YouTube TV vs DirecTV Now vs Sling TV vs PlayStation Vue: Face-Off!

[The Paladin]

I would like to see the required "bandwidth usage" for the streams, I have a 100MB/5MB connections, and I am far more interested in a clean internet for 4 gaming household, over "streaming TV" that sucks the bandwidth and make everyone else "lag and high pings"

I am not moving from cable until those numbers are shown, hell plenty of folks complaining on toms forum that if one or more people are watching Hulu or Netflix while others are gaming, causes massive issues.

 

[flyingtodd]

Getting the streaming live TV packages does not make you a cord cutter. The reason is because you are still getting the same per subscriber rate as someone who gets regular satellite or cable.

Just by the number of channels, Directv Now is the better choice. They have also added more local channels.

 

[separ8r]

One month and two long sessions with tech support into Hulu Live, and it is so bad that their advertising qualifies as FRAUD. Do not waste your time on this piece of CRAP. I'm back in the market now, maybe even back to Comcast, much as I hate given then my money. Anyway, Hulu Live = Zero Stars out of 100.

 

[charlesmlinkd]

Youtube TV paid advertisement? Verdicts were ridiculous. guess what I can buy an antenna and get my local channels FOR FREE, pay $25 for Sling and get all the channels i prefer except Fox News. Blue Orange and I get everything I ever occasionally watch with the sports package. Don't need 60 channels if i only watch a handful of them to begin with. Oh and i'm on comcast internet, so far no data cap. #FTW_ROKU_SLING

 

[charlesmlinkd]

My Sling vs YouTube comparison

Sling @ $30 gets 2 out of 5 stars
• Customer service will not issue refunds on non-functioning service. Ordered a $60 PPV event and the feed was terrible. I had company over to watch the event, so after 15 minutes of putting up with buffering, freezing, and skipping, I had to order via another provider. Since it was the next day when I contacted them, they refused to issue the refund. I’ve never had a service provider not do this if the service was the problem.
• Browser login screen takes forever to load for some reason making it near impossible to access your account.
• The interface is clunky. You have to click multiple times on a show to actually watch it, making this an unnecessary and frustrating step.
• There is no included DVR function.
• No pause function on almost all channels.
• The feed often buffers, pauses, and skips.
• Once a show is over, it bumps you back out to the menu screen.
• The only reason they get 2 instead of one is that comparatively it is cheaper than YouTube TV.

YouTubeTV @ $35 gets 5 out of 5 stars
• Very easy to use, intuitive, and beautify done interface. Google knows a thing or two about this stuff.
• Easy one click viewing and recording buttons.
• No cost and unlimited cloud DVR.
• Some shows actually auto-skip commercials that have been recorded.
• Real time recording/pause/skip function built in.
• More channels are available.
• Never had any feed issues (buffering/pausing/skipping/etc…).

I have cancelled my Sling service and will continue to enjoy YouTube TV. Hope this helps!

 

[kevinaraki]

Please excuse me if this is a duplicate comment. Henry, you may want to update the article about the pricing for PS Vue. Currently, the SLIM package is no longer available. The cheapest version of PS Vue is "Access" at $39.99 ($40). I spoke with a PS Vue rep, and she said the Slim pricing was always intended as temporary; it was discontinued in July 2017.
I know you update this post because recently, you added information about just announced T-Mobile Layer3. Thank you.
BTW, you may want to update this post and include Philo into the mix. No news, no sports, but about 37 to 46 channels for the fairly cheap price of $16 and $20 per month, respectively.

 

[henrytcasey]

Please excuse me if this is a duplicate comment. Henry, you may want to update the article about the pricing for PS Vue. Currently, the SLIM package is no longer available. The cheapest version of PS Vue is "Access" at $39.99 ($40). I spoke with a PS Vue rep, and she said the Slim pricing was always intended as temporary; it was discontinued in July 2017.
I know you update this post because recently, you added information about just announced T-Mobile Layer3. Thank you.
BTW, you may want to update this post and include Philo into the mix. No news, no sports, but about 37 to 46 channels for the fairly cheap price of $16 and $20 per month, respectively.

Thank you for the news about the Slim packaging. They've always been cagey about hiding/talking about it. I'll look into Philo!

