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I knew that this was coming, and while it is great that more people will have access to it, it is most likely going to be a worse experience in some ways than it is now. Yes, I know streaming is the future (and most of the present), but having programs stored locally on a DVR hard drive will always make FF/REW, skipping through programs, 30-sec skip, etc. better than streaming. I have been a DTV/ST subscriber and heavy DVR user for at least 20 years now, and will continue to use DTV as long as I can continue to use my local DVR because of the TV watching experience. I will miss having ST available on that same platform and easily accessible to switch back and forth from, and I will miss the ease of flipping around to different games from the 8-game screen. Because I live in the Philly area, I have had to have some other service alongside DTV for watching local sports, so I know what the experience of watching sports on YouTube TV and Xfinity's cloud DVR is like, and it isn't as good. I'd love to be pleasantly surprised by the new ST service, and I will give whatever it is a chance, but for me it is going to mean a third service to watch what I watch on two services now. </pointless rant>

 

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I have a problem that I don't think anybody has addressed in all this. My husband and I follow four football teams. With DirecTV, we can record three games while watching one semi-live. That way we can fast forward through all the commercials on the first game and then do the same on the other three. I guess nobody else follows more than one team? Plus I know this requires an immense amount of discipline to stay off the internet during the games.

I just don't know what you can do with streaming. Will they allow you to watch it on a delayed basis and fast forward through commercials? The few times I have checked out football games on Amazon, they still have the commercials. And I'm pretty sure you have to wait until it's entirely completed to watch it and then fast forward. That certainly something I don't want to do!

In addition fast forwarding on a streaming service is pretty damn hard. Every service acts differently on the way they do it and it's definitely not as easy (or smooth) as doing it on DirecTV.

So so no, I am definitely not happy about Sunday ticket going to a streaming service.

Cheryl

I only have one team, but I follow the whole NFL, so I definitely agree with your concerns. I love to be able to record multiple games (and the redzone channel sometime) and then when I have time skim through them to catch up, and switching games and fast forwarding is never as good on a streaming service. As I mentioned, I have used xfinity stream and YouTubeTV for my other local sports teams, and the skimming through experience has been terrible. Plus just watching xfinity stream is glitchy at times. Again, the technology is always improving, so I hope it eventually matches the experience on DTV, but I am very skeptical.

 

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Short Cuts is pretty much a full game broadcast, dependent upon what you consider a "full game rebroadcast." I've used it several times through a week to get caught up on games I didn't get to see much of during a Sunday early/late window.

For a lot of people on this thread, I honestly get it. They know a system (DVR functionality, etc.) and the idea of moving away from a system they're familiar with isn't a comfortable feeling. It's not likely going to be the same, but I'm still a believer that Sunday Ticket will be a solid product moving forward in a streaming world.

As one of the ones not looking forward to this, I get it too - streaming is coming and it probably will be a solid product. I'm definitely not anti-new tech (I've been using home PCs since before most of the posters here were born, most likely), and I stream lots of content. I just have been very disappointed in any sports streaming I have done, so I really hope they improve that and keep as much of the current functionality as possible. I'm also hoping that a much wider potential audience means a cheaper price point (not holding my breath), as I doubt there will be the types of discounts many of us are used to calling and begging for every year (I definitely won't miss that process - I have always hated the game of pretending I'm going to cancel just to get a discount, but felt silly paying full price when so many other weren't).

 

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You are making some huge assumptions about losing DVR functionality or precise control. YouTubeTV and SlingTV both offer DVR capability and neither are limited to the amount of storage in your local device. Whoever ends up with NST will be highly motivated to deliver a very good viewing experience to those paying for this premium service.

Having used Xfinity's cloud DVR and YouTubeTV's DVR for watching sports (I'm in the Philly area and can't get my local (non-NFL) teams on DTV), and neither are as good as the local HD on my DTV DVR. The tech is improving, so hopefully it will be better than what I have used in the past, but things like easily switching games and especially 30-sec skip are unlikely to be very high on the priority list for a new ST streaming service.

 

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Wow is xfinity dvr that bad lol

And this year I have noticed more phillies games on D* via the 700s.. I wonder if your able to view?

See if your able to view tonight's game on 733

I know in the past D* didn't carry many phillies feed games . And I'm not a 76ers fan so didn't play close attention but I think they had the 76ers feed available . I know we don't have a dedicated channel for NBC SN Philly but have noticed more and more games

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Xfinity DVR isn't terrible (better than YouTubeTV), but the response time for trying to do anything is slow - it's probably only seconds, but often it is enough that I'm pressing buttons multiple times trying to skip ahead, or change channels, etc. If it was the only system I had ever used, I probably wouldn't think it was that bad, but compared to the DTV interface, it's clunky.

