Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Signed up at 10:13 a.m. today. Go Big package with HBO/Cinemax. Loaded app to Fire Sticks, 1st and 2nd generation, as well as my desktop. Everything worked fine, until..... Tried to start watching about an hour ago in the early evening. Program I was watching earlier today, Discovery Life, now says Error 70, Blacked Out. Huh? This is Discovery, not a football game. Then tried another channel. Error 40. Video failed to load. Restart app. Went one step further and removed/reinstalled it to make sure all was clean. Now it won't even let me sign on via Fire Stick (failed to connect to [...] (port 443) after 10000 ms). Then tried again and message Unknown error. So, tried to open it with desktop. Message "looks like something went wrong on our end". Chat Now isn't working. Tried few minutes ago. Program on Discovery Life, that was formerly blacked out, started and then an Error 40 Refresh. You refresh and still Error 40, refresh. So I have to refresh every few minutes to get the program to start again. At one point, was refreshing every minute or two. Nope, not my WiFi. Never an issue there. Uh, I paid $45 upfront. This might be the very last $45 you get out of me (EVER) if you don't get these problems worked out and also allow customers to communicate with you via chat, email, phone number, or something. I know many have likely signed up for this, but you must have known you may get potentially millions of takers on day one since a free trial was involved. You should have been better prepared. Reminds me of another company lately who introduced something and their system crashed and burned when demand was overwhelming. Will update my review if it gets better over the next few days. This morning my experience was pretty good. This evening, not so much... as I again am hitting the refresh button again and again and again and again. For those who posted glowing reviews, perhaps you did so in the morning when all was running okay and few users. By evening, things were clearly going downhill. Update 12/1/16 (38 hours after installation) Am upping from 1 to 2 stars as I've been able to run without too many issues. Buffering does still seem to be an issue, but am seeing it mostly at night as usage increases. The Error 40 codes have been replaced by the buffering spinner and then after about a minute the Error 40 code arrives. Other issues. While watching shows they would go to commercial and then when the program should start again would get a message saying, Sorry this program is not available in this area through Directv Now. I would back out, in, out, in and the program would continue. Seems that would imply commercials are somehow creating a problem when the program is supposed to resume. Sometimes it would resume itself with the error message left on the screen without doing anything. This happened at least 15-20 times in one day and only when the program went to commercial. Other message today was Fire TV unable to connect to server at this time. Found that out when I got no response from repeatedly using my voice remote. Surely batteries not dead in less than 2 days. Nope. Entered app manually through the remote and voice remote started working again. Final message. No details are available for this content. Restart app and try again (Error 82). This was a program I was in the middle of watching when it went black with this message. I'm thinking some of the programs aren't time-slot shifting as you are watching. So, if you start a show at 2 that lasts until 3, they have a shift every 30 minutes in the channel guide (watch the little blue line in the channel guide that moves as the program progresses). Think this may be knocking off some programs that are running in the middle of that time shift. It's thinking the show I started at 2 is over (the channel guides shifts at 2:30), when it actually runs until 3. IMO. Still clunky interface, but I see a little improvement. Will be at least until the end of December, shortly before my next billing period, before I consider uprating to a 3 or downgrading back to a 1. Update 12/7/16 (7 days after installation) Have been using it a great deal. All hours of the day and night. A chunk of that time has been exhausting. Contrary to the fewer number of 4 and 5 star ratings, the 1, 2, and 3 star reviewers on Amazon, along with the Google Play Store (I understand a lot of them have to do with phones, but the pattern is the same) having an average rating of 3.0 from 858 reviewers, and a few articles which have come out since introduction which I believe take a dim view of the issues to date, I stand by my rating at this time. The comments that this is new, give it time, are a crock. This is not brain surgery. The concept has been around for some time. The introduction of this seems sort of like a high school effort to me. Give the masses a problem at a cheaper price and they will come? We’ll take anything one throws at us if the price is right? There are just a few pros with this product. The programs have all come in very clear. The Favorite Channels in the Channel Guide work great. That’s pretty much it on the pro side. The majority of users have clearly run into various Error Codes. Some were pretty bad the first few days. Others have been