Streaming TV questions

Well, I found two flaws in my plans (switching to the Google Fiber and YTTV). I signed up for a free trial on YTTV. We've been hitting it pretty hard most of the day to see what works and what doesn't work.

TV 1 (main TV) has a Roku already, and now it has the YTTV app installed and runs just fine. It will take a little while to get used to the user interface and how to navigate the different channel menus.

TV 2 (secondary TV) has an old Chromecast plugged into it. That requires your phone, tablet, or computer to run the YTTV app and then stream it to the Chromecast. This isn't really a problem for that television and the way it generally gets used.

TV 3 (bedroom TV) is a Samsung Smart TV. It rarely gets used unless the treadmill is in use, and the treadmill only gets used when I can't get to the gym for whatever reason. It gets used mainly for streaming Netflix or Prime while I put on the miles. The only other time it would seriously get used is when the tornado sirens go off in the middle of the night and I turn it on to the local news channel to see what's going on.

Problems I've found so far:

1) The Samsung Smart TV (TV 3) is a 2014 model. It doesn't have or support a YTTV app. So it will require a Roku or Chromecast. Samsung TVs from 2016+ have the YTTV app.

2) Of all the local channels and local sports channels I can get, the one I don't have is Bally Sports. That's the only channel that carries the KC Royals baseball games. Not a great loss for me, especially the last season or 2, and I actually like listening to the radio broadcast. I could get Bally Sports, but as a streaming subscription for $???/month. I MIGHT be able to get it through an MLB network, but there's probably a local blackout or other service charge to pick up the Royals.

Problems that I already know about:

TV 1 is a pretty old Samsung, and the Roku is plugged into one of the HDMI ports. It will not pass through 5.1 to the home theater receiver. The receiver is also old enough that it doesn't have any HDMI ports and the TV connects to it through optical out and will only send stereo, so that combination means that I can't stream through the Roku and get any surround. My current cable box will send out 5.1, so I can get surround for those broadcasts (the cable box has optical out to the receiver) but once I cut that cord I'll lose the ability to get surround for anything other than DVDs on the BluRay. This television is starting to show wear and tear on the display, with some internal screen problems so it will get replaced real.soon.now. I'll be upgrading to 4K when I do that. YTTV has an upcharge for 4K service.

What has worked:

The phone app, the Macbook app, the Roku app all work pretty well. When I first got this running, I was able to watch one movie on my phone, another on the Mac, a ball game on the TV, and another show on TV2 through Chromecast. It was also a test of our internet speed, but I also wanted to know that YTTV would allow me to connect to that many devices at the same time.
 
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We’re deeply into the Apple ecosystem, so Apple TV’s serve us quite well. Pretty seamless aggregator of the various services we use. TN home also gets OTA signal, which is nice for live network TV. Have not had cable/satellite for at least 4 years, and don’t miss it.

We pay for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Paramount+, and we’re never without something to watch. We also voluntarily pay about $20 a month via Patreon to support the podcasts we enjoy the most.

There’s an enjoyable and informative video podcast called “Cordkillers”. Different segments covering how to watch, what to watch, etc. We’ve been turned onto many interesting and fun shows from them, that we otherwise might have missed. One such is “Undone” on Amazon Prime, which we’re really enjoying. Before that, “Kim’s Convenience” was a lighthearted romp well done.
 
We subscribe to Prime and have a Netflix account. We rarely watch network tv except for local news and wx or NFL and some college basketball games. Otherwise I catch college basketball on ESPN and we’ll use the AMC, TCM, and other stations for movies or background noise. Lately we’ve been catching some Prime (or Netflix) original series. I’m finding some foreign murder/mystery/cop shows that have been entertaining.

The Roku stick we’re using has been sufficient. I’ll have to look into what Apple TV and the comparable Roku add to what the stick can do.
 
I have Roku devices on our TVs and switched from DirecTV to Hulu Live TV. Considerably less expensive and with more content. Very happy with the switch.
 
