“People truly wanting to cut the cord now have three major internet TV services to choose from: Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV Now,” Roger Fingas writes for AppleInsider. “All of them support iOS devices and the Apple TV, among other platforms — [to] which one, if any, should you consider subscribing?”
“At the moment PlayStation Vue seems to be the best overall choice, especially because of its DVR support,” Fingas writes. “Sling may still be worth checking out as the cheapest option, especially once it adds recording. DirecTV Now is best avoided unless it comes through in personal testing.”
Fingas writes, “Apple’s once-rumored service appears to have been stymied by negotiations, so don’t expect that anytime soon, if ever.”
Much more, with each service’s pros and cons detailed, in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: PlayStation Vue’s biggest problem is its name. It sounds like a gaming service, but it’s not.
Okay, cord-cutters, how are you doing it?
SEE ALSO:
The ultimate cable television cord cutting solution for Apple TV owners – February 17, 2017
Directv Now all the way. 3 months in.
Mac mini + Elgato (formerly) EyeTV + antenna for local programming + Apple TV + 64″ LG TV
+ Frontier Fios
Directv Now. Got it the first week available. Happy so far.
Only TV we have is my homemade “digital” antenna made from #14 house wire and PVC pipe stuck in the ground on my place in the woods. Get 10 HD channels. Of course, all broadcast went digital a few years ago, but there is not such thing as a “digital” antenna. Plain old wire gets reception… Internet is what we cannot do without. Forget TV.
That is, paid TV.
Would like to know more about this antenna. How do you get the “coaxial” connector on it for hooking up to the tv?
OK, I googled DIY OTA antennas. This is fascinating.
Do you think PVC pipe wrapped in wire is any kind of lightning strike magnet?
Use Playstation VUE and DTVN… waiting on
DVR..
DIRECTV Now pre-paid 3 months when it first came out and got a free Gen-4 AppleTV. Doubt I’ll keep the service after the 3 months. Considering dropping Netflix too. Getting tired of the stale collection.
Of the three, SlingTV, DTVnow, and PSVue, I’ve tried two, SlingTV and PSVue. Both are good, but PSVue allows 5 simultaneous streams, while SlingTV only allows 3, and only 1 if watching ESPN. DTVnow only allows 1 stream at a time. Since I’ve got 6 TVs in the house, many of them Roku, which doesn’t get DTVnow, yet, I think it’s a no-brainer, PSVue’s 5 streams make it the best choice for me.
I also have an antenna on the roof for broadcast channels, and an Elgato EyeTV which has recorded over 1000 movies and TV programs, which stream over iTunes to my Apple TVs, and I’m pretty much set. No cable tv anymore.
DirectTV now from day 1… yea it has some glitches; too many streams is the big one, but hitting the menu button ALWAYS fixes it. I hope they get single sign-on and it shows up as a provider for TBS, USA etc etc.
Had SlingTV for 9 months. Liked it as well – prefer the programming a bit more; MotorsTV and a better selection of news. What I didn’t like was the Campus insiders channels hogging up the menu.. the interface is simple and easy, but $20 more for essentially the same thing ..
Vue was a disaster – between signup, cancellation, Sony hacks…
To supplement DTvN I also have local HD basic from my cable provider (included with 1G internet service – also uses the tuner in the TV so no rental box)
Overall 8/10 for cuttting
Should say my monthly usage is about 3TB per month. Which is well below the limit.
None of the above. Until there is an ale-cart system these are all to expensive and only offer the same bundled garbage you get with your cable provider. Plus no DVR.
“Until there is an ale-cart system…”
What does a mobile beer delivery system have to do with this? 😉
While Ale-cart sounds good, I think that as a first step to an “à la carte” plan might be to have a rethink in packages. True à la carte would be perfect, but this may be doable first.
A package is priced according to negotiations.
Package 1: Discovery networks (Science, Discovery, Velocity etc)
Package 2: ESPN Inc. (ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network, etc)
Package 3: MTV Networks (MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, etc)
Package 4: Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Package 5: NBC Universal Cable (Syfy, USA, E!, Bravo, etc.)
