Anyone used YOUTUBE TV ? Especially with a ROKU TV (1 Viewer)

[Isaac]

Anyone had any experience/reviews of the actual product Youtube TV - where you pay $39 or $59/mo, plus any add-ons, to watch the equivalent of what we used to call Cable TV ?

I've tried a number of "streaming 'TV' " services like Sling, Pluto, Peacock, etc., and I've abandoned all of them one by one because the most basic feature of all--the ability to simply press Up/Down on the Roku remote to change channels -- doesn't work. You have to click, like ... 3-5 times just to change the channel, it's no good for a channel-surfer mentality. The only thing that works to automatically change channels using the up/down roku remote buttons is Roku Live TV channel. (which is filled with a massive plethora of junk content for the most part, with 5-10 recognizable channels out of hundreds).

So I'm interested in a streaming service that mimics cable tv, where if you have a Roku TV (and Roku remote) you can simply press Up or Down to change channels accordingly. Should be elementary, and yet most Roku apps can't mimic it

 

[Pat Hartman]

I hate every streaming service I've ever logged in to. I'm not sure why people are so obsessed with pictures. It's like no one can read anymore. Text is quick to scroll and doesn't take a lot of bandwidth. Instead of a list of 20 items. I see 5 pictures with unreadable text. The search features are horrid and slow and awkward with the remote control.

I would love to get rid of cable. It is way too expensive and in my town, I have ONE option. Not sure how that happens but it does. At least I used to be able to switch every other year between the two options to keep the price down but now, they just keep raising the price and removing features. There is no longer any search feature at all. If I don't know when a show is on, I can't find it. No searching for movies either.

 

[AccessBlaster]

My daughter subscribes to YouTube for music and movies, she loves it. We subscribe to Amazon prime and are okay with it. We're getting Paramount+ for free at the moment, I like it.

 

[Isaac]

started a youtube tv trial yesterday, still figuring out (I guess) how to easily scroll through channels ...
I am just this close to calling up my cable company to ask if they still offer basic cable. I turn the tv on i want to be surfing through channels easily

 

[pbaldy]

We use the TV remote, but just tested with a roku remote and couldn't change with a single click.

 

[pbaldy]

By the way, there is a somewhat hidden feature that does work with the roku remote. The OK button will pause/resume play, but if you hold it down for a beat it will take you to the last station viewed. Lets you toggle easily between 2 stations.

 

[Isaac]

By the way, there is a somewhat hidden feature that does work with the roku remote. The OK button will pause/resume play, but if you hold it down for a beat it will take you to the last station viewed. Lets you toggle easily between 2 stations.

Love it thank you

 

[moke123]

How to use voice to search and control your Roku streaming device|Voice search & control instructions for streaming devices

Roku voice remotes incorporate the functionality of voice commands to deliver instructions to your Roku streaming devices seamlessly. For those using a Roku

support.roku.com

 

[Rodeo Clown]

I sign up for YouTubeTV every fall to watch the NFL. This year it's $77.37 (inc tax) per month. I run it thru a Roku Player. While I don't consider the navigation options in the interface to be all that undesirable, if you click on "Live" at the top and scroll down a bit, you can scroll through the channels if you want to - similar to a direct TV menu interface. Since I'm only interested in the NFL at this time, the AI monkey usually knows what I want to watch and always has a game on in the background, if there's one on. Yeah, it could probably be improved but I don't surf channels as there's nothing on anyway, lol. Just my 2 cents.

Go Steelers.

 

[LogicLoom]

I actually tried YouTube TV on my Roku TV, and I wasn’t a fan. The interface felt clunky, and flipping through channels wasn’t as smooth as I hoped. I missed the easy browsing experience of traditional cable. Plus, the price increases made it feel less worth it for me. I ended up canceling and exploring other options.

