Opinion Non-Crows AFL 9

[feenix67]

What’s your beef with Kayo?

I've found most of the issues with Kayo - lag, buffering, dropping out - are when using the TV app. All TV apps are different as they need to code them for the relative UI of the TV brand. eg it took them ages to develop an app for Hisense. When streaming from my phone, it's as good as gold.

 

[StonesThrow]

What’s your beef with Kayo?

Average quality stream that doesn't seem to correlate with my internet speed. Weird things happen throughout the games like jumping back to random places for no reason. Last season the stream stuttered for the first 5 minutes of every single game before getting better.

Lack of features like resuming play or jumping to certain parts of the game.

Main menu sucks. It's not easy to find what you want.

I have only used it on a couple of different smart TV's so maybe there's another way that's better e.g. Chromecast.

 

[jenny61_99]

Average quality stream that doesn't seem to correlate with my internet speed. Weird things happen throughout the games like jumping back to random places for no reason. Last season the stream stuttered for the first 5 minutes of every single game before getting better.

Lack of features like resuming play or jumping to certain parts of the game.

Main menu sucks. It's not easy to find what you want.

I have only used it on a couple of different smart TV's so maybe there's another way that's better e.g. Chromecast.

With the new changes this year (the "downgrading" of the "premium" listing from 3 screens to 2) they are starting to televise in 4K for the footy.

 

[Scorpus]

Average quality stream that doesn't seem to correlate with my internet speed. Weird things happen throughout the games like jumping back to random places for no reason. Last season the stream stuttered for the first 5 minutes of every single game before getting better.

Lack of features like resuming play or jumping to certain parts of the game.

Main menu sucks. It's not easy to find what you want.

I have only used it on a couple of different smart TV's so maybe there's another way that's better e.g. Chromecast.

I swear that the content I want to watch is ALWAYS the second option on the main screen.

Like the recent cricket season, the first option would be India vs England, the second option would be Australia vs West Indies

Every time have to take more clicks to get the content I want

 

[Slippery Pete]

Average quality stream that doesn't seem to correlate with my internet speed. Weird things happen throughout the games like jumping back to random places for no reason. Last season the stream stuttered for the first 5 minutes of every single game before getting better.

Lack of features like resuming play or jumping to certain parts of the game.

Main menu sucks. It's not easy to find what you want.

I have only used it on a couple of different smart TV's so maybe there's another way that's better e.g. Chromecast.

feenix67 summed it up well — on some built-in TV apps it’s rubbish. I streamed it through Apple TV and it was pretty good.

My advice would be to do whatever possible to avoid getting stuck in Foxtel’s dragnet.

Plenty of people here will vouch for them being a nightmare to deal with if anything goes wrong or you want to cancel.

Also - clunky hardware (that they own) in your home? Nah.

 

[feenix67]

Average quality stream that doesn't seem to correlate with my internet speed. Weird things happen throughout the games like jumping back to random places for no reason. Last season the stream stuttered for the first 5 minutes of every single game before getting better.

Lack of features like resuming play or jumping to certain parts of the game.

Main menu sucks. It's not easy to find what you want.

I have only used it on a couple of different smart TV's so maybe there's another way that's better e.g. Chromecast.

Would highly recommend Chromecast or Apple TV. I've found almost without exception that the quality and stability of all streaming services is far better via my Chromecast compared to the TV apps.

 

[Slippery Pete]

My experience with Foxtel is the complete opposite of your experience, the couple of times we've had issues they've had a technician (outside contractor) here within 48 hours which is pretty good considering both here in the Victorian Central Highlands and when we lived in Rural Queensland in the Brisbane Valley. Picture quality is excellent and streaming via my PC or tablet works fine with rarely any issues. For the just over $60 monthly great value.

Wait til you wanna cancel it

But yeah, I accept Foxtel suits some, but I think in StonesThrow case if he only wants footy (and other sport) it‘s worth trying to make Kayo work.

You can cancel it with the click of a button, no hardware, no fuss, no dealing with any customer service people.

 

[StonesThrow]

Wait til you wanna cancel it

But yeah, I accept Foxtel suits some, but I think in StonesThrow case if he only wants footy (and other sport) it‘s worth trying to make Kayo work.

