Playstation Vue

• Quality Channels
• DVR Availability
• Standalone Channels and Add-Ons
• Available on Various Devices

Quality Channels

Even Playstation Vue’s most basic package includes many popular channels. Playstation Vue offers four different plans:

• Access $45 per month — This includes 45 popular live TV channel options including kids channels, home channels, news channels, and basic sports channels.
• Core $50 per month — Core acts as as popular live TV plus sports. Core adds 15 more channels, upping the count to 60 total. Many of these are additional sports channels, plus a few entertainment channels like IFC and TCM.
• Elite $60 per month — Playstation Vue labels this option as popular live TV plus sports plus movies. This has 30 more channels than Core does. These channels include niche channels and another group of sports networks.
• Ultra $80 per month — Ultra is essentially the same channel lineup as the Elite plan, except it also includes HBO and Showtime. These channels can also be purchased as add-ons to any of the lower tier plans.

DVR Availability

The majority of the live channels that Playstation Vue offers can be recorded to the cloud and watched from anywhere. There is no space limitation and shows will be saved for 28 days. Most other DVR options from other live TV providers limit the number of hours you can have recorded at once, but PS Vue doesn’t. You can save shows as “favorites” and PS Vue will automatically record these shows every time they air.

While you’re traveling, you can watch recordings from your local home channels, but you can’t record the local channels that air where you’re visiting. Some channels (FOX, FX, and FXX) have DVR fast-forwarding restrictions. Some channels cannot be recorded for DVR. These are HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, some on-demand channels, and some local broadcast stations.

Standalone Channels and Add-Ons

If you’d like to just pay for one channel, Playstation Vue offers several channels as standalone channels that act as their own plan. These include HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, HBO Cinemax, EPIX, and Fox Soccer Plus and range from $10–$22 a month. If you’d like to add additional channels to your monthly plan, PS Vue has options for that too. Add-on channels cannot be bought alone, but are paid for in addition to your monthly subscription price. The live TV add-ons include the following:

• Sports Pack $10 per month — This includes FOX, ESPN, and NBC regional and niche channels. The availability of these regional channels depends on where you live. This is a great bang for your buck and perfect for sports fans. This cannot be added on to the lowest plan, Access.
• FX+ $6 per month — This only includes the FX+ (Twentieth Century Fox Film) network with its associated films and original shows.
• Epix Hits $4 per month — This only includes the Epix network, which is mostly movies.
• Español Pack — This includes various live TV channels broadcasted in Spanish.

Available on Various Devices

Despite the name, you won’t need a Playstation console to use this streaming service. However, you’ll note that not all devices are supported. Make sure that your device is on the list before signing up. The following devices are supported on Playstation Vue:

• PS3 and PS4 consoles (other consoles like older Playstations, Xbox, or Nintendo are not supported)
• Roku Players and TVs (firmware 7.7 and up)
• Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV (fourth generation and up)
• Android TV
• On the web (psvue.com/watch)
• Mobile and tablet devices iOS 9 or higher, Android version 5 or higher, Amazon Fire HD6 tablets and above
• Google Chromecast

• Price
• Poor Customer Service
• Short Free Trial
• Confusing Fine Print

Price

Though less expensive than cable and still a good option for those ready to cut the cord, Playstation Vue isn’t the least expensive way to get live streaming. Other options like Sling Orange, Sling Blue, or Youtube TV offer a similar service for a lower price.

Poor Customer Service

Playstation Vue reviews state that when something goes wrong with their service, subscribers have a hard time getting it fixed. Some have complained that they had to wait on hold for an hour before they could get help from a customer service representative and that it often wasn’t even worth the wait.

Short Free Trial

Playstation Vue only offers a five day free trial for its plans, and doesn’t offer any free trial for the highest plan, Ultra. Other streaming services offer at least a week, and often a month-long free trial to test out the product before you commit. You’ll be charged the minute your five day trial ends, with a slim chance of a refund, so make sure to cancel the subscription on time.

Confusing Fine Print

There’s some fine print in what you’re getting when you sign up for Playstation Vue. For example, it’s advertised that you can have up to five concurrent streams, but that actually means you can have three in the same home and two mobile or outside the home. This gets even trickier if you’re using a device (like an iPad) to stream to your TV because that might count as two devices streaming. Another tricky thing is that you’ll get different channels based on your zip code. This mostly makes a difference for regional sports and news channels.