Which Streaming Service Do You Like Better: Youtube TV or Hulu?

Streaming TV
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Is Youtube TV better than Hulu? Or vice versa? Tell us which streaming service you prefer!

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Have not tried Hulu TV. We watch very little live.
The very limited DVR was a show stopper.

With YTTV we will start the 6PM news at Dinner between 6:30 and 7… and switch TVs after Dinner. YTTV works for us.

No need to delete stuff for new.

3

We’ve been using YouTube TV for about 4 years and love it. We also have Hulu’s basic plan. A couple of years ago, we tried Hulu Live and didn’t like it at all. Unlike YouTube TV, many shows added to our watch list still had tons of commercials, Many shows only had one or two seasons available, so we couldn’t start them from the beginning. We also found it Hulu Live difficult to navigate, but the basic was not. This could have changed, but we are sticking with You Tube Live.

4

We’ve enjoyed Hulu Live but price started at $44 now $79 per month, ouch. Like the DVR and there’s actually a lot of good movies.

We signed up for Hulu Live when we wanted to watch a certain cable news program at our cabin but didn’t want to buy another streaming service. With Hulu, as long as we sign into our hulu account at home (where the orig plan is for) we can “cast” hulu programs to our cabin tv using our tablet. Contemplating right now if $79 is worth it though.

5

Hulu Plus Live is no longer offering a free 7 day trial. Can’t imagine why not. They offer it on their basic streaming service. Boo! I have been trying out YouTubeTV and wanted to compare it to Hulu Live before ditching cable.

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Continuing the discussion from Which Streaming Service Do You Like Better: Youtube TV or Hulu?:

This was a pretty thorough review, but you left out a few key things I’m still wondering about:
For each service:

  1. when using FF/REW on recorded content (and, for that matter, streaming content), do you get good moving previews of where you are in the stream, like you do with a good DVR like a Tivo, or is it just black with a moving mark on the timeline? This matters a lot for me… I want to see smooth FF/REW to know where i’m at.

  2. can you start watching a show at the beginning WHILE it’s recording in the DVR function, or do you have to wait until the show is over before you can start watching it at the beginning?

  3. YouTube TV used to have a live-TV grid that only went out a few hours… has this been fixed? Is there a noticeable difference in the look or functionality of the grids between the two services?

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I pay $46.00 a month for Sling Blue, plus the NEWS EXTRA package (just for the SCIENCE CHANNEL), and $5 for DVR Plus (200 hours).
Youtube TV does not offer the HISTORY and SCIENCE channels. At $64.99 for Youtube TV, I am saving $227.88 a year. Also when I originally subscribed I got the AIRtv Player, for recording my local channels, for FREE($100). They just recently emailed me a notice notifying me that my old player would no longer work after June. So for FREE, they sent me the latest AIR Player 2 for FREE ($100).

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So here are a couple of answers for YouTubeTV

  1. the FF/RW does a 15sec skip (may be 30 sec on some interfaces). It in effect “pauses” the show. You get a THUMBNAIL in the timeline of where you are at, but for “in progress” TV (catching up to live) or when you are in a YouTube provided commercial (vs a normal commercial) you sometimes get a black screen thumbnail. This is not often enough to bother me. You do have to hit PLAY again to resume content. So the process to skip a commercial would be something like this. Show goes to commecial break. YOu hit FF 8-10 times see the thumbnail is now on your show and hit PLAY. (or that the thumbnail is NOT on your show and hit play to watch the last 2-3 seconds of commercial before show resumes.)

  2. Yes. When you click on a “live” show from the guide (that is set to record) or from the recorded section when it is still in progress, you get an option to start from the begining or “join live”.

  3. No. There is an update that has rolled out to a small number of users\devices with an updated guide that provides description etc, but I have not seen it live for myself. Overall the guide is pretty horrific, especially coming from DTV, BUT after about 6 months of use I discovered I dont use it NEAR as much. With the unlimited DVR, its not about surfing ahead 2-3 days to find a show to hit RECORD on, instead you search for the show and “add to library”. In my use case, using the GUIDE was better for setting a net new recording on DTV because of the wonky way search would bring up 300 seasons and episoids in an unhelpful way, and you wanted to record a specific episoid at a specific time. With YTTV there is no record a single episoid. Once you “add to library” EVERY SINGLE ep is added as it airs or as it pulls down from VOD etc. It really is a game changer that takes a min to get used to.
    There is also no DELETE. The OCD in me hates that after i finish a series (even one that is canceled and I am never going to watch again) it stays on my list for 9 months.

