DirecTV Now?

[Ohdang]

https://www.cnet.com/products/directv-now/review/

I've never used anything like it (Sling, Playstation Vue, etc) so I don't really know how it compares. Before I moved to NC I was using an antenna for local channels and just downloading anything I wanted to watch that wasn't live. Where I live now the antenna is much less effective and the significant other is getting impatient about waiting for the shows she wants to watch to hit the internet since the antenna isn't picking them all up anymore, so this seems like a reasonably priced solution.

Apparently, right now if you sign up for a month they give you a free Fire TV Stick and if you sign up for 3 months you get a 4th Gen Apple TV. I don't need either, but they would make for nice gifts, or they do have some re-sale value to recoup some of the subscription price.

At $35 a month for 100+ channels, it seems like a decent deal. Anyone subscribe? Any thoughts? Better alternatives out there?

 

[el_capitan]

I just signed up yesterday, there's a free 1 month code going around (INTC1MONTH) if you want to try it. You forfeit your option to prepay for the Fire Stick or AppleTV, but since you don't need one that could be a way to try it for a month and see if you like it. I signed up for the Go Big option, which is at $35/month for a limited time right now, regularly $60.

I used it to watch the Cavs game last night, and it worked fine. I was channel surfing around a little, and after a few minutes on each channel it would stop and then say "This channel has stopped working, please try again later." It was a little annoying, but I'm hoping it was just a one time thing or something. It seemed to work great on my laptop and when I was watching the Cavs.

For me, the one caveat is that I'm not in a city where we get local channels, so I still need an antenna for 3, 5, 8, 19. It's not a big deal though, my antenna works great so it's just a matter of switching inputs when I want to watch something on a local channel. Depending on where you live though, you may get a few local channels through DirecTV Now.

Their customer service was also great. For some reason on the channel list, I didn't see Fox Sports Ohio. It showed it as Sportstime Ohio twice. I fired up the DirecTV chat on my laptop and talked to the guy about it. He said that was a known bug with that channel, and that he would be sending off something to the engineers to escalate it. Who knows whether that was true or not, but he did help me find it to watch the Cavs game.

It's still too early to tell whether I'll keep it past the month or not, but $35/month to watch the Cavs, Indians and ESPN/FS1 stations seems like a good deal to me. The rest is just a bonus.

 

[Ohdang]

It's still too early to tell whether I'll keep it past the month or not, but $35/month to watch the Cavs, Indians and ESPN/FS1 stations seems like a good deal to me. The rest is just a bonus.

Thanks for the reply! Since I'm in NC, I'm thinking Fox Sports Ohio is out of the question. Though I'm wondering if I signed up using my parent's address in Ohio if I could get the Ohio channel instead of the NC channel? I couldn't care less about fox sports Charlotte or whatever it is down here. Or maybe connect through a VPN? Sounds like a question for @gourimoko lol.

Thanks for the code! That definitely makes it more appealing to me, since I don't have to sell anything to recoup any costs. If I can get the Cavs games on FSN Ohio I think I'm gonna go for it.

 

[el_capitan]

Thanks for the reply! Since I'm in NC, I'm thinking Fox Sports Ohio is out of the question. Though I'm wondering if I signed up using my parent's address in Ohio if I could get the Ohio channel instead of the NC channel? I couldn't care less about fox sports Charlotte or whatever it is down here. Or maybe connect through a VPN? Sounds like a question for @gourimoko lol.

Thanks for the code! That definitely makes it more appealing to me, since I don't have to sell anything to recoup any costs. If I can get the Cavs games on FSN Ohio I think I'm gonna go for it.

It looks like both your billing address and location have to match in order to get a Regional Sports Network, so it doesn't look like it would work if you put in your parents address as the billing address while watching in NC. Like you said, you may be able to go through a VPN but I'll let Gouri handle that. If I couldn't get Cavs and Indians, then it probably wouldn't be worth the $35. But I also don't watch much regular TV outside of sports, if you did then I can see the appeal.

Also worth mentioning, there isn't currently a DVR feature. You can pause the channel for a few minutes, but that's about it. I believe they have video on demand, but I don't know how long after a show airs do they put the new one up. DVR is coming in 2017 though.

Edit: Here's the link for the regional sports network info:
https://help.directvnow.com/hc/en-u...ch-Regional-Sports-Networks-with-DIRECTV-NOW-

 

[Jack Brickman]

No Roku app right now, which is kind of a strange decision given how many people own them.

 

[gourimoko]

Thanks for the reply! Since I'm in NC, I'm thinking Fox Sports Ohio is out of the question. Though I'm wondering if I signed up using my parent's address in Ohio if I could get the Ohio channel instead of the NC channel? I couldn't care less about fox sports Charlotte or whatever it is down here. Or maybe connect through a VPN? Sounds like a question for @gourimoko lol.

Thanks for the code! That definitely makes it more appealing to me, since I don't have to sell anything to recoup any costs. If I can get the Cavs games on FSN Ohio I think I'm gonna go for it.

It looks like both your billing address and location have to match in order to get a Regional Sports Network, so it doesn't look like it would work if you put in your parents address as the billing address while watching in NC. Like you said, you may be able to go through a VPN but I'll let Gouri handle that. If I couldn't get Cavs and Indians, then it probably wouldn't be worth the $35. But I also don't watch much regular TV outside of sports, if you did then I can see the appeal.

Also worth mentioning, there isn't currently a DVR feature. You can pause the channel for a few minutes, but that's about it. I believe they have video on demand, but I don't know how long after a show airs do they put the new one up. DVR is coming in 2017 though.

Edit: Here's the link for the regional sports network info:
https://help.directvnow.com/hc/en-u...ch-Regional-Sports-Networks-with-DIRECTV-NOW-

Using a VPN is definitely the way to go...

As far as the billing address, this is easy enough to spoof.. Grab a prepaid credit card (not a Vanilla VISA), and simply sign up for it using a fake address in the zipcode of your choosing. Most of these cards won't ever ship anything to you, so, it's irrelevant where the billing zipcode is.

Just sign up and reload the card when you need to.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Using a VPN is definitely the way to go...

As far as the billing address, this is easy enough to spoof.. Grab a prepaid credit card (not a Vanilla VISA), and simply sign up for it using a fake address in the zipcode of your choosing. Most of these cards won't ever ship anything to you, so, it's irrelevant where the billing zipcode is.

Just sign up and reload the card when you need to.

I use my parents' address whenever I need an Ohio one. That way, anything sent goes to them, which they can then forward to me or throw away depending on importance.

 

[Ohdang]

Thanks for the replies guys. I went ahead and bit the bullet and got the first month free, the woman is content now that she doesn't have to miss her shows that don't come in on the antenna down here. I tried to teach her about USENET and torrenting and honestly I think spending the $35 per month is less headache for me