mitigated, although they will randomly appear. I still get the buffering; mostly at night. The Error Code 40 occurs on just a few channels. I must have hit the retry button 30 times on a single program before it would run. Error code 70 has crept back (XXX is blacked out in your area on DLFHD. For more info, search Error Code 70 in the Help Center. Refresh button), although just a few times. One has to get in, out, in, out, nothing rational, and then eventually after 10 or 15 minutes the program just mysteriously starts to run. Then there is Error Code 60, too many streams. Not sure how I can get that since I have been running it on a single device at any given time. Programs of 30 to 60 minutes in length will load reasonably fast. Any movie will get you the, “Hmm. This video is taking a bit longer than usual to load. Thanks for your patience”. It took over 20 minutes to load. No, it isn’t my Internet, Wi-Fi, or anything else on my end. So that leaves it being Directv Now, the Amazon Fire Stick, 2nd generation, or a combination of the two being the culprit(s). The Channel Guide is somewhat of a joke. How about listings similar to services like tv.com, TV listings from screenertv.com, or tvguide.com. Is there any reason you can’t show program times in 30 minute increments? How about showing the program run times in the description since so many programs don’t start on the hour or 30 minutes past the hour? How about showing vertical lines at the beginning and end of each program since many programs don’t begin and end on 30 or 60 minute time increments (you only have 60 minute time increments at present)? Or maybe different alternating colors for each show. Maybe show a bit more detail about the program on the Channel Guide. Clicking into an active program gives you no details about the program. You only get details on programs which have not yet started. It’s amazing that a multi-billion dollar company can’t put out a Channel Guide worth a plug nickel. When you go into the Channel Guide, you are resting on Home. Then have to click over Shows, Movies, and Networks, before you get to Guide. I would think the vast majority of users want the Channel Guide after Home. There are other issues. Even stations with 72 hour replay, the programs within that station that can be replayed are limited. No rewind or fast forward (so if you click into a program that has been running a few minutes, no way to see it from the start). Help is basically no help. Most of the solutions seem to be the old 70’s and 80’s, we need you to reboot your computer, blah, blah, blah, trying to make the consumer think they are they issue when it is the product that is the issue. Will again revisit in another week to see if my opinion has changed for better or worse. I would like nothing more than for this venture to be a success, but AT&T needs to step up to the plate and get the job done. Update 12/21/16 (21 days after installation) Have given it a pretty thorough workout since installation. Probably 100+ hours of viewing. There is no question the service has improved a great deal from day one. Has gone from horrible to maybe not horrible, but difficult. I would increase the rating to 2.5 stars, but don't feel benevolent enough at this stage to round up to 3 stars. Will wait until the end of the year and see how the next 10 days play out. The error messages have pretty much ceased. Still get them once in a while, but now it is the exception rather than the rule. I do occasionally get the buffering spinner, but generally resolves itself in a short time. Some of the Error 70 messages are still ludicrous on channels such as Discovery or TLC. These are not blacked out programs, but at certain times of the day, one will receive this message. Some of the channels do not run what is shown in the program description at times. Their channel guide is abysmal. Lately, I've noticed some programs will start to judder. Have to get out and then back in. Goes away for a bit and then starts to judder again. This just started over the past week, so it's not the TV. I use the 2nd Gen Fire Stick. Seriously doubt the Fire Stick has been the issue. Most of my viewing has been 30 and 60 minute programs. I have watched a few movies without too many issues. Did watch one a few days ago, though, when family came over. A 2 hour movie turned into a 3 hour movie. Halfway through, constant video and audio freeze, or video freeze with audio, or video with audio freeze. We figured by the end of the movie that this occurred at least 50 times during the last hour of the movie. We were too far into it to just give up. I didn't base my rating on anything the service was not advertised as having at present: DVR, certain channels (Showtime, CBS, some local channels), more than 2 views, etc., This would not be fair to Directv Now as you knew what you were getting when you subscribed (guess one needs to check all the little footnotes to figure everything out). My review is based upon what they advertised and how the product performs. I do have a couple of fears going forward. Having read enough press about this, it is questionable to me whether they can continue with this $35 offering (I understand they SAY it is grandfathered). Maybe price will grandfather, but channels might have to be cut. Enough