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DirecTV Now Ending Public Beta for True Cloud DVR, Will Launch Paid Higher Storage Tiers Soon
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Online VCR/DVR is a big scam, how can you for instance record something that is already on file.
As soon as you have paid for a sub all content from the channels in your package should be available.
This means all content on their servers, so including all history of those channels.
As soon as you have paid for a sub all content from the channels in your package should be available.
This means all content on their servers, so including all history of those channels.
Interesting. I downloaded it and it definitely has potential. I just can't get it to list my Plex DVR recordings. Gonna do more research.
A great alternative to all these streaming service options if you are willing to pull it all together:
<other stuff snipped>
- HDHomeRun boxes from Silicon Dust. These are boxes you can plug into your home network and stream either OTA (local) channels and/or cable to any TVs and Amazon Fire in the home. I picked up both their Prime box (for Comcast cable programming, using cablecard) and their Extends (for OTA local channels & subchannels)
- The $25 Channels App. Most people look right over it because they can't imagine paying $25 for an TV app but it brings ALL of the programming from those HDHomeRun boxes together in an attractive (cable TV-like) UNIFIED, on-screen guide, merging OTA locals with Cable channels. This app allows you to put your channels in any order, set up a FAV channel list, hide any channels you don't want to watch, etc.
- The $8/month Channels App DVR- a full-featured, traditional hardware-like DVR that brings all of those key features NOT available on virtual DVRs to any TV in the house. Your DVR capacity is then NOT limited to ANY size- just add hard drives- and the recorded programming is accessible on ANY TV or computer or mobile device. No proprietary boxes to buy or lease- just use
TV or cheap Fire, etc.
I was going to make a snarky comment about duct tape and bailing wire, but I looked up a few of these items and they are really interesting! I'm going to give at least some of this a try and see how it goes.
Thank you!
Sean
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I don’t impress easy with technology- especially cheap, single-purpose tech like this- but I am very impressed with how great all this works together... a (sort of, but not quite) cord-cutter option without tangible compromises that matter to me (especially real DD5.1 and a fully functional DVR not dependent on strangers "in the cloud" acting as caretaker/gatekeeper of recordings).
It takes a little effort at home to pull the pieces together but once they are set up, it is Grrrrrrrrreat IMO. It made the
TVs at my place much more useful in the day-to-day.Good luck!
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Online VCR/DVR is a big scam, how can you for instance record something that is already on file.
As soon as you have paid for a sub all content from the channels in your package should be available.
This means all content on their servers, so including all history of those channels.
Think commercials... especially LOCAL commercials like your local auto seller's commercials. Most everything about TV revolves around commercial insertions... even more so than the shows themselves. In other words, much of TV exists to show commercials, not the shows themselves. Nobody will watch much TV if it's all commercials, so the shows are made to draw in viewers who will hopefully see some of the advertising and maybe act on it. Some commercials are time-sensitive ("Big sale this weekend") and many are location-biased (your local Ford shop is not my local Ford shop), so there are no one-stream-fits-all videos to serve up, unless they are commercial free (which you have by renting shows through something like iTunes). Else, DVRs record programming with local insertions such that not very many episodes of any given programming would be perfectly duplicated if many others recorded the very same programming (except maybe others who live very close to you).
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A great alternative to all these streaming service options if you are willing to pull it all together:
By keeping for-profit middlemen OUT of controlling DVR'd content, the price for accessing recorded content can't be changed (like this). The middlemen can't decide to chop off storage space (like this). Etc. And because this is real cable (but no cable boxes, and thus no box leases), I don't burn a byte against a wired broadband cap, I DO get "double play" discount pricing vs. broadband pricing alone, I don't give up Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for stereo or mono, I DO get local channels for the major networks (local news and sports) and I get ALL of them, and on and on. When Internet is down, I can still watch any of the local channels AND anything on the DVR.
- HDHomeRun boxes from Silicon Dust. These are boxes you can plug into your home network and stream either OTA (local) channels and/or cable to any TVs and Amazon Fire in the home. I picked up both their Prime box (for Comcast cable programming, using cablecard) and their Extends (for OTA local channels & subchannels)
- The $25 Channels App. Most people look right over it because they can't imagine paying $25 for an TV app but it brings ALL of the programming from those HDHomeRun boxes together in an attractive (cable TV-like) UNIFIED, on-screen guide, merging OTA locals with Cable channels. This app allows you to put your channels in any order, set up a FAV channel list, hide any channels you don't want to watch, etc.
