YouTube TV - The Good, Bad, and Ugly (a mini review).

by rhpot1991

This past weekend I signed up for the YouTube TV trial and tested on the following hardware: Nexus 6, Shield TV, Shield Tablet, XPS 13 Laptop.

I currently use MythTV for recording via 2x HDHR Primes. Additionally I utilize PLEX for mobile devices and video library access.

The Good

  • Price point - At $35 it is roughly 1/3rd the cost of my current cable bill.
  • Device availability - Apps for all my Android devices, Chrome for my laptop.
  • Cloud based - No infrastructure to maintain, no need to worry about dying hard drives or any of that.
  • GPS spoofable - I was able to watch the Eagles for my once a year CBS game overlap with the Ravens in my market.
  • All channels in HD - Some random channels I don't get in HD on cable, like Disney Jr.
  • Usable/Accessible on demand system - Dropping set top boxes left me without this on cable.
  • Channel lineup for me - AMC, FX, ESPN, local networks. All my heavy hitters.

The Bad

  • Missing channels - Off the top of my head: Discovery, Discovery Family, PBS, HGTV, NFL Network, NFL Redzone, Nick Jr., Cartoon Network, CNN. Some of these I can access other ways but it would be nice to have them all in the same place.
  • Channel lineup for the rest of my family - From the above list HGTV, Discovery Family, and Nick Jr. will be a significant loss to my family.
  • Recording ownership - Something few people other than myself will worry about. But with YouTube TV I cannot export my recordings into PLEX which I normally do with kids movies.
  • Recording expiration - Another thing most people won't care about, 9 months is a significant amount of time. I tend to keep certain footage like concerts forever though.
  • Lack of recording rule customization - No way of saying new episodes only or a specific channel, not a huge issue with unlimited storage but annoying to have extra recordings around. In MythTV I do regex based rules to catch sports teams or bands appearing anywhere. YouTube TV has the sports team portion covered but nothing that will let me catch Pearl Jam randomly appearing on SNL or a late night talk show.
  • NFL content not available on mobile devices - I know Verizon exclusive deal, still annoying. I'm a Verizon customer and I'd prefer a better experience.
  • No download or offline viewing - This is becoming common feature and something I utilize a lot with Netflix/Amazon/PLEX.
  • Only Windows PCs can do HD - Linux and Mac are locked to 480p since they are missing required DRM.

The Ugly

  • Bad device identification - My Shield Tablet was detected as mobile device, thus blocking NFL content. Google's response: "no work around at this time."
  • User switching - 6 accounts sounds great, until you try to use more than one. Clearly my family won't mind having to re-activate the app any time they want to switch to their content, a 6 year old can handle this right?

Untested/Unconfirmed

  • I'd love to hear from someone with a Shield Tablet K1 to see if it is identified as mobile device or not. I suspect the unused SIM card port in my tablet is causing my device detection issue, but I've yet to find any way to disable this hardware.
  • Surround Sound? - I have a suspicion that the Android TV app may not be utilizing surround sound, but my surround speakers are packed up due to moving. I'll try to verify this, hopefully someone else can chime in.

TL;DR - YouTube TV has a great deal of features for its price point, but lacks much of the functionality that I am used to in my custom setup. I am still evaluating if the loss of functionality is worth it for the price point and additional features.

Andrroid

Regarding channel lineup (which really, is the most valid complaint with the service):

You know who the has the most difficult time cutting the cord? Google knows: people that enjoys sports. Based on their lineup, it's clear sports viewers are their target demographic and this makes sense. For $35, YouTube TV is easily the biggest bang for buck for sports viewers.

They did their homework and created a service aimed at the demographic that has struggled with cordcutting. The missing channels aren't important to them because they represent a demographic that simply isn't as valuable in corporate media eyes.

Rhed0x

$35 1/3rd the cost of my current cable

What the hell. I had no idea tv in the us is that expensive.

CaptZ_3148

I struggle with the idea that the price is listed as a good while channel line up listed as a bad.

Clearly one effects the other. Its a known "issue or choice" going in. It is what it is.

