Apps Replace TiVo w/Youtube TV?

[dmaxdmax]

I’m using a TiVo and a new Apple TV in the family room, and Roku and old Apple TV in the bedroom. I’m about to get hit with the 149 annual TiVo fee and want to consider my options. I love TiVo and think the UI and remote are as good as anything I’ve ever used. The downside is that the service from my local cable company is either $20 for basic broadcast (my current plan) or $70 for cable with the channels I want: AMC, BBCA, MSNBC, et al. I currently have Sling for those but hate the UI.

For $35/month I could get YoutubeTV which includes my local broadcast plus my must-have cable channels. It’s certainly the most economical choice but I lose my beloved TiVo.

Sadly I’ve lost the new AppleTV remote so am stuck with the old one, my phone, or my watch.

Do cable shows via YoutubeTV show up in the Television app?

Any thoughts, especially from someone who has used both?

 

[Richdmoore]

Check to see if you have an internet cap, they added one to my comcast service a few years ago. If you have to pay extra to remove the cap due to streaming all of your tv, it may be cheaper to keep cable with the, way than a streaming service.

(Yeah, it sucks...)

 

[dmaxdmax]

Check to see if you have an internet cap, they added one to my comcast service a few years ago. If you have to pay extra to remove the cap due to streaming all of your tv, it may be cheaper to keep cable with the, way than a streaming service.

(Yeah, it sucks...)

Oof. Never occurred to me.

 

[dmaxdmax]

Oof. Never occurred to me.

Just checked: our service doesn’t have data caps.

 

[mallbritton]

Do cable shows via YoutubeTV show up in the Television app?

In my experience, no. None of the live TV streaming services support the TV app in that way. For example, CBS All Access, does support the TV app but only for VOD. If you are watching, say, Star Trek Discovery on CBS the TV app will track your watch history, and when new episodes show up in the VOD library you will see them in the TV App. But live shows do not. Same with Hulu.

 

[ml2014]

I’m using a TiVo and a new Apple TV in the family room, and Roku and old Apple TV in the bedroom. I’m about to get hit with the 149 annual TiVo fee and want to consider my options. I love TiVo and think the UI and remote are as good as anything I’ve ever used. The downside is that the service from my local cable company is either $20 for basic broadcast (my current plan) or $70 for cable with the channels I want: AMC, BBCA, MSNBC, et al. I currently have Sling for those but hate the UI.

For $35/month I could get YoutubeTV which includes my local broadcast plus my must-have cable channels. It’s certainly the most economical choice but I lose my beloved TiVo.

Sadly I’ve lost the new AppleTV remote so am stuck with the old one, my phone, or my watch.

Do cable shows via YoutubeTV show up in the Television app?

Any thoughts, especially from someone who has used both?

I did this, dropped Tivo when my $149.00 fee came due.

I was using the Channels DVR service with 2 cablecards and HDHR Primes to watch and record all my services. It's $8.00 per month, and although it's not as good as Tivo, it's really not that far behind it, and it will improve as it goes forward.

The nice thin about it is besides the functionality, you can keep or drop the DVR portion whenever you like, it's only month to month. There's a bit of an investment though, you need a NAS or a pc for the recordings, (using a small Windows PC that I picked up for 199.00) or you can use whatever pc you may have around the house. Need the HDHR tuners as well and a cable card or two.

You don't need the DVR service to use the app though, once you buy it you can stream your cable channels on a device (Apple tv or what have you).

I did this for a few months, but decided to go full out all streaming so I ditched Comcast all together and went with ATT gigapower for half of what I was paying Comcast for a faster tier. No data cap.

Of course I had cable bundled in with Comcast as well, so the savings are not much at all, since I now have to get a streaming package for the few cable channels we watch, but at least I'm not tied into any contracts, and can try various services whenever.

Though I don't use Youtube TV, I'm going with Directvnow, for now, but if they dont' get their s**t together when my 4 months is up (got a free Apple tv from them for prepaying 4 months) I'll move on the another service.

The cable shows from Directvnow do show up in the TV app on the Apple tv, I'd think it would do the same with Youtube tv.

 

[d.steve]

For $35/month I could get YoutubeTV which includes my local broadcast plus my must-have cable channels. It’s certainly the most economical choice but I lose my beloved TiVo.

Sadly I’ve lost the new AppleTV remote so am stuck with the old one, my phone, or my watch.

The TiVO remote really was the best purpose-built remote. Assuming it's still like the one I had back in 2000 or so. You can program any universal remote for Apple TV too btw.

Do cable shows via YoutubeTV show up in the Television app?

Not that I've seen so far (in one whole day of using YTTV!). What you can do is install all of the individual station apps and log in separately to each one (AppleTV does not support Single Sign On for YTTV). The TV app *might* then show things from the individual iOS apps.

Any thoughts, especially from someone who has used both?

Both what? Tivo and YTTV? Sorry, I haven't used a tivo in over 15 years.

Best benefit of YTTV: cloud dvr. more flexible, less equipment to deal with.
Worst thing: UI. Takes longer to do a lot of things. Switch channels. FF/RW. You know, *stuff*. In part limited by Apple TV, in part bad UI by YTTV - ex: Netflix has better UI.

 

[dmaxdmax]

Thanks guys. I haven’t decided for sure but I suspect that TiVo will get $149 from me. Or more likely the financially ridiculous month-to-month option in exchange for flexibility.

I don’t love the YTTV UI but I can deal with it; however, I hate hate hate using the ATV remote unless I’m missing something which may be a new thread. FF/Rew/Scan/Skip functions are great on TiVo and stink on YTTV w/ATV. I place a high premium on ease of use.

Good FF/Rew functionality doesn’t seem too much to ask but it maybe it is.

 

[aristobrat]

I've been spoiled by TiVo remotes since 2001. The AppleTV remote drives me freaking crazy...

 

[dmaxdmax]

I broke my ATV remote and find that the phone app is much better.