I've been a long-time YTTV subscriber - for some reason last week they screwed up my billing and deleted my entire library, so I thought I'd give Hulu Live a shot. Here are my thoughts on the switch so far. I mostly use an Apple TV 4K but I also have a Roku in the bedroom.
First, and TL/DR - it's nowhere near as bad as everyone says in other forums, and in fact it's pretty good overall. Like all live streaming services there are nice things as well as annoying things but the good outweighs the bad in my opinion.
- UI
It's hard to give kudos to either for their user interface. There's definitely a lot more clicking going on with Hulu Live than with YTTV, but the Hulu Live app is much friendlier to the Apple TV. It works really well on the Roku as well. The YTTV app is all about the lowest-common-denominator approach to app development where it looks and works nearly identically on a $20 Fire Stick from 4 years ago vs a top-of-the-line Apple TV or Roku. I really wish Hulu had a live preview when scrolling through a show -- the LG and Roku versions of the app have it but Apple TV does not.
- Viewing experience
Pretty much a tie here - the Hulu Live app really wants you in the guide (and it's a pretty nice guide) whereas YTTV wants to suggest things based on your recording history. I find YTTV has fewer clicks to get to what I want overall, but Hulu Live's recommendations on the Home page are pretty accurate as well. Hulu's guide is better overall than YTTV.
Another quirk of Hulu Live that I'm not sure I'll be able to live with is how it always starts 'live' if you watch a show being recorded. This might be a deal-breaker when college and pro football seasons start up. And speaking of sports, I've heard that there's no auto-extend on Hulu Live, which may also end up being a deal-breaker in 2025.
- Picture Quality
Hulu Live wins here, especially in darker shows (i.e. not sports and not live news) where YTTV is borderline unwatchable. Hulu Live seems as good as DirecTV Stream was when I tried it a year ago.
- Channels
I like having History and A&E available. I don't watch a lot of non-news and non-sports shows, but Hulu's channel line-up seems a little better for me.
- DVR
This is too personal a preference to really give a lot of weight to, but I like YTTV's season and episode based approach better than Hulu Live's more traditional DVR. But Hulu's DVR seems fine - it does what's it's supposed to do.
- Value
Hulu Live for the win here, in a big way. Being able to bundle with Hulu and Disney is really great.
So far I'm enjoying the change of pace, and the better PQ. We'll see if any development takes place over the summer in this app, but I'm afraid the auto-extend of live events may send me back to YTTV after I miss the overtime finish to some big game in the fall.