The trial period for my cable is about to expire and I am not about to pay $200+ for cable. Also, to nip 3/4 of the potential responses to this thread, I am not looking to drop cable entirely because I have no desire to have Netflix or Hulu or any of that…I like TV and I like sports.
After looking around a bit I think I’d like to do PSVue. I have multiple Playstations for it to run on in the living room along with a Chromecast and a Roku for the other TVs, so there wouldn’t be any installation or anything I’d need. All I would really have to do is just pay for internet from AT&T, and the plan itself obviously. I think I’d save about 30 bucks than what I pay now. Does anyone here have any experience with PSVue? Like it? Love it? Hate it?
It is shared between two people, which with the allowance of 5 devices is possible. Sharing it makes it less expensive. I have no real complaints. I don’t watch a lot of scheduled TV, except for sporting events, so my experience may not be typical.
It is nice to be able to watch things either on the TV in my living room, or on my laptop in my bedroom.
The range of options seems to be pretty good. I get a number of channels that I would have had to upgrade to a premium cable package to get. For some reason, we only get the local stations of 2 of the 3 old-school networks.
I use Amazon Prime as a streaming service and get far more content than I could ever watch. Other folks might want to use Netflix, Hulu or another service.
One thing you might not notice unless you read the fine print, is that while you can use the service on multiple devices, they must all be at the same location. In other words, you won’t be able to stream from your phone or other device away from home. I haven’t tried this, but they say they’ll shut off service if you violate this rule.
On the whole, as long as you have a high-speed internet connection, i don’t see a downside.
On the other hand, with the death of net-neutrality, can we be sure that the Comcasts of the world won’t throttle services like PSVue, in order to preserve their (Comcast’s) dying market?
Do you know if the “can’t watch it away from home” extends to the “watch now” versions of channels I’m subscribing too? For example, I can’t watch ESPN when I’m away from home on my phone, but can I watch ESPN3? or NFL Network now?
Interesting. I don’t use PSVue, but a friend does, and we used it to watch an NBA playoff game at another friend’s house who was a cord-cutter and didn’t have cable. Just installed the app on their Firestick, hit the login and went. Was pretty nice.
I wonder how lenient they are about enforcing this rule. IIRC Netflix basically came out and said “share your account with whomever” but also limits the number of devices that can be simultaneously using it.
Here is what to expect if you’re watching away from home:
While you’re traveling, you’ll be able to watch the available local programming for that location. You will not be able to DVR the local programming in the place you are visiting. Your DVR will still record your home local channels, and you’ll be able to watch that DVR programming while you are traveling.
While you’re traveling, you’ll be able to watch your local regional sports networks. However, if you’ve never signed into PlayStation™Vue from your home area, you won’t be able to watch your local regional sports networks until you sign into PlayStation™Vue from the zip code you used when you subscribed.
NHL games are not available to watch when you are away from home.
If you subscribe to PlayStation™Vue away from home, you must return to your home area within the first 30 days of your subscription.
After you’ve signed into PlayStation™Vue from your home area once within the first 30 days of your subscription, you can watch PlayStation™Vue from any location for 60 consecutive days before you must check in again from your home area.
I haven’t used PSVue but I’ve used SlingTV and YouTubeTV, which are very similar services. They both work well; overall I’d say the YouTube app and stream quality are slightly better. The channel lineup is very similar but they each have their pros and cons.
I believe both offer a free week (or month?), and I think PSVue may as well. No harm in using the trial periods.