Will streaming services take over?

[JoeWras]

I don't think that's true with DirecTV Stream (formerly AT&T TV).

Can confirm quality is good. I had DirectTV stream last summer to watch NHL playoffs. Quality was stellar. But it is expensive, as expensive as cable.


As Midpack says, there's no technical problem preventing good quality streaming of sports. It is a choice they make on their back end whether to invest in the equipment and bandwidth to give it to you.

 

[explanade]

And just as we thought the cost savings of streaming vs cable is one of the reasons….

Netflix announced its first price bump in North America since October 2020, which is a tough break for whoever's Netflix account you're using.

The details for US customers:

The basic plan is going up by $1 to $9.99/month.
The standard plan (the company’s most popular) is being raised by $1.50 to $15.49.
The premium plan is increasing by $2 to $19.99.

Add it to the inflation pile!

I don't think its inflation. NF is raising prices because it thinks it can.

Also they're spending increasing amount of money to produce exclusive content.

As the library builds up, no other service has as much exclusive library of content.

 

[explanade]

Can confirm quality is good. I had DirectTV stream last summer to watch NHL playoffs. Quality was stellar. But it is expensive, as expensive as cable.


As Midpack says, there's no technical problem preventing good quality streaming of sports. It is a choice they make on their back end whether to invest in the equipment and bandwidth to give it to you.

I would say it's generally true but real-time streaming, especially in 4K and with HDR, may be more or a challenge.

Whereas shows and movies can be compressed and optimized. Not that they will optimize but some content tries to appeal to viewers willing to pay more for quality.

So NF charges more if you want 4K streams. I believe some other services do as well.

 

[Luvtoride]

I would say it's generally true but real-time streaming, especially in 4K and with HDR, may be more or a challenge.

Whereas shows and movies can be compressed and optimized. Not that they will optimize but some content tries to appeal to viewers willing to pay more for quality.

So NF charges more if you want 4K streams. I believe some other services do as well.

And I’ll gladly pay the premium price for the 4k streaming, especially since T-mobile is paying for my basic Netflix service.

 

[explanade]

And I’ll gladly pay the premium price for the 4k streaming, especially since T-mobile is paying for my basic Netflix service.

Do they let you pay the difference or you either get basic with T-Mobile or you pay all of it on your own?

 

[JJpop]

As a longtime DirecTV subscriber, this has not been my experience. I have always found their customer support to be quite helpful. Over the course of 20+ years, I can count on one hand the number of times that DTV customer support has been frustrating or lacking in some way. I pretty much always get the help I need and feel well taken care of as a customer.

Having said all that, I am likely to drop DTV and go "all streaming" within the next 12 months or so, simply because my DTV viewing has dwindled down to almost nothing. Also, they have publicly stated that their current satellite fleet will not be upgraded (i.e., no more satellites will be launched), so the writing is on the wall for DirecTV EOL in the fairly near future.

I have also found their customer service to be quite good.
I will stay with them as long as streaming live sports has poor picture quality.

 

[JJpop]

I don’t know if that’s true or not, our picture quality wasn’t degraded by cutting the cord since Feb 2018. But I do know there’s no technical reason you can’t stream sports at the same or better resolution-frame rate than cable or satellite. Most cable and satellite broadcasts are still 720p60 or less including ABC, Fox, ESPN with some 1080p in select cities including CBS and NBC. OTOH you can stream at 4K with Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Disney+, YouTube and others. Native resolution determines picture quality, upscaling does not equal content shot at higher native resolution-frame rate e.g. 4K. All this assumes your TV is capable of higher resolution-frame rates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p

I gave Hulu live a try and I will tell you unequivocally that the picture quality was well below my Directv for live sports.

 

[Luvtoride]

Do they let you pay the difference or you either get basic with T-Mobile or you pay all of it on your own?

I pay the difference thru my TMobile bill. I don’t deal directly with Netflix for my bill any longer.

 

[Midpack]

I gave Hulu live a try and I will tell you unequivocally that the picture quality was well below my Directv for live sports.

Although we “unequivocally” haven’t seen any difference going from Dish Network to PSV then Hulu in 4 years, I didn’t say there couldn’t be a difference. I said there is no technical reason any content must be worse on a streaming platform than cable, satellite or OTA. All are capable of the same native resolution and frame rates IF they’re shot, broadcast and viewed with equipment capable of higher resolution-frame rates.

What bandwidth and streaming device did you use for your comparison? Some who claim poor “picture quality” from streaming (sports) content, especially on a trial basis, are on slower internet connections and/or using an old streaming device - and comparing that to cable, satellite or OTA. You need adequate bandwidth, a decent router and a decent streaming device to legitimately compare.

 

[JoeWras]

Although we “unequivocally” haven’t seen any difference going from Dish Network to PSV then Hulu in 4 years, I didn’t say there couldn’t be a difference. I said there is no technical reason any content must be worse on a streaming platform than cable, satellite or OTA. All are capable of the same native resolution and frame rates IF they’re shot, broadcast and viewed with equipment capable of higher resolution-frame rates.

What bandwidth and streaming device did you use for your comparison? Some who claim poor “picture quality” from streaming (sports) content, especially on a trial basis, are on slower internet connections and/or using an old streaming device - and comparing that to cable, satellite or OTA. You need adequate bandwidth and a decent streaming device to legitimately compare.

Yes. In my experience: DirectTV Stream > YouTube TV > Hulu+

It is what they are doing on the back end, with codecs and frame rates. And as Midpack mentions, forget it if you have an older streaming device. They can't keep up or support the codecs.