Package 6: Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, etc.)
Etc…
You just group any of many packages to get the channels you want. You only want one package, you want three or eight or all…then that is all you get. You might get more than you really want, but at least you are not paying for 159/276/350 channels on a cable/satellite package.
Apple TV + Silicondust HDHomeRun + Channels app with Channels DVR service
DIRECTV now has been fine. I’m sticking with it for the special $35/100 channel plan. Going to stick it out until next football season in hopes of a NFL ticket add-on.
DirectTV Now. Cheaper than Vue. Especially when you add in HBO and StarZ. Needs improvement but I suspect that’s in the plan.
I have tried all three. DirecTV Now has the plus if you are an AT&T subscriber that it’s zero rated, meaning you can watch TV over the wireless network and it doesn’t count against your account. But that’s it. The service stinks. I had it for nearly three months. It failed too often. They don’t have a DVR feature. They have a really spotty, rarely working On-Demand offering with few titles. One of their features is 72-hour Rewind which lets you watch shows that aired within the last 72-hours. But it doesn’t work. They had to pull it because it didn’t work. If you are in a city where the networks own the local, you’re in some luck. DirecTV Now lacks CBS. And NBC only works on mobile devices, not Apple TV. There’s no CW or PBS. But you do have FOX and ABC and NBC on-demand for some shows.
Sling is competent. But there is no DVR. I didn’t use it for long to get to know its quirks.
PlayStation Vue needs to be rebranded as Sony Vue or something. But the service is pretty good. It has a cloud DVR feature that works pretty well. It will let you save most shows for 28 days. The one bad part of the service is the design of the UI is extremely confusing. You have to hit the menu button to bounce around in the features and it’s not always clear when that will cause the app to quit. The DVR is slightly buggy for me when it comes to skipping forward and backward, but mostly works. Many shows also have a catch up feature so that if come into a show late, you can start over, with limited abilities to skip. Cue has CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX. There’s no CW or PBS. And there are no A&E networks (A&E, History, Biography) and no Viacom channels (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, TV Land, Comedy Central, Spike, Logo etc.).
DirecTV does have $5 HBO, which is nice. But the service is so awful. Another issue is third-party app signing. DirecTV has hardly any. Just HBO and some Disney owned channels. But Sling and Vue both have great sign-on support for most channels they carry.
I have Amazon Prime because I order stuff all the time so I get the music and videos from there. I have DirecTV Now – the best bonus is HBO for $5 plus access to the only network app that DirecTV Now supports – HBO GO.
I don’t get Netflix and I’ve called them to explain the error in their model. They cancelled their contract with EPIX to focus more on their original programming. That wouldn’t be so bad if not for 2 issues: 1) They are worldwide so a lot of their programming is now in foreign languages like Icelandic and I just don’t have the patience to work to watch tv and 2) with the lack of movies on the streaming side, I could cancel Netflix (which I have) and resubscribe any time for a couple of months and catch up on everything since their originals are released a season at a time.
By far, I prefer Hulu because it gets the network shows the next day (except CBS which I’m boycotting because they have their own STUPID, WORTHLESS app that requires a subscription) and because Hulu shows more movies AND with HULU you can add Showtime at a big discount.
So DTVN with HBO, Hulu with Showtime, and now and then I add Starz for their originals and some good movies. Netflix for a couple of months a year when I have time to binge. And screw CBS. If only DTVN would add access to the network apps. That’s the biggest downside. Screw a DVR. It’s all in the cloud and the network apps such as AMC and FXNOW and USANOW do just fine. Waiting for the second season of Animal Kingdom on TBS or TNT – I forget which. The cable networks are upping their game on series with Suits, Animal Kingdom, Taboo, Walking Dead, etc. while Netflix and Hulu seem to be trying to compete with HBO and Showtime series with who can push the envelope and be more edgy and just plain nasty. Anyway, there’s my take.