DirecTV Now?

[colodane]

The "free" ATV4 I received a couple day ago from DirecTv sure looked completely new, including all the packaging.

I'm curious what kind of a deal DTV made with Apple for this high quantity purchase. Perhaps Apple wanting to clear some stock in preparation for an upcoming ATV5 ? ;>)

 

[TheIntruder]

The AT&T units are factory fresh. Or maybe not so fresh. The one I picked up at the store still had OS 9 on it, so it had been sitting in stock for at least four months, if not more. Stuff I've bought from the Apple Store is usually no more than a couple months removed from production.

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

I think in the end Directv will end up regretting the free Apple TV box offer. Once they figure most ppl like me are just using it to get a discounted Apple TV box, they will be kicking themselves at that point. Regardless of whether you can argue that they can afford to lose money with that promo or not.

 

[nburwell]

I think in the end Directv will end up regretting the free Apple TV box offer. Once they figure most ppl like me are just using it to get a discounted Apple TV box, they will be kicking themselves at that point. Regardless of whether you can argue that they can afford to lose money with that promo or not.

That was the sole reason I signed up for DIRECTV Now was to add another ATV4 to our bedroom. But my fiancée and I both really have been enjoying the service. So much so that we may continue with it after our three month prepaid period is up in March.

DIRECTV still needs to squash some bugs within the app, along with the video freezing if we're going to be 100% on board.

 

[red41]

Are people still having trouble with the freezing? I haven't noticed it on my ipad but it was really bad last time I used it on the ATV4.

 

[d21mike]

I think in the end Directv will end up regretting the free Apple TV box offer. Once they figure most ppl like me are just using it to get a discounted Apple TV box, they will be kicking themselves at that point. Regardless of whether you can argue that they can afford to lose money with that promo or not.

You could be right if they do not make some changes before the end of the 90 days. I decided to try it because the deal was to good to pass up (I also save $10 on HBO). I did not cancel my TV Subscription from FIOS but would like to. I expect one of the OTT Solutions will be right for me. DIRECTV Now with the Grandfathered price is very nice but they really need to move quickly on other App Authentication support and some kind of DVR Solution. VUE has a DVR and Sling is beta testing a DVR. Hulu and Yahoo are coming out in 2017 and I am sure others like probably Amazon.

 

[psylence2k]

I think in the end Directv will end up regretting the free Apple TV box offer. Once they figure most ppl like me are just using it to get a discounted Apple TV box, they will be kicking themselves at that point. Regardless of whether you can argue that they can afford to lose money with that promo or not.

I doubt it because I'm sure they already knew there would be a bunch of people signing up just for the Apple TV. It's something that's pretty much a given with these kind of deals because they happen all the time.

The money you pay more than likely goes to covering the cost of the Apple TV. The 3-month service is what they're basically giving you for free. It's basically "Hey buy this Apple TV from us and take 3 months of our service and tell us what you think".

 

[geenice]

I doubt it because I'm sure they already knew there would be a bunch of people signing up just for the Apple TV. It's something that's pretty much a given with these kind of deals because they happen all the time.

The money you pay more than likely goes to covering the cost of the Apple TV. The 3-month service is what they're basically giving you for free. It's basically "Hey buy this Apple TV from us and take 3 months of our service and tell us what you think".

Beta testing with a bonus

 

[gsucyclist]

The free Apple TV is basically the reason I signed up. I have been looking to cut the cord for awhile now and trying to find the right service to do it with. I'm liking DirectTV Now for the most part, they just need to get rid of some of the bugs and add a DVR function. I will be holding onto my cable until the 3 months is up to see where the service goes

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

I'm really liking the service. I stress tested it this weekend. Had a couple of glitches but for the most part it worked well. I love that I can watch some shows I missed with the rewind thing. I also like that I can watch my TV anywhere without switching between a bunch of apps which annoys me to no end. My dog and I watched a marathon of Pit Bulls and Parolees for five hours straight without a hitch.

 

[ratbastard]

Do not do it.
I signed up, made the three month advanced payment in order to receive the 32gb Apple TV, & it barely worked the first evening. Difficult to navigate. Also, selecting channels as Favorites gave them a highlighted icon, but scrolling went through all of them, not just the Favorites. The second day, we only had a blank white screen. I contacted them to cancel, during the 7-day free trial, and was advised that there are no cancellations, and no offer to troubleshoot the connection.

