DIRECTV NOW LAUNCH

[SpaethCo]

ATT's SEC filing today says DirecTV NOW has added 200,000 sign-ups since launch - which is double the "industry rumors" report from yesterday, but still puts DirecTV NOW subscribers at less than 1% of DirecTV's current satellite subscriber numbers.

Here's the uphill battle:

With DirecTV Satellite service, when I start watching TV I expect it to work and I'm surprised when it doesn't.
With DirecTV NOW service, I expect it to buffer or error out, and I'm surprised when I can actually watch something and it works.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Explaining how DirecTV Now's unlimited data works
http://cordcuttersnews.com/explaining-directv-nows-unlimited-data-works/

 

[Willh699]

Explaining how DirecTV Now's unlimited data works
http://cordcuttersnews.com/explaining-directv-nows-unlimited-data-works/

so pretty much AT&T is trying to rip off their wireless customers who paided for both AT&T Wireless and DirecTV Now all bundled up.

this is T-Mobile's "Binge On" gimmick all over again.

 

[schneider21]

so pretty much AT&T is trying to rip off their wireless customers who paided for both AT&T Wireless and DirecTV Now all bundled up.

this is T-Mobile's "Binge On" gimmick all over again.

Why do you consider "Binge On" to be a gimmick?

Last month, I went through season 2 of "Man in the High Castle", started "Sneaky Pete" and spent hours of time on DirecTv Now and Dish Anywhere - and used a total of 18gb worth of data.
Only 3gb was counted against usage. Which makes the "gimmick" worth it to me.

 

[jcrandall]

I think that is some bad journalism. The likelihood of the commercials being separate data and enough for an end user to notice in their metered usage is slim. Most commercials are built into the programming and coming from the same server. For some, such as on-demand, or a lead-in commercial, they may come from a separate server and could possibly impact their data if AT&T didn't plan that right.

To say it is a significant issue that will impact most users is pretty aggressive.

 

[jegrant]

It's a big difference because T-Mobile exempts nearly all video services from the data plan, including many that T-Mobile has no financial interest in. ATT only exempts their own DirecTV service. If ATT exempted all the same video providers as T-Mobile it would be fine.

 

[schneider21]

It's a big difference because T-Mobile exempts nearly all video services from the data plan, including many that T-Mobile has no financial interest in. ATT only exempts their own DirecTV service. If ATT exempted all the same video providers as T-Mobile it would be fine.

Being a T-Mobile customer, those ATT commercials make me laugh. Sure, they're accurate that an ATT customer with DIRECTV can stream without it counting against data caps. But a TMobile customer can stream DirecTV too without data caps. And Dish. And Comcast. And YouTube. And NetFlix. And Amazon. In fact, I haven't come across a video streaming service yet - that I use that does count against my caps!

 

[Spankey00]

Service has been exceptional the last two nights in prime time. No hiccups or freezes whatsoever. First time this has ever happened since launch. I'm starting to get encouraged.

 

[Ronnie-]

I have already cancelled, but I have still payed through Feb 7.

Yesterday I never could get it to load (when vue worked fine)

This evening it finally loaded after two minutes of the blue rectangle.

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[SpaethCo]

I couldn't get Vue to stream NBCSN without skipping and freezing yesterday, so in desperation I fired up DirecTV NOW and it actually streamed perfectly through the game.

I've conceded defeat on trying to save money and bumped back up to the DirecTV (satellite) Choice package again, at least until hockey season is over. The frustration just isn't worth it anymore.

 

[stmcld]

My DirecTV Now froze up several times during the UK-KU game. Used it a little yesterday, and still had some issues.

At this point, I can't see me sticking with them past the three months I already paid for.

 

[SpaethCo]

Looks like the latest move to stabilize the service is to cut bandwidth by cutting frame rates. Pulling a packet capture last night, channels like AMC, CNN, ESPN, ESPN2, MSNBC, and NBCSN have all scaled back from 60fps to 30fps.

 

[jamieh1]

freeview channel for non subs was advertised to show free programming each week. But its played the same loop advertising freeview since launch. Anyone know when it gonna actually have programming ?

 

[SpaethCo]

At this point, all the channels are 30fps. Looking at packet captures they're modifying the MPEG4 encoding profile and level definitions, which defines what capabilities the decoding devices need to use for each of the streams. As part of this, now Amazon Fire TV devices are only selecting 540p30 feeds as their maximum stream resolution. AppleTV can still use 720p30.

This whole experiment was fun -- it gave me a good excuse to do a bunch of packet captures and really dig into how the service works. I'm certainly glad, however, that I went back to primarily watching DirecTV satellite and only check in on DTVN for curiosity until my 3 months of prepaid service are up in March.

 

[tornado]

Many channel have no guide data and are inaccessible this morning on my devices, Apple TV and I Phone. This sucks. I wonder what is going on. You cannot call the MFers.

 

[tornado]

Many channel have no guide data and are inaccessible this morning on my devices, Apple TV and I Phone. This sucks. I wonder what is going on..

I finally was so fed up that I contacted this company by chat. I was told there is a technical problem right now that is causing there to be no guide information which prevents access of channels from the guide, and their technicians are working on a fix. This is pretty bad.

 

[directv newb]

I really don't understand why people want to mess with these horrible streaming services. I mean I guess if it is totally about the money and you have no choice I guess then I could see it, but I would just rather use an ota antenna and just live with that than to deal with streaming. I have tried Vue and DIrectvNow and I honestly wanted to blow my brains out. I was so angered trying to watch TV and don't even get me started on fast forwarding/rewinding, I cancelled my free trials of them both and thanked the universe for my regular DIrectv! I am SO thankful for just regular good old DIRECTV. I have no doubt that someday in the future "streaming" TV will be the norm but I truly don't see that happening for years to come. Just my .02

 

[rodder]

I tried DIrectvNow and it was bad with a lot of freezing. I have Vue now and it works great for me no problems at all

 

[Gobucks]

I really don't understand why people want to mess with these horrible streaming services. I mean I guess if it is totally about the money and you have no choice I guess then I could see it, but I would just rather use an ota antenna and just live with that than to deal with streaming. I have tried Vue and DIrectvNow and I honestly wanted to blow my brains out. I was so angered trying to watch TV and don't even get me started on fast forwarding/rewinding, I cancelled my free trials of them both and thanked the universe for my regular DIrectv! I am SO thankful for just regular good old DIRECTV. I have no doubt that someday in the future "streaming" TV will be the norm but I truly don't see that happening for years to come. Just my .02

Speak for yourself. PS Vue has been wonderful. 5 streams no mirroring fees. DVR no fees. We love it.

We tried Sling and Directv now and yes they were bad for us. PS Vue has been the most stable.

 

[Ronnie-]

I really don't understand why people want to mess with these horrible streaming services. I mean I guess if it is totally about the money and you have no choice I guess then I could see it, but I would just rather use an ota antenna and just live with that than to deal with streaming. I have tried Vue and DIrectvNow and I honestly wanted to blow my brains out. I was so angered trying to watch TV and don't even get me started on fast forwarding/rewinding, I cancelled my free trials of them both and thanked the universe for my regular DIrectv! I am SO thankful for just regular good old DIRECTV. I have no doubt that someday in the future "streaming" TV will be the norm but I truly don't see that happening for years to come. Just my .02

I go this route because for me, DirecTV now aside, I have not had any issues.

PS vue is as stable as any sat service I've tried, with substantial savings on top of it.

Granted, if your internet is prone to dropping out then there will be more issues.

Hopefully D Now becomes as stable as Vue has become, because aside from issues with just using it, when it worked I was more or less pleased.

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