DIRECTV NOW LAUNCH

[schneider21]

Is there a way to go directly to a channel without having to go through the guide?
I don't see channel numbers, so I'm doubting that's possible.

But knowing I want go to ESPN or USA, but first I have to click on the guide and scroll through to find and highlight the channel is a #FirstWorldProblem that's bugging me.

Also, is anyone else having issues with saving favorites? Everytime I come back to the app, some channels are unclicked from my favorites list while others are included (that previously weren't).

 

[camo]

Can someone run the numbers again. My streaming issues were non-existent for the last two nights and today my PQ looks better than ever. I've very happy with how things are right now. Just fix the ABC audio issue and get NBC up and I am ditching cable. I still wonder if one of the "technical" issues with getting NBC available has to due with NFL games for this year. CBS and NFL Network as well. Maybe after the Superbowl we may see these.

Same resolution 1280x 720. Bitrate also supports 1280x720. I checked several other channels like NBA channel that normally run 1080 all still 720. MSNBC still serious lip sync issue not a c hannel I watch but does show issues are still there with audio.

 

[Spankey00]

I did just check MSNBC and see the lip sync issues. I'm not doubting the numbers but maybe a 1080i channel converted to a lower rez progressive just looks really good. Cause it looks reallly good.

 

[camo]

Maybe I have a couple Sony x930d TV's so 720 looks just as good on both PSVue and DTVN as it did on satellite. My old Vizio TV 720 channels was day and night difference. I hated the fact ABC, ESPN, FOX watching sports looked so bad. The TV does make a big difference how 720p looks.
Overall I think Vue has edge but you really need to be looking. Both are 60 fps so sports looks smooth on devices like FireTV box. Some of the sticks don't support 60FPS is why I say stay away from sticks.

 

[camo]

Showing X-Ray advanced does work correctly here is Netflix Jungle Book clip. Same goes for 4K programming it shows what the source actually is not just what HDMI input supports. It properly shows frame rate also because most movies are filmed at 24 fps.

 

[Spankey00]

I think the down rezzing is going to be here for awhile. Things are working smoothly and PQ is comparable to competitors. It would be nice if they ramped back up once they get more capacity online.

 

[SatinKzo]

still not smooth on my fire tv gen 2 (not the stick). Lots of rectangles at night.

 

[camo]

Attempted to watch Ryder Cup on Golf channel this morning and its horrible with jerkiness. Reminds me of Sling with sports when I tried it out a year ago. Back to Vue running smooth as ever.

 

[SpaethCo]

Even at 720p the bitrates are still higher than PS Vue or Sling. Checking this morning, NHL Network is showing 3 streams offered at 3.2mbps, 5.8mbps, and 8.5mbps:

The 1080 feeds are likely still available on the Akamai cache engines to account for people who haven't updated their app yet.

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/index.m3u8 HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: <snip>
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: gzip
Connection: keep-alive

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Tengine/2.2.0
Last-Modified: Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:33:34 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
ETag: <snip>
Content-Encoding: gzip
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Date
Content-Length: 379
Cache-Control: max-age=1
Expires: Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:33:45 GMT
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:33:44 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: application/x-mpegURL

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:4
#EXT-X-INDEPENDENT-SEGMENTS
#EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=AUDIO,GROUP-ID="audio",NAME="eng_1",DEFAULT=YES,AUTOSELECT=YES,LANGUAGE="eng",URI="04.m3u8"
#EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=AUDIO,GROUP-ID="audio",NAME="eng_2",DEFAULT=NO,AUTOSELECT=YES,LANGUAGE="eng",URI="05.m3u8"
#EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=AUDIO,GROUP-ID="audio",NAME="eng_3",DEFAULT=NO,AUTOSELECT=YES,LANGUAGE="eng",URI="06.m3u8"
#EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=SUBTITLES,GROUP-ID="subs",NAME="caption_1",DEFAULT=NO,AUTOSELECT=YES,LANGUAGE="ENG",URI="107.m3u8"
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=3263306,CODECS="avc1.64002A",RESOLUTION=1280x720,FRAME-RATE=59.940,AUDIO="audio",SUBTITLES="subs"
03.m3u8
#EXT-X-I-FRAME-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=67985,CODECS="avc1.64002A",RESOLUTION=1280x720,URI="03-iframe.m3u8"
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=6073089,CODECS="avc1.64002A",RESOLUTION=1280x720,FRAME-RATE=59.940,AUDIO="audio",SUBTITLES="subs"
02.m3u8
#EXT-X-I-FRAME-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=126522,CODECS="avc1.64002A",RESOLUTION=1280x720,URI="02-iframe.m3u8"
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=8882871,CODECS="avc1.64002A",RESOLUTION=1280x720,FRAME-RATE=59.940,AUDIO="audio",SUBTITLES="subs"
01.m3u8
#EXT-X-I-FRAME-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=185059,CODECS="avc1.64002A",RESOLUTION=1280x720,URI="01-iframe.m3u8"

 

[camo]

Even at 720p the bitrates are still higher than PS Vue or Sling. Checking this morning, NHL Network is showing 3 streams offered at 3.2mbps, 5.8mbps, and 8.5mbps:

The 1080 feeds are likely still available on the Akamai cache engines to account for people who haven't updated their app yet.

