Cutting the cord to cable tv, Sony Vue may be your answer

Yep, I remember getting an email a couple of months ago from uverse about this. That would have prevented me from switching to Sony Vue for cable had I still had that service. But Time Warner has come through quite nicely. For a year.

By that time, I'm probably switching to google for everything.

 

2 weeks into using Sony Vue and a few thoughts:

1) Using the ipad with chromecast is the easiest of the interfaces (touch sceen naturally helps in that regard) but lags the longest in switching between channels (about 4-5 seconds vs 1-2 seconds on PS3 or Fire TV).
2) Using PS3 is the most cumbersome of interfaI fices but responds the quickest in terms of switching channels.
3) Fire TV offers the greatest balance in terms of decent interface and decent response time changing channels.

I find myself using the Ipad in the living room and then in the bedroom where I have Fire TV, I use that.

 

I haven't used the Vue app but the Roku 3 and 4 lag time between different apps is less than 3 seconds. Some of the apps like CNN take a slight bit longer but around 5 seconds to load. Once you click on a show within any app it is pretty instant.

 

yes the biggest complaint I have is the failed attempt at a tv guide, it just isn't responsive enough (at least on the PS3, it's ok on Fire TV) and lacks features necessary to make it a robust and useful tool

I am expecting this is something they are working hard at right now and the service will become much more usable and looking a lot like cable. Otherwise, it will be hard for people to move over. I had a friend who wants to cut the cord and he came over this weekend and his conclusion was that it was not worth the hassle of the clunky and somewhat poorly responsive interface as well as having local channels through your antenna (if you want to watch them live).

So still a ways to go but Sony has made the first BIG step in the right direction as far as what they are offering and their price point.

 

Android app came out in the last couple of days, sweet

 

Finally figured out how to perform "last channel" function on the PS3 remote. Hold down the Options (triangle symbol) button.

That helps navigation a ton, especially if the two channels you're going back and forth between are very far apart on the guide.

 

This is a new feature that I just happened to stumble upon. I turn on PS3 this morning and connect to the cable service and they put up an announcement on this new feature. Good to see that things that are lacking are being worked on. Give it a year or two and it will be much more user friendly.

 

Sony needs to update their PS3 and PS4 to go into a sleep mode (not standby mode, but true sleep mode) whereby you could leave your PS3 watching Vue streaming cable and when you wake it up the tv is on playing cable instantly. I can do this with my Amazon Fire tv, luckily.