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ATT TV - a little review

Discussion in 'Internet Streaming Services' started by lparsons21, Apr 27, 2020.

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  1. Jan 12, 2021 #641 of 800
    compnurd

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    While yes the hardware is 3 years old it has only been in public release for a year. I would expect a new box probably in a year or two
     
  2. Jan 12, 2021 #642 of 800
    swyman18

    swyman18 Legend

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    My ATT TV (contract) Premiere package is going to go up to $183 (+$8.50 RSN fee) in a couple of months. Can’t believe it’s been almost a year already.

    Is the early termination fee still $15/month for the remaining time on the contract? If so, sounds like I would be better off canceling early and paying the ETF and subscribing to non-contract Premier at $150 ( + $10 to get back the 500 DVR hours) and I wouldn’t be missing anything compared to what I’m currently getting. Heck, if I did it now, looks like I would get NBA League pass thrown in too.
     
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  3. Jan 12, 2021 #643 of 800
    lparsons21

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    Yes, the ETF is still $15/month. But talk nicely and tell them you are wanting to switch to the non-contract side and they may waive it. That’s what I did last month. Worse case they won’t.
     
  4. Jan 12, 2021 #644 of 800
    harsh

    harsh Beware the Attack Basset

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    The current deal was made with DIRECTV in 2010 and with optional extensions every four years that were taken. I doubt that they could have offered the package on Uverse or AT&T TV without renegotiating the whole thing in 2018 which would have, in my mind, opened up Sunday Ticket to other bidders.
     
  5. Jan 12, 2021 #645 of 800
    compnurd

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    It’s 20 for Directv
     
  6. Jan 13, 2021 #646 of 800
    techguy88

    techguy88 Well-Known Member

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    DirecTV (prior to the AT&T acquisition) renewed the NFL ST deal for 8 years valued at $12 billion ($1.5 billion/year.) AT&T required DirecTV to renew the deal at any cost otherwise AT&T could decide not to proceed with the acquisition. 2015 was the first year of the current deal. NFL had an opt-out clause 4 years into this contract if they chose to do so but didn't.

    AT&T TV's ETF is $15/mo not complete so at the 12 month mark you would be out $180. However the version of League Pass AT&T TV offers is NBA League Pass Premium which retails for $249.99 annually. Also at this point you keep any AT&T TV devices your ordered so if you cancel your current plan and get Premier (No-Contract) with the upgraded Cloud DVR you would be paying $149.99/mo instead of $183/mo (a $33.01/mo savings.) You can still use the AT&T TV devices you have with the No-Contract option. Ultimately you would come out ahead.
     
  7. Jan 13, 2021 #647 of 800
    compnurd

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    I signed back up this morning.. And yes again.. The Picture is just that much sharper then Directv.. I really notice it on my cheap 32inch 1080P TV in my office.. I usually have the the weather channel on all day and it is just that much crisper
     
  8. Jan 13, 2021 #648 of 800
    lparsons21

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    I wish I was that confident. Since they haven’t done anything but bug fixes and a little speed improvements in the 3+ years it has been since it came out, I don’t. In fact, going forward I think they will discontinue the box completely.

    At their $120 price point for a relatively poor performing AndroidTV based box, it isn’t competitive in the streaming market. At 1/2 price it might be just for how well it does when using it for the ATT TV service.

    But in the streaming world to not have Amazon Prime or Hulu app on it is just idiotic IMO.
     
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  9. Jan 13, 2021 #649 of 800
    lparsons21

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    I figured you would and for what they are now offering they are a bit high but within a competitive range with pricing. Especially considering that they have things that no other live streaming service has. It really is a premium service. From the best PQ and AQ to an app that is very similar to cable/sat boxes it is just a standout.
     
  10. Jan 13, 2021 #650 of 800
    compnurd

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    Unless they open the channel numbers to the other platforms it isnt going anywhere.. The remote and "TV" feel are still there biggest selling points.
     
  11. Jan 13, 2021 #651 of 800
    lparsons21

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    Yeah, that has a certain value. But that is really the only big advantage to their box over just using their app on other boxes IMO.
     
