I wish I knew how terrible Fubo TV looked on a 4K TV before subscribing

With YouTube TV’s recent price hike, I decided to check out Fubo TV, and I enjoy it for the most part. I get the channels I want, and it works on all my devices — all at a cheaper price than YouTube. I imagine a lot of people would have the same experience, but that doesn’t mean everything’s perfect.

If you buy a TV in 2025, or bought one in the past few years, there’s a good chance it has a 4K display. This resolution is becoming the norm more and more each day, and while your typical cable network doesn’t broadcast in 4K, many services have the option to opt for a 4K plan that sees certain channels bump up the resolution.

YouTube TV broadcasts in 1080p, and while it’s not 4K, it’s not something that acts as a detriment to the viewing experience. Something that has been tough for me to adjust to, however, is the 720p output on Fubo TV. This resolution doesn’t look particularly great on a 65-inch 4K TV, and while Fubo offers a lower price than YouTube TV, this could certainly prove to be a dealbreaker for many people.

Related

5 reasons YouTube TV didn’t work for me (and what I learned after canceling it)

YouTube TV didn’t make the cut for me, especially after it went up $10 in December. Here’s why.

Not the best viewing experience on Fubo

Quality takes a big hit

When it comes to cable, I don’t typically worry too much about the picture quality, considering I don’t watch movies there, but even I have limits. Seeing 720p blown up to 65 inches is one thing, but there are even more issues that come with it. Fast-paced programs like sports often lead to a pixelated picture in my experience, and it makes the already low 720p look worse.

It’s not as much of an issue when you’re watching a news station, but the main draw of Fubo for me was getting access to local sports again. It’s also a major selling point of the service, so seeing less-than-stellar quality is a bad feeling. I don’t want to do a ton of comparing, but it’s tough not to considering I went to Fubo directly after YouTube TV, so seeing the drop in quality was apparent right away.

You can mitigate the issues by watching on a small screen like a phone or tablet. I typically watch on my TV unless I’m in bed, so the vast majority of my watching is at the lower 720p resolution, where the problems are more obvious. Even if you get used to watching things in 720p, the blurriness on top of it is hard to avoid, and I can’t imagine many people wouldn’t notice that.

It’s a shame because I really like Fubo a lot, and even though it’s hardly cheaper than YouTube TV at this point, it’s still a difference of a few bucks that can add up over time. I just don’t know how much longer I can hang in there with the diminished quality. I hate to say it, but there’s a reason YouTube TV is the most expensive option, and it’s because it’s the best service — at least for what I’m looking for.

Related

Thought YouTube Premium was just for skipping ads? Think again

YouTube Premium has more than a couple perks that make paying worth it.

Fubo still has some advantages

It comes ahead in other areas

Fubo TV/Apple

While Fubo doesn’t have the greatest quality, there are some areas where it comes ahead of its competition. In my review of Fubo, I came across a very nice feature for multi-viewing. While YouTube TV offers this, it’s only with sports programs the service picks for you. Fubo lets you pick and choose what to watch, so you can pair an NBA basketball game with a movie if you want. It’s not the ideal viewing, but it lets you easily flip back and forth between channels with ease. It’s cool with sports because a lot of times all you need is the score, so you don’t necessarily need the audio to go with it.

Outside of that, a big advantage Fubo has over its competition is the inclusion of regional sports networks. It’s an extra fee tacked onto the end of your payment process, and it varies by where you live, but it’s still cheaper than paying for the standalone FanDuel Sports Network app. For some people, these two features are well worth the dip in quality, and I thought the same for a little bit. I’m still a Fubo fan, but I’m finding out as time goes on that I appreciate a cleaner picture over everything.

It’s a double-edged sword of having one service fit a better role than another, but I can’t help but feel selfish and wish all the best features were in one place. Competition is good, but I don’t see why YouTube TV can’t just copy the way Fubo’s multi-stream works.

Related

I tried both YouTube TV and Sling TV to see which one is actually worth it

If you’re on the fence about subscribing to either YouTube TV or Pluto TV, here are some of the major differences.

A tough decision

Where to go from here

Erik Mclean / Unsplash / Pocket-lint

Thanks to a steep discount, switching to Fubo has been worth it for at least a month, but I’m not sure if I want to stick with it going forward. Being able to watch local sports is nice, but it can only take me so far. As mainly an NBA fan, I won’t need that past April, which would lead me to check out other services. In all likelihood, I’d go back to YouTube TV, and I’m not sure if I’d look back from there.

Since the YouTube TV price hike at the tail end of 2024, I’ve been more willing to check out other platforms. That’s initially what led me to Fubo. I also picked up an indoor antenna for local stations, and it has been cool to try out. The antenna broadcasts a lot of networks at 480p, so the quality runs even lower than Fubo in most scenarios. Before the year is over, I have no doubt I’ll check out both Hulu Live TV and Sling TV just to get a sense of what’s good.

The worry is YouTube TV, the most expensive service, will reign above the others because of it being the most feature-rich and the platform with the highest quality. Ultimately, the service you land on comes down to personal preference, and I’d still recommend any of them over cable. The nice thing about Fubo, YouTube TV, and the other services is you’re not locked into a long subscription. You can bounce around services as you please, and going off my example of staying with Fubo until April, I can cancel or pause the subscription and look at other services without paying a termination fee.

Related

Will Disney’s acquisition of Fubo TV make streaming worse?

When it comes to media mergers and acquisitions, the end result is typically bad for the consumer. When Warner Bros. Discovery dissolved its individual business segments and streamers to create Max, prices rose, content disappeared, and subscribers were left disappointed with a franken-product that was far, far less than the sum of its parts (RIP HBO Go). It’s hard not to feel a little similar about today’s acquisition of Fubo TV by Disney. While the companies will operate independently for now, it’s not hard to imagine a future where Fubo TV, Hulu with Live TV, ESPN+ and Disney+ all combine to become one product, similar to Max, which will naturally be insanely expensive and only have about a third of what you want to watch at any given time. The only silver lining here is for sports fans, who may just get their wish for kitchen-sink sports streamer Venu, which has been cleared to move forward that Fubo TV’s lawsuit has effectively ended. You can read more about that at the link,