DirecTV Now Launches Cloud DVR With 20 Hours of Storage at No Extra Monthly Cost

[deeddawg]

Have they really not improved the ATV app at all?

They have. Who knows if coolsean20 even uses it? Maybe he does and just has super-exacting standards. Or maybe tried it once a year ago and never since.

All I can say is my experience has been okay. Is it perfect? No. They have some room to grow, and the ATV interface has room for improvlement.

Still, it's been solid enough for me since January. We've used it exclusively at the lake place, and more recently told Xfiniity to take a hike at home. We just use the same DTVN account at both places. (might not work for some families, works for us though)

 

[Zoboomafoo]

Too bad the Apple TV app is just horrible and almost unusable.

You mean Apple's TV app? or DirecTVs's Apple TV app?

 

[avanpelt]

Bummer that they’re charging $5.00/month for a third stream. If I recall correctly, three simultaneous streams were included during the beta test period of the new app.

 

[Kaibelf]

No recording of HBO and other premium channels...which sux.

Why would you care when you could use DTVN to authenticate access to HBO Now and stream those shows on demand?

 

[siddavis]

All I can say is I was a day 1 adopter, and am part of the Beta Program.

I get/got:

- A free Apple TV at sign up
- Go Big Package for $35/mo for life (100 plus channels, every single one I want in fact)
- HBO Free for 6 months (Now is $5)
- 100 Hours DVR (they may reduce it to 20 now that it is public which is fine)

It worked well enough for me to drop cable TV and TiVO while the DVR function was in Beta.

I pay just internet and $40/mo to DirecTV now for more channels and quite a monthly savings, and it performs much better than the current TiVO software does.

I was a long time software and hardware beta tester for TiVO. TiVO really went downhill performance and stability wise.

Best DVR ever?? ReplayTV hands down.

Really? My setup is DTVNow and TiVO via OTA for locals. Even since DTVN added our locals, we maintained the TiVO setup because the DVR function is so so far ahead.

I think the DVR is hamstrung by the ATV remote. I’m really hoping this gets better. Also, 20hrs is pretty lame.

 

[imaaronbritt]

Idk why people complain about the app being buggy.. I never had an issue and I'm a day 1 user. That said, the new guide looks better, however the tv logos/names are SMALL... can hardly read some of them... second, getting to the guide is a little more challenging now... they need to add voice commands "Go to CBS".

I'm a day 2 user. Yes initially there were lots of bugs when the app rolled out at the tail end of 2016. However, over the year and a half that it's been out, I've encountered fewer and fewer errors to where there are practically no issues on my end. I've also been beta testing for about the last 3 months now and I've not run into any issues. I love the layout and the colors of the channels. And while beta testing all of my shows that I set to record actually recorded.

 

[SRLMJ23]

It is out on the East Coast at least, you just have to go into the tvOS App Store and update yourself. I do not know why it is not automatically updating, but it is there.

Edit: Also, DTV NOW has WAY better picture quality than Time Warner/Spectrum could ever dream of having. All the stations look incredible!

I have had DTV NOW since it launched, and have been beta testing the "new" app/DVR since the beta program launched and even the past several months the beta app and DVR were completely usable as was the general user interface. I have not had any errors at all in months. Hope everyone that was not on the beta enjoys the new app/DVR.

 

[deeddawg]

Bummer that they’re charging $5.00/month for a third stream. If I recall correctly, three simultaneous streams were included during the beta test period of the new app.

If my choice was three streams included free, or save $5 and just have two streams, I'll take the savings. That's just me, though -- we don't need more than two streams. I get that other may need them though. Nice that three is an option.

 

[BuffaloTF]

I've cancelled for the time being. I was hoping for a mirror of the DirecTV satellite 4K channels by now, but alas, 'twas not in the plans.

I'll likely go back if they add those in. They're by far the best bang for the buck amongst them all. Their cheapest plan has 66 good channels... none of the others offer anything close.

 

[shinji]

I've been using Sony's Vue and I like it. I cut the cord. It's $40 a month for the base package with unlimited DVR, no contract. I'm thinking about getting a universal remote for the Apple TV, though, because that remote is horrific.

Loved Vue, and it definitely is more reliable than DirecTV Now, but we got rid of it when they lost the Viacom channels.

 

[tallscot]

Loved Vue, and it definitely is more reliable than DirecTV Now, but we got rid of it when they lost the Viacom channels.

Oh yeah! I forgot that happened. I think South Park is the only Comedy Central show I watch and it's on Hulu.

Good point, though. Thanks for bringing that up.

 

[npmacuser5]

Cloud DVR, one would think the streamers would record the show once link it many. Why have a limit at all?

 

[Mtmspa]

This is a joke, right? 20 hours?

I have 120 movies on my youtube tv dvr and god knows how many TV shows.

Congrats?

 

[w5jck]

I've been using Sony's Vue and I like it. I cut the cord. It's $40 a month for the base package with unlimited DVR, no contract. I'm thinking about getting a universal remote for the Apple TV, though, because that remote is horrific.

Vue also runs on Macs, PCs, iPads, iPhones, Android I think, Sony PS3 and PS4. Not Xbox, of course.

