Philo TV Review 2024 | Is the Discount Streaming Service Worth the Savings?

Philo TV review 2024 Pho recently raised its price to $28 a month it's only the second price increase since the light live TV streaming service launched yeah but Pho did add AMC plus and fast channels for that price hike it didn't force current subscribers to pay the higher rate though they also don't get the additional paid channels but is Pho worth $28 a month and is it the right service for you it's been a couple of years since we tested Pho so we wanted to do an updated review given its price hike and additions we'll show you what it's like to use Pho and we'll wrap up with a quick comparison to a less expensive service that may be better for you so stick around to the end to see that let's start our updated filo review with a quick look at the channels and features included with a pho subscription pho's channel lineup Philo TV channel lineup includes roughly 80 networks of Live And curated ond demand content live content run on East Coast feeds as part of the price hike the pho core lineup now also includes everything on AMC plus that includes IFC films unlimited shudder Sundance now and The Walking Dead channel which includes nearly all seasons of the popular series The Walking Dead as well as spin-off content and you can add on 11 additional channel packages like reals MGM plus and stars for an extra cost Pho also now offers just over 80 fast channels which you can watch without a paid subscription that could be a good way for you to try out the service and see if you like their user experience the service also offers a 7-Day free trial at time of recording which you can use to test it out now Philo features let's look at Pho features a paid subscription includes an unlimited Cloud DVR with recordings that are kept for a year and you can fast forward through ads in content you've recorded to your DVR you can create up to 10 profiles and you can watch Pho on three screens at once in high defition resolu ution live TV streams in 720p and On Demand streams in 1080P audio streams in standard 2.0 quality and it's widely supported across streaming devices and Smart TV Samsung and Vio models made after 2017 as well as computers Android and iOS devices at time of recording Pho does not offer parental controls but does support closed captioning and allows you to view content picture and picture when watching on a computer or support a device now let's look at what it's like User experience to sign up and use Pho sign up is a little different than what you may have experienced with other streaming services in that you don't set a password for your account you just sign up with a phone number or email address and credit card for payment then when you launch Pho on a TV through a streaming device you enter your phone number or email address and you're sent a link to sign in and watch it's not difficult just different once you launch the app you'll be taken to the home screen where you'll see rows of content content and five options across the top menu home guide top saved and search on the far right is a smiley face where you can access a few account settings a digital clock remains visible in the top far right corner except for when you are in the guide overall we don't really love the user experience on Pho the layout is a little wonky and the guide tiles are too large for our liking and during our test content was slow to load on our TV and computer when other streaming apps launched much faster from the guide you can click on any tile to bring up more details about it record or watch it you can also launch a show from the guide by holding down the select button on your remote when a show is live there will be a little blue icon with the word live on it other shows will display what time they're airing clicking on any live shows in the future brings up the option to record or save it the guide defaults to listing all PID channels in alphabetical order followed by fast channels you can favorite any channel by selecting it in the guide once you set favorites they hold display at the top of the guide and rows of content organized alphabetically by your favorited channels will also appear in the top section A Pho which you can access by clicking top from the top menu of the home screen while watching anything you can pause or arrow down to see ad breaks and how long ago the show started if it was live you can restart a live program in progress by holding down the rewind button on your remote and while you can fast forward through ads in live content you've saved to your DVR you can't skip ads in on demand content you can return to the guide by arrowing down on your remote or by pressing the back button your recordings will be in the saved section and you can filter recordings by shows movies recently aired in alphabetical order you can also search for anything via keyboard input and Pho pop po Ates the search screen with some popular content from the setting screen you can edit your profile name and icon choose whether to start playback from the beginning see and edit your account information and sign out that's it it's pretty slim it's easy to create profiles and the nice thing about that is that each profile can have its own recordings and its own favored channels watching on a computer or device is pretty similar though the top menu is slightly different across the top you'll see home guide top playable and saved a search icon and account settings icon are in the top far right while watching anything you can save it turn on closed captions or watch picture in picture by clicking the PIP icon in the bottom right when you pause content you can also see how many ad braks are in it you can use the gear icon to change the resolution and that's it as we said earlier we aren't overly impressed with pho's user experience or guide layout and it took noticeably longer to load content than other services we notice this every time we went into the platform during our testing so now that you've seen what pho Is Philo TV worth it? is like let's finish up with whether or not it's worth the price and who Pho is best for at $28 a month Pho is one of the few budget options for live TV out there while AMC plus content is included and we like that Pho does not have locals or sports that's why it's significant L cheaper than cable Alternatives like Hulu live and YouTube TV if you want live lifestyle and entertainment content it isn't a bad price at all but is it right for you the answer really comes down to what you like to watch and if you like AMC plus and live content from cable networks like Discovery A&E Nickelodeon Hallmark HGTV and more it is a pretty good fit and if you pair it with an antenna for your locals it could give you everything you want for a fra of the cost and if you want an even cheaper option you could try friendly TV this budget live TV service starts at $7 a month at time of recording and it includes more than 50 channels of live TV while there's some Crossover with the pho lineup friendly currently doesn't include BBC bet Discovery HGTV MTV Nickelodeon and others you will get lifetime history Hallmark MeTV and A&E though so it's worth checking out if you don't want locals or Sports and want to keep your costs under $10 a month and with prices rising across the streaming space saving money is critical that's what we'll keep helping you do on our Channel and in our live streams which air on Fridays at noon Central what's the best live TV streaming service for the value in your opinion and which do you like better friendly or Pho let us know in the comments below and if you haven't already don't forget to like subscribe and turn on notifications so you can get all our latest news andw use when they drop thanks for watching and we'll see you in our next video