Roku Warns YouTube TV Customers That Service Could Go Dark • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by smashmore » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 9:16 PM UTC

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…

Channel surfing is nice in that it reduces the number of choices to a small set. Instead of having to pick from an entire streaming catalog, you pick from 10-300 channels which can easily get filtered to a smaller set of choices (2-7) which is easy to pick from without any brain effort.

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

#82

Post by rchaud » Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 10:29 PM UTC

smashmore wrote: post #81

rchaud wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Channel surfing is nice in that it reduces the number of choices to a small set. Instead of having to pick from an entire streaming catalog, you pick from 10-300 channels which can easily get filtered to a smaller set of choices (2-7) which is easy to pick from without any brain effort.

For me, the more important factor is randomness and immediacy. Randomness because channel surfing will bring me to a TV show I likely do not know the name of, and I will be shown a scene at a particular timestamp. So I can start watching without the lengthy exposition that's common in the first few episodes of shows.

Immediacy because there is no load time when switching channels, so it's frictionless to jump from sports, to weather, to syndicated TV sitcom. On streaming platforms, there is no such mechanism. Switching to a new show means I start from scratch. I could manually select a random episode and fast forward to a random timestamp, but that would be defeating the purpose.

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

#83

Post by truth_ » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 7:09 AM UTC

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…

Surprisingly, there still exists demand for "live TV" rather than choosing the show because some people don't like to decide what they want to watch. Netflix is testing "live TV" in France [0][1][2].

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/7/21553998/netflix-linear-c...

[1]: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/11/06/netflix-is-experime...

[2]: https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/06/netflix-tests-a-programmed...

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

#84

Post by mmglr » Wed, Apr 28, 2021, 7:23 PM UTC

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.

> Roku hardware and UI is superior to anything on the market.

I have to agree. I've used Apple TV, and while its UI is fancier, it lags, crashes and just doesn't have the same "ergonomics". Something as simple as toggling captions and changing picture modes while paying a video is so much easier on Roku. And, all the menus provide by the Roku OS just feel snappier.

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

#85

Post by mmglr » Wed, Apr 28, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

bagacrap wrote: post #79

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.

> It tracks what you watch and superimposes ads.

Tracking can be turned off in the settings. I have several Roku TVs and Roku boxes and don't see any ads "superimposed". The only ad (singular) I see is on the home screen.

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

#86

Post by Terretta » Fri, May 07, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

solosoyokaze wrote: post #46

Terretta wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! Discovery plus a global news package would be ideal. Only streamer with decent selection of global news in a skinny-ish package seems to be Sling, but what you describe would be ideal.

I would love to see local news (minus commercials). I'd definitely pay $5 a month for that.

Curiously, many (I don't know the percentage, only the stations I worked with in the past) local news broadcasts have additional segments during the time slots for commercial breaks. If the commercial isn't airing, it's a segment.

Same is true of national news. If the commercial doesn't run, there's other (semi-throwaway) content. Same is true for national news during the weather segment, local news can splice in a local weather and if they don't, it's national or regional weather.

Because of this, they should be able to sell the non-overlay version with content instead of ads. Sure it's throwaway content, but at least it's not yelling at you to buy things.