AT&T Cruisecast Mobile Video Service

[jcrandall]

Launching in March, AT&T Cruisecast is a mobile video satellite service for automobiles.

The Dish attaches to the roof via a mangnet mount or luggage rack, and stands about 4" above the roof (for those with a close garage bay already).

The service offers a planned 20-25 channels, and is expandable, they spoke to being able to easily acquire additional transponder space as part of their lease.

Compared to competitors like Sirius car video product with only 5 channels or so, this has a big advantage.

The hard part is the price tag, with a expected price of $1299 + installation. It will be available via independent dealers, such as your typical car audio places, and perhpas some automotive dealers.

Service will be $29/month.

They have secured several Disney & Discovery networks, News networks, Comedy centeral, and are working on ESPN (but not final yet).
AT&T CruiseCast - Channel Line Up

Here are some pics of the dish.

 

[sundude90]

Doesn't direct already have something like that? What the difference?

 

[jcrandall]

Sirius has a 3 channel solution, and I think there is one other out there. Neither Dish or Directv have a mobile solution like this. There are custom mfg mobile dishes made for dish/directv, but they cost typically $2000+.

 

[digiblur]

From the pictures the dish looks huge. Any pictures of something with relation of size in it?

It just sticks by magnets?

 

[jcrandall]

Look at the last pic, it has the luggage rack in front.

Generally, it appearas it would stand about 2-3" taller than a typical luggage rack on most vehicles.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

If they could get the Dish size down about 2 inches it would be a great add on.

I am thinking about getting it and getting rid of Sirius Backseat Video which is what I have now, however I have concerns of fitting in my parking garage with the Dish being that tall.

 

[aegrotatio]

CruiseCast has soft-launched

Now that CruiseCast has soft-launched, does anyone have satellite and transponder data on it?

 

[commodore_dude]

My dad had this installed yesterday, didn't get a ton of time to play with it but the buffering is a neat idea provided you give it a chance to buffer (and don't insist on channel surfing while driving on a tree-lined road like I was ). The antenna looks about like one of the ones you see on trucks for tracking purposes, and looks a bit smaller than the one in the attached pics above. It does have ESPN Mobile, which looked like it was just duplicating the main ESPN feed at the time (no special ticker or anything like that). Need to try watching it on a bigger screen the next time I have a chance, just got to watch on the 4" screen in his dash rather than the headrest mounted ones. Probably not what you want just as an individual, but if I had children and went on road trips a lot this would be a lifesaver!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would love to try and review this service. I have contacted Cruisecast a few times and they wont even return emails.

My truck would be perfect for it as I have two 7 inch monitors in my truck (and currently subscribe to Sirius Backseat TV)

 

[commodore_dude]

My understanding is they aren't even charging for the service yet if you have the hardware since so much is still being finalized, so maybe they don't want "beta" service being reviewed

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

They were supposed to have a press confrence today but that was move until Wednesday due to the GM bankruptcy announcement.