HDMI gives you some options. I put an HDMI switch in front of an old TV, that only had a single HDMI in. Now it's easy to switch between video game and Roku. It's also fairly easy, I believe, to get things to split the audio off HDMI and sent it to a receiver via stereo RCA plugs. Think B&H has those, if not Amazon. Some TV's also have fiber or other digital audio out, that can then be converted to analog audio to send to a stereo.
 
Got the 2nd Roku installed last night. The Smart TV wasn’t so smart, and was just old enough it wouldn’t run YouTubeTV. Now it does.

That pretty well gets us all set to cut the cord. We’re still getting used to the two step process of turning on the TV, then starting YTTV. But, like most people, once the TV is on, it’s on for the rest of the evening.
 
We caught season 1 of “Kevin Can F*** Himself”. Season 2, the final season, starts next week. It’s on AMC, but seasonal 1is available on Prime (? maybe Netflix) and AMC+.

It’s an oddly addictive show, and takes an episode or two to figure out. It’s part sitcom and part drama. Kevin and his wife, dad, and neighbors are all part of a sitcom, complete with bad jokes and laugh tracks, and the wife is the butt of most of the jokes. As soon as the wife is away from her husband, everything changes - the lighting, the camera angles, the drama kicks in and the laugh track turns off. The wife hates her life, hates her husband, hates being the butt of all his jokes, and wants out. It gets pretty dark the last episode of season 1. It’s going to be very interesting how they wrap this up next season.
 
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As I indicated earlier, my situation is different from most. I pay for cable at a rental property as I don't have a choice, but, I don't want to also pay for cable at my primary residence. My previous solution is no longer tenable as my rental property cable company has now marked 95% of the channels as DRM which means I cannot record shows and transmit them to my primary residence. The cable company has an app but it only supports live streaming. I want to watch on my own schedule and I want to be able to automatically skip commercials. Since my FightsForBites.com project is winding down, I'm brainstorming a new project. I'm thinking of a machine running android and an automation program which "plays" requested shows. Using a HDMI splitter which removes HDCP, feeding that signal into a HDMI capture card, then writing the resulting file to a location where my primary residence MythTV system can pick it up. I have no idea if it will work, but I'm thinking of taking a run at it.
 
Mahneuvers said:
As I indicated earlier, my situation is different from most. I pay for cable at a rental property as I don't have a choice, but, I don't want to also pay for cable at my primary residence. My previous solution is no longer tenable as my rental property cable company has now marked 95% of the channels as DRM which means I cannot record shows and transmit them to my primary residence. The cable company has an app but it only supports live streaming. I want to watch on my own schedule and I want to be able to automatically skip commercials. Since my FightsForBites.com project is winding down, I'm brainstorming a new project. I'm thinking of a machine running android and an automation program which "plays" requested shows. Using a HDMI splitter which removes HDCP, feeding that signal into a HDMI capture card, then writing the resulting file to a location where my primary residence MythTV system can pick it up. I have no idea if it will work, but I'm thinking of taking a run at it.
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Yowza. We've come a long way since 3 VHF and 1 or 2 UHF sets of OTA local channels.
 
I just bought a TCL Series 4 Roku TV for a bonus room. The TV worked for a couple of days then when completely dead. Tried a different electrical outlet. Tested the outlet to make sure it had power, etc. No good.

Did an Amazon return/exchange. Setup the replacement TV and it was dead, too. It was the power cord that went bad. I had kept the original cord from the first TV in place. Switched to the new cord from the replacement TV's box and it worked.

Can't remember the last time I had a power cord go bad.

Anyway, I like the Roku TV interface. Each TV input is displayed like it is its own channel on the Roku menu. Still have the Roku Streaming Stick+ on my two other TVs.
 
The first segment in the latest “Cordkillers” video podcast has an extended discussion on the current state of streaming services and speculation on their future.

Easy to find on YouTube.

 
I’m pretty satisfied with the way YTTV is working out for us. We are only missing the ability to get our local MLB team games. That’s inconvenient- even though I didn’t watch many games, I could have. So later this week I’ll make the phone call, get Google high speed fiber installed, and cancel our current cable and internet provider.
 
catmandu said:
My sports of regular interest are NCAA Basketball, NCAA Football, and the NFL. For the first two, I look to fan sites that point to an online feed of some sort for that day's game of interest.

