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

[sirozha]

Actually you didn't cut the cord at all, you just moved to a new cable service provider. Cord cutting means NO regular bundled cable service providers with a regular monthly fee. Getting everything a la carte. For example, if you relied on Netflix, Hulu, and iTunes completely... THAT would be considered cutting the cord.

Cutting the cord means unbundling TV from Internet. Hulu now has Live TV service. If someone discontinued cable TV and then subscribed to Hulu, is he I cord cutter? If he later added Hulu Live TV, did he reattach the cord?
[doublepost=1526429605][/doublepost]Too bad Apple never got in the TV provider business as they were rumored to do for a while. No excuses. If Google and Sony could do it not previously being associated with TV provider business, Apple could have done it a long time ago. Another miss on Apple’s part.

 

[Kevin Barre]

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

All of their content is available via on-demand streaming with the HBO app. It’s entirely unnecessary.
[doublepost=1526430496][/doublepost]

This is a joke, right? 20 hours?

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

Right??? Like YouTube, they’ll be storing basically every program that ever runs, as long as a single subscriber has it in their DVR. It’s wouldn’t cost them 1¢ more to allow all subscribers to record unlimited events and keep them forever.

My guess is that this has more to do with the content providers’ limitations than DirectTV’s. The extra money per month for more recordings is probably more money in revenues for the content providers.

I’m waiting for the Day that Apple scores basically unlimited watching of tv and movies—on demand—for a single price each month. Think of it as Apple Music for video. You know they have to be working on something like that. I’d pay pretty decent money for it. I’m already paying over $200/month for Dish unlimited and all of the premium channels. I’d be super happy to pay Apple upwards of $150/month for unlimited streaming on all of my devices.

 

[Swampthing]

Cutting the cord means unbundling TV from Internet. Hulu now has Live TV service. If someone discontinued cable TV and then subscribed to Hulu, is he I cord cutter? If he later added Hulu Live TV, did he reattach the cord?

You take the definition too literal. FiOS TV offers their cable subscription over the internet. Dish Network sends it's Sling TV service over the internet. Even regular Dish comes from the satellite. No cable "cord" involved. Does that mean it's not a cable service? Of course it is! It brings you cable tv channels in a bundle. So yes, if you subscribe to Hulu TV, DirecTVNow, Vue, Youtube TV, etc, you are not a true cord cutter. I guess maybe that stings a bit to not be part of a trend? Whatever...

I've been without cable since 2013 and have only tried the free trials of all those services. Quit each one right away. As with all cable, tons of channels, nothing on I really want to watch... tons of commercials.

 

[sinsin07]

Actually you didn't cut the cord at all, you just moved to a new cable service provider. Cord cutting means NO regular bundled cable service providers with a regular monthly fee. Getting everything a la carte. For example, if you relied on Netflix, Hulu, and iTunes completely... THAT would be considered cutting the cord.

The above is false.

cord cut·ting
noun
informal

1. the practice of canceling or forgoing a cable television subscription or landline telephone connection in favor of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service.

 

[deeddawg]

The big use case I can think of is to record live events, which don't stream on demand for a day or two for the shows, and possibly never become available on-demand in the case of some sporting events.

Yes. The mix of VOD and DVR is a paradigm shift from the pure cable/DVR with limited VOD integration.

The other difference is many DVRs allow commercial skip. Not really a thing on VOD (with some exceptions). That part I miss. The paying lots more to Xfinity, that part I don't miss.

 

[Starship67]

Just tried it again for the $10 Bucks a month. Now I know why I cancelled in the first place the APP sucks on ATV and the DVR is stupid half the stuff I watch cant be recorded and the one show I did record FF the commercial is an absolute nightmare pain the butt. Cancelling again before the next month even at $10 bucks not worth it Ill stick with my Hulu and Netflix Plus the other channels apps.

 

[Dobbs2]

I did. It's still for extra cost and only 90 days. YouTube TV offers unlimited for free with 9 months of holding. Try again buddy.




No idea. Would rather have them than not though.

Those DVRed episodes on YouTubeTV after a certain length of time are replaced by the networks Ondemand version. It’s not truly unlimited dvr if they go to Ondemand with unskippable adds.

 

[kuwxman]

DTVNow haters can continue to hate. I'll stay over here rockin' my solid $35/month service with 100+ channels on 100Mbps internet with ZERO issues. Move along, move along.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

Stopped reading at "not available for select channels".

 

[TheIntruder]

I haven't worked up the courage to install this on my ATV4, since there's no way back, but I have updated on my iPad, so these are my initial impressions.

First gripe -- can we have the old guide back, or a dark mode at least? The new guide hurts my eyes.

Second gripe -- The way the old app worked was quicker and easier to jump around, with instant access to the guide and recently watched channels. One could even leave it out of fullscreen mode and have a decent experience. Now, it's all mode switches and cutesy PIP, and less flexible. The channel avatars are needlessly large and require more scrolling to view.