 

[LarryE]

We were paying $228 a month for cable and 165 channels but we actually watched only about 10, so in December we went to streaming only with Youtube TV as our primary source. It has every "channel" we used to watch, we can record shows for later (and Fast Forward through commercials) and it was only $84 per month. So, for us, for our particular viewing, it was the perfect choice. We also have Tubi streaming service, which we love, but it has commercials because it is a free subscription service and no live TV.

As to the interface and menus on YouTube TV, that is another matter. The Live tab is OK and you can scroll channels and see what is currently actively on live. You can also set shows to record pretty easily. Navigating the Library tab where the recorded shows are kept (in the cloud), is another matter. It has to be the most frustrating, maddening and confusing thing I have encountered in a long, long time. There is sub tab menu upon sub tab menu upon sub tab menu to somehow navigate and then you encounter another sub tab menu. If I could meet the person who created that menu system I would beat them over the head with a large rock.

We have only been streaming a month, so we will see how it turns out. We have encountered no service interruptions or slow loading issues at all. The service quality is, so far, excellent. But I will keep my fingers and toes and eyes crossed for a while.

 

[Isaac]

yeah, to change the channel you have to go Back first - not sure why they cannot make it work with the up/down button straight from watching the current channel, like Roku channel does

 

[Pat Hartman]

What is it about the standard TV interface that the streaming services hate so much that they refuse to replicate it? Does it simply work too well? They are obsessed with huge icons that take ages to load and scroll through and tell you NOTHING.

 

[Jason Lee Hayes]

Does anyone still pay for legitimate TV?

 

[Isaac]

I agree @Pat Hartman
Why nobody can seem to make a simple surf up/down the channels, I have no idea. That was the great thing about cable tv. You turned it on, and there you were watching a channel - up/down that's it. Now you have to jump through hoops. I'm considering going back to cable tv actually. I'd cancel my Hulu and YoutubeTV and probably come out even at around $100-$110/mo.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Does anyone still pay for legitimate TV?

What does that mean? Most cities have at least half a dozen TV towers in broadcast range. With a good antenna, I could get about 12 channels "free". Otherwise, it is cable or "nothing" since most streaming services are useless unless you want old movies. I hate Amazon Prime. It is incredibly slow to navigate and really clunky to use. If I know the name of some old movie or series I want to watch, I can usually find it but for "channel surfing", it is piss poor. You'd think lists of what is available would be easy to search and sort. But no. Apparently the interface for these services is created by people from the backwards countries of the world who don't have access to a computer and so have no idea what a good interface might be. Nothing but stupid icons. It's like those novels using nothing but pictures that are targeted at teens who can't read. I'm an adult. I can read. I can usually spell. I don't want to choose what i watch by looking at pictures

Of course the interface for Optimum TV is piss poor also and it no longer even pretends to provide search capability so I am really ready to cut them loose.

 

[Jason Lee Hayes]

What does that mean? Most cities have at least half a dozen TV towers in broadcast range. With a good antenna, I could get about 12 channels "free". Otherwise, it is cable or "nothing" since most streaming services are useless unless you want old movies. I hate Amazon Prime. It is incredibly slow to navigate and really clunky to use. If I know the name of some old movie or series I want to watch, I can usually find it but for "channel surfing", it is piss poor. You'd think lists of what is available would be easy to search and sort. But no. Apparently the interface for these services is created by people from the backwards countries of the world who don't have access to a computer and so have no idea what a good interface might be. Nothing but stupid icons. It's like those novels using nothing but pictures that are targeted at teens who can't read. I'm an adult. I can read. I can usually spell. I don't want to choose what i watch by looking at pictures

Of course the interface for Optimum TV is piss poor also and it no longer even pretends to provide search capability so I am really ready to cut them loose.

I can count on one hand the people i know that pay for TV... Have you considered IPTV?

The misconception with IPTV is that it's common for people to think it's illegal in some way...
Many companies offer legitimate use of IPTV; it becomes illegal if streaming channels which have not been legitimately paid for...

