Summer is officially here and for many, that means traveling. Whether that is to a beach house, camping, or a week at the cottage, the good news is you can take your streaming with you. If you've been looking for the best streaming TV on the Internet, this guide's for you.
I often travel for work and rather than hoping the hotel has a good TV lineup, I take a streaming player with me to watch my favorite shows on the road.
That raises the question, which of the many live TV streaming services is best for travelers? Well, the truth is, what's right for me may not be right for you. We’ll break down each service’s rules and let you pick and choose the ones you like.
Just this year, PlayStation Vue expanded their out-of-home streaming. Now, when you travel, you will get the local stations of whichever market you are in. You can also now stream on a streaming player, like a Roku or Fire TV, while on the road.
Your home area is determined by the zip code you used when you signed up for PlayStation Vue. With these new rules, you can stream on up to three devices at the same time while outside of your home network. If you are inside your home area, you get two extra streams, bringing the total of streams at once to five.
Now you can use a streaming player such as a set-top box or stick to stream PlayStation Vue outside of your home, but only on one device at a time. That includes streaming in your home network, so you will not be able to use your Roku at a hotel at the same time your kids try to stream on a Roku back at home.
Sling TV has very few out-of-home rules. As long as you are within the United States, you can stream on any device you want. There is one catch though, when you travel outside your home market location, specific channels like regional sports networks might be lost.
The good news with Sling TV is you can stream your favorite shows, sports or movies in the hotel at the same time your kids stream their shows back at home.
DIRECTV NOW also has few out-of-home rules. As long as you are inside the United States, you can stream the content you want. One catch is your local stations will change depending on where you are located. Their one week trial period might be all you'll need during your vacation.
Hulu, on the other hand, has some very tight rules. If you want to use a set-top box like a Roku, Fire TV or Apple TV to stream Hulu, you can only do so from inside your home. However, using your laptop, phone or tablet allows you to stream Hulu outside of your home. The good news is with Hulu you get access to local stations in whichever market you are currently located.
YouTube TV recently started enforcing a few rules about out-of-home streaming. The main rule is if you take a set-top box like a Roku out of your home, it needs to be brought back to your home and logged in again every few months or so. If you sporadically travel with YouTube TV, you should have no issues. Yet, if you want to use YouTube TV in your cottage and the Roku is always there, at some point you are going to get logged out.
Fortunately, like some of the other streaming TV services, YouTube TV also lets you stream local stations from whichever market you are currently in.
Lastly, there is fuboTV. One of the best features of fuboTV is that it seems to have no limitations on out-of-home streaming, as long as you are within the United States.
Well, there you go, the ultimate guide to out-of-home live TV streaming. Is there a service you consider to be the best streaming TV around? Let us know in the comments below.