YouTube NFL Sunday Ticket: Impressions?

[EasternOHBillsFan]

Well, the first Sunday with YouTube's new NFL Sunday Ticket has passed, and so I'm wondering of those who have it, what did you think? 

 

I was very happy with both the picture and the connectivity over the course of the afternoon. It was very easy to switch between games and overall I was very impressed.

[Motorin']

Really liked being able to pick numerous combos of games to have on screen. Usually went with 4 at a time and just toggled between the sound.

 

Did not like how long it took to go full screen on one game, and then back to multiview. 

 

 

[BillsFanSD]

Very happy with it.  I had DTV for about 25 years, and this was my first week with YouTube TV.  Overall I thought this worked really well.  Over the course of my Sunday, I gradually landed on multi-screening my game of choice (which was MIA-SD yesterday pm) along with RZ.  That made it easy to loosely follow all the other games while really watching the one I was most interested in.  The Miami game ended up being the game of the day, but if it had gotten out of hand I could have easily switched to a more competitive matchup and feel like I had a decent handle on how the game had gone up to that point. 

 

I had a handful of short, 1-2 second buffering episodes here and there, but it was no big deal.

 

Thumbs up so far. 

[Max Fischer]

Overall: very good. 

 

Split screen was the way to go, especially with Red Zone. 

 

One option I hope they include is the ability to build your own split screens.  

Edited September 11, 2023 by Max Fischer

[Shaw66]

I liked it too.  My wife and I went blind watching the four screen version, but apparently we can do split screen with just two views?   One game plus red zone makes a lot of sense.   

 

Anyway, I was pleased with it. I bought it just to watch the Bills when I can't get them locally (probably5-6 games a year), but yesterday I quickly found that I will watch it for other games too.  I get the Pats-Jets-Giants every weekend, so being able to watch other teams will be a plus.  

[Xwnyer]

13 minutes ago, Max Fischer said:

Overall: very good. 

 

Split screen was the way to go, especially with Red Zone. 

 

One option I hope they include is the ability to build your own split screens.  

i never saw redzone as an option on the mix?  Plus didnt see redzone as a view available.  Next time not watching Bills game will check that.  Overall I was impressed it worked much better than suspected it would.   I do miss tuning my DVR to the channel and watching the specific pregame on say Bilsl channel especially when they break away to that specific game pregame stuff.   Will miss that but lately been listening more to Sirius Bills feed pregame than in the past.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Xwnyer
add more

[Marv Levy]

Long time DirectTV Sunday Ticket subscriber. I cut the cord this summer so no more dish on the house. I have to say, I liked YouTubeTV alot. Easy to use and no issues with buffering or streaming. I liked the multiview 4 screen too. The best is having access on your phone so you can watch when your wife drags you to the grocery store. 

 

Question for others with YouTube TV unrelated to Sunday Ticket. How do you flip to a specific channel? In other words, with DirectTV or a cable box connection, one could type in channel 8 and it would go to CBS. Or punch 3 and it would go to NBC, etc. But with YouTube there are no numbers for the channels. You always have to go to the guide to find/scroll to the channel you want. Its annoying but maybe I'm missing something? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Marv Levy

[Max Fischer]

45 minutes ago, Xwnyer said:

i never saw redzone as an option on the mix?  Plus didnt see redzone as a view available.  Next time not watching Bills game will check that.  Overall I was impressed it worked much better than suspected it would.   I do miss tuning my DVR to the channel and watching the specific pregame on say Bilsl channel especially when they break away to that specific game pregame stuff.   Will miss that but lately been listening more to Sirius Bills feed pregame than in the past.

 

I haven't watched a pre or post-game show in years. I find the availability of content so ubiquitous that it makes the pre-game shows irrelevant. 

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

Pros: multi view even can incl red zone and locally televised games that ST blacksout. Streaming was smooth and worked well for 8 hours of football. Ease of use and menu navigation was much better than the former

 

con: can’t customize split screen view and not every combination was available, for example I could not get pats and phins game on same split. 
 

all in all it was much better imo. 

[NewEra]

It’s amazing.  Thank god this happened.

 

i was able to watch  every game at the same time and from my couch.  Never been done before on only 2 TVs.  

 

Maybe I missed how to do it, but I just wish there was a way to customize which games to watch in multi view.  I had to flip through every option in order to find the right set up. Took longer than I would’ve liked.  Small gripe

8 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Pros: multi view even can incl red zone and locally televised games that ST blacksout. Streaming was smooth and worked well for 8 hours of football. Ease of use and menu navigation was much better than the former

 

con: can’t customize split screen view and not every combination was available, for example I could not get pats and phins game on same split. 
 

all in all it was much better imo. 

I was.  Just took lots of scrolling.  But I agree, having the ability to choose your games would be ideal

Edited September 11, 2023 by NewEra

[Simon]

22 minutes ago, Marv Levy said:

Question for others with YouTube TV unrelated to Sunday Ticket. How do you flip to a specific channel? In other words, with DirectTV or a cable box connection, one could type in channel 8 and it would go to CBS. Or punch 3 and it would go to NBC, etc. But with YouTube there are no numbers for the channels. You always have to go to the guide to find/scroll to the channel you want. Its annoying but maybe I'm missing something? Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

This is the one thing I've been wondering about before I commit.

