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

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:20 am

Source of the post but when we're down 3-0 or 3-1 in a series

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:24 am

I know, but that's the only time he shows up...

Postby **tifosi77** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 11:37 am

The way sports teams negotiate their TV is deals is rooted in the 20th century. NFL blackout rules, for example, extend x number of miles from 50-yard line of the home stadium. If the 9ers are playing the Raiders, or the Giants are playing the Jets.... oh well.

And since this is all dictated by regional broadcasters, the fact that I in California might be willing to pay a certain amount of dollars to watch the hometown Stillers feed doesn't really matter to them, because that won't help them sell advertising to local car dealerships.

Postby **tifosi77** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 11:38 am

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.

Yeah, but their DVR is puny.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 12:50 pm

Just trying to be clear to everyone after you so brazenly misled me about the commercials.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:41 pm

Who was the badass from LGP who used to brag about having a PO Box in Ontario so he could watch CBC hockey broadcasts? And every trade idea was lamented as being a video game trade?

Postby **count2infinity** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:43 pm

@Rocco ?

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:49 pm

Murphydump?

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:50 pm

Murphydump?

He said badass, not NTPwaffle.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:51 pm

I assumed he meant "dumb"

Draftnik had the Bellevue satellite thing or whatever back in the 90s...but I'm not sure I remember this individual.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:05 pm

Draftnik was the guy. Interesting dude. I think he got banned over there and never made it here IIRC.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:09 pm

Nah, he quit. Just didn't have any interest in talking any longer. Good poster. I reached out once or twice after he left LGP just to check up...

Postby **NAN** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:55 am

So cut the cord this weekend. Things seemed ok. Got a new TV for the basement and the streaming is good just straight through the TV. My other TV, it kept getting choppy and freezing, so I plugged my Roku in on Saturday and it seemed to fix the problem.

Watched college FB and it looked good.

But when I was watching the NFL yesterday , when the action went down field, the picture would blur. WTF. What would be causing that.

My download speed is 200 and my upload is 25.5. The Armstrong guy said that should be plenty. Is it always going to be like this?

Postby **blackjack68** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:10 am

What's your TV's refresh rate?

If it's 60, that could be a part of the issue.

Postby **dodint** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:18 am

PS Vue seems okay. The lack of DVR controls is really the biggest adjustment/let down. What I mean is you basically record a series and it just catches everything. You can't tell it to delete individual upcoming recordings. You can't record just one episode of something. I told it to record the Steelers game and now it will record every NFL game in perpetuity. There is not an option to start a recording early or late, so I have very little confidence that live sporting events will not get chopped off if they run over time.

My ability to put up with this is bolstered by my lack of interest in live TV anymore. I don't value the experience the way I used to so it's okay that it's not as good. That said I don't understand why Vue wouldn't try harder at this. Same with the inability to hide/arrange channels, and provide a proper non-vertical channel guide.

I'm going to cancel my trial and give Youtube TV a shot. I'm pretty certain I'm going with PS Vue but I don't really need to make a decision until I cancel DirecTV.

Also, YoutubeTV has a 3 week trial which far outdoes the PS Vue 5 day trial.

Postby **NAN** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:23 am

I'm guessing it is since that is kind of standard.

Is there any fixes other than going back to cable? Does anyone else have this issue watching football or the Pens?

It seemed to look good for college football on ESPN, but when I was watching the NFL on CBS and NBC, it kind of blurred.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:29 am

PS Vue seems okay. The lack of DVR controls is really the biggest adjustment/let down. What I mean is you basically record a series and it just catches everything. You can't tell it to delete individual upcoming recordings. You can't record just one episode of something. I told it to record the Steelers game and now it will record every NFL game in perpetuity. There is not an option to start a recording early or late, so I have very little confidence that live sporting events will not get chopped off if they run over time.

That's awful, and shortsighted of Sony, IMO.

I'm guessing it is since that is kind of standard.

Is there any fixes other than going back to cable? Does anyone else have this issue watching football or the Pens?