For the NFL, I use a VPN. I subscribed to the International Game Pass (India seems to be the cheapest option) and then stream from an IP in Central or South America. This avoids all blackouts, no matter where I may physically be located at the time. You could probably do something similar for MLB.

All this is done with an HDMI cable from laptop to TV.
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I've given up on college sports. Now that many college athletes are getting paid through NIL (names, images, and likeness) payments they're just professionals. I used to really enjoy college sports when the players were (ostensibly) all students who were required to attend class and maintain a grade point average. They were true amateurs and it was fun to watch. To be honest I'm not all that wild about NFL games anymore either. Just sayin. :mad:
 
Archer Jack said:
I've given up on college sports. Now that many college athletes are getting paid through NIL (names, images, and likeness) payments they're just professionals. I used to really enjoy college sports when the players were (ostensibly) all students who were required to attend class and maintain a grade point average. They were true amateurs and it was fun to watch. To be honest I'm not all that wild about NFL games anymore either. Just sayin. :mad:
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College basketball, especially, has simply become a free-agent market. When Covid hit, so many teams cancelled seasons that NCAA gave players an extra year of eligibility plus the ability to transfer to any other school at no penalty. Now, with the NIL licensing, players can simply go the the highest bidder each year. Some coaches and programs will figure out how to game the system faster than others.
 
Matthew said:
I suppose this question applies to pretty much any streaming service -

Looking to move to Google Fiber and away from U-Verse and their TV service. With U-Verse, I have a box that connects to the TV, it's also a DVR.

If I go streaming with Google and a service like YouTube TV, and my main TV is not a smart TV, how do I connect to the outside world? Does that require a Chromecast or Roku?
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Love Google Fiber, best service!
Been streaming and pulling OTA into a PC since Oct 2010. Added YouTube TV about a year ago and been pleased for the most part. Original PC died in Dec 2021 so I ordered this - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B096B313Y7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Use this - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B014EUQOGK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
PlexTV for OTA with this - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B015IL0FIW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Super easy covers everything.
 
The Google Fiber install went very well. The fiber was buried and connected to the outside of the house yesterday. This morning the inside guy came by. He installed the indoor router, then 2 wireless hubs. #1 is hardwired to the router, #2 is a wireless extender. He also gave us a switch so we can hardwire whatever we want without too much trouble.

He did have a good idea - rename the new network the same as the old one and use the same p/w. All our connected devices simply reconnect with no problems.

Now I have to disconnect all the old hardware from the TVs and home theater receiver and cancel our old service.
 
Matthew said:
Now I have to disconnect all the old hardware from the TVs and home theater receiver and cancel our old service.
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When I carried a big box of crap into our local cable provider a couple years back and told them to cancel everything except the Internet connection, they weren’t even a little surprised. I was not the first one to the party by a long shot.
 
welp...spoke too soon.

All was well for most of the day, now we've lost the connection to the outside world. Called Google support, they reset something on their end and had me do some troubleshooting on my end. Everything seems OK inside the house, but the status indicators show there's something wrong on the outside. Either the fiber through the yard and to the box on the exterior of the house, or from that box to the "fiber jack" on the inside of the house. Earliest they can get someone out here is tomorrow at 9:30a. Not sure how or what happened, other than it's a fairly warm day and as the day went on the direct sunshine on that exterior equipment might have been enough to stress a weak connection.

I'll find out later tonight as that part of the house gets back into the shade again and as things cool down. Otherwise I'll have to wait for tomorrow.
 
Aha! I managed to snag a 3:30pm service appt. Someone else just canceled and it opened up.
 
At least while I wait I can sit outside and watch the Thunderbirds fly over my house, practicing for this weekend’s airshow…while mosquitoes eat me up.

edit:

Someone commented that it looks like they flew the METH 5 arrival.

3055BC70-F46A-4C6D-8289-1F5D7A20663E.jpeg
 
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Google tech showed up right on time, again. Fiber signal level was excellent, the error was inside their modem. A quick swap and we're back in bidness.
 
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