{"id":491,"date":"2017-02-07T18:51:57","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulbegley.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2017-02-07T18:51:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:51:57","slug":"why-do-i-hate-directv-now-let-me-count-the-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/?p=491","title":{"rendered":"Why do I hate DirecTV Now, let me count the ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got an e-mail from AT&T\/DirecTV asking me to complete a survey on why I unsubscribed from DirecTV Now.  I spent quite a bit of time crafting a comprehensive answer, only to receive the notice below.  Part of my issue with DirecTV was the poor interface design. I now extend that criticism to the survey.  If you limit my response to 999 characters, why not tell me?  Then I won\u2019t prepare a response that\u2019s 302% larger than you will allow!<\/p>\n

NOTE \u2013 there were two other text boxes, both limited the number of characters to other, smaller, and random quantities, both with no indication of what the limit would be.  <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is my full response about why I unsubscribed from DirecTV Now:<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>DirecTV Now was a horrific
\n experience.  <\/span>From the user
\ninterface to buffering issues to the user interface (did I already say that,
\nyes, it’s that bad) to the content.  <\/span>No type of DVR solution, ‘subscribing’ to channels was OK, but
\nnon-intuitive to use.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

No CBS channel.  <\/span>At all.  <\/span>Yes, I know you
\nhave to negotiate with CBS, but it’s a gaping hole.  <\/span>I added HBO and got two HBO channels added, which was underwhelming.  <\/span>Even at $35\/month rate it wasn’t worth
\nthe money.  <\/span>We watched ONE movie
\n(Deadpool) and the last 20 minutes of the film took almost an hour to watch due
\nto buffering issues.<\/font>  <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Just so you don’t assume I have a poor Internet
\nconnection, I have 200\/10 Mbps (up\/downlink speeds) and a commercial grade
\nfirewall and wireless AP (Meraki).  <\/span>Chemical engineer by degree, working in IT and connected to the Internet
\nsince 1986 (not a typo), Cisco and other certifications.  <\/span>Let’s just assume the problem is on your end and not my home
\nnetwork…<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Streaming from a laptop to a Chromecast was
\nUSELESS.  <\/span>I stream other content
\n(YouTube, other) to Chromecast with no issues using the exact same configuration
\n(laptop, wireless channel, etc).  <\/span>Streaming from my PHONE (!!!) worked better than the laptop, and I can’t
\naccount for that.  <\/span>Is the Android
\napp that much more efficient than streaming from a browser on a
\nlaptop?<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

No Roku support out of the gate.  <\/span>Roku and beer are gifts from GOD, and you don’t support the Roku.  <\/span>Seriously?<\/font>  <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

I took advantage of the free Amazon Fire offer because,
\nas noted, you don’t support the Roku (aka, Gift From God).  <\/span>Nice device, but DirecTV sucks at life, so we were ‘less than pleased’
\nwith the experience. <\/span>We attempted
\nto watch Deadpool (previous reference) using the Amazon Fire.  <\/span>Other services worked fine, but not DirecTV Now.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

And, the user interface sucks.  <\/span>As an example, I saved ‘favorite’ channels in the guide and selected
\nFavorites to display. <\/span>It’s all too
\neasy to suddenly have every channel displayed.  <\/span>Next, I can’t seem to pause, continue,
\nand skip over content (like my DirecTV DVR). <\/span>Yes, I realize there are device
\nconstraints (but, shall I note, not on the Roku), but you’re not even
\ntrying. <\/span>Did you pull one of those
\n“Design this for free and I’ll give you great recommendations” with the
\ninterface design team?  <\/span>Because it
\nLOOKS like that’s what you did.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

I’m doing this all from memory.  <\/span>It’s like a nightmare where I can still see the screen doing something I
\ndon’t want\/like, oh, and the BUFFERING, Oh, the BUFFERING!!!<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

To summarize:<\/font><\/p>\n

– User interface sucks<\/font><\/p>\n

– No DVR capability<\/font><\/p>\n

– No Roku support<\/font><\/p>\n

– Buffering issues (with long shows?  <\/span>You tell me)<\/font><\/p>\n

– No CBS content<\/font><\/p>\n

– Poor performance with Amazon Fire<\/font><\/p>\n

– Poor performance with Chromecast <\/font><\/p>\n

= DirecTV Now Sucks at life<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

That’s the short version of why I unsubscribed from
\nDirecTV Now.  <\/span>I’m working furiously
\nto experiment with OTA TV, a local DVR, and cloud based services.  <\/span>I’m willing to bet anything I put together will be a better, more
\nsatisfying experience than DirecTV Now.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Love,<\/font><\/p>\n

Paul & Barb<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got an e-mail from AT&T\/DirecTV asking me to complete a survey on why I unsubscribed from DirecTV Now.  I spent quite a bit of time crafting a comprehensive answer, only to receive the notice below.  Part of my issue … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9,18,19],"tags":[30,31,83],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-household","category-internet","category-technology","category-video","tag-design-2","tag-directv","tag-streaming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YWFc-7V","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}