Sony Expands PlayStation VUE Service Area and Will Add a la carte Channels (1 Viewer)

Sony has expanded the service areas for their PlayStation VUE streaming service to now include Los Angeles and San Francisco, in addition to the launch cities of Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Starting in July, some channels will be available a la carte, beginning with Showtime, Fox Soccer Plus, and Machinima.


http://www.cnet.com/news/playstation-vue-announces-a-la-carte-service-coming-to-sf-and-la/

I'm planning on giving this a try, and when I do I'll post my review here on HTF!

Todd Erwin said:

I'm planning on giving this a try, and when I do I'll post my review here on HTF!

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Todd, did you ever review Vue? I moved to a new home and discovered Spectrum/Charter misled me (shocking, I know!) and they are not able to service my home. I do have ATT* fiber, and need to find a good service to use. Looks like Vue has the channels I want, including the RedZone Channel, and a cloud DVR that seems good at first reading.

* Don't even talk to me about U-verse. That was the worst service I ever had for tv, with constant stuttering and the boxes having to be rebooted, at a price that was just too much. Not for me.

Rodney said:

Todd, did you ever review Vue? I moved to a new home and discovered Spectrum/Charter misled me (shocking, I know!) and they are not able to service my home. I do have ATT* fiber, and need to find a good service to use. Looks like Vue has the channels I want, including the RedZone Channel, and a cloud DVR that seems good at first reading.

* Don't even talk to me about U-verse. That was the worst service I ever had for tv, with constant stuttering and the boxes having to be rebooted, at a price that was just too much. Not for me.

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No, not officially. When I used my trial, things got very crazy and never was able to post one that was in-depth. That was over 4 years ago, and at the time Vue was 720p and 2.0 PCM stereo. Because I was living in SoCal, Vue was able to offer the four local network affiliates (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) but no PBS or CW. The DVR was nice, but if I remember correctly, it only kept programs for 30 days, and the UI on PS3 was Ok, not great, but that may have changed. What I didn't like was that I could not watch live TV or my DVR recordings outside of my home. Vue was still fairly new at the time, and although it was only 720p and stereo, I was actually considering switching to that service and dropping Cox for TV service. Until I called Cox to hypothetically cancel just my TV service, only to find that it would be basically a wash (in other words, no savings) once I unbundled TV from my 3-pack (TV/phone/internet).

Services like PS Vue, YouTube TV, and Hulu Live are good alternatives if you live in a major TV market where the network affiliates are Owned and Operated, like Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, etc. I now live in the Reno market, and all of the affiliates are independently owned (the NBC and Fox stations are even owned by the same company), so the local channels are very limited for me on those services.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm definitely considering signing up for the free trial this weekend.

I had Vue for a couple of years - and I found the video/audio quality "meh" at best. I dropped it a couple of years ago after the Ultra package (which isn't even available anymore I don't think) went up in price. There was quite a bit of pixelation/compression artifacting, and not being in a major metro area I didn't really have locals. They ended up adding them for me before I dropped the service, but I had to contact them directly because it wouldn't detect my zip code correctly (the locals you get are determined by your zip code).
The DVR was unlimited, but it only held recordings for 30 days as mentioned. The interface was a bit clunky through my PS4, perhaps it is better now.

I bought the Apple TV 4K and hooked it up yesterday. Went ahead and took the Vue 5-day free trial. I chose CORE option with the sports add-on. The quality looks pretty good to me, but I cannot tell from ATV what he resolution is. I have some learning to do.
I'll check out the Redzone Channel today and play around with it some more. I like the idea of unlimited DVR, but I do wish they would give you the ability to have a certain amount of storage to keep beyond the 28 day limit.

I chose Vue over other options for three reasons:

• Channel availability
• Unlimited DVR (with the 28-day caveat)
  
• Cost

Let me know how you like it. Vue was 720p last time I checked - they may have improved some since then. My biggest complaint with the picture was the pixelation from compression.

One week later and I am happy to report that I am enjoying Vue. Like you say, it is 720p resolution, but it looks great to me, and the Cloud DVR is working well. Of course, I may change my mind after I have it for more than a month and start to lose shows off of it.

