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OT: YouTube tv

cabbie191

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I’m considering dropping Hulu and subscribing to YouTube TV. (I am not doing this to access the NFL package!).

For those who have experience with YTTV I have some questions.

One of the positive attributes of Hulu is I can stream it anywhere in the US on my phone or tablet and usually cast to a smart tv. (Downside is no easy Hulu access in Europe.)

1) Can you stream YouTube TV on mobile devices?

2) If yes, can you cast to televisions?

3) If yes to #1, does this work overseas?

4) Your overall experience with YTTV. Any pleasant surprises or unexpected disappointments ?

Thanks!
 
I have used YTTV.

I haven't taken the trouble to use it on a mobile device. But I'd be very surprised if it were unavailable on them.

If you have a smart tv, why not just download the YTTV app directly to the TV and skip the casting part?

I have no experience using it overseas.

My overall experience is that YTTV is comparable to any cable service with the advantage that it will save games for you indefinitely. No need for a separate recording device.
 
Youtube tv will let you use it in other locations for short periods of time-- like a few weeks. It works well on a phone and you can cast it. To view overseas you need a fake gps app on your phone, a VPN does not work to hide your location.
 
If you have a smart tv, why not just download the YTTV app directly to the TV and skip the casting part?
Would certainly do that for home use but we travel quite a lot - have grandkids living in other states does that! 😀

Thanks.
 
Youtube tv will let you use it in other locations for short periods of time-- like a few weeks. It works well on a phone and you can cast it. To view overseas you need a fake gps app on your phone, a VPN does not work to hide your location.

Thanks
 
YouTube TV is not cheap...
The standard price for the YouTube TV Base Plan is $82.99 per month, though this price can vary depending on promotional offers for new customers and military discounts for eligible members. Additional costs apply for add-on features like 4K Plus for $9.99/month or premium channels and packages starting at $1.99/month.

Base Plan Cost
  • Monthly Rate: $82.99/month

  • Includes: More than 100 live channels, including local and national news, sports, and entertainment.

  • Other Features: Unlimited cloud DVR, which can be paused or cancelled at any time.
 
Hulu's ad-supported on-demand plan costs $9.99 per month, while the ad-free on-demand plan is $18.99 per month. There are also bundled plans including Disney+ and ESPN+, with the most expensive being the Hulu (No Ads) + Live TV, Disney+ (No Ads), and ESPN+ (With Ads) option for $95.99 per month.
On-Demand Plans

Hulu + Live TV Plans

  • Hulu + Live TV (With Ads): $82.99/month
    • Hulu (No Ads) + Live TV: $95.99/month
    • Live TV Only: $81.99/month
 
Hulu's ad-supported on-demand plan costs $9.99 per month, while the ad-free on-demand plan is $18.99 per month. There are also bundled plans including Disney+ and ESPN+, with the most expensive being the Hulu (No Ads) + Live TV, Disney+ (No Ads), and ESPN+ (With Ads) option for $95.99 per month.
On-Demand Plans

Hulu + Live TV Plans

  • Hulu + Live TV (With Ads): $82.99/month
    • Hulu (No Ads) + Live TV: $95.99/month
    • Live TV Only: $81.99/month
Our current Hulu plan is $95/month.
 
We use YTTV. We bought a small connector for our smart phones to connect a TV with a USB port…works better than casting. No issues with using it while traveling. The interface is light years better than HULU. Look for an initial discount, you should be able to get a reduced rate for the first 6 months.
 
We have YTTV because of the NFL, we haven't used it much otherwise although we are considering going to it full time. Often, we watch shows not on our DirecTV for some reason (missed recording, etc.) on the specific appropriate apps that we subscribe to.

The problem with DirecTV is it is awful expensive, especially with our add-ons, although it is familiar and a recent repair once again enables recording of 9 lines at a time. OTH, You Tube TV is much more reasonable, but doesn't carry every station, although I admit it isn't much that's an issue.
 
Some might want to try this free site. A tech guy I follow on FB mentioned it.



  • TV Garden (Unverified) TV Garden is a free streaming platform that offers thousands of live television channels from around the globe. Users can explore a wide range of categories, including news, music, documentaries, and more. The site features an interactive 3D globe interface, allowing viewers to select channels by country or category easily.

Is TV garden a legit streaming service?
  • Yes. TV Garden curates and indexes only freely accessible and publicly available streams from legitimate sources. No pirated content, no shady links. Plus, with no login required, you never share personal information or data—privacy-first streaming.

 
We have YouTube TV and really like it.

You can absolutely stream on mobile devices. The interface is a little fidgety for me because I am Deaf and need captioning, but for the most part it's easy enough to use. And as an added bonus you can stream on up to 3 devices at once. See my picture of my living room during March Madness (we only have two TVs in that room in March - I'm not addicted to TV!). What you don't see in the picture is my laptop streaming ANOTHER game (I love both the men's and the women's tournament so I have ALL THE GAMES ON whenever possible). This also comes in handy because I travel for work so I can watch on my iPad or my iPhone wherever I am and my husband can still watch at home as well. Our TVs have the app installed so we don't have to cast, but we have done it before (nationwide, haven't tried it internationally).

