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Cord cutting question with C4


eggzlot

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Hulu or Youtube

using C4 is there a way to create custom buttons or commands or maybe even Alexa commands (least favorable) to select specific channels?

i cant think of any because it’s really not supported by the platforms but maybe I am overlooking something?

we had been using Hulu for 6 months and minus their glitchy app that was my wife’s biggest complaint.  We started a 15 day trial of YouTube tonight which has better channels for us and less money but again that’s the feedback I am getting 

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35 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

I am personally not a fan of cord cutting. Doesn't ever seem to actually give a better experience or save money. You end up buying 2-3 subs to replace cable and then you end up only saving a few dollars a month for a much worse experience

Well Altice TV + Fios Internet is very expensive.

Altice Internet is substandard.  

Fios really limits your ability to use your own hardware, you can easily get Double NAT or there are workarounds but then you start to lose On Demand services or ability to use the Fios Apps, etc

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Recent cutter and was a charter member with Tivo.

1. No direct channel access, it's not C4 it's the services, their interface is specifically tailored to an Apple type remote.

2. Dropped ATT Now (charter DirecTV Now member when it started at $35 now $60) for YouTubeTV.

a. ATT DVR sucks. Price Hikes. Dropped Channels. Poor GUI. Poor Favorite Channels Guide implementation. AT&T.

b. YouTube TV has the best DVR of all of them, decent line up, OK interface, pictures been good, no dropouts.

3. VS Cable. In the end, if you fight for price with your Cable Co. The cost difference comes down to hardware rental fees and BS taxes and fees. Cutting you buy your streamers, Cable pay monthly.

4. Cable still wins with channel flipping, direct access, locals, regional sports, and most importantly, one service. There's no way to have the same lineup without multiple apps. For one, nobody has PBS, that's an app, and likely a 'contribution' fee.

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I *really* wish you could select channels with Hulu.  That would allow programming like "turn my TV on to NBC at 7am."  But, alas, you cannot.

My opinion on cutting the cord:

I had been a happy Dish Network customer for nearly 10 years until I moved into my new home.  I didn't want a Satellite mounted anywhere near my house, and I didn't want the crappy DVR experience that Spectrum has in my area.  We chose Hulu Live which has been fairly decent minus a few hiccups.  Their guide initially sucked, but it's recently gotten better.  The real winner for me is that I can have a TV anywhere in my home and not have to worry about the expense of DVR's/boxes or the presence of RG6.  I would have to have 8 Hoppers/Joey's in my home for all of my TV's.. and that expense just adds up.

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12 minutes ago, RAV said:

Recent cutter and was a charter member with Tivo.

1. No direct channel access, it's not C4 it's the services, their interface is specifically tailored to an Apple type remote.

2. Dropped ATT Now (charter DirecTV Now member when it started at $35 now $60) for YouTubeTV.

a. ATT DVR sucks. Price Hikes. Dropped Channels. Poor GUI. Poor Favorite Channels Guide implementation. AT&T.

b. YouTube TV has the best DVR of all of them, decent line up, OK interface, pictures been good, no dropouts.

3. VS Cable. In the end, if you fight for price with your Cable Co. The cost difference comes down to hardware rental fees and BS taxes and fees. Cutting you buy your streamers, Cable pay monthly.

4. Cable still wins with channel flipping, direct access, locals, regional sports, and most importantly, one service. There's no way to have the same lineup without multiple apps. For one, nobody has PBS, that's an app, and likely a 'contribution' fee.

Yeah I figured no direct channel access due to the Roku/Shield/Apple TV type remotes.  I just wish there was a way to "favorite" them then maybe a way to trigger favorites with a standard remote - not really a C4 thing per se, what if you used a Harmony remote, etc?  Know what I mean

I signed up for the 14 day trial last night for YouTube TV

10 minutes ago, LollerAgent said:

I *really* wish you could select channels with Hulu.  That would allow programming like "turn my TV on to NBC at 7am."  But, alas, you cannot.