I have no interest in having more than one game on my screen at a time but want to be able to flip around between 3-4 games quickly like you could with DTV.

I hope somebody pops in to say this is easily done.

[NewEra]

3 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

This is the one thing I've been wondering about before I commit.

I have no interest in having more than one game on my screen at a time but want to be able to flip around between 3-4 games quickly like you could with DTV.

I hope somebody pops in to say this is easily done.

You just find the multi view box with the 3-4 games you’re interested in and click on the one you want to watch full screen.  During commercials or any time you want to watch one of the other games, hit back and you can pick the one you want.  It’s incredibly easy

 

edit: you can choose to watch one game on one screen from the multi view by clicking on a game

Edited September 11, 2023 by NewEra

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

So far I love it.  Best thing about it, besides NFL Package, is that there is no need for an antenna.  I can stream from any smart TV in my house, garage, other house/location, phone, etc.  And when I am out camping or hunting without signal, I can simply use my STARLINK and watch YTTV without fail.  

 

And half the price I was paying for DTV.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Lieutenant Aldo Raine

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

28 minutes ago, Marv Levy said:

Long time DirectTV Sunday Ticket subscriber. I cut the cord this summer so no more dish on the house. I have to say, I liked YouTubeTV alot. Easy to use and no issues with buffering or streaming. I liked the multiview 4 screen too. The best is having access on your phone so you can watch when your wife drags you to the grocery store. 

 

Question for others with YouTube TV unrelated to Sunday Ticket. How do you flip to a specific channel? In other words, with DirectTV or a cable box connection, one could type in channel 8 and it would go to CBS. Or punch 3 and it would go to NBC, etc. But with YouTube there are no numbers for the channels. You always have to go to the guide to find/scroll to the channel you want. Its annoying but maybe I'm missing something? Thanks in advance for any insight.

This is a limitation of the service and it is quite annoying.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

8 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

This is the one thing I've been wondering about before I commit.

I have no interest in having more than one game on my screen at a time but want to be able to flip around between 3-4 games quickly like you could with DTV.

I hope somebody pops in to say this is easily done.

Easily done with caveat, if you are used to streaming you know it’s come with the buffer load delay when you switch ‘channels’, something like 5-10 seconds.  
 

This might be annoying flipping around if you are used to that. 

[BBFL]

18 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Pros: multi view even can incl red zone and locally televised games that ST blacksout. Streaming was smooth and worked well for 8 hours of football. Ease of use and menu navigation was much better than the former

 

con: can’t customize split screen view and not every combination was available, for example I could not get pats and phins game on same split. 
 

all in all it was much better imo. 

Definitely see this being integrated if not this season then certainly next. 

Custom split screen like DTV could do that is. 

[Rico]

31 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

This is the one thing I've been wondering about before I commit.

I have no interest in having more than one game on my screen at a time but want to be able to flip around between 3-4 games quickly like you could with DTV.

I hope somebody pops in to say this is easily done.

If you save ‘NFL’ to your library, when you click on the NFL icon, all games currently being played will line up in a row. If you’re watching a game and you have say a Roku, just hit left to back out of the game, scroll to the next one you want to watch and hit enter, EZ.

[MasterStrategist]

I'm eh on it.  Mostly because I still have DirecTV and prefer not to flip between inputs (cable to smartv, for local games since those are backed out on ST).

 

It is a better setup for non-DirecTV subscribers, I'm sure.  Especially from a cost/contract perspective and ability to quickly get the programming available.

 

Pros:

1. Streaming quality and speed (initial concerns of lag, but was only reported as 10 sec)

2. Multiview, more on this below as it could be improved

3. Toggling between games is very east

 

Cons:

1. I liked the old DirecTV 8 screen (all games at once) or ability to select the 4 game. (Related to mutliview experience)

2. Liked Directv showing scores and field position of all games (related to multiview/interface)

3. Mutliview: nice, but preferred they didn't have presets and you could pick/select.  Unless I'm doing something wrong, I also couldn't see local/blackout games (on a mutliview, which used to be a Directv option under 8 or 4 games)

4. Changing inputs: for cable subscribers only, biggest gripe is having to change input...if a game is locally broadcast.  Having Directv, it was faster in Years past to just change the channel.

 

Overall, if you're a non-Directv subscriber, then I'd say it's a better experience.  I'm likely behind the curve in "cutting the cord", which is probably the next decision

[Maybe Someday]

The streaming quality was better than I thought it would be.  I expected some week 1 hiccups but didn't have any issues at all.  

 

The only slight gripe I may have is with the Redzone channel.  I thought they bounced around a little too much.  Like when Chargers were driving, I believe toward the end of the 1st half, and were actually in the Redzone but they left to show a kickoff in another game.  I don't think they missed a play but I found it a little annoying.

[Ned Flanders]

Only con for me is that the games were all at the bottom of my listings and Red Zone was near the top...need to change RZ down to the bottom of the listings with the other games.