Finally getting fiber in town, which means I can finally get rid of cable completely (tv and internet). Leading condensers are YoutubeTV and Sling TV to still get food network, hallmark and Disney channel for the wife and kids. What has the better picture quality and sound? I will be using Channels to DVR our favorite content like we used to on cable via PLEX and HDHomeRun. But I don't want to pay a cable provider anymore, I want to go with a 100% streaming service.
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The best quality usually comes from OTA broadcasts. You can feed your HDHR to Channels as the highest priority and mark any bad quality channels to be ignored.
I have found that most of the TVE channels are 1080i, but some are 720P. I have Fubo which is all 720P, but it doesn't matter because almost everything I watch is through the TVE at the higher quality.
Locast is at most 720P.
Ken
I am getting rid of cable. Only keeping fiber and streaming services. What is TVE if you don't mind me asking? Big thing is we want to be able to DVR hallmark, disney and food network. Don't care about really anything else.
If you're adding TVE sources, they all come from the same source: the networks' websites. Who you use for a provider/credentials only impacts which channels you receive. The quality of the stream does not change.
For the most part, they're usually all about 5Mbps 1080p streams with stereo audio.
For the best video and audio quality, you'll want to use OTA and/or cable sources, not internet streams.
I'm looking to get rid of cable completely and replace with a stream provider like Sling or Youtube TV.
In that case, the answer to your question is: there is no difference in quality, they are the exact same streams. (Literally, identical.)
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I am using a friend's sling TV. I tried to record The Last Knight and the quality was...meh. Stereo audio only and video quality wasn't so great. That's why I started this question 
This is the system by which you will get your cable channels into ChannelsDVR. Channels does not communicate with YouTube, Sling, Fubo, or any other streaming service. However, it does receive TVE programs. TVE stands for TV Everywhere. It is a system where the cable network (for example Food Network) sends the programs directly from their network to you. The catch is that they are only willing to send it to you if you can prove that you are already paying for it. You do this by telling Channels who your streaming service is and providing a password from your streaming service. Once you do this, Channels will download a list of all TVE supported channels from that streaming service, and from then on, Channels will be able to play them live and record them.
You MUST make sure that the particular networks you want have supported TVE feeds through which ever streaming service you sign up with.
I hope this helps.
Ken
Ah yes. So the channels I want are with Sling and Youtube TV. I replied to another person on this thread. I tried a friend's Sling TV and the recording quality for a known 1080p source was meh. Definitely not as good as recording cable TV.
Exactly. If you want the best quality (8-15Mbps HD streams with 5.1 audio), then antenna or cable are your options.
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You will get much better quality with Channels/TVE than you would get directly from Sling or Youtube.
Between those two options, Sling TV has horrible TVE support so you won't get most of their channels via Channels DVR. YTTV you'll get most of the channels. Take a look at this table for a list of which channels from which providers offer TVE support and pick the cheapest one that gets you the channels you want. https://thestreamable.com/tv-everywhere-apps
Remember that Channels DVR is going to use TVE to access the channels directly from the source (ex. Disney). The ONLY thing you are getting for your subscription is a provider login that enables the TVE channels. Nothing else from the provider will you need... not their app, their DVR, nada. So if its cheaper, for example, to get those channels from Spectrum, then that is where you should sign up. Hopefully that makes sense. With Channels, your TV subscription is only credentials.
I think that list is probably not completely up to date, so use it to get you started, and then use the threads on this forum for each provider to verify. Looking at the 3 channels you asked about, not one of the streaming services provides them all. Looks like you will need Philo for The Food Network and Hallmark, and Sling for Disney. But as I said, make sure you check with the threads for the providers here, and you can always do a trial and try it. Spectrum has a good deal where you pick like 10 channels and pay a low fee... that may be another option.
It doesn't matter what channels the provider offers, it matters what channels it offers via TVE, if you want to access them through Channels DVR.
FuboTV has all 3. I am going to play with it this weekend with their free trial.
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