My opinion on cutting the cord:

I had been a happy Dish Network customer for nearly 10 years until I moved into my new home.  I didn't want a Satellite mounted anywhere near my house, and I didn't want the crappy DVR experience that Spectrum has in my area.  We chose Hulu Live which has been fairly decent minus a few hiccups.  Their guide initially sucked, but it's recently gotten better.  The real winner for me is that I can have a TV anywhere in my home and not have to worry about the expense of DVR's/boxes or the presence of RG6.  I would have to have 8 Hoppers/Joey's in my home for all of my TV's.. and that expense just adds up.

I had used Hulu for about 7-8 months.  2 price hikes without 1 service added and at least weekly technical issues.  Lots of random Error messages with cryptic codes, and the worst, I paid for ad free but I'd constantly see that Ad yellow box in the corner.  Heck I'd be watching Jeopardy and while Alex was interviewing candidates I could not fast forward because it was an "ad" - WTF.  I'd call, they would look at my account say oh you are add free, let me make a change and reboot your device.  That call would happen every 2-3 weeks.  Hulu also cuts off every sitcom for 10 seconds to go so you miss those last few sketches that are funny - they do not offer a way to extend your recording by 1, 2, 3 mins, etc.

So at this point, I'd rather not go back to Hulu and I'd explore YouTube.

My wife likes to go direct to channels.  But her office IT Dept wants her to have Fios not Altice due to bandwidth constraints, yet Fios if you use their Internet + TV it is very hard (if not impossible) to use your equipment plus not lose services like on screen guide, on demand, the Fios Apps, etc.

so I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.

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Sports are really the thing that keeps me from cutting the cord.  The thing to remember is that if you mainly watch the main networks, like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, that you can get them for free, with better quality, via OTA.  And there are some OTA DVR units available.  So you could cut the cord and keep OTA plus use services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.  That could work for a lot of people.  But not sports watchers, unless you sub to stuff like NBA League Pass,NHL Live,  etc.  And sometimes there isn't the flexibility that you want, like time-shifting while games are still live, etc.

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1 hour ago, zaphod said:

Sports are really the thing that keeps me from cutting the cord.  The thing to remember is that if you mainly watch the main networks, like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, that you can get them for free, with better quality, via OTA.  And there are some OTA DVR units available.  So you could cut the cord and keep OTA plus use services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.  That could work for a lot of people.  But not sports watchers, unless you sub to stuff like NBA League Pass,NHL Live,  etc.  And sometimes there isn't the flexibility that you want, like time-shifting while games are still live, etc.

my wife likes diverse content - its not even like its weekly shows - she gets enjoyment out of finding bad 80's movies or sitcoms she watched years ago to watch again for mindless entertainment.  so her span of channels is large.  Basically I think its a no win game - stick with Altice and suffer internet issues, move to Fios and lose some service and do an unsupported set up or go streaming and wife isnt happy.  There is really no clear cut winner.  Though price is a factor, some of this is also hardware/IT related and not just how many channels can I get for the cheapest price.  I am a sports guy but for months I had Hulu and did not realize I do not get MSG - maybe because the Knicks and Devils are so bad.  But the funny part, the Theater at MSG is called The Hulu Live Theater!  Yet Hulu does not have MSG channel - go figure.  Anyways the point is I can even deal with less sports - I just find myself watching less and less.  So it is a balancing act to keep the wife happy with the service she is used to having but also not messing up our network by using crappy ISP hardware.

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To each his own, and I don't have a wife (anymore) - just me and the kids and they don't really watch TV other than stuff that I have recorded for them in the past and watch Youtube and streaming services.

If you are into movies then subscribe to Criterion.  They have great classic movies and have an app on the popular platforms like Roku, FireTV, etc.

Here in Canada I can subscribe to the two main sports networks, Rogers Sportsnet and TSN for $25/month each with a streaming only service.  But I think that has some limitations around time-shifting games.  And I am paying $50/month for those services so I don't save a ton vs. what I am paying today.

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1 hour ago, zaphod said:

Sports are really the thing that keeps me from cutting the cord.  The thing to remember is that if you mainly watch the main networks, like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, that you can get them for free, with better quality, via OTA.  And there are some OTA DVR units available.  So you could cut the cord and keep OTA plus use services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.  That could work for a lot of people.  But not sports watchers, unless you sub to stuff like NBA League Pass,NHL Live,  etc.  And sometimes there isn't the flexibility that you want, like time-shifting while games are still live, etc.

