Who's sticking with DirecTV Now?

[MrXiro]

The 3 months is about up for people who signed up for Dtv Now to get the free AppleTV.

Who's keeping it? I'm debating going back to Sling cause IMO DirecTV Now is awful.
VOD is broken and garbage, aired programs aren't available for a week or more and the VOD channels actually disappear. I couldn't get past FYI last night before the list went back to "A"

Over the weekend 1/3 the guide went blank and AMC was blank during The Walking Dead which means you couldn't easily turn in. I figured out a work around but it was a pain in the butt and missed half the show.

No fix in sight and Customer Service basically tells you "peace out" when you tell them you will leave if they don't fix their service.

 

[boast]

I'll keep it for now because it is better than Sling TV for me. I barely watch enough TV to justify the cost, but being able to share a stream with my parents is also better than Sling TV of just 1 stream allowed.

 

[MrXiro]

I'll keep it for now because it is better than Sling TV for me. I barely watch enough TV to justify the cost, but being able to share a stream with my parents is also better than Sling TV of just 1 stream allowed.

You know if you use Sling Blue (NBC and Fox channels) you get 3 streams for $25. Or you can get both Orange and Blue for $40 and have multiple streams so long as it isn't a Disney owned channel.

 

[mattopotamus]

I wouldn't say it is garbage, but no streaming service can replace cable, generally speaking. Where one service has certain channels it is missing others. This seems to be true across the board. Youtube looks like it may be the first with all major networks regardless of location, but it is missing a lot of other channels.

 

[MrXiro]

I wouldn't say it is garbage, but no streaming service can replace cable, generally speaking. Where one service has certain channels it is missing others. This seems to be true across the board. Youtube looks like it may be the first with all major networks regardless of location, but it is missing a lot of other channels.

It's not even the channel lineup that bothers me but between the VOD being completely broken and the constant buffering on my 60mbps internet (I know it's not my internet that is the bottleneck). It's that they haven't fixed jack squat in 3 months.

Their "72 hour rewind" doesn't work either. You only get 72 hour rewind for 2 shows per channel tops if it even has it. As opposed to Sling's, I can pretty much watch ANYTHING from the last 3 days on Sling for the channels that have it and that was from the start nearly 2 years ago.

As someone who's had the cord cut for years now I know at this point how these SHOULD work and what's broken and Dtv Now is definitely Broken as a service... I mean come on. I couldn't watch Live TV on Sunday cause their Guide crapped out. That's unheard of from any of the streaming services I've used and I've used every single one of them.

 

[cjgrif]

I'm going to stick with it to see how it continues to improve. It has already come a long way since 3 months ago - I don't have the freezing and unavailable messages like I did in the beginning. The past few nights I've watched for a few hours in the evening and didn't have a single slow down or buffering haha. I'll be honest I haven't used the VOD or rewind features, so I can't really comment on that. I was paying for SlingTV prior to switching, and to be fair that had its share of issues especially in the beginning as well...so many times having to "Start episode from beginning" because it just froze and wouldn't continue from where it left off even after closing and reopening the app. I'm sure DirecTV Now will get the bugs worked out over time just like SlingTV did.

 

[d21mike]

Since I need HBO and it is $5 vs $15 on others my NET COST is $25. I will for sure keep it unless Hulu does something much better. I already have Hulu with no commercials for $12. And Hulu says they will have a DVR. Really want more content with no commercials. I also have CBS All Access with no commercials for $10.

 

[Phil in ocala]

I wouldn't say it is garbage, but no streaming service can replace cable, generally speaking. Where one service has certain channels it is missing others. This seems to be true across the board. Youtube looks like it may be the first with all major networks regardless of location, but it is missing a lot of other channels.

__________________________________
It would be a break in Geek Protocol...if they worked all the problems before they put it on the market.....its flawed.....they know it and then think...so what.

 

[mattopotamus]

Since I need HBO and it is $5 vs $15 on others my NET COST is $25. I will for sure keep it unless Hulu does something much better. I already have Hulu with no commercials for $12. And Hulu says they will have a DVR. Really want more content with no commercials. I also have CBS All Access with no commercials for $10.

So you are paying $5 for HBO, $35 for directv now, $12 for Hulu, and $10 for CBS. That is $62 which is more than I pay for cable with over 150+ channels. I do pay for HBO separately, but cable is $45 for me, so I am actually paying less for a lot more and a DVR that works perfectly.

Internet, TV, and 4 HD DVRs cost me $140 out the door after taxes. I pay for 1GBPS internet, so that is $70.

 

[jkozlow3]

I wouldn't say it is garbage, but no streaming service can replace cable, generally speaking. Where one service has certain channels it is missing others. This seems to be true across the board. Youtube looks like it may be the first with all major networks regardless of location, but it is missing a lot of other channels.

