DirecTV / AT&T Bundles

[madbad2000]

Samurai, please update us on how everything goes. I'm curious to see your thoughts on your setup.

[logan82]

Sling allows 3 with the Orange package or the Orange and Blue package.

[Samurai Bucky]

Yesterday, our dish network subscription was turned off. We went to Best Buy and purchased a Roku streaming stick along with a Mohu 50 mile antenna. Best Buy had a deal where if you purchased a streaming device, then you got a discount on the 50 mile antenna.

 

We did not start our subscription with PlayStation Vue yet.

 

There is a deal with Roku where you get two free months of HBO go with the purchase of a Roku device.

 

I will let you guys know how things go from here on in. Total cost of the antenna and Roku streaming stick: $95.

[LouisEly]

I'm pretty sure that you can get the promotional price from cable/satellite companies even after the 2-years or whatever commitment is up. You just have to commit to another two years.

[RobDeer 45]

This Playstation Vue is very interesting. Couple questions, does it have regional fox sports? Do you have to have a Playstation?

[statman0007]

From what I understand it does have regional fox sports in some but not all areas. It's not a problem, though, because they supply verification codes for all the major tv apps, so you can stream the games through fox sports go. It works through playstation or the major streaming devices (roku, chromecast, amazon fire stick etc).

[paul253]

Has anyone subscribed to Directv now yet? I was thinking about it because the equipment fees on our current Directv bill really push it up. My biggest concern is live sports (is fox sports Wisconsin included?) and local channels. I know the locals don't include the Milwaukee market right now which sucks but if we get the Chicago locals I guess it's not the end of the world because we can always watch the Milwaukee locals with an antenna. If anyone has it I'd love to hear your opinion.

[wallus]

I don't really see how cutting the cord saves a lot of money unless you have really insane cable bills.

[twofistedslopper]

Just signed up for DirecTV Now today and so far I'm very impressed. Chromecasting from an Android app and the streaming quality has been perfect HD. Absolutely no buffering even when streaming to multiple devices at once.

 

The special intro price is what convinced me. The $60 package was marked down to $35/month and, according to them, that price will not change as long as you don't cancel the service. This package comes with all of the major sports networks besides NFL Net (all the ESPNs, BTN, SEC, LHN, NBAtv, MLB, NBCSN, etc). I also took advantage of the free 4th Gen Apple TV by prepaying for 3 months.

 

The package is also supposed to come with the local RSN but it appears they're having some bugs with this. I'm in TX and, according to this page https://goo.gl/vJgnr2, my zip is supposed to get FS Southwest. This channel isn't appearing for me and many other users (according to their forums). Hopefully they fix this soon. I contacted their Help and will let you know if I find anything out.

 

Has anyone subscribed to Directv now yet? I was thinking about it because the equipment fees on our current Directv bill really push it up. My biggest concern is live sports (is fox sports Wisconsin included?) and local channels. I know the locals don't include the Milwaukee market right now which sucks but if we get the Chicago locals I guess it's not the end of the world because we can always watch the Milwaukee locals with an antenna. If anyone has it I'd love to hear your opinion.

[paul253]

Are there any hidden fees? Contracts?

[twofistedslopper]

Are there any hidden fees? Contracts?

 

No hidden fees but there are taxes, of course. And no contracts either, that's the beauty of cord cutting. I cancelled my cable when I signed up and will be saving about $30/month.

 

The only negatives that I know of so far:

- Some markets will not be able to watch Fox, ABC, NBC live. It depends on where you live. This can be easily remedied though by purchasing an antenna (less than $15) and getting those networks OTA.

- No CBS at the moment, but they expect that to change. Again, see above for solution.

- No DVR but supposedly something is in the works.

- Limited pausing of live TV. From what I've read, you can only pause live TV for ~10 seconds. If you go any longer, when you press play it will just go to the live stream. I would expect this to change too.

[DHonks]

AT&T stated they have a lot more in the pipeline, but they wanted to be able to deliver a product they could guarantee. I'm thinking of switching for my second home. I currently deactivate DirecTv for 6 months a year, and this is a lot more cost effective

[paul253]

Honestly if the biggest drawback is you need an antenna for locals then it sounds like a pretty good deal. My cable and Internet bill just seems to be getting out of control. The equipment fees are ridiculous too.

 

I guess one final question is this. I don't currently have a smart tv. But I understand you can watch it on an Amazon Firestick and Google Chromecasr, both of which I have. Do you watch it on either and if so is the quality still alright?

[twofistedslopper]

Honestly if the biggest drawback is you need an antenna for locals then it sounds like a pretty good deal. My cable and Internet bill just seems to be getting out of control. The equipment fees are ridiculous too.

 

I guess one final question is this. I don't currently have a smart tv. But I understand you can watch it on an Amazon Firestick and Google Chromecasr, both of which I have. Do you watch it on either and if so is the quality still alright?

 

I've Chromecasted from my cell phone (Note 5) and an old Android tablet. Both worked flawlessly - HD and no buffering.

 

When you sign up for the trial, you have the option of prepaying for a month and receiving a free Fire Stick or 3 months for a free Apple TV. I picked the Apple TV. Once that arrives, I will use that as my primary "cable box". The only negative to using the Chromecast is that you have to change the channel from your phone/tablet. I like the idea of being able to channel surf with a remote.