- The $8/month Channels App DVR- a full-featured, traditional hardware-like DVR that brings all of those key features NOT available on virtual DVRs to any TV in the house. Your DVR capacity is then NOT limited to ANY size- just add hard drives- and the recorded programming is accessible on ANY TV or computer or mobile device. No proprietary boxes to buy or lease- just use
All things considered, at least for my own needs, this seems the optimal way to go. Yes, not true cord-cutting since I still deal with Comcast but that would be the case anyway since Comcast also owns the broadband pipe.
I see silicondust is now offering a “skinny” tv bundle. https://www.silicondust.com/premium-tv/
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Yes, it's available in "free trial" via Channels (app) right now. Most interesting thing I've noticed about it so far is that some of the channels are tagged DD5.1 and seem to be playing 5.1 audio when I tune them. If true- best I know- that would make this the FIRST of the streaming bundle services to offer at least some channels in 5.1.
Biggest downside I've seen so far is that some channels default to (only) west coast feed while others are only east coast feeds (which is only downside due to the times at which some programs run if one wants to watch them in first run). If anyone is confused about what that means, west coast runs of shows runs about 3 hours after east coast runs. So friends watching the latest episode through some other service might get to see it upwards of 3 hours before you do if it's on a pacific time zone channel. Maybe you have a friend over and they want to watch the latest episode of something on one of these channels at the usual (eastern) time of- say- 9pm. If it's a pacific time zone feed, it won't actually be available until about 12am on your TV using this service.
Here's good information on this new package and if you scroll down to the "The Choice is all yours..." section and click the "Timezone Chart" it summarizes whether a channel is national, eastern or pacific (feeds).
It's still very new and I've only been modestly looking around since I'm pretty happy with the local OTA networks + Comcast-sourced cable channels. But, if one can find the channels they like in this bundle- especially maybe this bundle plus their local OTA networks- it appears to be a good competitor to the other streaming services. I'm hoping the DD5.1 is legit and "sticks" beyond the free trial window (if for no other reason than to pressure the others to adopt better-than-stereo or mono sound too).
Biggest downside I've seen so far is that some channels default to (only) west coast feed while others are only east coast feeds (which is only downside due to the times at which some programs run if one wants to watch them in first run). If anyone is confused about what that means, west coast runs of shows runs about 3 hours after east coast runs. So friends watching the latest episode through some other service might get to see it upwards of 3 hours before you do if it's on a pacific time zone channel. Maybe you have a friend over and they want to watch the latest episode of something on one of these channels at the usual (eastern) time of- say- 9pm. If it's a pacific time zone feed, it won't actually be available until about 12am on your TV using this service.
Here's good information on this new package and if you scroll down to the "The Choice is all yours..." section and click the "Timezone Chart" it summarizes whether a channel is national, eastern or pacific (feeds).
It's still very new and I've only been modestly looking around since I'm pretty happy with the local OTA networks + Comcast-sourced cable channels. But, if one can find the channels they like in this bundle- especially maybe this bundle plus their local OTA networks- it appears to be a good competitor to the other streaming services. I'm hoping the DD5.1 is legit and "sticks" beyond the free trial window (if for no other reason than to pressure the others to adopt better-than-stereo or mono sound too).
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Agreed. Sadly, the DVR is very bad. The DTVNow service is great. We've fully cut the DTV cord, and stream it all now. But the DVR functionality is really, really bad.
A great alternative to all these streaming service options if you are willing to pull it all together:
By keeping for-profit middlemen OUT of controlling DVR'd content, the price for accessing recorded content can't be changed (like this). The middlemen can't decide to chop off storage space (like this). Etc. And because this is real cable (but no cable boxes, and thus no box leases), I don't burn a byte against a wired broadband cap, I DO get "double play" discount pricing vs. broadband pricing alone, I don't give up Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for stereo or mono, I DO get local channels for the major networks (local news and sports) and I get ALL of them, and on and on. When Internet is down, I can still watch any of the local channels AND anything on the DVR.