I power cycled the television, the existing Apple TV & the router but launching the AT&T DirectTV Now App remained a blank white screen. I ended up reporting it to the credit card company as fraud for services, with a claim pending.

ratbastard

 

[bopajuice]

Just signed up. I like the service. I have been off the grid for over a year. Do not miss cable, satellite or contracts. If Directv keeps the service at $35 with the channels I have now, I'm all in. I have read there is no introductory pricing timeline. No one knows how long the $35 a month pricing will be honored.

The only thing for me is the lack of local channels. I know it says depending on the area, but I have found very little info about how to verify what I get in my area. For that matter if it were not for Mac Rumors I would not have even known about the AppleTV offer. The main Directv Now site sucks. Not much into about channel line up, features, etc. Had to search to find that the DVR function is coming later. Local channels are limited. I even found the same offer but with a Firestick. Roku is coming next year.

HBO is offered at a discount price. A third of what I was paying through the App Store.

Now if only AppleTV had a Amazon Prime App, my world would be complete.

 

[off_piste]

Do not do it.
I signed up, made the three month advanced payment in order to receive the 32gb Apple TV, & it barely worked the first evening. Difficult to navigate. Also, selecting channels as Favorites gave them a highlighted icon, but scrolling went through all of them, not just the Favorites. The second day, we only had a blank white screen. I contacted them to cancel, during the 7-day free trial, and was advised that there are no cancellations, and no offer to troubleshoot the connection.

I power cycled the television, the existing Apple TV & the router but launching the AT&T DirectTV Now App remained a blank white screen. I ended up reporting it to the credit card company as fraud for services, with a claim pending.

ratbastard

Haven't had any of those issues other than the navigation being wonky. I don't watch much live tv other than sports so it's not too troublesome since I just added shows to My Shows for easy access.

Edit - had bad brain fart and was talking about the PSVue app in a directv thread...

 

[rjjacobson]

App version 1.02 pushed out today has a pretty extensive list of published fixes.

I haven't experienced the error 60 warnings, but it might help those that have.

for some reason the update to 1.02 showed up 2 days ago for iPad and iPhone but I only found it today as autoupdate on my apple TV we shall see if it works better. My iPad worked ok with 1.01 but the improvments and fixes do sound like they apply to some of the issues I am curious if any improvements have been seen on others apple tv apps since the update. I had not tried just saw it was there I often watch on my ipad so will have to check it out as my wife prefers the Tv if the update fixes problems

 

[bopajuice]

Do not do it.
I signed up, made the three month advanced payment in order to receive the 32gb Apple TV, & it barely worked the first evening. Difficult to navigate. Also, selecting channels as Favorites gave them a highlighted icon, but scrolling went through all of them, not just the Favorites. The second day, we only had a blank white screen. I contacted them to cancel, during the 7-day free trial, and was advised that there are no cancellations, and no offer to troubleshoot the connection.

I power cycled the television, the existing Apple TV & the router but launching the AT&T DirectTV Now App remained a blank white screen. I ended up reporting it to the credit card company as fraud for services, with a claim pending.

ratbastard

You brought up a good point. What if we have an issue with the AppleTV? Is it under the same one year warranty like any other Apple product? Do we take it to Apple to get it serviced or replaced?

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

You brought up a good point. What if we have an issue with the AppleTV? Is it under the same one year warranty like any other Apple product? Do we take it to Apple to get it serviced or replaced?

It's an Apple TV, as long as it under warranty Apple will take care of it. It's not like they will know you bought it cause of a promo you received. You can get one from EBay or Craigslist, if it is under warranty they will take care of it. Hell, most of the time even if the 1yr warranty is up, Apple is usually good at fixing any issues with its products.

 

[TheIntruder]

You brought up a good point. What if we have an issue with the AppleTV? Is it under the same one year warranty like any other Apple product? Do we take it to Apple to get it serviced or replaced?

It's warranted by Apple. You can verify a product's coverage online.

I received a paper receipt with the unit I picked up in store, which has a record of the serial number, and a total of $0.00.

My coverage period corresponds to the purchase date on the receipt.

