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I'm looking at changing my DirecTV service to a streaming service. Being considered are Fubo and DirecTV streaming. For those who are currently or planning to use a streaming service, have you considered these two services and if you have, how would you rate them?

I have never used Fubo. I have Direct Streaming. It’s ok. Rocky channel is free. It has some decent older shows.

No, told DirecTV to shove it where the sun don’t shine. Tried Fubo and it sucked for the money just like DirecTV. Been streaming all my tv for 5 years now.

interested in how it came down to those two choices

Why not a Firestick? Jailbreak it, hook it up to your home's internet service wifi, load your own apps using Troypoint.com instructions, install vpn, and you're good to go. The world is your oyster at that point.


PS- my neighborhood got AT&T fiber not too long ago and it screams, for the most part.

I can tell you one streaming service that sucks above anything I ever saw. That is Peacock. I signed up to get the first 3 seasons of Yellowstain, but as soon as I finish that, Peacock is gone. Browsing it's offerings is a trip into a world of mainly African freak show offerings, many of whom are confused about what sex they were born as. And the commercials....I can't imagine what demographic they could be aimed at...some substrata of human society it would seem.

I really like YouTubeTV.

Don’t understand the jailbreak but ok.
I have 2 roku3 I bought back in 08-09 still functions fine. Have Ethernet or WiFi. HD is good as any. Add apps or services as you like.
There are a lot of things Roku offers for free through the box that you won’t find on a smart TV or puter using the app.
Free movies and free tv which is mainly older series.
Pluto TV is another free service that’s pretty good, movies and shows on demand (free as it’s in the daily playlist.) live TV just like Roku free has commercials.
Sling isn’t bad for the price point.
Prime isn’t bad either, although that one is the wife’s decision as she pays for it.
Avoid Disney, AppleTV and the other name brand services as they always find a way to screw your azz in the long run.

if people would spend the $29 on a firestick and spend a couple of hours on Troypoint, they'd see how much it really out there.

Exactly. All-in, includig my monthly AT&T fiber optic, Prime, Netflix, VPN, I'm still under $100.

I'm trying DirecTV stream but can cancel at any time. Might give the troypoint.com a look.

I have been a DirecTV customer for a long time and have a comfort level with them. I looked at Roku because of the sports packages they offer.

I was a DirecTV customer for about 15 years, but it got to the point I was paying $150 or so a month for everything.

They did treat me very well as a long term customer but with a $30 firestick (or Roku) and a subscription to a streaming service I am spending half than that.

You didn't ask, and may already know but I'll post this with the hope it helps

It depends on what you want but the most comparable streaming services, IMO , to DTV is Youtube TV.

The big selling points with YTV is price - its about $64 for their package that includes everything but premium movie channels, and is unlimited DVR service which is very nice. Record as many shows as you want and it keeps them for about 9 months. In my case it also auto records the most popular shows including sports. I would assume that is the same for everyone else. Its pretty cool to click on a college football game halfway thru and it asks you do you want to join live , look at the highlights so far or start at the beginning - and you didn't do anything ahead of time to set that up.

None of that has anything to do with a firestick. You need some type of streaming device to show content from the internet. A firestick is just one of many streaming devices you can buy but they are very popular because they are high quality but also pretty cheap. They run on an android based system but since they are sold thru Amazon, then you don't get the apps thru google, you get them thru Amazon. Amazon offers the standard choices - Netflix, Hulu, VPNs - pretty much all the mainstream apps people would want to use on a streaming device including Youtube TV

People realized though that since it was android based, you weren't limited to the apps available from Amazon. You could "sideload" apps and if you did that, it was called jailbreaking. Troypoint.com is a site dedicated to showing you how to jailbreak your firestick and its really easy. They even have an app to make doing it easier called Downloader.