The User switching is odd and wonder if something is going on. Really weird if its working as intended.

None of the other services have Surround Sound so would be shocked if they did.

IMO the DVR stuff is a positive if coming from other services but deff could be a negative if you have a custom set up like you do.

shieldtvfan

Good review. Couple more cons though:

  1. Missing Food Network and Lifetime (used often by the family).
  2. DVR'd content on channels like NBC seem to become 'on demand' content after a while which doesn't let you fast forward commercials.

They did a great job on sports though.

acm

The interface is terrific. Very clean, easy to navigate. No ads cluttering valuable real estate in the program guide grid, which cable companies love to do.

Youtube TV is new, and I think it's a decent possibility that they address some of these in the future. But here's my wishlist:

  • My number 1 issue: when skipping commericals if you skip a few, pause, and then decide you'd like to skip a couple more times, you have to move the focus from the play/pause button and on to the time slider. It's annoying and causes two extra button clicks or so.

  • When starting a game that you've recorded but is in progress, I almost always want to start from the beginning, but Youtube TV will start it live. This is annoying if you're trying to avoid seeing the score. You have to seek back to the beginning of the show and hope you didnt peak the score while doing so. There should be a menu prompt for these shows regarding if you want to start from beginning or live.

  • It'd be nice if there was an option to choose how many seconds are used when clicking the skip forward and skip backwards buttons).

  • I wish I could set "Live" TV as the default tab when launching YouTube TV (as opposed to "Home", which has a mixture of live programming, shows I haven't finished, and Movies that they are featuring)

  • The ability to record x minutes before or after a program. Sports regularly go over the allotted time, and not having a way to ensure you catch the end can be frustrating. I'm sure they'll get this fixed though.

homerq

I get Playstation Vue for $30/mo (even though the lowest price is $40/mo, they reduce the price since I only get live CBS, and not ABC, NBC, and FOX in my market -- but I do get the on-demand for the missing networks and use a powered antenna for the local channel live streams, mostly for football games). I've compared the channel lineups and determined I would lose mainly Cartoon Network, Sci, and Discovery and a few other channels switching to this service for $5 more a month. However, I think Youtube TV will be bigger and better in the future.

aonysllo

User switching - ...

I thought all one had to do was to click on the user at the top right and select the new user from there (after the first time setup for that user of course) But I've never tried that.

Lyron-Baktos-

I have not been able to gps spoof and watch NFL games in several weeks; just gives me errors. I can watch other content, just not NFL games.

oZiix

I think the Guide is almost too basic. I tried the trial it's ok. I can't switch from Vue because it doesn't have TNT for NBA. TNT has it's own app now, but it's one that requires cable. The main point I can't get over though is the guide. Its setup seems to mimic mobile viewing. Big thumbnails and on a PC when you go to the guide you can only see what is coming on each channel for the next few hours. Vue checks all my boxes except price, you can favorite channels and shows and when I open the guide all my favorite stuff is right there. The web experience is better and on my Shield TV is better.

If it had Turner networks I could move past the issues with the guide because the price is great.

vels13

My Shield Tablet was detected as mobile device, thus blocking NFL content. Google's response: "no work around at this time."

This is a non starter for me. This is one of those issues that's likely to hang out there for a year before they get around to resolving.

pdxczmate

I find it very irritating that I can watch on my Nexus 9, but not my Pixel C.

nextapp

The Verizon Deal Contract with the NFL for mobile Device Streaming only we'll end in 2018 basically next season so I'm expecting and other are expecting NFL to not Renew There Deal Contract and come up with there own NFL App hopefully tie in all games even if they are out of network that would be awesome as Hell .

Maybe they we'll partner with . Direct TV and provide a better NFL ticket app . With out of market live viewing.

Fingers crossed.

wisockijunior

so, still no FullHD 1080p?

signde

Only Windows PCs can do HD - Linux and Mac are locked to 480p since they are missing required DRM

from what i have read this isn't true if you are using the built in monitor of an imac or macbook. it will only drop down to 480p if you connect an external monitor.