I don't look in the 700's for any local games, since I have never purchased any of the MLB, NHL or NBA DTV packages, since the Philly games are blacked out for me because they are on SN Philly. The only games I can watch on DTV are the few national broadcasts, Fox/ESPN/TNT, etc. The MLB/NBA/NHL channels (in the 200's) are blacked out whenever they show a Philly game as well. I miss the days when DTV was trying to force Comcast to let them carry SN Philly (Comcast SportsNet at the time), but after years of fighting, it looks like they gave up on that battle.

 

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I have used DirecTV streams DVR and it's VERY good. I liked that it skipped 15 seconds rather than 30 which made it much finer to stop at points of the show. It was VERY close in functionality to the HRxx boxes. So yes, the tech is getting better.

Glad to hear that, I'm just going by what I have used personally, of course, and in the end, all I am hoping for is to be able to enjoy the games as much as I do now.

Honestly we know very little of how it's going to work or how much it's going to cost. We don't even know who's going to provide the service. I have no problem with streaming because that's just the way things are going. You'll lose some functionality, but you might gain some as well, and certainly it will be available to a larger base.

This is really the gist of all of this - we don't know much yet, and some of us are just more skeptical of what we are going to end up with than others, but I hope I'm wrong and I love the new service more!

 

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Any luck did ch 733 work ?
Its definitely NBC SN Philly


Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

No, when I try 733, it says that it is blacked out.

 

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You've completely missed his point. Anyone who's watched TV for the last 70 years knows how advertising is the life blood of TV (not to mention ANY kind of media). Nobody is disputing that. The argument for a la carte pricing is that it's cheaper to bundle 5 channels together (even though some are low viewership) than it is to charge for each, thus if everything is a la carte, they you will pay more for channel. Imagine if you had to pay separately for TBS, AMC, USA, your locals, ESPN, and other popular channels. That would add up. You might pay for JUST those channels you want, but you'd end up paying the same for say 20 channels as you would for 85 (just throwing out arbitrary numbers). So even though you might want to just watch TBS, you will also get a few channels you don't normally watch. Would you rather pay $5 for each of those 20 channels or get those 20 channels plus 60 more you may only occasionally watch for the same cost (and perhaps discover an obscure channel you might enjoy that you wouldn't pay for otherwise)?

We are even seeing it play out somewhat in the streaming world. Disney bundles it's three major channels for less than paying for all three separately (and perhaps the same or less than paying for TWO of them separately). We'll see other forms of bundling just like that. Why? Because it gets you to watch content you might not (and if it includes advertising even better), and it is cheaper from a logistic standpoint to offer it that way.

If you go strictly a la carte, a few things will happen:
1) You'll pay more per channel and get less content
2) You'll get less channels because the channel provider might decide that they don't have enough subs for a channel and just end it, and that channel might be one YOU watch. For example perhaps you watch Discover Channel and History Channel and Discovery Networks which own both, decides that not enough people are watching History so they disband it. Now you lose a channel you enjoyed. if they were bundled, you'd still get both.
3) You'll get much more consolidation of content, so not as many opportunities to watch a show because now 3 channels worth of content will be on only one channel.

For you a la carte lovers, think about how that's working with streaming services (which many right now are a la carte). You have to shell out $10 per service to get all of the content you want (yeah, you can play the monthly game of picking and choosing but not everybody does that). Eventually you wind paying the same as cable/sate for ONLY what you want, but now there's a service that has THIS show, or another that has THAT show, so you sub to more and more services, and it costs a fortune to watch all that stuff. That's where something like what Disney is doing by bundling help lower the cost. Discovery will most likely bundle their streaming content as well once they figure out their model after buying Warner.

Thank you for putting something I have been wanting to say in such a well written and thought out post. I skimmed through the channels this morning, and between my wife and I, there are close to 50 channels that we have watched at least something on in the past few weeks, there would be no way to get all of this a la carte for a reasonable price. Part of what I like about the packages is that sometimes I will notice a show in the guide on a more obscure channel that looks interesting and I'll watch/record it - those are the things I would miss if I had to pick and choose my channels. I already have to also pay for Hulu (Only Murders in the Building), Netflix (Stranger Things), Amazon Prime (Thursday Night Football), AppleTV (Ted Lasso) and Disney+ (Marvel & Star Wars shows) in addition to my DTV. Unfortunately, I don't see this getting any better as streaming becomes more and more prevalent.

 

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Very weird just called Directv and for some reason I no longer have the Sunday Ticket on my account after having it auto renew every year. Last year they gave it to me for free and the rep said they may contact me to give it to me again for free but I haven't heard anything. Anyone else dealing with this? Last year they have it and they are going to give me a hard time about the discount and not have it auto renew anymore?

Same issue for me (I didn't get it for free last year, just some discounts after a phone call) - I went to look at my account last week and noticed it wasn't listed, which I thought was strange, so I did a chat with a rep and she said that she was adding it back in and that someone would reach out about any discounts. So far, nothing has changed and I haven't gotten an email yet (which I wasn't really expecting anyway), so I will be reaching out again this week.