Trialing YouTubeTV, Lax Tourneys and Beer 04May18

ESPN changed their policies and offereings and my access to some lacrosse games through SlingTV credentials were deprecated. Basically there's a $5/mo ala carte OTP offer to all ESPN now, ESPN+, which is good. However, I already had access to a lot of ESPN stuff, but with the advent of ESPN+, I lost some. I pay $25/mo for SlingTV with their Sports Extra and my own terrestrial setup employing a Win7-based DVR from Plex to view & record local TV shows. A strong alternative now is YouTube TV ~ a $40/mo alternative with most of the stuff on my SlingTV + Sports Extra offers, plus locals (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CW) from COS, AND full DVR capability with unlimited storage in the cloud. The reliability, UI, response times, etc. are all better on YouTube TV than my SlingTV/Plex combo - I do lose Outside TV, a channel I like, and I'd pay $15/mo more and a fatal flaw is that YTTV doesn't allow me to fast forward through commercials, but I would get out of some hardware and server maintenance duties. If I didn't have access to terrestrial signals as I do in COS it'd be no contest but with my current setup, hmmm...

It's nearing the NCAA lax post-season and Lehigh made it to the Patriot League championship game. After a great first half which ended tied 5-5, Loyola, a much more highly ranked team, ran away with the win. I'm using YT TV now to watch the Big 10 and Ivy League playoffs.

Finally, a tasty Florida IPA from Cigar City named JaiLai - maybe it's a smidge sweet for me but still surprisingly very good.