have surmised they cannot make money at this price point. So, if the price goes up or channels are cut drastically, I would likely cancel as I only jumped in because of the low price and large channel selection. I cancelled cable over 10 years ago because of price and I'm not going down that road again. Further, cable companies have been operating with impunity over the years because they were able to lock you into a 1 or 2 year contract. Now, with the month to month subscription, users are free to drop the service at will. If enough subscribers get ticked off, then their base could disappear overnight with no continuing revenue stream. This is a somewhat dangerous game. Directv Now must keep a vast portion of their base pretty happy or they could simply vanish overnight. Still hoping they can remedy any outstanding issues and also make further improvements to satisfy the majority of their customer base. Update 1/11/17 (42 days after installation) This is becoming very tiring. Rather than giving customers the opportunity for a free Fire Stick or Apple TV, the more astute freebie should have been a 6 month supply of Rogaine since so many are ripping their hair out or brushing up on their sailor language with the issues since introduction. As I type, I am looking at Trauma: Life in the ER is blacked out in my area on DLFHD (whatever acronym for which that stands). This is the Discovery Life Channel. Had been watching the show for a few hours until the error message. Can’t get the program to start again. I guess the signal for this channel is down and they just randomly shoot an Error 70 message out. Buffering is hit or miss. Still get the buffering spinner, but it often resolves itself. When it doesn’t, then inevitably the Error 40 messages will appear. Nowhere near as prevalent as when first introduced, but still an issue. Watching the Dallas-Detroit game on ESPN was a nightmare. First quarter it buffered 17 times (8 times resulting in Error 40 and requiring restart and 9 times resolving itself after spinning for a minute or so). I gave up since I didn’t see a single scoring play the entire first quarter. Guessing I saw maybe 10 minutes of football and the rest buffering. Latest issue, as others have posted, is that you are kicked off to the sign-in screen. No rhyme or reason when it occurs. Happens quite frequently. I initiated a chat (first time that I was able to get through to them) to report it. Had just started occurring a couple of days prior. Their advice was to logout and then log in again. Huh? By virtue of being booted out of the system, I was already logged out. Typical reboot your computer answer from the old days. Latest error messages: Generic Exception. Goes to black screen. Have to back out and restart. Login failure-Connectivity issue. This while in the middle of watching programs. Am already logged in. Internet is up, Wifi is up, TV is up, power is up. We are in a commercial break. Your program will resume shortly. This is a baloney error message they have come up with. Program will be running and in the middle of a sentence, you get the message. Normally, on commercial breaks a program resumes where it left off. Nope. Resumes a few minutes later and next thing you know, it goes to real commercials shortly thereafter. So, in a 30 minute program, I may get 15 minutes of program, 8 minutes of their new message, and 7 minutes of real commercials. I guess this is the Cliffs Notes version for people who want really abbreviated versions of shows. Tried watching IRT series via Directv Now shows. Some of the episodes buffer so bad it may take 3 hours to get through a single episode. One episode locked up midway through. Checked it every day for 3 days. Still locked up where it froze, but can watch earlier or later episodes (albeit buffering can get pretty intense). I sent an email to History Channel asking if they would please add Directv Now to their list of credentialed carriers so I can get to their programs using their own app. They have Directv and a bunch of other cable companies credentialed, but not Directv Now. No response from them. Bummer. For those who state they haven’t experienced many or any hiccups, more power to you. Maybe you’re sitting next to a transmission tower. The vast majority, according to both Amazon and Google Play reviews, are experiencing the same issues as am I. Really happy this is month-to-month. I just need to get the sense they are dedicated to resolving these issues. Right now I feel this is more of a trial balloon than a real service. It's no skin off their nose if it fails because at this juncture it is a peanuts proposition for them. I doubt there was very much investment involved in this. It certainly doesn't feel to me that a great deal of thought went into it either at this juncture. I've written programs and database development. I would have been embarrassed to tag my name to this. Now, where’s my Rogaine, AT&T? Update 1/29/17 (60 days after installation) Am increasing my rating to 3 stars. Prime reason is the buffering has decreased tremendously since day one. When it does buffer, it generally does so at the beginning of a viewing, which is understandable. Buffering during a show has decreased a great deal and when it does, it isn’t horrible. Too, I am rarely receiving