The OFFICIAL DISH / HBO Thread

[PHXHoward]

Okay since there seems to be some confusion, if you sub to HBO through Amazon Prime Video you get to watch the live linear channels in the Prime Video app just as on cable/satellite with the Eastern feeds of all the channels + HBO West. However, you can also use your Prime Video credentials in the HBO Now app, so it's not either/or. If you sub with Prime Video (as I did) you get the best of both worlds, live AND on demand streaming.

This is correct. Amazon Prime Channel includes live HBO. HBO NOW does not. For some inexplicable reason, HBO NOW which has the word NOW in its name does not include what is on HBO right now.

One other thing to add. The HBO live feed really is just live. There is no record buffer meaning you can't pause it to get a drink or run to the toilet. You had better be sitting on your butt in front of the TV exactly when the show begins and not move a muscle. This trade off really is the tragedy on losing HBO on the Hopper.

 

[joewhite57]

Couple of things, first a question: We subscribe to Amazon Prime, and we are looking to add HBO specifically to watch all of GOT before it starts back up again. Are there any advantages to getting HBO via our Amazon Prime sub vs. the standalone HBO Now service? I assume the cost is the same. FWIW, our value for HBO is GOT, Barry, and the back catalog (before HBO left Dish we'd watched Band of Brothers and the Pacific series, started to watch Deadwood and would like to watch all of that before the new movie comes out, etc. - they do have a very nice catalog of quality programs.) We RARELY watched HBO live, since most of it was old movies (not "good old" like 40s film noir, but old like Barbershop 2.)

We may be non typical. We have a higher end Dish programming package (though we only watch a VERY small subset of those channels, we need that level (AT200 I believe) to get some of the channels we need, including sports) and we also sub to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. We probably watch Netflix the most often of the streaming services, very nice diversity of movies and shows and docs. Prime has some nice orginals like Mrs Maisel (sp) and Jack Ryan and also some great old series (Man from UNCLE, Mission Impossible, Mr. Lucky, and on and on.) We use our Roku Ultra as our main portal into the streaming services though I really like being able to use Netflix through the Hopper interface (including searches) - easy in and out without needing to switch the sources on my AVR.

Just a FYI, pretty much all the HBO series now discontinued are available on prime. You have to do a search for the series name and not as a HBO channel.

 

[joewhite57]

Just a FYI, pretty much all the HBO series now discontinued are available on prime. You have to do a search for the series name and not as a HBO channel.

I’ve watched faves of Deadwood, John from Cincinnati, Generation Kill. All available with Prime, HBO not required.

 

[dishdude]

I would really love to watch the season premiere of Real Time tonight, have to wait and see how long it takes for them to post it to HBO Now.

 

[mwdxer1]

I would really love to watch the season premiere of Real Time tonight, have to wait and see how long it takes for them to post it to HBO Now.

On the Fire Stick HBO Now streams live. In fact all the HBO channels do. On the Roku it is on Demand. Generally the On Demand app on the Roku, it is a couple hours after it is run live. So you should get it by Midnight EST I would guess.

 

[pattykay]

One more question about the Amazon Prime HBO subscription. Can you watch older series, or older seasons of things like GOT? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to wait until the season finishes and then watch the whole season over the course of a week or whatever rather than pay for the subscription for the duration of the season. Personally I plan to wait Dish/HBO out. If and when it comes back I can then watch everything I've missed On Demand. If it doesn't come back I guess I'll look into other options.

That does raise an interesting question. If you cancel HBO after a week, do you get a pro-rated refund for the rest of the month you already paid for?

 

[mwdxer1]

That does raise an interesting question. If you cancel HBO after a week, do you get a pro-rated refund for the rest of the month you already paid for?

HBO Now? I believe the streaming services all go by the month. You pay by the month. So there isn't any pro-rating. Netflix goes by the month, Amazon does.

 

[MikeD-C05]

So, just to confirm, it is possible to watch HBO channels live if you subscribe through Amazon Prime Channels? Does this work on all devices (e.g. Roku)?

Using Amazon Prime and HBO I can report that I did watch Bill Maher last night live as it aired. There are also other live version channels too for HBO. I used the 4K Roku stick with HDR to view it. That being said last night the episode of Real time with Bill Maher was a bit jerky. There was no smooth movement of people when they moved. Like there was frames missing. I was not impressed with the quality at all and I have spectrum cable with 100 Mpbs. I would think that HBO would stream as good as Netflix does but not last night. Even Hbo on DISH looked better than this show. Haven’t tried to watch other movies over the live channel versions. I do know that there are No live Hbo channels on HBO now when I had it before.

 

[pattykay]

HBO Now? I believe the streaming services all go by the month. You pay by the month. So there isn't any pro-rating. Netflix goes by the month, Amazon does.

That was another huge advantage to having HBO through Dish, then. There was a $5 penalty for cancelling too early after adding it, but if you cancelled early enough, that was still cheaper than paying for an entire month.