I really haven't had a lot of time to watch this week, but the fact that I was able to watch Redzone last week, and I'm watching it right now as I type this, with no breaks, stutters, etc. has been fantastic.

TCM looks great, and I have local channels on it as well. Good search capabilities to find channels and shows. The Multiview is a neat feature, having the ability to see up to 4 channels at once. I know I'll use this feature more in the future.

I traveled last week and I had no issues using Vue on my iPad on the road.

I'm satisfied to date, and I love the fact that there is no contract, I can cancel anytime. This is 1000 times better than U-verse, which I had at my last residence for a year. It broke up all the time, and I never had a recording that didn't have some stutter issue. This has been a much better experience, and the price is much lower than what AT&T charged me

One item I wish they had is a clock onscreen when I swipe for info.
I'm sure as I use it more I will have more cons and suggestions for what it needs, but right now I am pretty happy with my selection of using Vue to replace cable.

PlayStation Vue is shutting down January 30th...

https://blog.us.playstation.com/201...e-entertainment-to-shut-down-playstation-vue/

With the market about to become more crowded with multiple quality ad-free streaming products, it may turn out Sony made a wise move.

I don't see a growth area for bundles of mostly terrible, ad-filled cable TV networks. These "live" services like Vue have to pay each one of those networks a nickel, dime or quarter for each subscriber and then try to make a little profit after they bundle 30 or so of them.

Wonder if any of those networks will ever be brave enough to just go direct and let people subscribe through an OTT app for the $0.25 or so a month - essentially what they get from these "live" packages like Vue or the others.

Maybe so but, until there is a better option for live sports, I will continue to subscribe to some kind of live TV bundle, currently a YTTV subscriber. I need my regional Fox Sports networks and ESPN/SEC Network.

I think Vue’s bigger problem was branding. With PlayStation in the name, most people were probably confused about what it really was and thought it was something just for PlayStation owners.

Cranston37 said:

PlayStation Vue is shutting down January 30th...

https://blog.us.playstation.com/201...e-entertainment-to-shut-down-playstation-vue/

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I missed this, only hearing about the shut down earlier this week.

Today we are announcing that we will shut down the PlayStation Vue service on January 30, 2020. Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business.

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With all the corporations wanting to do their own app and stream their product, I think it is going to be a lousy situation for consumers who may have to subscribe to multiple services to get what they used to get in a bundled service, and have to pay for products they don't want just because the same large corporation owns them all.

Well, this is the last month I'll be using Vue. Overall it has been a good experience, and now I am looking at a few OTT to replace it.
I enjoy NFL, especially NFL Redzone, so that is one of the channels necessary on my list (along with TCM).
I am still doing research, but I at first had decided on Fubo TV, before I found out that Sling Blue now has NFL Network, and I will assume it will get NFL Redzone next season. Sling is cheaper, and I'm hopeful it will be as good as Vue has been for me. One feature Vue had that was good for sports and news events was multiview (available on the Apple TV), where I could see four channels at once.
Hoping that might be available on another OTT.

John_Bilbrey said:

Let me know how you like it. Vue was 720p last time I checked - they may have improved some since then. My biggest complaint with the picture was the pixelation from compression.

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It seems all the OTTs stream at 720p, according to the research I have done. I'm no expert, so feel free to educate me if you know otherwise. I can say I had very few issues of pixelation, and it cleared up very quickly when it did occur. The bigger issue I had was when I would scroll back the program I was watching, sometimes it would timeout and I would have to restart that particular program again.

I think some channels are 1080p on YouTube TV while others are 720p. I can't find a list though and I'm not at home to check.

I"m hearing good things about YT TV. I may give it a go soon.

Well, I'm trying out Sling TV Blue and.... disappointed. Didn't know how good I had it with Vue.
The biggest issue is no pause on live tv. What the heck? I'm streaming this, and I am not allowed to pause, rewind, etc the live stream?

I'm going to try FUBO TV next.

Rodney said:

The biggest issue is no pause on live tv. What the heck? I'm streaming this, and I am not allowed to pause, rewind, etc the live stream?

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It depends what you're watching. Maybe this will help...

https://help.sling.com/en/support/s...219111-how-do-i-fast-forward-rewind-or-pause-