You can cancel it with the click of a button, no hardware, no fuss, no dealing with any customer service people.

Thanks all. I'll give this a try this season

 

[StickerMan]

Weighing in here.

My experience using Kayo on the standard Chromecast was horrible, but since upgrading to the Google TV model it had been flawless.

There is a 4K Google TV model as well

 

[Mr_Moogle]

My advice would be to do whatever possible to avoid getting stuck in Foxtel’s dragnet.

Plenty of people here will vouch for them being a nightmare to deal with if anything goes wrong or you want to cancel.

Also - clunky hardware (that they own) in your home? Nah.

Agree with all of this.

I did find one upside. When I had a free trial of Foxtel, the guy who came to my house installed a data point in my living room. I ended up bailing on the trial but now I've got data in my living room.

 

[StonesThrow]

I'm sure old Rupert will be rapt that Stoney would be a subscriber to one of his $$$$ making ventures.

If there's one thing I love more than Murdoch, it's a monopoly.

 

[Scorpus]

My experience with Foxtel is the complete opposite of your experience, the couple of times we've had issues they've had a technician (outside contractor) here within 48 hours which is pretty good considering both here in the Victorian Central Highlands and when we lived in Rural Queensland in the Brisbane Valley. Picture quality is excellent and streaming via my PC or tablet works fine with rarely any issues. For the just over $60 monthly great value.

When I wanted to cancel Foxtel for Kayo they made me sit through a 30 minute exit phone call even though I told them from the beginning there is absolutely nothing they could say that would convince me to stay outside of matching the price of Kayo

Their offer for matching Kayo was $20 more expensive per month, which wasn't even much of a discount on the regular price.

Then for a year after cancelling they would call me every month begging me to sign back up. I had to block their number.

Now that Kayo is about to offer 4K streaming there is no advantage to Foxtel at all. Not to mention the stupidity of Foxtel needing to install a satellite dish on my house when I have a gigabit fibre connection, the clunkiness of their box that has to be an entirely separate device, the pain of trying to get Foxtel on multiple devices or rooms, their horrible solution for accessing Foxtel on PC/mobile...

I would never pay for Foxtel ever again.

 

[Stephen2]

FWIW costs me $229 AUD for WatchAFL for 12 months

EDIT: no Android TV app is a big minus, gotta plug the laptop in to the TV and stream via HDMI. Quality is mid. Can't believe we can't all have nice things in the year {currentYear}. Crazyness

 

[feenix67]

Weighing in here.

My experience using Kayo on the standard Chromecast was horrible, but since upgrading to the Google TV model it had been flawless.

There is a 4K Google TV model as well

Yeah my gen 1 chromecast didn't handle it, but my gen 3 Ultra has no problems

 

[WaynesWorld19]

When I wanted to cancel Foxtel for Kayo they made me sit through a 30 minute exit phone call even though I told them from the beginning there is absolutely nothing they could say that would convince me to stay outside of matching the price of Kayo

Their offer for matching Kayo was $20 more expensive per month, which wasn't even much of a discount on the regular price.

Then for a year after cancelling they would call me every month begging me to sign back up. I had to block their number.

Now that Kayo is about to offer 4K streaming there is no advantage to Foxtel at all. Not to mention the stupidity of Foxtel needing to install a satellite dish on my house when I have a gigabit fibre connection, the clunkiness of their box that has to be an entirely separate device, the pain of trying to get Foxtel on multiple devices or rooms, their horrible solution for accessing Foxtel on PC/mobile...

I would never pay for Foxtel ever again.

And yet ....they're the same company

If Kayo has 4K ....you can bet Foxtel will as well

 

[Vader]

FWIW costs me $229 AUD for WatchAFL for 12 months

EDIT: no Android TV app is a big minus, gotta plug the laptop in to the TV and stream via HDMI. Quality is mid. Can't believe we can't all have nice things in the year {currentYear}. Crazyness


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I tried using WatchAFL for a while, but gave up in the end.

WatchAFL worked fine when I was actually overseas. Not so much in Australia. Because it's geoblocked, you need a VPN to access it from inside Australia. Not a problem, thought I, I'll just watch it using the VPN on my computer, and cast it to the TV...

I was constantly having problems with the colour (often the case when casting from my computer - I don't know why). Worse, it was constantly buffering.