 

[kevinaraki]

Henry, just thinking: Fubo TV is a real player in the streaming TV world now. Some localities having live CBS, NBC, and Fox. Not me, though. All localities having roughly 69 channels to choose from, although they are a heavy lean toward Sports (ironically, not any ESPN channel). Nonetheless, Fubo is now competitive with Hulu Live, DirecTV Now, YouTube Live, PlayStation Vue and Sling. Time to update this article, or create a brand new one 🙂. BTW, I have created an Excel table with a comparison between DTV, Fubo, Hulu Live, Philo, PSVue, Sling, and YouTube, which is similar to what you have at top, but all the Channels, and all the compatible devices that these packages play on. If you would like it, I could email it as an attachment.

 

[2bluwings]

In September, Hulu rolled out a new interface to accommodate their Live product. It is AWFUL and if you search "Hulu interface" or "Hulu menu" and you will find TONS of complaints. For those of us who have older eyes, especially for those with low vision, the new interface is at times unreadable! Many people are leaving Hulu because of it. Just an FYI, definitely do a trial first.

 

[brianreasoner3]

i have directv now its better than sling tv and hulu It has better channels Since cutting the cord we save $87.00 amonth

 

[ed.vera]

How is the PS Vue DVR limited?? I can add as many shows as I want to my cloud DVR.

 

[henrytcasey]

How is the PS Vue DVR limited?? I can add as many shows as I want to my cloud DVR.

According to PS Vue's FAQ section: "The majority of available live programs and channels on PlayStation™Vue can be recorded to the cloud DVR. Due to streaming rights, however, select channels and programs cannot be recorded to the DVR."

 

[mrte]

Sling does NOT have NBC. It has NBCSN, NBCSN Alternate, and NBC On Demand. The best (according to my family) Olympics coverage is on regular NBC. Which is why I've switched.

 

[ztong]

YouTube TV carries Tennis Channel! As a sports (tennis) fan, $35 for bunch of regular channels + Tennis + TNT (for NBA and march madness), this is a steal!

 

[Brad_53]

Sling works great for me, at the right price for the few channels I want for sports, like ESPN and TNT. I rarely have any technical or buffering issues with Sling and my hardwired Roku 2.

Additionally, ESPN on Sling is so much better compared to ESPN's own app. ESPN's app often drops resolution and buffers.

 

[scopesnc]

Just my thoughts added in here.
I'm not sure about all of these, but I do know one thing. Direct TV now uses more bandwidth than Sling TV does.
I have used both for 2 months each. My bandwidth usage sored when I went from Sling TV to Direct TV Now. My wife and I watch the same programs and show's weekly with just a few movie exceptions.
Example. Sling TV December I used about 700Gigs of data streaming.
I then used Direct TVNow for January. I used almost 200 gigs more for January.
I then split February. 10 days Direct TV and 10 days Sling TV
Direct TV Now used about 270 gigs.
Sling used about 200gigs.
Now with Sling, I can choose to lower the usage of bandwidth and I did not. I left it at max. It still did not match what Direct TV Now uses.
Direct needs to offer settings for use of bandwidth to quality like Sling TV does.
I'm still using Direct TV Now, but for those with data, caps Sling may be a better choice.

 

[lbatfish]

I recently signed up for Sling, prepaying for 2 months ($80) in order to get a free Roku Express. Unfortunately, Roku (who processes the shipments) refused to accept the validity of either my street address or my PO box. I went through many weeks of near-daily contacts with Sling and Roku (and multiple "escalations") to try to get delivery before finally giving up. Sling refused to refund my $80 (for service that I was unable to watch) and to truly cap things, they also charged me ANOTHER $40 . . . because by the time I finally cancelled my service, things had gone one day into a THIRD month.

Needless to say, I will have no future dealings with Sling (or Dish) in this lifetime or any other. An outright refusal to correct errors caused by a company (or their marketing partner) is NOT is a good policy.

 

[cerickso88]

2 things very important to me that were not discussed at all are 1) subtitles 2) ability to skip commercials. I would like to see both of these features discussed on any of these articles. I did try out SlingTV for a week and found that you could not FF and skip commercials. Deal breaker for me.

 

[josetwitterfan]

PlayStation Vue carries CBS Sports now.

 

[troydarling]

YouTube TV updated their UX just about the dateline of this article. YouTube TV now limits most shows to VOD versions almost immediately. This is driven by the networks but it essentially voids the value of the DVR except for pausing live TV or after the VOD version expires, in which case you get back access to your DVR version. (Briefly we had the ability to search for DVR versions, but that loophole was quickly closed.) I wonder if this is going to come to all platforms eventually -- Perhaps you know. It has quite a few of us subscribers feeling they've been victims of a bait-and-switch scheme. The ad experience on all VOD versions is terrible because the breaks are not predictable in length or quantity. For cord-cutters used to a true DVR experience, it's frustrating.