloud DVR. In most cases, you select a show to add to the DVR, and every episode that has aired within the last month is instantly available. I think on our current DVR we have shows that we'd probably never have recorded before because of space limitations (like Aerial America on Smithsonian). The theoretical limit is, no joke, something like 500 individual programs. Not episodes. Programs. There's no limit to the number of episodes stored. The bummer is that I think each individual episode only has a 30-day lifespan in the DVR. That's not a technical thing, but was done for perceived user convenience, and there was talk of scrapping that when I, er, was asked to leave.

There are some restrictions for content on mobile devices that are out of Sony's control. Like, when I first started there you couldn't stream NFL games on your local channel over a mobile device because of an exclusive deal with Verizon (which actually may have been relaxed last season, I forget). Certain entire networks can't be streamed on mobile, because that particular network has its own app and they want to drive viewers there (iirc some of the cable news networks did this, I think HBO did, etc).

They lost BeIN Sports right after I started there (bye bye FC Barcelona matches), and they've never had NHL Network. Add that to some spotty local channel availability and the biggest drawback of the service is somewhat limited channel availability. It's also tied to your PSN account and billed through the associated Wallet, so if you jump in you may want to create a dedicated Vue ID in case you run into some kind of shenanigans with your main gaming ID. The mitigating factor here is some of the add-on channels (HBO, Shotime, etc) have discounts if you're a PS+ subscriber.

tl;dr - I worked on the product, the company fired me, we get free cable with our temp housing, and I'm still choosing to pay around $100/mo for Vue.

I feel like you kind of boned me here because I asked about commercials and you failed to mention they're skippable on DVR content without restriction. Huge distinction, mate.

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:48 pm

I'm not aware of a DVR for an ad-supported OTT service where they aren't. On-demand isn't skippable, but not all shows are available that way.

Postby **dodint** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:51 pm

The only other TV service I was considering was Youtube TV. They lost because they sub in VOD programming on your DVR if its available and you can't skip commercials with VOD.

5 day trial is pretty weak, Vue.

Can this guide have it's axis switched to match every other guide ever?

Postby **willeyeam** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:51 pm

Man was just about to switch to YouTube TV over my DirecTV Now (which I guess is now ATT TV).. realized it isn't on the fire stick yet. Lame

Postby **dodint** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:53 pm

Yeah, that too.

Postby **willeyeam** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:57 pm

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:03 pm

YTTV just launched a 3-week trial, which I think is more reasonable. 5 days won't give you any real working experience with the UI.

Vue also just changed the DVR menu to something far suckier than it used to be.

Postby **dodint** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:20 pm

I'm not aware of a DVR for an ad-supported OTT service where they aren't. On-demand isn't skippable, but not all shows are available that way.

Caveat for this; Hulu is the only major one that charges for this. $15.

Postby **spiritfan** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:01 pm

Can spirtifan use someone’s address in say California (relative) and spiritfans credit card and order nhl.tv and be able to watch Pens games since it’s not blacked out out there?... the only thing preventing spirtifan from cutting the cord are the pens

Postby **dodint** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:03 pm

You would have to use a VPN to geomask your IP, and it doesn't always work.

If the NHL and Pens are not interested in allowing me to pay them for access to games, I am going to use NHLStreams and just take it from them. Dummies.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:16 am

Can spirtifan use someone’s address in say California (relative) and spiritfans credit card and order nhl.tv and be able to watch Pens games since it’s not blacked out out there?... the only thing preventing spirtifan from cutting the cord are the pens

No. Credit card won't do it. It's where (more accurately, the IP address) you log in from is the key...but when we're down 3-0 or 3-1 in a series, it will be on national TV anyhow...