Perhaps this is an OT topic, but let's not get bogged down with such minor details.
In an effort to save money, and because I hate cable companies, I cancelled my cable about a month ago and have been using Playstation Vue ever since. My bill before was north of $180 a month for cable/internet for 2 TVs (grr cable box rental fees), and now it's about $95 a month, so it was cut in half.
Before I made the switch, my GF and I made a list of all the channels we watch. Surprisingly, the $50 Vue package had almost all the channels we watch - Food Network, Bravo, TNT, Comedy Central, etc. The biggest omissions were, of course, ESPN and ABC, but I know deals have been reached with Disney and those channels are coming... eventually.... sometimes soon... I hope.
Anyway, after a month, I have to say, I'm very pleased with the service. One of my biggest concerns was speed - how fast would the channels "tune in" when changing channels? Well, the answer is, pretty damn fast, about a second. And that's whether you are putting on a live show or a show that had aired last week. The channel menu is pretty intuitive and we had no problem finding our favorite shows. The DVR feature works as you would expect. We have our added our favorite shows to the "Favorite" system and it automatically records them without issue.
Picture quality is good - no complaints. Someone can probably do an analysis of the flaws of the image quality, but if so, I can't tell. Seems similar to my fios I had for years. There hasn't been any connection issues or pauses or other issues. Once you tune into a show, it's just like normal cable.
It's nice not paying the silly cable company fees, and all I needed to put it on my second TV was a firestick (which I have but have not set it up yet for Vue).
The main con to the service is that you are still paying $50 a month - so it's not "cheap", but it's "cheaper" - half the cost for me (albeit, less channels, but then again, channels I didn't watch). If the channel lineup doesn't satisfy you, then it probably is not a good alternative to cable. Also, it's only available in a few cities, so that's obviously an issue.
I am still waiting for ESPN/ABC, so it's best to have alternate means to watch those channels if you need them. For ABC, I just have a basic old OTA antenna which works perfectly. For ESPN... you might be SOL
In an effort to save money, and because I hate cable companies, I cancelled my cable about a month ago and have been using Playstation Vue ever since. My bill before was north of $180 a month for cable/internet for 2 TVs (grr cable box rental fees), and now it's about $95 a month, so it was cut in half.
Before I made the switch, my GF and I made a list of all the channels we watch. Surprisingly, the $50 Vue package had almost all the channels we watch - Food Network, Bravo, TNT, Comedy Central, etc. The biggest omissions were, of course, ESPN and ABC, but I know deals have been reached with Disney and those channels are coming... eventually.... sometimes soon... I hope.
Anyway, after a month, I have to say, I'm very pleased with the service. One of my biggest concerns was speed - how fast would the channels "tune in" when changing channels? Well, the answer is, pretty damn fast, about a second. And that's whether you are putting on a live show or a show that had aired last week. The channel menu is pretty intuitive and we had no problem finding our favorite shows. The DVR feature works as you would expect. We have our added our favorite shows to the "Favorite" system and it automatically records them without issue.
Picture quality is good - no complaints. Someone can probably do an analysis of the flaws of the image quality, but if so, I can't tell. Seems similar to my fios I had for years. There hasn't been any connection issues or pauses or other issues. Once you tune into a show, it's just like normal cable.
It's nice not paying the silly cable company fees, and all I needed to put it on my second TV was a firestick (which I have but have not set it up yet for Vue).
The main con to the service is that you are still paying $50 a month - so it's not "cheap", but it's "cheaper" - half the cost for me (albeit, less channels, but then again, channels I didn't watch). If the channel lineup doesn't satisfy you, then it probably is not a good alternative to cable. Also, it's only available in a few cities, so that's obviously an issue.
I am still waiting for ESPN/ABC, so it's best to have alternate means to watch those channels if you need them. For ABC, I just have a basic old OTA antenna which works perfectly. For ESPN... you might be SOL