Sometimes, Apple's records can be off, as some retailers don't submit purchase information to Apple, but as long as you can provide a dated proof of purchase, it's not a problem if service is required.

The process to correct such discrepancies used to be a pain, as it required sending a fax to Apple. I don't know if it has been made easier, but it's probably not worth the effort for a $150 device, versus something like a $750 iPhone or a $2000 Mac, as long as you can provide the proof when required.

If the shipped units come with a packing list/receipt, particularly with an associated serial number, then you probably don't have to do anything, as AT&T may have already provided the purchase information to Apple.

Given their status as a major Apple (iPhone) retailer, that process was likely already well-established.

 

[rhodesy22]

Signed up from Australia and initially had issues with the DirectTV Now app requiring location services on the AppleTV and telling me that I'm not in the US...the only way to circumvent this was to spoof the geolocation was to run a development app and then never turn the AppleTV off. (Otherwise you had to do this over again).

The latest app seems to have done away with this restriction though and I now have no issues watching from Australia.

Waiting on the included AppleTV to be sent from the US but that will be given as a gift (with an additional AU cable)

I find the app to be pretty unintuitive, it usually takes me a few attempts to get where I need to go. It's also not as smooth as I'd like.

I've purchased now just to lock into the low rate and cheap HBO add-on while I wait for the DVR feature.

I watch most of my TV through the TV Everywhere apps (i.e. AMC, SyFy etc.) and having replaced PS Vue (which had fantastic TV Everywhere support) with DirecTV Now, I'm really looking forward to more of them being added as it's pretty limited at the moment - then I can drop Hulu.

Pretty annoying that HBO Go (unlike HBO Now) isn't included within Apple's new TV app but I've installed HBO Now also so that I can at least see what shows are available on HBO from within the TB App.

To round everything off I also subscribe to CBS All Access, Netflix and the free The CW app.

Pretty happy with how everything is at the moment overall and at the current price, it's a bargain.

 

[bthompson]

Hi everyone. I signed up for DTVnow and it honestly pretty great. I signed up in the store, and walked out with a new Apple TV. Today I got home and there is another Apple TV on my doorstep. There's nothing in the box but the ATV which came from direct tv now fulfillment. What do I do???

 

[geenice]

Hi everyone. I signed up for DTVnow and it honestly pretty great. I signed up in the store, and walked out with a new Apple TV. Today I got home and there is another Apple TV on my doorstep. There's nothing in the box but the ATV which came from direct tv now fulfillment. What do I do???

Keep it

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Hi everyone. I signed up for DTVnow and it honestly pretty great. I signed up in the store, and walked out with a new Apple TV. Today I got home and there is another Apple TV on my doorstep. There's nothing in the box but the ATV which came from direct tv now fulfillment. What do I do???

Wow...I have the exact same problem. It just showed up on my door a few minutes ago. They don't seem to know what they are doing!

 

[bthompson]

Wow...I have the exact same problem. It just showed up on my door a few minutes ago. They don't seem to know what they are doing!

I've read on another forum this has happened. The ATV serial number for either device is connected to my account. I prepaid for my 3 months and now I have two ATVs.

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

Hi everyone. I signed up for DTVnow and it honestly pretty great. I signed up in the store, and walked out with a new Apple TV. Today I got home and there is another Apple TV on my doorstep. There's nothing in the box but the ATV which came from direct tv now fulfillment. What do I do???

I need to go to AT&T and sign up in store, so I can get 2 Apple tvs also. That ain't right we get 1, and y'all get 2! lol

 

[IndianBird]

Hi everyone. I signed up for DTVnow and it honestly pretty great. I signed up in the store, and walked out with a new Apple TV. Today I got home and there is another Apple TV on my doorstep. There's nothing in the box but the ATV which came from direct tv now fulfillment. What do I do???

Call Att and tell them one was mailed to you as well.

They'll either pay to ship it back or have you keep it for your honesty.

Either way you've done the right thing.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Call Att and tell them one was mailed to you as well.

They'll either pay to ship it back or have you keep it for your honesty.

Either way you've done the right thing.

There is no phone or even email support for the DIRECTV Now service (One of the bad things about the service). Only a chat link at the bottom of a webpage that often is no where to be found. I assume that happens when they are overwhelmed and it gets turned off. Not sure. Either way, they aren't very easy to get a hold of.