Don't forget about Hulu's upcoming streaming service. While they haven't officially announced the channel lineups, I'm hopeful that theirs will be pretty good and include all the major networks due to their ownership.

That said, I agree that none of these streaming services are up to par yet vs. cable. People are always complaining about cable, but for the 70-80% of people that bundle TV & internet (whatever the percentage is), you cannot do much better than cable most of the time, providing you always call and get put on a new promotional package whenever your existing promo expires (it sucks that we have to play this game).

Once you drop TV, the price of internet usually goes up substantially once you no longer have a bundle. Add that new unbundled internet rate to your streaming TV package (DTV Now, Sling, etc.) and you're probably right back to where you started price-wise but with fewer channels (vs. cable)!

For me, this is a fact. Some people's situations may be different, but I always haggle with Comcast until I've got my package down to a pretty good price (including free DVR, HBO, etc.). Then I have to repeat the process every 12-24 months when my promotion ends.

 

[bliggs]

I'll be sticking with it for the time being. I haven't used it a lot but when I have, it has worked just fine for me. I mostly only use it for the sports channels anyways and they have been great. Also, being an AT&T customer, the data free streaming has been very nice and is the main reason why I am keeping it for now. There isn't anything else on the market that is better at the $35/month price right now.

 

[mattopotamus]

Don't forget about Hulu's upcoming streaming service. While they haven't officially announced the channel lineups, I'm hopeful that theirs will be pretty good and include all the major networks due to their ownership.

That said, I agree that none of these streaming services are up to par yet vs. cable. People are always complaining about cable, but for the 70-80% of people that bundle TV & internet (whatever the percentage is), you cannot do much better than cable most of the time, providing you always call and get put on a new promotional package whenever your existing promo expires (it sucks that we have to play this game).

Once you drop TV, the price of internet usually goes up substantially once you no longer have a bundle. Add that new unbundled internet rate to your streaming TV package (DTV Now, Sling, etc.) and you're probably right back to where you started price-wise but with fewer channels (vs. cable)!

For me, this is a fact. Some people's situations may be different, but I always haggle with Comcast until I've got my package down to a pretty good price (including free DVR, HBO, etc.). Then I have to repeat the process every 12-24 months when my promotion ends.

exact same situation here. If I actually made the decision to cut the cord, I would probably only pay for Netflix and HBO without adding a streaming service because, like we both said, you are right back to cable prices.

I would love to see the statistics of the number of "cord cutters" who are actually using streaming services such as sling, Hulu, DTV Now, etc coupled with Netflix, HBO, showtime, etc. I bet it is pretty high. It is just rebranded cable.

 

[Rigby]

So you are paying $5 for HBO, $35 for directv now, $12 for Hulu, and $10 for CBS. That is $62 which is more than I pay for cable with over 150+ channels.

Probably true. If you want to stick with conventional TV viewing habits, cord cutting is probably not very cost effective. For me personally, on-demand is where it's at. I like to watch on my own schedule, and not bother with programming a DVR as if I was still living in the age of VHS tapes. With rare exceptions (live news), I'm not interested in "channels". And not being bombarded with commercials (Hulu ad-free, Netflix, HBO) makes for a much better viewing experience. I wish news channels such as CNN offered a low-cost standalone subscription ...

 

[0970373]

Don't forget about Hulu's upcoming streaming service. While they haven't officially announced the channel lineups, I'm hopeful that theirs will be pretty good and include all the major networks due to their ownership.

That said, I agree that none of these streaming services are up to par yet vs. cable. People are always complaining about cable, but for the 70-80% of people that bundle TV & internet (whatever the percentage is), you cannot do much better than cable most of the time, providing you always call and get put on a new promotional package whenever your existing promo expires (it sucks that we have to play this game).

Once you drop TV, the price of internet usually goes up substantially once you no longer have a bundle. Add that new unbundled internet rate to your streaming TV package (DTV Now, Sling, etc.) and you're probably right back to where you started price-wise but with fewer channels (vs. cable)!

For me, this is a fact. Some people's situations may be different, but I always haggle with Comcast until I've got my package down to a pretty good price (including free DVR, HBO, etc.). Then I have to repeat the process every 12-24 months when my promotion ends.

This is the case for me as well. I have a pretty good deal w/ FiOS and I have a TiVO + mini so I can really watch TV anywhere and download the shows. I made a little spreadsheet spanning 1, 2 and 3 years and in the end, my cable w/ TiVO costs less and it's more flexible. The sports channels are also important to me. Plus I can download most TV shows & movies and save it on my server for Plex use.