It seemed to look good for college football on ESPN, but when I was watching the NFL on CBS and NBC, it kind of blurred.

What model TV? Some of them have really bad motion settings (Samsung calls their 'Auto Motion Plus', etc.) that you can play around to see if it resolves the issue. The easiest test would be to see if the issue occurs on both of your sets using the same method. For this TV, how are you watching CBS? Are you going through an in-TV smart app or something? If your set is really old, it may be a case of it being unable to process quick enough for a smooth picture.

Postby **dodint** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:35 am

To be fair to Vue I just checked the Steelers game recording and it lasted 3:15:11 and started at the exact beginning/end of the actual broadcast. I hope they give the same attention to hockey and the sports car racing I watch. If they do I'll be very happy with it.

Postby **NAN** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:50 am

What model TV? Some of them have really bad motion settings (Samsung calls their 'Auto Motion Plus', etc.) that you can play around to see if it resolves the issue. The easiest test would be to see if the issue occurs on both of your sets using the same method. For this TV, how are you watching CBS? Are you going through an in-TV smart app or something? If your set is really old, it may be a case of it being unable to process quick enough for a smooth picture.

I have a Sony in my living room, a Samsung in my bedroom, and an LG in my basement. I'll have to get the exact models.

The biggest issue is the Sony (70 inch), which is only a year or so old. I had to hook the Roku Ultra up to that one to even get it from jumping and buffering all the time when I tried to stream it directly through the TV.

But again, during the NFL games yesterday, when I play was going down field, it just looked like pooh, which was disappointing.

I'm new to all of this streaming, so I'm sure there is some tinkering I need to do with the live TV stuff. Netflix, etc looks perfect, and even some of the regular TV shows. But I was disappointed with the football yesterday.

All the help is greatly appreciated and any additional tips are welcome until I figure all of this out.

Postby **tifosi77** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:15 pm

My biggest issue with Vue is that the Channel Guide is purely alphabetical. You can designate channels as Favorites and have them pre-sorted in the Guide, but you can't just navigate directly to a channel. Like, on DTV you enter 202 and boom there's CNN (I forget the actual channel# assignments now, but you know what I mean). With Vue, changing in channels is always an exercise in scrolling.

Postby **dodint** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:49 pm

Yes. Especially with the Big10 channels up front and airing nothing 6 days a week.

Postby **NAN** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:39 pm

My biggest issue with Vue is that the Channel Guide is purely alphabetical. You can designate channels as Favorites and have them pre-sorted in the Guide, but you can't just navigate directly to a channel. Like, on DTV you enter 202 and boom there's CNN (I forget the actual channel# assignments now, but you know what I mean). With Vue, changing in channels is always an exercise in scrolling.

Hulu is like that too

Postby **Ted** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:46 pm

So cut the cord this weekend. Things seemed ok. Got a new TV for the basement and the streaming is good just straight through the TV. My other TV, it kept getting choppy and freezing, so I plugged my Roku in on Saturday and it seemed to fix the problem.

Watched college FB and it looked good.

But when I was watching the NFL yesterday , when the action went down field, the picture would blur. WTF. What would be causing that.

My download speed is 200 and my upload is 25.5. The Armstrong guy said that should be plenty. Is it always going to be like this?

https://www.wsj.com/graphics/faster-int ... -worth-it/

Postby **tifosi77** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:53 pm

So cut the cord this weekend. Things seemed ok. Got a new TV for the basement and the streaming is good just straight through the TV. My other TV, it kept getting choppy and freezing, so I plugged my Roku in on Saturday and it seemed to fix the problem.

Watched college FB and it looked good.

But when I was watching the NFL yesterday , when the action went down field, the picture would blur. WTF. What would be causing that.

My download speed is 200 and my upload is 25.5. The Armstrong guy said that should be plenty. Is it always going to be like this?

I think this is an FPS thing. Check if your service/device allows 60 fps.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:33 pm

The link is blocked, but I'm going to go ahead and ignore anything the WSJ posts about technology. Paying for gigabit internet to stream to a single device isn't worth it, but going with a 200/25 connection for most people is.