We also have come to really like the "split screen" option - if you look at the TV on the left of my picture, there are two games being shown simultaneously. They do up to 4 games in one screen, although I find that really hard to watch. Basketball is too fast to have that much action happening in front of you all at once! Last weekend we watched a WNBA game and two NFL games at the same time on one screen. During the Olympics we could watch several events at the same time. That being said, we have large TVs (mine is 55 inches and my husband's is 75 inches). I couldn't do it on a smaller screen. This is an evolving feature and isn't available for every game, but it is becoming a more common offering.

Another perk is you can set it up so that YouTube TV will record things for you and keep them in your "library". We record college basketball, college softball, college volleyball, etc. We literally can set it to record "women's college basketball" and it will record whatever games are running for the duration of the season. I forget how much it will store, but it is a decent amount as long as you watch somewhat regularly. I have been able to access and watch these saved games on my iPad on the road.

Not being able to watch UCONN games last year was really frustrating after they dropped SNY, but otherwise we've been pretty happy with the offerings. Been a couple threats of discontinuing the contract with ESPN, but so far so good. We get a lot of sports, which was our main goal, and enough other channels that we don't feel like we are missing out on anything. Which reminds me of another feature (might be common among streaming services, I don't know). You can set up the app so that it only shows the channels you want under your account identity, and arrange those channels in the order you would like. My husband has all the sports channels and only a few others. I have all the sports channels and more of the "fluff" like USA, The Food Network, BBC America, etc.

The cost of YouTube TV has gone up quite a bit in the past few years. For now we feel like it is worth it, and we are lucky enough to be able to afford it, so on we go.
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I'm not sure of how long recorded videos are accessible on YouTubeTV, but with Hulu Live, they are only saved and accessible for nine months. This means that my 2025 UConn post season games will disappear in December and January.
I believe that when I subscribed to YouTubeTV, that there wasn't an expiration date for recorded videos.
 
We have Spectrum Streaming, $270/ month.
The price includes
-Cable Internet
-Cable TV
-Cable Phone

The movies includes Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max Basic With Ads, ESPN Unlimited, Paramount+ Essential, Peacock Premium with Ads, FOX One, AMC+ with Ads, ViX Premium with ads..

I like it is simple by put everything together and price is OK.
 
Some might want to try this free site. A tech guy I follow on FB mentioned it.



  • TV Garden (Unverified) TV Garden is a free streaming platform that offers thousands of live television channels from around the globe. Users can explore a wide range of categories, including news, music, documentaries, and more. The site features an interactive 3D globe interface, allowing viewers to select channels by country or category easily.

Is TV garden a legit streaming service?
  • Yes. TV Garden curates and indexes only freely accessible and publicly available streams from legitimate sources. No pirated content, no shady links. Plus, with no login required, you never share personal information or data—privacy-first streaming.

I just tried this on my phone. I’m impressed.
 
We have Spectrum Streaming, $270/ month.
The price includes
-Cable Internet
-Cable TV
-Cable Phone

The movies includes Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max Basic With Ads, ESPN Unlimited, Paramount+ Essential, Peacock Premium with Ads, FOX One, AMC+ with Ads, ViX Premium with ads..

I like it is simple by put everything together and price is OK.
Our rural Wisconsin county took advantage of the infrastructure grant program and hired Spectrum to provide broadband access to all residents in the county, with one major exception - they aren’t required to service those who live on private roads which is our situation. However since all households in our neighborhood have said they want it, we’re hopeful we’ll get service this fall.
 
I have been using yttv as my tv provider for several years now. Over this time, the price has more than doubled and a few key channels have been dropped (sny, nesn, etc.). Even with that frustration, I still think it’s a good product that I would hate to give up.

Basically, you can watch yttv on any device that has an internet connection. This portability allows me to watch or listen to tv broadcasts while riding in a car, sitting in a waiting room, or anywhere else where I need some entertainment to pass the time. Often I start watching something on my home tv and finish the viewing somewhere else. It also allows me to watch one thing while my wife is watching something else right next to me (keeping everyone happy).

The best yttv feature is the unlimited recording to a personal library. Because there is no limit, I simply record anything I may want to watch and avoid “live” tv altogether. This way I watch the parts of the broadcast I want to see and fast forward over all the time wasting junk (commercials, talking heads, etc.). Plus, this allows me to watch or rewatch anything whenever I feel like it. The only limitation with this approach is that “dormant” library recordings may get deleted by yttv after a year or so.

Regarding portability while traveling…. watching local tv channels live is a problem when traveling out of the local region. I’ve also had problems with the entire yttv platform being blocked while roaming outside of the US. For both issues, I believe a VPN could be used to override the problem (I don’t have one myself).