In the end I switched to Kayo, which has given me a vastly improved experience.

 

[AFC3000]

I've been getting Kayo included as a bonus with my electricity for the last 4 years, and doing the comparisons with other plans, was by far the cheapest way for me to get it.

That's come to an end now. I will probably end up getting it through the club, but really don't want to. I still think just having access to all AFL games and shows is good value for the convenience compared to previous attempts at avoiding Foxtel, like an international membership or dodgy overseas streams that constantly buffer and pop up ads.

But it seems like Kayo has lost sport that I would casually watch over the last few years and now if I really wanted to watch everything I'd need Paramount, Stan, and whatever else. I'm not obsessed with any one other sport to pay for another service just for that, but it does make Kayos overall value to me less.

 

[Scorpus]

And yet ....they're the same company

If Kayo has 4K ....you can bet Foxtel will as well

They are the same company, which is even worse

It means they could run the Foxtel business much better, but they are actively choosing not to

 

[WaynesWorld19]

They are the same company, which is even worse

It means they could run the Foxtel business much better, but they are actively choosing not to

Foxtel is dead man walking .....has been for some time

Interesting, given your comments .....I asked Foxtel to connect on a house move, to a satellite dish .....they refused, and said they don't do that anymore .....a bit different in the country, I'm lead to believe

 

[Scorpus]

Foxtel is dead man walking .....has been for some time

Interesting, given your comments .....I asked Foxtel to connect on a house move, to a satellite dish .....they refused, and said they don't do that anymore .....a bit different in the country, I'm lead to believe

Yeah outside of certain city areas they still offer the service through satellite only regardless of what internet connection you have.

In the major areas it's all over the internet now I believe

 

[DJ75]

I ditched Kayo 2 years ago.
1. It is far too expensive.
2. I don't want to give that evil dictator Murdoch any of my money.

 

[Samcro24]

I never had an issue cancelling fox. Even had the set top box for ages afterwards. Like over 12 months. Then they billed me, refunded when I returned it.

Kayos fine, when it works. Which is like 95% of the time I spose. That 5% though

Ive had some buffering a couple of times, and there was a bit of an outage during I final last year I think.

One weird glitch last year was that it would buffer during quarter time ads- just the ads. I have to restart it before the next quarter though, as all those seconds ad up and I end up with a considerable lag.

I’d be reading the game day thread seeing clam go off on Keays 40 seconds before he’d actually shank the kick.

I also don’t like that it’s not instant like tv. Switch it on 30 seconds before the bounce, you’ll likely miss the start.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Yeah outside of certain city areas they still offer the service through satellite only regardless of what internet connection you have.

In the major areas it's all over the internet now I believe

A truck brought down all the lines in our street ....you won't believe the hell on earth to get repaired, given the whole line was ripped from the underground connection to the house

Was it NBN ...was it Foxtel ....was it Telstra .......8 weeks to sort out who's responsibility to replace the line to the house

 

[WaynesWorld19]

I never had an issue cancelling fox. Even had the set top box for ages afterwards. Like over 12 months. Then they billed me, refunded when I returned it.

Kayos fine, when it works. Which is like 95% of the time I spose. That 5% though

Ive had some buffering a couple of times, and there was a bit of an outage during I final last year I think.

One weird glitch last year was that it would buffer during quarter time ads- just the ads. I have to restart it before the next quarter though, as all those seconds ad up and I end up with a considerable lag.

I’d be reading the game day thread seeing clam go off on Keays 40 seconds before he’d actually shank the kick.

I also don’t like that it’s not instant like tv. Switch it on 30 seconds before the bounce, you’ll likely miss the start.

Are you using Wi-Fi, or casting from the phone ....because that would explain any buffering

It's gotta be hot-wired to the TV .....using the TV App

 

[Samcro24]

Are you using Wi-Fi, or casting from the phone ....because that would explain any buffering

It's gotta be hot-wired to the TV .....using the TV App

Most of the time wifi to Ps5. If not wifi to smart tv.

Buffering and losing quality during a game was very rare, but it happened one weekend.

The outage I spoke about was widespread, people were venting online.

As for the ad buffering, that was like clockwork. First quarter fine, cut to ads, get the loading circle straight away. Everytime. Thankfully the actual games weren’t impacted.