Now that opens up a bunch of TV options which are a mix of paid and free services, but if you invested some time you would be able to put together a collection of apps where you end up with hundreds if not thousands of channels, access to movies including latest releases - although they might be a recording where some guy snuck a video camera into the theater, TV series and even PPV sporting events. Live TV, especially sporting events is probably the most challenging thing to reliably setup with a streaming device (for free)

Naturally the people footing the bill for all this aren't thrilled with this going on so you want to protect yourself a bit, so many people going this route also subscribe to a VPN. A VPN is basically an alternative route to stuff on the internet where a company says go thru my server(s) before you get to the maybe not 100% legal stuff on the internet, and if anyone is looking they think you live where their server is and have no idea where you really live. They are simple to install, run on your device like an app and you don't think about it again once you set it up. The good ones aren't free, they cost anywhere from $2 to $10 a month depending on how long you subscribe to their services. I have a 24 month deal with one for a total of $56. Another good thing about Troypoint is they tell you what is above board and what isn't.

Another option is IPTV. I would use an IPTV service with the VPN. The same steps for jailbreaking your devices, but is only one app to install. There are several of them out there. They are very slick versions of what you want a cable company to be. Just about every TV channel in the world - basically the cable package of every country in the world so thats , every movie channel, every sports channel including about 200 ESPN+, NFL, MLB, MLS, F1, 24/7 movie channels (there is a Jason Bourne channel, a James Bond Channel, a John Wayne channel, etc.,), plus, in my last choice about 33,000 movies to stream and 9,000 complete seasons of TV series. Every PPV fight. And there is also about 100 adult channels if that matters. Oh, and hundreds of local TV stations - like more than 100 NBC stations - Charlotte, Boise, Birmingham, Detroit, - same with CBS, PBS, Fox, ABC, MeTV, etc. Sounds too good to be true, but its not, but it does sound too good to be legal.

That is $60 for 3 months. But you better use a VPN. They are going after those IPTV providers and trying to shut them down, but for every one they kill, 2 more pop up. In the last 4 years I've gone thru 3 of them. The last one I used lasted more than a year. At the moment they aren't going after people that subscribe, they are only going after the IPTV companies - because they present themselves as legal companies, with high quality websites, technical support, tiered pricing and easy ways to pay (credit card or paypal). Most of them are in countries the US can't do much about. That said there is no way I'd use these services without a VPN. To a subscriber its not really different than subsribing to YoutubeTV or Netflix, so they get to plead ignorance as a consumer, especially during this time where every week there is a new streaming service.

Check out Pluto on your Roku it even has outdoor channels all for free, also RokuTV is decent and free. We have Netflix, Hulu/Disney+(package deal for about $15), Prime comes with our Amazon account. There is a lot of free stuff on Roku if you don't mind commercials of course if you want to avoid the commercials you have to pay. I tried the jailbroke Firestick/Android TV for awhile but its aggravating after a while because you have to constantly fiddle with things to keep it working even halfway decent.

FREE- Find Pluto and/or RokuTV.

Both are free and offer hundreds of TV channels.

Both have a TV style scrolling directory which means you can surf other channels during commercials.

My $45 internet connection is plenty fast enough to run several TVs...Tom

Where do you find them?

How do you get Fubo?

Once you have high speed internet, you can stream any available content. I have Spectrum Gig service and stream Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Motor Trend, Disney+, etc., etc. Most are delivered in 4K which is a better picture than traditional cable services. The best part of streaming services is you can stream to any device and access the content from anywhere that has high speed internet. And you can cancel the service anytime without a lot of drama.

If you have a smart TV accessing the streaming apps is a very simple process.

Wrong. About the worst that ever happens to mine is it loses the wifi connection. You simply Restart your Firestick (NOT Reset to Original Settings / Configuration).

PS- little tip. If your Prime or Netflix account starts to bark about the VPN, there's a toggle on your VPN to set up "split tunneling". That will cure the VPN resistance.

Seriously DUMP your satellite service. Its over priced. Streaming services like YouTube TV, Sling and Hulu are much cheaper, portable and can be used on multiple TV's. provided you have internet service.