Lastly, when sny was dropped by yttv, I reluctantly “bit the bullet” and purchased Hulu live for the wbb season (only). In my view, l found yttv to be more user friendly with better features than Hulu live. It should be a pretty easy to make the switch if you choose to do so.

Good luck.
 
Interestingly, I did a similar search in June, when I wanted to dump Comcast and look at streaming services. My two requirements were UConn WBB and, less importantly, the YES Network for the Yankees.

Using some AI, this document is what I finally created. It includes channels and pricing as of June 2025.

P.S. I went with YouTubeTV.
 
The price I cited was pre-tax.

But it’s now an obsolete data point - after I started this thread I got an email from Hulu informing me of yet another price increase.
This is a bit of a digression but -- I can remember our first tv when I was a snot-nosed, always-getting-into-trouble kid was a B&W Philco 21" that used rabbit ears on top of the television set. The three main channels - ABC, CBS, NBC - were free but the only ones available through local affiliates and were "on the air" only from 4PM to 11:00 PM after the news, weather and sports (all local, nothing national or international) when they signed off showing the American flag waving in the wind and playing the national anthem.

Here's the thing: the entertainment factor for us at that time was as good or better than anything available today. It was a special time for the entire family to sit watching tv shows on the only television in the house. And that Philco wasn't fastened to the wall because it came in a beautiful mahogany box that sat on the floor and weighed over a hundred pounds.

Has anything changed?
 
This is a bit of a digression but -- I can remember our first tv when I was a snot-nosed, always-getting-into-trouble kid was a B&W Philco 21" that used rabbit ears on top of the television set. The three main channels - ABC, CBS, NBC - were free but the only ones available through local affiliates and were "on the air" only from 4PM to 11:00 PM after the news, weather and sports (all local, nothing national or international) when they signed off showing the American flag waving in the wind and playing the national anthem.

Here's the thing: the entertainment factor for us at that time was as good or better than anything available today. It was a special time for the entire family to sit watching tv shows on the only television in the house. And that Philco wasn't fastened to the wall because it came in a beautiful mahogany box that sat on the floor and weighed over a hundred pounds.

Has anything changed?
Now we have a 3 inch device who can make phone calls and watch basketball games or world news, we call it
I-Phone.
 
Some might want to try this free site. A tech guy I follow on FB mentioned it.



  • TV Garden (Unverified) TV Garden is a free streaming platform that offers thousands of live television channels from around the globe. Users can explore a wide range of categories, including news, music, documentaries, and more. The site features an interactive 3D globe interface, allowing viewers to select channels by country or category easily.

Is TV garden a legit streaming service?
  • Yes. TV Garden curates and indexes only freely accessible and publicly available streams from legitimate sources. No pirated content, no shady links. Plus, with no login required, you never share personal information or data—privacy-first streaming.


Jeez, thanks, now I get to waste all my free time surfing all these channels 😀. I don't understand how they can do that legally. Seems too good to be true but seems to work.
 
Jeez, thanks, now I get to waste all my free time surfing all these channels 😀. I don't understand how they can do that legally. Seems too good to be true but seems to work.
a few points I noticed.

You can make favorites on the pages, by clicking on the star on top of the page you are watching.
For some reason I cant sort the pages I mark as favorites, alpha, numerical, or by country. Again, I do not use the app.
There is no guide on the pagesyou look at or bookmark, so you might not know when something is on, unless you look it up on the actual sites pages. Example, it has 4 Showtime sites but I dont know what is up next, unless I go to a Showtime guide.

There is also Smartbox that is available for $400-$500 on some internet sites. It has been around for 7 years as I know an American Ex-Pat in Greece who has had it for that time period. It is sold on Amazon and does similar things. there is no monthly fees and it goes thru an internet connection. It has tons of channels including all ESPN's Fox's, Ballys, etc.. Plus a ton of local channels, so if you are a fan of Denver Broncos but cant see their games you can on this site. For a one time fee of $500 it saves a ton on cable bills. If it has been around this long, I dont think there is a copyright issue, it would have been shut down long ago.
 
This is a bit of a digression but -- I can remember our first tv when I was a snot-nosed, always-getting-into-trouble kid was a B&W Philco 21" that used rabbit ears on top of the television set. The three main channels - ABC, CBS, NBC - were free but the only ones available through local affiliates and were "on the air" only from 4PM to 11:00 PM after the news, weather and sports (all local, nothing national or international) when they signed off showing the American flag waving in the wind and playing the national anthem.

Here's the thing: the entertainment factor for us at that time was as good or better than anything available today. It was a special time for the entire family to sit watching tv shows on the only television in the house. And that Philco wasn't fastened to the wall because it came in a beautiful mahogany box that sat on the floor and weighed over a hundred pounds.

Has anything changed?
Been there, done that. Airplanes flying overhead would disrupt the picture which would roll on occasion for unknown reasons. Back then ALL TV was absolutely free. When talk started about something called "cable" I thought it was ridiculous that someone would actually pay to watch TV. Now look at us. How embarrassing to be led by the nose by all companies getting very rich off of us with nary a complaint.
 

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