FiOS $113.79/mo for FiOS Extreme (450 channels, 150 in HD) w/ HBO & SHO, 75/75 internet.
TiVO eq over 5 years is $6.13/month which was all upfront and I got a great deal during a sale.
The annual TiVO service fee breaks down to $12/mo.
I used points to pay for my Mini in the bedroom and it comes w/ lifetime service.

That's $131.92

Standalone internet is $70 so my savings by canceling cable and keeping DirecTV w/ HBO ($40) and I'd have to add Hulu until DVR functions were available on DTVN so then the cost is almost the same once taxes are figured in.

I'm very interested in what Hulu has to offer though so we'll see.

 

[vintagebob]

I bought in to watch SF Giants baseball since they have Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area but now I find out that even though they have the channel the games are blacked out.

See ya...

 

[Spankey]

The service is totally reliable right now and PQ issues have been corrected. In fact, overall PQ is better than Directv Satellite. Hulu can still possibly blow it out of the water. I need four more things to happen for the service to be perfect for me.

1. Add NBC to Apple TV like it is on Fire Stick.
2. Get CBS added as most OTT services now have.
3. DVR functionality or more app logins (that's 2 but either will work for me)
4. Allow more streams than 2. I need four but would be quite happy with five.

 

[d21mike]

So you are paying $5 for HBO, $35 for directv now, $12 for Hulu, and $10 for CBS. That is $62 which is more than I pay for cable with over 150+ channels. I do pay for HBO separately, but cable is $45 for me, so I am actually paying less for a lot more and a DVR that works perfectly.

Internet, TV, and 4 HD DVRs cost me $140 out the door after taxes. I pay for 1GBPS internet, so that is $70.

To me this is not all about the cost. But I agree cost is a consideration. I was paying $70/month for 2x DVR and 2x STB which covered 4 TV's (hardware cost only). With a 5 bedroom house I have 8 TV's. So to cover all of them I would need 4 more STB's. Maybe another $40 per month for just the hardware. And, I like the Apple TV UI much better then my FIOS STB UI. With the Apple TV I have 1 box connected to my TV and 1 remote. I also have access to Hulu, Netflix and other Apps that were not available on the FIOS Hardware so I already had Apple TV's on most of my TV's. I also use WatchAid App which gives me a Universal Guide for most of what I watch. I mainly only watch live tv (news mainly) via DIRECTV Now. Most of what I watch delayed is commercial free (and no FF thru commercials). I am very happy with my setup and expect it to get better with more options. But I felt I needed to make the move and make the investment in more Apple TV's. Also, I do not have the extra cost below the line FIOS FEE's.

 

[Coffee50]

exact same situation here. If I actually made the decision to cut the cord, I would probably only pay for Netflix and HBO without adding a streaming service because, like we both said, you are right back to cable prices.

I would love to see the statistics of the number of "cord cutters" who are actually using streaming services such as sling, Hulu, DTV Now, etc coupled with Netflix, HBO, showtime, etc. I bet it is pretty high. It is just rebranded cable.

Yeah, I think when you do add all those up you essentially paying a price equivalent or just a few dollars less.

However, I do think a lot of the cord cutters who have all of those services don't pay for them all directly.

There are many who may pay for the just the streaming service, but get Hulu / HBO / Netflix by sharing a password with a family member / friend.

There's another thread where people were listing their total cost & even though they had access to all these services, they were only paying for 1 or 2 of the services.

 

[MrXiro]

Don't forget about Hulu's upcoming streaming service. While they haven't officially announced the channel lineups, I'm hopeful that theirs will be pretty good and include all the major networks due to their ownership.

That said, I agree that none of these streaming services are up to par yet vs. cable. People are always complaining about cable, but for the 70-80% of people that bundle TV & internet (whatever the percentage is), you cannot do much better than cable most of the time, providing you always call and get put on a new promotional package whenever your existing promo expires (it sucks that we have to play this game).

Once you drop TV, the price of internet usually goes up substantially once you no longer have a bundle. Add that new unbundled internet rate to your streaming TV package (DTV Now, Sling, etc.) and you're probably right back to where you started price-wise but with fewer channels (vs. cable)!

For me, this is a fact. Some people's situations may be different, but I always haggle with Comcast until I've got my package down to a pretty good price (including free DVR, HBO, etc.). Then I have to repeat the process every 12-24 months when my promotion ends.

Hulu won't have AMC nor any of the Scripps networks (HGTV, Travel Channel, Food Network) or any channels that aren't owned by a Broadcast TV network. For me Sling Blue seems to be the way to go. It has all the channels I want (Travel, Syfy, HGTV, AMC, USA) and hopefully DVR comes soon.
[doublepost=1488497032][/doublepost]

This is the case for me as well. I have a pretty good deal w/ FiOS and I have a TiVO + mini so I can really watch TV anywhere and download the shows. I made a little spreadsheet spanning 1, 2 and 3 years and in the end, my cable w/ TiVO costs less and it's more flexible. The sports channels are also important to me. Plus I can download most TV shows & movies and save it on my server for Plex use.