Many years ago, i know of someone who had a friend that offered cards to people what did not wish to pay for the costly sky package over satellite. The project wasn't started to make money but to develop their knowledge of reverse engineering. Simply paying for all the channel services from Sky they bought an ISO card reader/writer from the Isle of Man which was legal and the blank cards from China then cloned the legitimate card and sold the cloned cards for £25 which lasted 3 months. After 3 Months the card was re-cloned. Did this for many years and was the first i believe in the UK to be recognised for providing such as service... Due to the rollout of encryption primarily on the premium channels then some HD channels technologies were starting to appear around tthe late 90's which introduced basic IPTV services which made it possible to ditch OTA RE and concentrate on other projects. It was and is still possible to clone cards using the card cloning technique considered dead but effective use of Linux with good RE knowledge does provide a solution. Either way the explosion of IPTV makes all effort redundant as IPTV is much easier to distribute for legitimate purposes.

With the increase in home internet speeds and broadband IPTV is the way forward.
There are many front-end IPTV players available that are well laid out and easy to navigate; you don't need to struggle navigating the dedicated NetFlix, Amazon, Apple players etc as all these channels can come to a single interface. Ive personally worked on XCIPTV which i believe is the simplest to navigate...

 

[Cotswold]

Here we have to pay an annual tax of about £180 to a government Quango, the BBC in order to legally watch live TV. This gives about 100 free FreeView channels. That cost I think that is more than enough for the rubbish they put out. If there is noting to watch, then we'll switch it off.

About the Youtube topic, by coincidence, I was thinking of linking a RaspberryPi4, or a Chromebook to the TV to watch films on Youtube, or others for free. ( I'll do without rather than pay for a streaming service.)

Has anyone done that?

 

[Jason Lee Hayes]

Here we have to pay an annual tax of about £180 to a government Quango, the BBC in order to legally watch live TV. This gives about 100 free FreeView channels. That cost I think that is more than enough for the rubbish they put out. If there is noting to watch, then we'll switch it off.

About the Youtube topic, by coincidence, I was thinking of linking a RaspberryPi4, or a Chromebook to the TV to watch films on Youtube, or others for free. ( I'll do without rather than pay for a streaming service.)

Has anyone done that?

Personally, i think the UK license fee should be scrapped with the BBC services being changed to Pay Per View. It's simply not fair to force someone to pay for services they don't wish to watch or need but hey; the government make a revenue from the BBC so that isn't going to happen soon. The BBC was seen internationally to be fair and just but that is far from the truth as we have seen in the past few years. With regards YouTube, if you don't wish to see those annoying adds without signing up simply use a VPN and point it to Albania, Nepal, or Myanmar.

 

[Jason Lee Hayes]

We were paying $228 a month for cable and 165 channels but we actually watched only about 10, so in December we went to streaming only with Youtube TV as our primary source. It has every "channel" we used to watch, we can record shows for later (and Fast Forward through commercials) and it was only $84 per month. So, for us, for our particular viewing, it was the perfect choice. We also have Tubi streaming service, which we love, but it has commercials because it is a free subscription service and no live TV.

As to the interface and menus on YouTube TV, that is another matter. The Live tab is OK and you can scroll channels and see what is currently actively on live. You can also set shows to record pretty easily. Navigating the Library tab where the recorded shows are kept (in the cloud), is another matter. It has to be the most frustrating, maddening and confusing thing I have encountered in a long, long time. There is sub tab menu upon sub tab menu upon sub tab menu to somehow navigate and then you encounter another sub tab menu. If I could meet the person who created that menu system I would beat them over the head with a large rock.

We have only been streaming a month, so we will see how it turns out. We have encountered no service interruptions or slow loading issues at all. The service quality is, so far, excellent. But I will keep my fingers and toes and eyes crossed for a while.

Consider NewPipe as a frontend...