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thanks so much Aaron! Very helpful. I’m still trying to picture how that FF/REW really works in YTTV, but will maybe try it on my own soon. appreciate your helpful comments.
Wish this (or other) recent comparisons would cover things like guide and ff/rew functions… everyone seems to skip these important daily-use UI functions.

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Coming from DirectTV there was a little bit of a learing curve, mainly due to muscle memory with hitting the 30sec skip like 6 times and being done. We tried it for 2 weeks free and by the end of that 2 weeks, I was confident enough it would meet our needs. I will say the Picture Quality does suffer on occasion. Some of that is due to local carriers. We moved from Atlanta to Madison WI, and CBS took a huge nosedive in PQ. I have found myself watching some common shows (FBI, NCIS, etc) on Paramount Plus if I miss them on the broadcast night because the PQ is better, but CBS is really the only one I can say that about.

Also wanted to note that the interface is different between the browser based, GoogleTV app and android app. They are relatively minor (based mostly on logical controller changes) but they are there.

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I can only address your first question about seeing the video as you are fast forwarding it. I am glad someone finally asked that. I got my first VCR in 1977 so that was a must for me.
It depends on your streaming device. At least on the Cloud DVR I use. With Roku it does not, but with Apple TV it does. And I agree with you that feature is mandatory.

1 Like
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We’ve tried both, and both are pretty much okay, but we much prefer the user interface of Youtube. But our Hulu experience was a number of years ago and they might have made improvements. YouTube navigation could use some speed improvements, which I think I’d heard might be in the offing.

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Well, I think that Hulu. I don’t know, maybe I’m used to it. But to be honest, it’s more convenient for me. I connected the application How to Install Kodi on FireStick in 2 Minutes [Step-by-Step] to the wireless device, connected Hulu, and you have everything you need.

14

I have used Hulu for a few years now. But with increasing prices on everything, I’m looking for ways to save a few dollars here and there. After a full day of research, I’ve decided to stay with Hulu, rather than switching to YouTube TV for a few reasons:

  1. I love Magnolia Network. Not available with YT.
  2. My sister, who lives with me, is a sports fanatic (football and basketball). Hulu has the better option for that, especially with the ESPN + Disney
  3. My sister’s grandchildren visit for a period of time - Disney
  4. Even with all the life network channels, I sometime get tired of the repeats when I can’t sleep at 2 AM. The streaming options are only on Hulu. There’s always something new to watch.

For a difference of $5 (currently) I just can’t give up Magnolia Network.

15

I have been a Hulu Live TV no ads subscriber for over three years. There have been many growing pains I’ve endured. For a couple of years I would set up an NFL game to record and it wouldn’t. I have even captured screen shots of the event being scheduled to record and the event never showing up in My Stuff. When attempting to reach out for support, it was always blamed on me. Recently, I have found that the quality of playback has been substandard on my Firesticks and there is a lot of buffering on local programming. The newer Fire devices seem to be better, but I shouldn’t have to constantly buy new devices because they aren’t providing adequate updates. Additionally, I’m paying nearly $100/ month for the service that includes ESPN+ and Disney+. I no longer want these add-ons, but are unable to choose a plan that doesn’t include them with the no ads programming. Out of frustration, I signed up for the 2 week trial for YouTubeTV and was pleasantly surprised by the video quality and lack buffering of local content on my Fire devices. I will reevaluate the two services after the Super Bowl weekend as a comparison, but feel I will be cancelling Hulu Live TV and may add the Hulu No Ads service. The cost will still be less than what I’m currently paying and I will no longer have to pay for the Disney content.

16

I started a trial today with YouTube TV and cannot use Voice Control for this service. I called YouTube; waited 25 minutes, and they confirmed that I cannot use voice control on any TV with the YouTube service. So disappointed

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So disappointed that voice control not available with YouTube TV