#SPECTRUM TV BASIC CHANNEL LIST FULL#

Just be aware that the experience is inferior to other live TV services that aren’t tied to a cable provider. Even if you spent more on a bigger streaming bundle like YouTube TV, you wouldn’t get live PBS or other public access channels.

#SPECTRUM TV BASIC CHANNEL LIST FULL#

None of those include a full suite of local channels, and only Sling TV offers any sports channels. These days, the only live TV streaming services that start at less than $40 per month are Sling TV ($25 per month), Philo ($16 per month), and AT&T Watch ($15 per month). It might not feel quite like cord-cutting, but Spectrum TV Choice can save you some money. Fair warning, though: I haven’t tested this myself, and Spectrum’s encryption could cause trouble for some HDHomeRun setups in certain markets. You’d have to pay up front for hardware and subscribe to DVR service from those vendors-TiVo charges $15 per month, and HDHomeRun costs $35 per year-but it could still save you money in the long run. Interestingly, Spectrum does allow you to lease a CableCARD, so you can use Spectrum TV Choice with a TiVo DVR or an HDHomeRun Prime. While there’s no DVR, you can still add on-demand shows to your watchlist. Not having a DVR means you don’t have any recourse for disappearing shows or rules against ad-skipping. And when you launch these programs, you’ll often get a message saying you’re not allowed to fast forward through commercials. The NBC show This is Us, for instance, offers every episode on demand, but The Good Place (also on NBC) only covers the current season. In lieu of DVR, Spectrum provides an on-demand video catalog, but the selection you’ll get for any given program is a crapshoot. Spectrum’s hardware alone could cost you more than the actual TV service. For multi-room DVR, the cost climbs to $35 with two boxes, and $7.50 for each additional box after that.

You can rent a DVR box instead of using Spectrum’s apps, but just a single box will set you back an extra $20.50 per month. Spectrum TV Choice’s biggest drawback is its lack of DVR service for streaming devices. Perusing Spectrum’s on-demand menu means running into a lot of programs and episodes you can’t watch. Still, using a bunch of disparate apps is less convenient than having everything in one place. These apps don’t have the same viewing restrictions, and some of them even support 60-frames-per-second video. The good news is that you can use Spectrum TV Choice to log into individual network apps, such as ESPN and Fox Now. You’ll need to do a lot of scrolling just to find things that you’re allowed to watch, and the whole exercise feels like an upsell to a proper cable package. Worst of all, Spectrum’s on-demand menus continue to list content from channels you don’t pay for, as signified with a key icon.Many live channels don’t work on mobile devices, and the app doesn’t work at all on TV devices. Your ability to use Spectrum’s service outside the home is also limited.Oddly enough, some channels did support 60 frames per second when I tried Spectrum TV Choice last year, but they no longer do. Video quality was limited to 30 frames per second on every channel I tested, meaning you won’t get smooth motion for live sports, news, and talk shows.Spectrum’s apps work well on a basic level, but they do have a few annoyances and limitations: Roku’s mini-guide makes channel-flipping easy.

Spectrum tv basic channel list