FiOS $113.79/mo for FiOS Extreme (450 channels, 150 in HD) w/ HBO & SHO, 75/75 internet.
TiVO eq over 5 years is $6.13/month which was all upfront and I got a great deal during a sale.
The annual TiVO service fee breaks down to $12/mo.
I used points to pay for my Mini in the bedroom and it comes w/ lifetime service.

That's $131.92

Standalone internet is $70 so my savings by canceling cable and keeping DirecTV w/ HBO ($40) and I'd have to add Hulu until DVR functions were available on DTVN so then the cost is almost the same once taxes are figured in.

I'm very interested in what Hulu has to offer though so we'll see.

This is what I have:
60mbps Spectrum internet: $35
Netflix: $8 (yes they still haven't raised my price )
Hulu Plus: Sister pays for it. ($8)
Sling Blue: $25

Total of $68/mo out of my pocket
[doublepost=1488497165][/doublepost]

Yeah, I think when you do add all those up you essentially paying a price equivalent or just a few dollars less.

However, I do think a lot of the cord cutters who have all of those services don't pay for them all directly.

There are many who may pay for the just the streaming service, but get Hulu / HBO / Netflix by sharing a password with a family member / friend.

There's another thread where people were listing their total cost & even though they had access to all these services, they were only paying for 1 or 2 of the services.

Ha I just did that.
[doublepost=1488497277][/doublepost]

The service is totally reliable right now and PQ issues have been corrected. In fact, overall PQ is better than Directv Satellite. Hulu can still possibly blow it out of the water. I need four more things to happen for the service to be perfect for me.

1. Add NBC to Apple TV like it is on Fire Stick.
2. Get CBS added as most OTT services now have.
3. DVR functionality or more app logins (that's 2 but either will work for me)
4. Allow more streams than 2. I need four but would be quite happy with five.

Have you used the VOD? It is so broken and they also shoehorn in 6 spots per commercial break that are always the same. Sling doesn't shoehorn ads in like that with their VOD. It feel cheap and is also a super archaic way they did it as it doesn't flow in naturally and is even more intrusive than Hulu Plus' ads.

 

[jkozlow3]

Hulu won't have AMC nor any of the Scripps networks (HGTV, Travel Channel, Food Network) or any channels that aren't owned by a Broadcast TV network.

Why won't they? I understand that Hulu is owned by the broadcast networks, but why couldn't they work out a deal to carry AMC/Scripps networks, etc. just like their competitors have done?

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Youtube looks like it may be the first with all major networks regardless of location

I don't know why people keep saying this. It's not true. Just like all the other services Google has to negotiate one by one with non-network stations. So their service is rolling out in select markets, not nationwide. So definitely location will still matter greatly. Even moreso really as it sounds like this will be an all or nothing thing. Until they bring it to your area you'll get zero channels!

As far as DTV, neither of the poll choices worked for me. It's neither great nor a hot steaming pile of garbage. Instead it is somewhere in the middle still. However I am keeping it in the hope that some missing features will be added, some of the bugs I still experience will be fixed, and negotiations with CBS and NBC for full streaming will eventually be worked out. Or until something better comes along. Whichever one comes first.

 

[east85]

I'm sticking with it, I think it would be kind of impatient and near-sighted to get rid of my grandfathered plan. Things are already improving and I assume they will continue to improve. I also have a lot of enthusiasm for the TV app on Apple TV. In an ideal situation I will just be able to watch almost all of my favorite shows via DTV Now sign in and select the shows I'm interested in via the Up Next feature of the TV App. DTV Now also added a few more big names for app support today. This really streamlines my viewing experience. I already use it for a lot of shows I watch and I think I'll continue watching this way.

 

[mac.cali]

I'm going to keep it. The price makes it worth sticking it out. Hopefully the get CBS & NFL Network by football season. If not it'll be hard to stick with them.

 

[TheIntruder]

I'm in the minority, and don't really care about VOD and can live without a DVR for now, so I'm sticking with DTVN until something better comes along. YouTube doesn't appear to be it, so we'll see what Hulu offers. If I had to switch, it would probably be to Vue.

Until then, I'm hoping that the occasional glitches are banished, and the app updates continue; the current version is the buggiest since the initial release.

 

[MrXiro]

Why won't they? I understand that Hulu is owned by the broadcast networks, but why couldn't they work out a deal to carry AMC/Scripps networks, etc. just like their competitors have done?

That's what was on the announcement the other day.

EDIT: You know what? I confused the new Youtube announcement with the the upcoming Hulu streaming service. Youtube is who won't have the cable networks. Hulu might be awesome actually.