 

[sirozha]

You take the definition too literal. FiOS TV offers their cable subscription over the internet. Dish Network sends it's Sling TV service over the internet. Even regular Dish comes from the satellite. No cable "cord" involved. Does that mean it's not a cable service? Of course it is! It brings you cable tv channels in a bundle. So yes, if you subscribe to Hulu TV, DirecTVNow, Vue, Youtube TV, etc, you are not a true cord cutter. I guess maybe that stings a bit to not be part of a trend? Whatever...

I've been without cable since 2013 and have only tried the free trials of all those services. Quit each one right away. As with all cable, tons of channels, nothing on I really want to watch... tons of commercials.

I bought an Apple TV2 in October 2010 and cut the cord in January of 2011. When I moved to another state, I was shopping for the internet service for the house that I bought. It was cheaper for me to get the Internet bundle with a basic cable TV service than without it, so I got the bundle of Internet and cable TV, but I never unpacked the cable TV box. It sat in the box for years. Once CNN released their app for Apple TV, I used my cable TV subscription to authenticate the CNN app on Apple TV. Was I still a cord cutter at that point or not?

I got Hulu Live TV Beta in January of 2018 to watch the Olympics on an Apple TV4. I was using the service exclusively for watching the Olympics. Was I a cord cutter or not? Then, in April of 20178, when I tried to use Hulu TV for NHL playoffs, I realized that the service couldn’t cope, so I jumped in the DirecTV Now offer to get another Apple TV at a discount. I’ve now canceled Hulu TV and have a three-month subscription of DirecTV Now and a brand new Apple TV 4K for $105. I’m only using DitecTV Now service for watching NHL playoffs. My basic Cable TV service bundled with the internet has no sports channels in it. Am I still a cable cutter?

 

[dugbug]

Have they really not improved the ATV app at all? When the service was originally launched, it was absolutely terrible. After three months, my wife and I went to PS Vue and haven't looked back (the "free" ATV 4 we got for pre-paying was nice though).

its MASSIVELY improved.

There are still a few issues though:
1. the stupid swipe left-right to change channels, which misfires and when you do do it, it does not go to the next channel in your filter but in your lineup.
2. no scrubbing / going back on live shows. This is what tivo got right, when you change a channel you start a history buffer of x minutes allowing you to back up.
3. no double-tap for CC on/off is needed like in itunes.
4. no siri/tv app integration for finding on demand and your dvr content in the main atv hub app.
5. it should be clear when resting thumb on left or right edge to click to go back 10 secs or forward 10 secs like in standard atv player. They do this for DVR recordings now but I think on demand it was missing (or maybe it was 'show restart').

-d

 

[RobNYC]

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

I think that's how Playstation Vue works.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I don't get the onDemand think. Just use a DVR and record the shows you want to watch and skip through the commercials. I hate commrecial, so would never watch onDemand content. If I missed recording it, I would rather buy the episode from Apple, as all onDemand content have commercials.

DVRs make no sense. You have to know you wanted to watch the show in advance. If I just heard about a show that's multiple episodes in, I'm SOL.

I don't have a problem with commercials in On Demand shows as long as they're of a reasonable length. DirecTV Now's are the product of a deranged and sadistic mind.

 

[cjake]

As a long time Directv satellite subscriber, I would have preferred to subscribe to Directv Now but I went with YouTube TV instead for $35 per month. I can't go without The Golf Channel and Directv Now put the channel in its $60 tier. No way I I could justify an extra $25 per month for one channel.

 

[alphaod]

I'll take that. I'm quite happy with the $10/month plan I have so far; got a nice Apple TV 4K with it and some minimal recording sounds fine to me. For my old DirecTV full service I had three DVRs... honestly I recorded everything, but never had the time to catch up.

 

[coachgq]

I did. It's still for extra cost and only 90 days. YouTube TV offers unlimited for free with 9 months of holding. Try again buddy.




No idea. Would rather have them than not though.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. If I haven’t watched it in a couple of days, I probably won’t. Or I could find it on demand.

 

[JSENNY25]

its MASSIVELY improved.

There are still a few issues though:
1. the stupid swipe left-right to change channels, which misfires and when you do do it, it does not go to the next channel in your filter but in your lineup.
2. no scrubbing / going back on live shows. This is what tivo got right, when you change a channel you start a history buffer of x minutes allowing you to back up.
3. no double-tap for CC on/off is needed like in itunes.
4. no siri/tv app integration for finding on demand and your dvr content in the main atv hub app.
5. it should be clear when resting thumb on left or right edge to click to go back 10 secs or forward 10 secs like in standard atv player. They do this for DVR recordings now but I think on demand it was missing (or maybe it was 'show restart').