I'd probably just do OTA/DVR if there weren't a stinking honkin' huge mountain in between me and Farnsworth Peak (where the 'big 5' stations transmit from here in Utah).

But since I have cable, I do like getting college sports.

RyanE

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4 hours ago, LollerAgent said:

I *really* wish you could select channels with Hulu.  That would allow programming like "turn my TV on to NBC at 7am."  But, alas, you cannot.

My opinion on cutting the cord:

I had been a happy Dish Network customer for nearly 10 years until I moved into my new home.  I didn't want a Satellite mounted anywhere near my house, and I didn't want the crappy DVR experience that Spectrum has in my area.  We chose Hulu Live which has been fairly decent minus a few hiccups.  Their guide initially sucked, but it's recently gotten better.  The real winner for me is that I can have a TV anywhere in my home and not have to worry about the expense of DVR's/boxes or the presence of RG6.  I would have to have 8 Hoppers/Joey's in my home for all of my TV's.. and that expense just adds up.

I have 7 TV’s, 1 hopper and 1 Joey. This is where video distribution is the bees knees. 

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On 12/10/2019 at 7:54 AM, msgreenf said:

I am personally not a fan of cord cutting. Doesn't ever seem to actually give a better experience or save money. You end up buying 2-3 subs to replace cable and then you end up only saving a few dollars a month for a much worse experience

AT&T jacked their prices by us, and really for the cost I could get a subscription to YouTubeTV and Disney+ and have a lot left over. The wife has some music account for traveling, and that covers Hulu. We have Prime, so we get Prime Video and Prime Music automatically. She even got the Disney+ on a deal for the next 3 years or something.

Granted, we do tend to limit our subscriptions by choice. We canceled Netflix last year and HBO Now a couple months back.

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/10/2019 at 6:42 AM, RAV said:

4. Cable still wins with channel flipping, direct access, locals, regional sports, and most importantly, one service. There's no way to have the same lineup without multiple apps. For one, nobody has PBS, that's an app, and likely a 'contribution' fee.

YouTube TV just added PBS and keeps adding more channels all the time (no HBO yet but you can get it with Amazon Prime as an add-on or HBO Direct). I love YouTube TV for its super ease of use and access from anydevice and unlimited cloud DVR. I have been using it from when it first appeared and have had very few issues ever, even when I had only 3-5 Mbs internet service at times and still got HD-quality at least at 720p.

C4 works great with Roku and the C4 Mini-port driver so I can create direct links to YouTube TV in the Navigators (which you can't do with an Apple TV as there are no miniport drivers for it yet .. if ever).

However... I wish I could create Favorite Channels in YouTube TV like you can with Cable, Satellite and Broadcast sources... and my customers are starting to ask for that. It's probably a YouTube issue not a Roku or Control4 issue.

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22 minutes ago, Vince Conroy said:

However... I wish I could create Favorite Channels in YouTube TV like you can with Cable, Satellite and Broadcast sources... and my customers are starting to ask for that. It's probably a YouTube issue not a Roku or Control4 issue.

You can customize the guide, using a browser, log into your account. You can select which channels AND what order you want. Which is really great, all networks together at the top, than sports, etc.

Then when in "live" mode, you can go upper left to toggle between custom list and default list. Library and search don't care and work across all channels.

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Does it matter which Roku model (with the C4 Mini-port drive)?

Just switched to YoutubeTV (from DIRECTV) (and using Apple TV) connected to my EA-3.   I am missing the direct access to YouTubeTV - so thanks for the suggestion.  Have thought about using broadcast antenna to be able to access the favorites for local channels.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/9/2020 at 5:58 PM, RAV said:

You can customize the guide, using a browser, log into your account. You can select which channels AND what order you want. Which is really great, all networks together at the top, than sports, etc.

Then when in "live" mode, you can go upper left to toggle between custom list and default list. Library and search don't care and work across all channels.

That's great. But can you then have a direct link from, say, NEEO remote to CNBC in YouTubeTV instead of just YouTubeTV?

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