Speaker 1: DirecTV Now pushes out a bunch of new upgrades, including
Speaker 1: a new cloud DVR. I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich
Speaker 1: on Tech Daily. DirecTV Now is kind of like DirecTV
Speaker 1: but without the hassle of installing a satellite dish or
Speaker 1: signing up for a two year contract. You sign up online,
Speaker 1: you download an app to your phone or set top box,
Speaker 1: and you're good to go. I've been a subscriber since
Speaker 1: day one of DirecTV Now. It launched back in November
Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen, and it's been a pretty rough go
Speaker 1: up until now. And the only reason I kept the
Speaker 1: service this entire time is because I pay thirty five
Speaker 1: dollars a month for one of their top packages, including
Speaker 1: just about every channel, and they've been promising a cloud
Speaker 1: DVR since day one. Well, that day has finally come
Speaker 1: and DirecTV Now has relaunched their service with lots of
Speaker 1: new features, including that cloud DVR that so far seems
Speaker 1: very impressive. So for starters, the apps have an entirely
Speaker 1: read his look. Think about it. For years, the cable
Speaker 1: companies got to have a pretty big say on what
Speaker 1: everything looked like and worked like on screen menus, the
Speaker 1: boxes they deliver to customers, and of course the remote controls.
Speaker 1: But now they really only get to control the app
Speaker 1: that has to be installed on an Apple TV, Roku
Speaker 1: or fire TV, and of course the remote control that
Speaker 1: goes along with it. So it's a bit trickier for
Speaker 1: these companies to design a user interface when they don't
Speaker 1: have a dedicated channel up or down button or a
Speaker 1: DVR list button on their remote, so keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: This was very evident in the original design of direct
Speaker 1: tv Now, but I'm happy to say the new app
Speaker 1: looks and feels a little bit better. Your most watched
Speaker 1: channels and favorite programs are right front and center when
Speaker 1: you log in, Plus the video you're currently streaming stays
Speaker 1: playing as you browse around the service. The program grid
Speaker 1: has also changed. You might like it, you might not.
Speaker 1: It has much more colorful station logos and more information
Speaker 1: about a program that you want to watch when it
Speaker 1: comes to on demand. This was a really sore point
Speaker 1: of the service, especially for my wife, who basically gave
Speaker 1: up trying to watch any shows on demand. DirecTV Now
Speaker 1: says they have twenty five thousand shows on demand, but
Speaker 1: now they should actually work because in the past there
Speaker 1: have been lots of problems, like when you'd get to
Speaker 1: a commercial break, it would just skip back to the
Speaker 1: beginning of the show every time, which was very annoying.
Speaker 1: DirecTV now says they've added more capacity to on demand,
Speaker 1: so if you've had problems with it before, presumably it
Speaker 1: should work better now. Plus they also say they're going
Speaker 1: to get new episodes of shows on select channels added
Speaker 1: right after they air. Arguably the biggest new feature is
Speaker 1: the true Cloud DVR, which AT and T is quick
Speaker 1: to point out is still in beta. This means that
Speaker 1: they're just not going to take responsibility for any errors
Speaker 1: you might encounter. So if you lose your entire season
Speaker 1: of Legion, no worries. It's in beta, we warned you.
Speaker 1: Now I've sampled the DVR for just a bit on
Speaker 1: my Apple TV and my iPhone, and I can say
Speaker 1: it seems like AT and T did their homework here.
Speaker 1: It is legit. Recorded shows load super fast, and you
Speaker 1: can skip to any part of the recording instantly, and
Speaker 1: you can also jump ahead in fifteen second increments, which
Speaker 1: is really handy if you're one of those commercial skippers.
Speaker 1: Everything is stored in the cloud, all of your recordings
Speaker 1: and customers get twenty free hours of recording time. Shows
Speaker 1: are kept for thirty days, so if you do the math,
Speaker 1: that's really not that much. These are not amazing numbers,
Speaker 1: but what it does allow is AT and T to
Speaker 1: upsell us so you can get more recording time and
Speaker 1: more storage time that is already in the works. You
Speaker 1: can pay to get one hundred hours of cloud DVR
Speaker 1: and ninety days of storage for an extra ten dollars
Speaker 1: a month. There's also another add on they're offering. If
Speaker 1: you need an extra stream, you can now get that
Speaker 1: for an extra five dollars a month. DirecTV now has
Speaker 1: a limit of two simultaneous streams, so if you want
Speaker 1: to watch in three rooms at the same time, you
Speaker 1: can upgrade for that. One more new feature, you can
Speaker 1: watch local channels while you're on the road. Now. Previously,
Speaker 1: I learned this the hard way. I was in a
Speaker 1: hotel room. I go to look at ABC or NBC
Speaker 1: and guess what they were not even on the program grid. Previously,
Speaker 1: you can only watch your local channels when you were
Speaker 1: at home. If you were traveling, you were just out
Speaker 1: of luck. But now when you're traveling you will get
Speaker 1: access to the local channels in the city that you
Speaker 1: are in, So keep this in mind. It's not the
Speaker 1: same channels that you have at home, but it will
Speaker 1: be the Fox, NBCABC or CBS station that's just broadcasting
Speaker 1: to the area you're in. The local channel Now. This
Speaker 1: is kind of a sore topic for me because the
Speaker 1: TV station I'm on KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: still isn't on direct tv now at all. But I'll
Speaker 1: gladly watch other local stations when I'm traveling. In fact,
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things to do when I'm
Speaker 1: on a trip is tune in and see what all
Speaker 1: the local news stations are like. It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: So how does DirecTV Now compare to the other cord
Speaker 1: cutting services out there? Well, I think it's now the
Speaker 1: best since it offers the most channels and the most
Speaker 1: DVR features. YouTube TV they have the great DVR feature,
Speaker 1: but kind of a lesser channel selection. Sling as a
Speaker 1: limited DVR and limited local channels, and Hulu has good
Speaker 1: locals the DVR but not so great for user interface
Speaker 1: and PlayStation view still hanging in there and that's a
Speaker 1: solid offering as well. Directorv nows new features are available
Speaker 1: right now on iOS but you do have to update
Speaker 1: your apps to get them, and as usual, I don't
Speaker 1: know why this happens all the time, but they are
Speaker 1: coming soon to Android, Roku and fire TV. No timeframe
Speaker 1: was given for that, but hopefully it's sooner than later.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. I would
Speaker 1: love it if you left me a rating and review
Speaker 1: in the Apple Podcasts app if you like what I'm
Speaker 1: doing here, that helps spread the word and get the
Speaker 1: podcast in front of more eyeballs and I guess more
Speaker 1: ears too. I'm Rich damiro links to everything I talk
Speaker 1: about here on my website. Just go to richon tech
Speaker 1: dot tv. I'll talk to you real soon.