So are you saying depending on what app being used there is a different stream available? What I'm seeing using FireTv bitrates are 1/2 of what PSVue has. This is non disputable. FireTV Vue:1280x720 5200 Mbps.....DTVN 1280x720 2500 MBps

 

[SpaethCo]

What I see from direct packet captures off the Apple TV:

Launch app, it connects to a resource hosted with Microsoft Azure cloud. Connection is SSL, but I'm guessing based on my interaction with the app this is where it's doing the initial authentication and pulling down a list of stream URIs along with guide data.

Everything else is straight forward DASH streaming. (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_over_HTTP )

The next connection is to get the stream list for the channel being selected, you can see that in the packet capture GET request of "GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/index.m3u8"

The response is an index of available streams. It's up to the app to determine how it selects between those streams. In the case of the AppleTV, it starts with the lowest quality stream for the first 6 seconds of stream, and then attempts multiple files for the 2nd 6 seconds of stream.

The content distribution appears to be in transport streams that are 6 seconds each that your app stitches together to produce a constant feed. Here's what the get requests look like with the transition from stream 3 (3mbps) to stream 1 (8mbps): (not the repeat of timestamp 17:33:19 GMT)

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086280-03-20161223T173313.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086281-03-20161223T173319.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086281-01-20161223T173319.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086282-01-20161223T173325.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id:
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086283-01-20161223T173329.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id:
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086284-01-20161223T173331.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086285-01-20161223T173337.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086286-01-20161223T173343.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086287-01-20161223T173349.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

GET /Content/HLS_hls.fp/Live/channel(NHLHD.gmott.720.tv)/20161215T081407-247086288-01-20161223T173355.ts HTTP/1.1
Host: dtvn-live-sponsored.akamaized.net
X-Playback-Session-Id: 
Accept: */*
User-Agent: AppleCoreMedia/1.0.0.14U593 (Apple TV; U; CPU OS 10_1 like Mac OS X; en_us)
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: identity
Connection: keep-alive

The stream is definitely hitting ~8mbps.

 

[Spankey00]

Are all the streams at 720p? Could certain devices be using 1080 when available? When I was watching yesterday, if it hadn't been mentioned that channels were down razzed I seriously would not have been able to tell the difference.

 

[camo]

All I know the final stream resolution currently on FireTv is 1280x720 , while before some channels were 1920x1080 along with all the other issues like app failing to open, prime time freeze up & crashes etc. The 1920x1080 has disappeared completely on FireTv.
Will this change in the furture? Don't know..

 

[SatinKzo]

Woke up this morning my Firetv app has a Test in the upper left corner. Version 1.03.x.x.x

 

[anex80]

Can anyone who signed up with the free AppleTV offer tell me how long it usually takes to receive the AppleTV? I'm going on 2 weeks and no delivery, tracking #, or shipping notification. The only communication I received was on day one welcoming me to DTV NOW and stating that my Apple TV would be mailed soon.

 

[JamesJ]

I signed up day one and had mine within a week...but I am sure stock is low and Christmas shopping is a nightmare so to compare the two isn't fair.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[schneider21]

Can anyone who signed up with the free AppleTV offer tell me how long it usually takes to receive the AppleTV? I'm going on 2 weeks and no delivery, tracking #, or shipping notification. The only communication I received was on day one welcoming me to DTV NOW and stating that my Apple TV would be mailed soon.

I just got mine on Tuesday - It had taken a little over 2 weeks.
In hindsight, I should have stashed it and said it was a gift from Santa for the kids.
But I have no will power

 

[SatinKzo]

Curses! I really thought they had it smoothed out finally to only encounter endless rectangles this morning.

 

[rd76]

Signed up for Now and cancelled the same day. Without local channels I cannt get my local football game. Went back to Vue and watched the game on CBS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[camo]

FireTv app says in test so guess they will refund this month. But seriously I found out the Apple app has an option to adjust stream for mobile devices. As far as FireTv the options are auto detect, 1080, 720,480 etc but no resolution comes in better than 720 no matter what you choose. I've left (auto detect) on and tested some SD channels and X-ray does show 480 resolution so its working correctly.