 

[bchandler02]

Think I'm about to hit my breaking point here. There seems to be no end in sight for Dish or HBO to stop acting like babies and put the damn channel back on. Crashing started on HBO tonight and John Oliver starts next month. Dish and HBO are proving to be as mature as the morons we call congress at the moment.

Contract ends in May. I have 3 months to test out the streaming services and get an OTA DVR solution setup.

 

[ChadT41]

Think I'm about to hit my breaking point here. There seems to be no end in sight for Dish or HBO to stop acting like babies and put the damn channel back on. Crashing started on HBO tonight and John Oliver starts next month. Dish and HBO are proving to be as mature as the morons we call congress at the moment.

Contract ends in May. I have 3 months to test out the streaming services and get an OTA DVR solution setup.

If you’re looking about streaming, then this should be a complete non issue for you. You can still have hBo for the same price, of $15 per month, through hBO Nownor HBO through something like Prime.

 

[dishdude]

If you’re looking about streaming, then this should be a complete non issue for you. You can still have hBo for the same price, of $15 per month, through hBO Nownor HBO through something like Prime.

Not quite the same. The highlight to the end of my week is watching Real Time, live with a glass of wine on a Friday night. Didn't happen this week, had to delay it to Saturday night.

 

[mwdxer1]

Not quite the same. The highlight to the end of my week is watching Real Time, live with a glass of wine on a Friday night. Didn't happen this week, had to delay it to Saturday night.

If you have a Fire Stick or Fire Box you can get the live stream of all of the HBO channels. I watched Real Time at 10 PM Eastern as I did with HBO on Dish. The Roku only has the channels on Demand, so you have to wait a bit to get Real Time.

 

[ncted]

If you have a Fire Stick or Fire Box you can get the live stream of all of the HBO channels. I watched Real Time at 10 PM Eastern as I did with HBO on Dish. The Roku only has the channels on Demand, so you have to wait a bit to get Real Time.

As long as you subscribe via Amazon Channels, you can watch the live feed of several HBO channels on the Prime Video app on Roku, including HBO-East.

 

[HipKat]

One more question about the Amazon Prime HBO subscription. Can you watch older series, or older seasons of things like GOT? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to wait until the season finishes and then watch the whole season over the course of a week or whatever rather than pay for the subscription for the duration of the season. Personally I plan to wait Dish/HBO out. If and when it comes back I can then watch everything I've missed On Demand. If it doesn't come back I guess I'll look into other options.

You can watch older seasons and series. I just finished watching all the Sopranos on there

 

[JS_racer]

so is through amazon channels the better way to get hbo, vs the hbo standalone app, (go or now, you know the one)
thanks

 

[ncted]

so is through amazon channels the better way to get hbo, vs the hbo standalone app, (go or now, you know the one)
thanks

That is a matter of preference I suppose. I currently prefer getting it through Amazon as it allows me to watch through HBO Now or Prime Video apps. If one is having trouble, I can try the other. Not sure if the infrastructure is the same on the backend or not, but, if it is, that might come in handy. Also, the Amazon Prime Channel give you access to live streams of what is currently on several HBO channels. Finally, I've found that Prime Video does a better job of tracking where I stopped watching a show, so when I go to resume it, it picks up at the correct place, while Now skips way back when I resume.

Not sure if you have to have Prime to subscribe to the Prime Channel on Amazon. That might be a downside if you aren't already an Amazon customer.

 

[Bobby]

so is through amazon channels the better way to get hbo, vs the hbo standalone app, (go or now, you know the one)
thanks

It depends. I just, yesterday, did a test run on HBO via amazon. All of the live channels were stereo while all of the archived programming were 5.1. I tested that via my Amazon Prime app on my TV, AppleTV 4K, Roku Ultra, and FireTV 4K. I have a sub of HBO Now through Apple today and all of the archived programming is 5.1 but it doesn't include the Live shelf. So, if 5.1 sound is important to you you won't get it via the Amazon live channels. Now, Real Time is a stereo broadcast to start with so that wouldn't matter one way or the other. A program like GOT, on the other hand, could matter a great deal. I hardly ever watch anything live on HBO now that boxing is gone anyway and the archived programming works just fine. So, for me, there would be nothing gained going the Amazon direction. For you, it might be a good way to go.

 

[GPM]

You can watch older seasons and series. I just finished watching all the Sopranos on there

Yeah, I've watched some older series on demand before HBO was taken off. I just wonder how soon after a season ends before they are available on the streaming side. If they don't come back I guess I'll just come back here and ask after the GOT season ends.

 

[HipKat]

Yeah, I've watched some older series on demand before HBO was taken off. I just wonder how soon after a season ends before they are available on the streaming side. If they don't come back I guess I'll just come back here and ask after the GOT season ends.

I would guess they're pretty immediate, since each episode while that season is running is available within a few hours. I was talking about watching on Amazon Prime/HBO, not on Dish On-Demand