[twofistedslopper]

They also just released this feature - http://www.droid-life.com/2016/12/08/directv-now-intros-72-hour-rewind-feature/

 

That should ease the pain of not having a DVR at least a little.

[paul253]

I called directv because I had a few questions about directv now. "Mike" didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about at first. Then he said that if I had a regular directv account I could access directv now as well. Well that's certainly not true. He must have been talking about the regular directv app. It's frustrating not to be able to find a number to call to ask someone some basic questions. I'm thinking of signing up for the free trial even though I have directv and then only use the app to see how it goes.

[DHonks]

Paul, I think DirecTv Now is marketed as more of an AT&T product than a a DTV product. They probably have different sales/tech numbers.

 

Love my Apple TV, and this service has me intrigued

[twofistedslopper]

Paul - if you have a twitter account, you can tweet at @directvnowhelp to see if they can answer your questions. That's how I got more information regarding the issues with FS Southwest.

 

Speaking of which, they fixed their bug and that channel is now coming in for me. Still very happy with the service.

[paul253]

I'm really starting to lose patience with Directv. I don't know if this has anything to do with their ATTmerger or what. But on Sunday when it was snowing I lost my signal. Not unexpected but usually it's only out a few minutes. On Sunday is was out 5 hours. I called them and waited on hold for 35 minutes before finally talking to someone. He of course couldn't do anything for me so I asked to be transferred to the customer retention department or whatever it's called. The lady there was rude and said that even though my signal was "only" out five hours she'd give me one time $10 credit.....like she was doing me some kinda favor. Fast forward to Monday. It wasn't snowing and hadn't been all day. When I woke up at 4:45pm I go downstairs and my signal is gone again. It's been out ever since, so about 15 hours now. Call again they run their tests can't fix it so they have to send a tech out to come look at it. And of course he can't come til next Monday. So unless this just happens to start working again on its own I have no cable for a week and I have to call back to them how long it was out so they can credit my account. Maybe they'll do me another favor and give me an additional $3 like they did the other day.

 

I'm gonna start my free directv now trial later today or tomorrow or look at Sling TV and if I like it I'm done with regular directv. I just can't justify them anymore.

[brwrsfan]

I'm really starting to lose patience with Directv. I don't know if this has anything to do with their ATTmerger or what. But on Sunday when it was snowing I lost my signal. Not unexpected but usually it's only out a few minutes. On Sunday is was out 5 hours. I called them and waited on hold for 35 minutes before finally talking to someone. He of course couldn't do anything for me so I asked to be transferred to the customer retention department or whatever it's called. The lady there was rude and said that even though my signal was "only" out five hours she'd give me one time $10 credit.....like she was doing me some kinda favor. Fast forward to Monday. It wasn't snowing and hadn't been all day. When I woke up at 4:45pm I go downstairs and my signal is gone again. It's been out ever since, so about 15 hours now. Call again they run their tests can't fix it so they have to send a tech out to come look at it. And of course he can't come til next Monday. So unless this just happens to start working again on its own I have no cable for a week and I have to call back to them how long it was out so they can credit my account. Maybe they'll do me another favor and give me an additional $3 like they did the other day.

 

I'm gonna start my free directv now trial later today or tomorrow or look at Sling TV and if I like it I'm done with regular directv. I just can't justify them anymore.

 

I know this is going to sound obvious, but have you checked the dish itself? Mine does the same thing when there is really super wet snow or high winds that blow the snow around - even though it's designed to not stick to the dish, snow often does, which knocks the signal out. This happened to me twice this year already. It could explain why it's been out for hours and hours - as it would take a long time for that to melt off of there once it starts accumulating. I just got the ladder out and a broom and just brushed it off and the signal came back immediately. Doesn't happen all that often, maybe 3-4 times a year if it's a super wet thick type snow. Might be something to look at just in case, as it could be a simple fix.

[502 to Right]

After being a 10 year subscriber to DirecTV I dropped it after the NLCS/ALCS. My bill had bloated to over $120 a month (and that's without any premium channels). I'm also tired of funding ESPN. I'd love for the ESPN family of networks to implode. And based on their current trajectory that might happen.

 

So now I'm going with OTA. I'll see how I feel when the Brewers season rolls around, but for now I don't miss a thing.

 

When a company starts offering only the channels I want I'll get back in. I literally was watching only 5 channels on DirecTV (that I can't get OTA) so the rest was a waste. (The 5 being MLB, NFL, Golf Channel, History, Brewers games on FoxSports Wisconsin).

[paul253]

I know this is going to sound obvious, but have you checked the dish itself? Mine does the same thing when there is really super wet snow or high winds that blow the snow around - even though it's designed to not stick to the dish, snow often does, which knocks the signal out.

 

Im guessing this is the problem but unfortunately my dish is too high up and I don't have access to it as I don't have a ladder tall enough to reach up there.

[logan82]

Sling has Brewers games streaming.

[pacopete4]

Until you're able to record on streaming services, I just can't do it. I record basically everything and watch at a later date.

[nate82]

Until you're able to record on streaming services, I just can't do it. I record basically everything and watch at a later date.

 

People still record shows?

 

I thought that died out a few years ago.