- HDHomeRun boxes from Silicon Dust. These are boxes you can plug into your home network and stream either OTA (local) channels and/or cable to any TVs and Amazon Fire in the home. I picked up both their Prime box (for Comcast cable programming, using cablecard) and their Extends (for OTA local channels & subchannels)
- The $25 Channels App. Most people look right over it because they can't imagine paying $25 for an TV app but it brings ALL of the programming from those HDHomeRun boxes together in an attractive (cable TV-like) UNIFIED, on-screen guide, merging OTA locals with Cable channels. This app allows you to put your channels in any order, set up a FAV channel list, hide any channels you don't want to watch, etc.
- The $8/month Channels App DVR- a full-featured, traditional hardware-like DVR that brings all of those key features NOT available on virtual DVRs to any TV in the house. Your DVR capacity is then NOT limited to ANY size- just add hard drives- and the recorded programming is accessible on ANY TV or computer or mobile device. No proprietary boxes to buy or lease- just use
All things considered, at least for my own needs, this seems the optimal way to go. Yes, not true cord-cutting since I still deal with Comcast but that would be the case anyway since Comcast also owns the broadband pipe.
So you still have to subscribe to a cable TV package with this?
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have few problems, but i hope it gets better since i cut cable for it.
it needs a scroll buttons on the directory, scrolling one by one is annoying with the remote.
it needs a scroll buttons on the directory, scrolling one by one is annoying with the remote.
I signed up for their two week trial a couple weeks ago. Overall, their service wasn't too bad (a couple times the broadcast I was watching at the time would buffer when I never have that issue with Vue). I still prefer PS Vue since their service has been flawless for my wife and I.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
No, but I do because that's what works best for me. In particular, I wanted DD5.1 sound from cable channels and all of the popular streaming-only services only offer stereo or mono sound. I've had good home theaters with surround sound setups since way back into the 1990s. I don't want to step down to faux surround sound when I can have the real thing for what typically amounts to "only a few dollars more (or less)."
They only have ONE product for anyone that wants to have cable channels too. It's called Prime. It uses cable card to mix cable channels into the total group of available channels. All of their other products are for FREE OTA (over the air) local channel reception with an antenna. A good summary of their products.
I have both kinds of products from them because I personally wanted the combo of OTA and cable channels within a single app (Channels app)... plus DD5.1... plus a local DVR that I control for all such channels.
They just rolled out their own cut at a streaming cable channel bundle, which even works with the OTA boxes. If I didn't have my own reasons for using Comcast cable and those channels scratched the non-local-channels itch for me, I could (now) buy just one of their OTA boxes- I'd probably choose the Quattro for the 4 OTA tuners- and maybe subscribe to their skinny bundle to get a good mix of OTA + popular cable channels through that single box. OR, I could use them for OTA and subscribe to any of the OTHER skinny bundle streaming services like PS Vue, YouTube, Now, Sling, etc. and hop app-to-app for different channels.
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I've moved on from DirecTV Now. The UI has always been horrible and difficult to use, and it's only getting worse over time. I remember when watching TV was as simple as tapping a button.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Yeahhh, but we wished that simplicity away using words like "antiquated" and "ripoff" etc. Now we have to have classes for the fam on how to watch what they want to watch:
All
- Use this app for this but this other app for that.
- No, when broadband is down, we don't have ANY television either.
- And no, no DVR either. Our DVR is in the futuristic "the cloud." We are trend setters... but we still can't watch our recordings.
- Use the TV's tuner for locals but the TV to watch this... and the Fire stick to watch that.
- Oh, yes, we'll need to pick up a Roku for that one.
- No, we can't get that channel(s) anymore.
- Get this from iTunes but this is on Netflix and this other thing can be found on Amazon Prime.
- No, you need to read up on new shows and then use the search feature in each individual app to find something you want to try.
- Here, I've made everyone a flow chart book and a list to help you find what you want to watch. Just follow the step-by-step guide on the appropriate page to find what you want. I've hired Miriam here to keep this up to date.
- On-screen guide showing everything? Are you crazy? This isn't 1990-2015. The "the future" way is hop app to app and box to box... and just magically already know what you want to watch and which app has it.
- No, no more streaming any video for the rest of the month because we're almost at our broadband cap. Yes, I know grandma watches television at her house all day, every day and she doesn't have to quit by about the 20th each month, but that's because she's on the antiquated, ripoff system that doesn't count against her bandwidth. Ours is better because we're beating "the man." Wait, where are you going? To Grandmas? Why?