When I was on YTTV and Hulu+, I was also monitoring the Reddit subs. People would bring up how game X was at frame rate Y, and game A was at frame rate B. Some human was clearly making choices for whatever reason.

Last summer when I had DirectTV stream, I never got that nonsense. Every sporting event was a the highest rate. But then again, I was paying cable rates.

 

[JoeWras]

Here's an excerpt post from a hot thread on YTTV. It is football playoff time, and people are finding issues.

The good news? YTTV monitors social media like twitter and reddit and responds to issues.

The bad news? Why is this happening? There's no excuse for it. As Midpack says, there's no technical reason for them to not stream highest quality. But apparently, they fiddle with bandwidths and rates.

YTTV, Hulu+, Fubo and Sling TV need to consistently pump out highest quality sports in all markets. If they continue to cut corners, it will just continue to piss people off and they'll lose customers forever.

 

[Midpack]

Here's an excerpt post from a hot thread on YTTV. It is football playoff time, and people are finding issues.

The good news? YTTV monitors social media like twitter and reddit and responds to issues.

The bad news? Why is this happening? There's no excuse for it. As Midpack says, there's no technical reason for them to not stream highest quality. But apparently, they fiddle with bandwidths and rates.

YTTV, Hulu+, Fubo and Sling TV need to consistently pump out highest quality sports in all markets. If they continue to cut corners, it will just continue to piss people off and they'll lose customers forever.

It’s very rare but we do see content drop to low res images and back to high occasionally, but I wouldn’t think that would be bandwidth/rates/codecs? It usually only lasts for a few seconds, maybe 10-15 seconds once in a while. One Super Bowl a few years ago we had persistent low res images on and off for minutes at a time, and that was unpleasant.

Maybe I’m wrong but I assumed it was Hulu or AT&T were over subscribed and we were all being throttled as a result - throttling is automated, not someone consciously flipping a switch. Oversubscription is another potential issue, maybe the primary one. I can’t imagine why any platform would lower quality unless there was a capacity issue, like oversubscription - and they all monitor that and adjust quickly. An event like a Super Bowl undoubtedly tests the limits.

To be clear though, I have never seen persistent/constant low resolution or frame rate with any streaming platform, PSV, Hulu+Live or any other. We did have cable or satellite for decades and I still see them in bars and neighbors homes, no noticeable difference.

 

[JoeWras]

To be clear though, I have never seen constantly low resolution or frame rate with any streaming platform, PSV, Hulu+Live or any other. We did have cable or satellite for decades and I still see them in bars and neighbors homes, no noticeable difference.

The occasional drop out is not the same as ramping back frame rate.

I, unfortunately, have seen it. When I first cut the cord, I had both Hulu+ and YTTV in trial periods. The difference was noticeable for certain Hulu live sports events.

After digging around a bit, I found out that Hulu+ actually was doing the right thing and sending some sort of "get the best stream available" handshake to my Roku, but my Roku was not new enough to handle it, so Hulu defaulted to some crappy stream.

More info here: https://help.hulu.com/s/article/video-quality

YTTV was actually just blasting a "good enough" stream to me and it looked fantastic.

Midpack, if you are using the PS4, you are probably golden. That device tends to have really good support.

Still, this discussion brings up a point. People don't want to mess around and worry about this stuff. They don't care about codecs and frame rates. They just want their TV to work.

Streaming may have a way to go before that happens. The good news is that all the newer devices support all the current codes for anything below 4k, so it shouldn't be a problem. 4k support is still going through teething pains. Once all the technology matures, these issues will fade away.

 

[statsman]

Will streaming services take over?

Eventually. Internet TV services, like AT&T Uverse, have stopped taking new customers. I suspect if AT&T could do it and not bleed customers even more than they are now, they would shut down Uverse and force Uverse customers onto their streaming service (oddly named DirecTV Stream), their DirecTV satellite service, or leave AT&T. DirecTV satellite as a separate entity doesn't appear to have much of a future.

Cable TV will be tougher to dislodge, but it will happen. I would imagine their core customer base are people who have been with some sort of cable TV service for several decades. Some of them are cutting the cord, but most will stay with cable as long as it exists. But eventually, the younger demographic will take over.

 

[a60dan]

The subscription model is here to stay, but “paying with your time by watching advertising” has been around for a long time.

We’ve not had CATV in our home and survived with OTA (over the air). OTA is better now than ever.

I see a limited lifetime for CATV companies as they now exist, much like the traditional landline telephone companies.

If we want to see it “first” or “uninterrupted” by ads, we’ll have to “pay” for it.

 

[GTFan]

Eventually. Internet TV services, like AT&T Uverse, have stopped taking new customers.

Uverse is not really an internet service - it's a managed IP service within their network using a tech called multicasting, and you have to use their boxes. AT&T decided to switch to streaming as we know it now with AT&T TV (now DirecTV Stream). You can either use their boxes or your own.

 

[statsman]

Uverse is not really an internet service - it's a managed IP service within their network using a tech called multicasting, and you have to use their boxes.

My mistake. Anyway, Uverse's setup is similar to that of cable (STBs, physical DVR/STB), but AT&T has decided to move toward jettisoning the service (it will happen sooner rather than later). As Uverse customers since moving to Texas in the Fall of 2018, this is a looming reality.

 

[JJpop]

Best way to avoid tracking is buying DVDs at yard sales for cash. Or watch OTA without any connected DVR. Everything else is tracked one way or another, unfortunately.

Your posting on this site is being tracked. What is the difference?