any error messages that I’ve experienced since day one. It just doesn’t happen that often any longer. The instances of being kicked out during live shows are way down. So, why only a 3 star rating at this juncture? Well, it started at a 1 star, which really should have been no stars on day one since it was just a horrible experience. Again, my rating has nothing to do with DVR capability, certain local programming, etc., as they never promised that as part of the package when introduced. Just that they were working on possibly adding this down the road. The remaining issues: The channel guide is still a joke. This should be completely scrapped with a do over. Someone needs to chat with whoever is responsible for commercial insertion for On Demand shows, because they are completely botching it. I don’t mind commercials, but they need to appear at logical times. For some On Demand shows, it is as if they were automatically inserting a commercial at a certain time, regardless of whether in mid-sentence. For example, one show that is only 20 or so minutes long will automatically insert local commercials with about 2 minutes left and mid-sentence. The show then resumes and 15 seconds later it will go into another commercial for the channel. This happens a great deal for On Demand shows. This may be resolved if they develop DVR capabilities, but with On Demand shows when you get kicked out, it brings you back to the watch episode screen. You have to again select your episode and then try to fast forward and rewind to where you think you were when you got booted out. It happens a lot. I got booted last night for an episode of IRT. Had to go back and find the episode I was watching, then fast forward and rewind repeatedly (buffering each time) until I could get close to where I was before being booted. Bottom line, 10 minutes to get to where I was is unacceptable. They really should get themselves added to the list of authorized providers for each channel they have. For some On Demand shows where I have a problem viewing with Directv Now, I can go to the channel app independently and sign on using my Directv Now credentials. Often, the viewing experience is much nicer. I’ve asked the History channel to add Directv Now and they advised they would forward the request to the appropriate party. Not sure if Directv Now has to make these requests. I will leave my rating at 3 stars for the immediate future. My understanding from articles I’ve read is they attracted 200,000 subscribers by year-end 2016. I call them their beta group. If they grow it to 1 million subscribers by the end of 2017, as I’ve read, is this going to impact the improvements they’ve made to date? Time will tell. Were the buffering issues and error messages resolved from a technical standpoint or because most of their 200,000 subscribers bailed, leaving a lighter load on their system. Or a combination of the two. Time will tell. My hat’s off to them, though, for taking the complaints seriously so far. Update 5/26/17 (189 days after installation) Am dropping my rating back down to 2 stars. So, started at 1 star, moved to 2 stars, grudgingly moved to 3 stars, and now back to a solid 2 stars. You now have 2,672 reviews on Amazon with an average 2.4 stars and 4,213 reviews on Google Play with an average of 2.8 stars. Frankly, the numbers don't lie. Things definitely have gotten better than the first 30 days. No question. The question is after six months should they be much further along in their development? Is this as good as it's going to get? Do some customers get flawless or near flawless service? Yep. It stands to reason, though the law of large numbers tells one that if there is smoke, there is likely fire. The sheer number of poor reviews indicates the product is not without issue. The past few weeks I have seen the amount of buffering increasing a great deal. The amount of time it takes a buffer to clear has increased as well. The channel guides, at times, are completely empty or virtually empty. It sometimes takes a great deal of time for it to completely populate. Last night, I clicked my favorites and nothing there except a nice message about there being nothing there and to Retry. Still get the Error 70 messages whenever I attempt to watch some episodes on the Discovery channel. A medical show blacked out? This is likely a communication issue between Discovery and ATT, but nobody seems to want to resolve it. Am getting a lot of picture freezes as well, although the audio continues to feed. Channel guide continues to be a juvenile effort at best. Maybe a 7th grade project. Yes, I've force stopped the program, cleared caches, speed tests, checked the router, wired direct, blah, blah, blah. It's not on my end. Everything else works fine. To those who say, it's only $35 or $40 a month, so what's the beef? Well, not when you throw your ISP costs into the equation. This is as pricey as getting a bundled service with a provider. If I am paying over $100 a month, I expect the product to work. I think ATT has given this their best shot for the near term. For those who are getting really good service, more power to you. For those having the same issues I've encountered, join the club. If it gets much worse, I'll do what I did 10 years ago and just cut the cord again.