PS Vue can also be seen via Amazon's Fire TV and Roku boxes. I tried it out a few months ago. I liked Ps Vue's service better than DTVN or any of the others, but they don't have all the channels I watch so until they get the Viacom channels I will pass. At current time, only DTVN has all the channels I watch. But I will wait until the get the Cloud DVR out of beta and looking as though it is out of beta before cutting the cord with Spectrum. However, since AT&T owns DTVN, and I have had lots of issues with both Direct TV satellite service and AT&T phone and cable services over the years, I am thinking at some point they will put the screws to their DTVN customers. AT&T is well known for overpricing and I keep waiting for the gotchas to come along, and they probably will come along...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Cloud DVR, one would think the streamers would record the show once link it many. Why have a limit at all?

Because they can charge for it. A "free 20" hours probably gives way to charges of $X for (more) hours. 20 hours is almost nothing for a DVR. People will quickly fill that and want more. And AT&T will be happy to sell them more capacity, probably in tiers where the good tier may cost as much as the service itself (and probably still be substantially less storage space than the traditional hardware DVR).

Local commercial insertions make a single show recording problematic. Of course, they could dynamically thread in the local ads on the fly instead of recording one copy of the show plus commercials for each viewer.

 

[deeddawg]

Cloud DVR, one would think the streamers would record the show once link it many. Why have a limit at all?

Selective pricing based on perceived value to the customer. 20hrs free, upcharge a larger quantity.

Cost (to AT&T to provide) isn't really relevant unless they can't make money at what customers are willing to pay.

 

[iReality85]

This is a joke, right? 20 hours?

I have 120 movies on my youtube tv dvr and god knows how many TV shows.

Did you bother to read the article?

Updated my phone and iPad and now i can’t login.

Happened to me too. You'll need to reset your password. Seems they changed it to only alphanumeric plus underscore (_) and dash (-).

The password I used to have contained an exclamation (!), and when I was choosing a new password (same as before) it said the exclamation wasn't allowed now. So my guess is, any passwords that contained these characters were reset or aren't accepted by the new system. Not sure why they changed to a less-secure system, could be temporary.

 

[ckurt25]

Yep, stuck with it for a year plus, regular app and beta app, and my wife finally had enough. Went to Youtube TV and haven't had any issues.

Yeah, we were beta testers too. Both the regular and beta app were awful. We also made the switch to Youtube TV and like it a lot more than DTVN.

 

[Ken Linger]

Best DVR ever?? ReplayTV hands down.

I miss ReplayTV so much. Who owns the patents now? DirecTV. Too bad they're sitting on a shelf.

 

[ayale99]

People in this thread saying the beta app had bugs. LOL. Yeah, that's why its a beta app!

 

[Spankey]

Too bad the Apple TV app is just horrible and almost unusable.

Been using the beta for months. Its been rock solid. Not sure how its been unusable for you.

 

[shpankey]

I'm sorry, but Playstation Vue trounces this. I had that for 6 months until the Directv Now promotion w/ a free new Apple TV 4k for signing up to 3 months, which was a great deal... but by comparison, there is no comparison. PS Vue has an infinitely better guide with WAY more channels listed with way more info, ffw/rwd, start programs over, and to stay on topic here, unlimited recording DVR. Which means you can literally record every single TV show on TV.

To be fair, Directv Now is better at streaming outside of your home, which PS Vue doesn't do and if you try, get ready for a massive headache that will make you wish you never did it.

 

[Ken Linger]

I can't seem to get the skip-back/skip-forward 10sec to work. If I'm watching a broadcast, I can pause it without issue. But when I resume, I'm now delayed the length of my pause. If I want to go back or skip ahead, I can't (I'm tapping or pressing the far left/right side of the touchpad). My only real option is to resume the live broadcast by swiping to the next channel and then back to the original channel where it picks up at the live point.

 

[GDF]

Really - I have had no issues. Use this and PSvue and prefer DTVnow.

Too bad the Apple TV app is just horrible and almost unusable.

[doublepost=1526412868][/doublepost]Why does that suck? Just use the HBO app, as they are all readily available there.

No recording of HBO and other premium channels...which sux.

[doublepost=1526413225][/doublepost]I have both and would not say it is Vue is way better. In my area, Vue does not get all the locals, so that it already a negative. Also, with DTV's new update today the guide is much improved and I think better than Vue. Other than that, I have not noticed major differences between the two. We shall se on the DVR, but on the Vue I hate how it shows the DVR recording and the ondemand side by side. Why would I need ondemand, when I just recorded the show???

I'm sorry, but Playstation Vue trounces this. I had that for 6 months until the Directv Now promotion w/ a free new Apple TV 4k for signing up to 3 months, which was a great deal... but by comparison, there is no comparison. PS Vue has an infinitely better guide with WAY more channels listed with way more info, ffw/rwd, start programs over, and to stay on topic here, unlimited recording DVR. Which means you can literally record every single TV show on TV.

To be fair, Directv Now is better at streaming outside of your home, which PS Vue doesn't do and if you try, get ready for a massive headache that will make you wish you never did it.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

DirecTV Now is awful. It's only value is to gain access to all the standalone channel apps. Their on demand is a joke. 90 minutes to watch a one hour show because there's 20 commercials per break - and you can't fast forward or rewind.