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Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

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Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#71

Post by ghaff »

rchaud wrote: post #69
gregmac wrote: post #33

I'm a bit amazed these "live TV" style services even still exist and people use them. It kind of makes sense for specifically live content -- sports, mainly -- but these are basically 1980's style cable TV delivered "over the internet". The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, i…

Since moving out of my parents' house ~15 years ago, I have lived without cable TV of any kind, and I miss it. Live TV offers a 'channel surfing' experience that does not exist on streaming. I want to be able to come home from work and plop down on my couch and just turn the TV on and have something be showing. If I don't like it, I switch channels. I have discovered numerous TV shows, movies and documentaries this w…

It's definitely something people differ on. I basically never turn on a TV in a hotel room and hardly ever have TV on at home as mostly background--unless it's a webcam or something like that. I actually dropped my live TV last year because I hardly ever used it any longer.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#72

Post by ghaff »

kschwab wrote: post #31
bsharitt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly where died for me, when I went from being a buyer of their hardware to a potential source of monthly revenue and made it more difficult to get content I want as a result. They established a customer base and good will and once that was in place, the rent seeking started. At this point once a company that make a product I like goes public, it seems like a good tome to start looking for alternatives.

I feel the same way, but is there any safe haven? I assume Chromecasts or Amazon Fire would be subject to the same situation.

As long as you can watch something on the web, you can always cast it, right? (I find Chromecast is an underappreciated device from Google. I basically never touch any of the smartTV features on my TV. I do everything from phone, tablet, or Chromebook.)

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#73

Post by jvolkman »

wjamesg wrote: post #62
jerf wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You can use their cloud DVR to "record" something, and after that happens, you can fast forward through the commercials." Has this changed? When I tried YouTubeTV a couple of years ago, you could record things to the DVR, and sometimes not only would they not let you fast forward through the commercials, they replaced them with their own completely un-fast-forwardable commercials. Sometimes it would let you fast for…

Even if you ‘record’ something to your YouTube TV DVR, if there is an on-demand (with ads) version available from the network, your DVR recorded version will be replaced and you will be forced to watch the on-demand (with unskippable ads) version

Maybe it depends on the channel, but in my experience you can pick which version you want to watch. Take this screenshot from SNL for example: https://i.imgur.com/s7eCDi8.png

There are 3 versions currently available to me for S46 E16: two DVR and one VOD. If I select either of the two DVR versions, I can skip commercials as expected. The VOD version forces me to watch commercials (also as expected, I guess).

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#74

Post by mikestew »

tzs wrote: post #63
gregmac wrote: post #33

I'm a bit amazed these "live TV" style services even still exist and people use them. It kind of makes sense for specifically live content -- sports, mainly -- but these are basically 1980's style cable TV delivered "over the internet". The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, i…

One thing I liked about the older days was that when I watched something interesting many of my friends and coworkers were also watching, and we could have interesting discussions about it the next day. Nowadays, especially with places like Netflix releasing a whole season of a show at once, it is often the case that all your friends and coworkers are all at different points in the series.

That is what I enjoyed about Game of Thrones: we're all on the same page at any given point in time. I don't know if I'm quite to the point of being Old Man Shaking Fist at Clouds, but it is one thing I miss from the old days. Said as one who cut that cord over a decade ago, too.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#75

Post by GnarfGnarf »

jbluepolarbear wrote: post #39
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #11

My Apple TV box stopped showing YouTube a few months ago, probably because it is an early model and they couldn't be bothered upgrading the software. Instead of buying another one, I got a cheap Chromebook instead.

Which Apple TV? I have 1 1st gen TVOS box and 3 4K TVOS boxes. YouTube works on all of them.

My Apple TV is model A1469, 3rd generation. It may have something to do with not being in the U.S.

I also had to scrap an $800 early model iPad because it was no longer compatible with YouTube. An $180 Chromebook did a nice job replacing it.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#76

Post by simmons »

kschwab wrote: post #31
bsharitt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly where died for me, when I went from being a buyer of their hardware to a potential source of monthly revenue and made it more difficult to get content I want as a result. They established a customer base and good will and once that was in place, the rent seeking started. At this point once a company that make a product I like goes public, it seems like a good tome to start looking for alternatives.

I feel the same way, but is there any safe haven? I assume Chromecasts or Amazon Fire would be subject to the same situation.

I switched away from Roku to an Nvidia Shield (an Android TV device) precisely because of the Roku HBO Max thing. Maybe these smaller players don't have the sheer number of captive eyeballs needed to demand such commissions. Although I guess HBO would still have the Play Store fees? In any case, I haven't noticed this sort of customer-hurting hard negotiations yet.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#77

Post by cardiffspaceman »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #43
gregmac wrote: post #33

I'm a bit amazed these "live TV" style services even still exist and people use them. It kind of makes sense for specifically live content -- sports, mainly -- but these are basically 1980's style cable TV delivered "over the internet". The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, i…

The killer feature of services like Netflix is not really the "over the internet" part, it's the "watch any show on demand" and "massive library so you can start watching from S1E1, if you want to". Streaming live TV services fail at both of these. I think being over the internet is the killer feature. Cable companies had on demand for a decade before netflix streaming, being over the internet meant you were not lock…

Cable on demand used to be more clunky than Netflix because the baseline was they were going to charge you, so they had to inform you and you had to accept. When the baseline is that the whole library is bundled, then certainly the bundled content can just start without creating a contract first.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#78

Post by bagacrap »

kschwab wrote: post #31
bsharitt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly where died for me, when I went from being a buyer of their hardware to a potential source of monthly revenue and made it more difficult to get content I want as a result. They established a customer base and good will and once that was in place, the rent seeking started. At this point once a company that make a product I like goes public, it seems like a good tome to start looking for alternatives.

I feel the same way, but is there any safe haven? I assume Chromecasts or Amazon Fire would be subject to the same situation.

Google hasn't evolved Chromecast past a cheap, dumb dongle since it was first released. No telling what the future holds but the current trajectory is promising.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#79

Post by bagacrap »

Roku is toxic and the only reason I know this is having been forced to deal with their products due to being pre-packaged on smart TVs. Roku comes "free" because it thinks it can extract value from me. It is free like a leech is free.

It tracks what you watch and superimposes ads. The interface is frightfully slow. The remote is hard to use as compared to my phone being the remote, as is the case with a Chromecast.

Re: Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark

#80

Post by bagacrap »

josefresco wrote: post #25

I have 5 TV's with Roku hardware attached. I've also been a YouTubeTV customer for several years (when it was $35/month). I'll drop YTTV long before I'll swap my Roku hardware. Roku hardware and UI is superior to anything on the market. YouTubeTV is decent, but the competition is robust.

Plainly false. A PS4 is a much better media PC than a Roku given that it's so much faster.

The Chromecast UI, ie your phone, has a far better interface. I'm never required to hunt and peck a password or search term.

On top of that neither my PS4 nor Chromecast injects ads.

I have never used a worse piece of smart TV software than a Roku so I'd be keen to know what you're comparing it to when you call it industry leading.

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