ATT TV - a little review

Since ATT TV is offering free HBO/HBO Max for the 1st year, and a $100 rebate, I signed up for it today at the Entertainment level.

I don’t have ATT’s little box yet, so some of the things I may say might change when it gets here.

Equipment -
AppleTV4K - app performance is very good. The guide is one of the nicest I’ve seen on any streaming app. And there are filters to help in guide management though a bit limited.

Audio performance is worse than some streamers, mostly because the audio level is low but also because, even with their ‘premium’ product they couldn’t bother giving 5.1 audio! That sucks!

DVR and recordings management is easy and the search function works very well. On Demand stuff seems very good though I’ve not played with it much. Seems to call another app for some of it and stay in the app for others. But the transition is smooth as silk.

FireTV Cube - performance is totally unacceptable! Pig slow for all functions. I wouldn’t recommend using the FireTV for this at all.

I’ll come back to this after the box comes in to report the good/bad/changed from apps on the AppleTV4K.

 

Seems to be that way though some digging around says many channels are 5.1 on FireTV but not on AppleTV. I’ll test that in a bit though the overall performance on the FireTV is not good at all IMO.

 

Possibly. I have confirmed that it does do 5.1 audio on at least some channels on the FireTV.

 

Oh, also noticed some lip sync issues on the AppleTV. Did some googling and it is a well reported issue with the only fix a temporary one of setting the ATV to 1080p.

Supposed ATT is well aware of this and is ‘working’ on it.

 

No it isn’t. I signed up online today, installed the app on the ATV and away I went. Then put it on the FireTV.

While ATT wants to make a big difference between ATT TV and ATT TV Now they are just the same product at different prices, channel lineups and contract or not.

 

I didn’t use a stick, just the Cube. I think it is one generation old given how long I’ve had it.

 

As I remember it, you don’t have a 4K TV. Lip sync seems to be an issue with 4K on the ATV. Mine is set to 4K/HDR and the lip sync issue isn’t on everything, it is a bit random.

The Cube is working a little better this morning. Still slower than the ATV, but not as pig slow as I was getting last night. It’s nice to have 5.1 audio using the Cube but the Cube’s audio levels are low compared to the ATV and the ATT app is also low compared to most other apps so I have to push the volume quite a bit to get something acceptable.

I really like the DVR since I control it. That was one thing I never really liked with YouTubeTV. Too messy IMO.

Trick play on the FireTV is a bit on the irritating side since during skips you don’t have thumbnail to see where in the ads you are and when the show starts again, only a time indicator. However the controls work better than on the ATV.

On the ATV it tries to show the video as you move but the app isn’t strong enough to handle it well and oft times get an error about internet performance. Note that all these streaming guys try to blame your internet performance for almost all issues. It is a seemingly constant refrain I see reported in many forums.

 

Coming back to this. I have to wonder what the hell Apple is doing with audio on the ATV that is different in a way that makes doing 5.1 audio harder. As you note, Hulu doesn’t do 5.1 on ATV either.

 

HD PQ is fine with the ATT app, maybe even a tiny bit crisper than YouTubeTV or some other video apps.

I have noticed some video quirks now and then. Like a jump or quick freeze, not horrible but a bit more often than I’ve seen with other apps.

In general the product works as advertised and with my plan to keep it a year and cancel because that will make my average per month cost about $57 for a good selection of the channels I’m interested in, a free year of HBO/HBO Max and the usual 3 months of free other premiums. It makes for a pretty compelling product/price combo if the channels and so forth fit you.

ATT really needs to get off their ass and work on the app though. They are peddling this as a ‘premium’ product but the app performance is just not premium at all, in fact is at minimum a bit slower for everything compared to others.

And the box is a nice idea though reading a lot about it tells me that their $120 price point if you want to buy one is a lot on the high side. They need to get Hulu, Amazon Prime and maybe a few other apps on it too. Market it as a one-size fits all box and its value rises.

And for god’s sake cut a deal with Roku! How the hell they think that ignoring the biggest selling line of streaming boxes makes any kind of marketing sense is beyond me.

 

A side note...

Just checked on eBay and found that lots of folks think their used beta ATT boxes are worth more than you can buy one from ATT! Pure nuttiness though I’m sure some idiot will come along and pay that much!

 

There’s another thread talking about ATT’s financial/subscriber issues.