-d

I am in the same boat. I think it is better but there is definitely room for improvement.

 

[deeddawg]

If I haven’t watched it in a couple of days, I probably won’t. Or I could find it on demand.

Pretty much same for me, I use DVR mostly for timeshifting stuff within the week.

It's nice that there are different solutions available, so those who need something one doesn't offer can go use a different product which does do what they need. Beats the heck out of having the choice of ONE cabletv provider.

The other aspect is these services are contract free at this time so you can pretty simply switch over to another if it better provides what you need.

In my case, I needed a couple of AppleTV 4K devices, so I'm on my second prepay-x-months-get-ATV-free session right now.

 

[Rocketman]

A lot of whining in this thread. I have a question, what do you cord cutters use to watch channels like CNBC, CNN, FoxNews, and channels that were born on cable?

 

[iReality85]

I did. It's still for extra cost and only 90 days. YouTube TV offers unlimited for free with 9 months of holding. Try again buddy.

Sounds like your needs are not the average consumer's needs. If you don't like it don't get it. Or in other words, stop bitching about a service you don't use.

 

[deeddawg]

A lot of whining in this thread. I have a question, what do you cord cutters use to watch channels like CNBC, CNN, FoxNews, and channels that were born on cable?

DirecTV Now works quite well for this. All three are even on the base cheapest tier.

See the channel lineup - https://www.directvdeals.com/directv-now/channels/

Know the best part? No more $6.75/month "regional sports network" fee, no more $8/month "broadcast television" fee, no more $4.43/mo "franchise" fee. $20 a month in B.S. fees. Just eliminating those pays over have the cost of DTVN. Plus, in my state, services aren't assessed sales tax. So no tax on the internet service and no tax on the DTVN service.

 

[RobNYC]

So does anyone know what networks you can't DVR or is that a show by show basis? I noticed I wasn't allowed to DVR A.P. Bio

 

[sdwaltz]

I don't understand all the hatred for DTV Now.

I've been using it for a year and it's been flawless just about all the time. MAYBE some of the other streaming services are better, but DTV Now is the only streaming service with the channels that I need so I never even considered the others.

As far as complaining about features or lack thereof, you can't argue with the price.

 

[Swampthing]

The above is false.

cord cut·ting
noun
informal

1. the practice of canceling or forgoing a cable television subscription or landline telephone connection in favor of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service.

Believe it or not, this may stun you, but there is incorrect information on the internet. If I were to use that definition, FiOS TV is not cable. Nor was ATT Uverse. Dish Network would not be a cable service. Nor DirectTV. Comcast even has a service that streams the tv to your computer. They would not be considered cable according to the above. Many services simply rely on the internet.

It basically boils down to this.. are you receiving a bundled set of cable channels in a package similar to what cable services already provide? if you just switch services to get those same cable channels from a new service, you aren't cutting the cord. You are just switching the provider of your cable channels. If you are buying HBO Now, iTunes, Netflix, and getting your cable channels over the air, then yes, you are a true cord cutter.

Not sure if you have been following this closely, but several cable companies are petitioning the FCC to place Hulu TV, Vue, etc into the same utility category that they fall into.
[doublepost=1526518668][/doublepost]

I bought an Apple TV2 in October 2010 and cut the cord in January of 2011. When I moved to another state, I was shopping for the internet service for the house that I bought. It was cheaper for me to get the Internet bundle with a basic cable TV service than without it, so I got the bundle of Internet and cable TV, but I never unpacked the cable TV box. It sat in the box for years. Once CNN released their app for Apple TV, I used my cable TV subscription to authenticate the CNN app on Apple TV. Was I still a cord cutter at that point or not?

I got Hulu Live TV Beta in January of 2018 to watch the Olympics on an Apple TV4. I was using the service exclusively for watching the Olympics. Was I a cord cutter or not? Then, in April of 20178, when I tried to use Hulu TV for NHL playoffs, I realized that the service couldn’t cope, so I jumped in the DirecTV Now offer to get another Apple TV at a discount. I’ve now canceled Hulu TV and have a three-month subscription of DirecTV Now and a brand new Apple TV 4K for $105. I’m only using DitecTV Now service for watching NHL playoffs. My basic Cable TV service bundled with the internet has no sports channels in it. Am I still a cable cutter?

LOL... Generally cutting the cord means ending any traditional service that bundles together multiple cable channels into a single monthly price. Things like Vue or Hulu TV are just another form of cable subscription package that allow the same thing. Multiple cable channels for a single monthly price. In these situations, there are inevitably many channels you don't watch and have no need for. Cutting the cord generally means getting rid of a service like that, and going ala carte with only what you want to see. HBONow. iTunes. Netflix. Hulu. Shudder. Things like that. And if you do get cable channels, cord cutters generally get them over the air via antenna for free.