- Faux surround sound sounds just as good as real surround sound. Yes, I know that character's voice shouldn't be coming out of rear right, but just turn your head around when he's talking and it will seem to be coming from the front.
- No, we no longer subscribe to that one. We switched to this other one which doesn't have that one.
All
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Still renting a cable card and the problem with 3rd party things like this, is if something goes wrong its a lot harder to troubleshoot. I had a tivo HD on cox (still have the tivo but never use it, im on directv) and a channel in HD would not come through at all (comedy central) and Cox tech insisted that it had to be something wrong with the box. Fortunately I persuaded him to connect a Cox DVR to try it out and lo and behold it had the same issue, as the trunk line wasn't sending the channel down stream but other channels in that feed were being sent fine. As a result of that I've pretty much refused to go back to cox for TV but directv is way overpriced but I can't terminate my service (other family members rely on it and newer tech isnt idiot proof enough for them).
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Yes, there's issues with all of these new alternatives. I don't think any one is best fit for all.
For my own setup, it all works great for me. The Comcast-fed part is working just fine. However, if anything happens to mess any of this up, I'm an agile consumer ready to quickly hop to something else. The DISH antenna is still set up, it's cable still runs to the main area, etc and/or PS Vue, Now, Sling, Hulu, YouTube, et all are also just a few clicks away.
I'm certainly not arguing that my setup is the one best setup for everyone. This thread kicked off with a story about a very popular streaming service doing some unpopular things. There's alternatives to it if someone doesn't want to put up with AT&T's decisions. My offering is just one such option.
Part of the attraction for me is control. I like being my own DVR content caretaker instead of trusting strangers in the cloud. As described in this thread, some of these strangers are arbitrarily choosing to cut DVR storage by 80% unless people pay more and are also planning on just deleting recordings if people don't pay more. I see the whole "the cloud" thing just like that- letting caretakers or gatekeepers into the space between us and our data. Being surprised that gatekeepers decide to monetize that dependency doesn't make sense to me. Of course "the cloud" storage will be monetized. For-profit corps will monetize air as soon as they can figure out how to get in between us breathers and the air we breathe.
A big piece of the attraction is not trading real DD5.1 for faux surround. All of these other "the future" options are stereo or mono sound. I didn't pay up for a surround sound setup to then take an audio step or three back to feed it stereo or mono.
And I like the simplicity of one, unified, on-screen guide instead of hopping app to app and box to box. I want boob-tube simplicity instead of needing to act as tech support for family members to watch television.
And so on. But not everyone feels the same about such stuff. So fortunately, there are many such options so everyone can prioritize what they want.
For my own setup, it all works great for me. The Comcast-fed part is working just fine. However, if anything happens to mess any of this up, I'm an agile consumer ready to quickly hop to something else. The DISH antenna is still set up, it's cable still runs to the main area, etc and/or PS Vue, Now, Sling, Hulu, YouTube, et all are also just a few clicks away.
I'm certainly not arguing that my setup is the one best setup for everyone. This thread kicked off with a story about a very popular streaming service doing some unpopular things. There's alternatives to it if someone doesn't want to put up with AT&T's decisions. My offering is just one such option.
Part of the attraction for me is control. I like being my own DVR content caretaker instead of trusting strangers in the cloud. As described in this thread, some of these strangers are arbitrarily choosing to cut DVR storage by 80% unless people pay more and are also planning on just deleting recordings if people don't pay more. I see the whole "the cloud" thing just like that- letting caretakers or gatekeepers into the space between us and our data. Being surprised that gatekeepers decide to monetize that dependency doesn't make sense to me. Of course "the cloud" storage will be monetized. For-profit corps will monetize air as soon as they can figure out how to get in between us breathers and the air we breathe.
A big piece of the attraction is not trading real DD5.1 for faux surround. All of these other "the future" options are stereo or mono sound. I didn't pay up for a surround sound setup to then take an audio step or three back to feed it stereo or mono.
And I like the simplicity of one, unified, on-screen guide instead of hopping app to app and box to box. I want boob-tube simplicity instead of needing to act as tech support for family members to watch television.
And so on. But not everyone feels the same about such stuff. So fortunately, there are many such options so everyone can prioritize what they want.
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