  12. Jan 13, 2021 #652 of 800
    compnurd

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    I agree but it is a big one.. We wouldnt have the service if it wasnt for that.. (wife factor)
     
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  13. Jan 13, 2021 #653 of 800
    lparsons21

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    Yeah that WAF has to be considered for you married folks! :)

    For me the box could be my go to. Yeah it isn’t the fastest box in the world but the remote is really sweet. And no ATMOS support for the most part is a bit of a yawner as my Soundbar does ATMOS virtualized and I really can’t hear those effects that way.

    But the lack of 2 current apps is the big irritant as the work arounds are a PITA! Amazon Prime current version can be sideloaded fairly easily, but only a very old version of Hulu can be.

    The big kicker is the AppleTV+ app. While supposedly it will come to some AndroidTV boxes, it hasn’t yet nor has there been much conjecture on exactly which ones it will be. And frankly ATT doesn’t seem all that humped up about any apps.

    The workaround is to use a computer with Chrome browser. Go to tv.apple.com and then Chromecast from there. While that does work it is a PITA for me since I seldom use anything more than an iPad/iPhone these days and there is no way to do that from them. Only from a computer, not even an Android tablet can do it.
     
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  14. Jan 13, 2021 #654 of 800
    b4pjoe

    b4pjoe New Member

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    Does the AT&T box have bluetooth built into it?
     
  15. Jan 13, 2021 #655 of 800
    compnurd

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    Yes
     
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  16. Jan 14, 2021 #656 of 800
    lparsons21

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    For those that have the AT&T Osprey box, Amazon Prime app is now available for it in the App Store.

    EDIT: While I was diddling with that I thought to try and install the AppleTV+ app. While I found a couple of APK’s to install and the sideloading was easy, none of the versions I found would actually work. One needed some Sony software installed, the other needed FireTV software installed.
     
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  17. Jan 14, 2021 #657 of 800
    NashGuy

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    So I guess we've found out what AT&T TV is going to do when all those initial subs start hitting their 1-year anniversary and big price increases: let them call in and switch to the slightly lower-priced non-contract version of the service while waiving the ETF. Which is actually fairly generous. If I was AT&T, my offer would be to lower your package price to the non-contract version price (e.g. down from $93 to $80 for Entertainment with 500-hr cloud DVR) while making you stick to the contract. And if you wanted to leave the service completely, then you'd have to pay the ETF.
     
  18. Jan 14, 2021 #658 of 800
    lparsons21

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    Yeah now that would be the way to handle the anniversary calls IMO. It makes sense and keeps the customer in the fold.

    I cancelled my ATT TV with 16 months left on contract and when I called to cancel the CSR asked what I was going to. I told her that I had really thought about ATT TV Now Max but with the ETF that I would owe, that I would probably go with something much cheaper. She put me on hold to talk to a supervisor and then came back and said she got the ETF and balance on the box waived if I was going to ATT TV Now. So that’s what I did.
     
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  19. Jan 14, 2021 #659 of 800
    NashGuy

    NashGuy Well-Known Member

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    Agree with compnurd here. Don't think AT&T TV is going to phase out offering a custom device with dedicated remote. But it should be fairly trivial for them to take their existing AT&T TV software and run on it more modern hardware while keeping the existing model remote control to work with it. Pretty much all these recent Android TV boxes/dongles have been running on reference hardware with Amlogic chipsets (S905X2 or S905Y2) that were designed with Android TV in mind. There should be little, if any, code tweaking necessary for the AT&T TV software on a newer chipset. Because the underlying OS is still Android TV. Everything should just run faster.

    Look at how quickly Verizon upgraded their Stream TV device, which runs a very lightly customized version of Android TV. The first version of the device came out in 2019 with the Amlogic S905X2 (on Android TV 9) that's so widely used. And then in late 2020, they rolled out version 2 of the device with the Amlogic S905X4 (on Android TV 10). That chipset supports hardware decoding of the new AV1 codec, has dedicated support for faster AI voice processing (i.e. Google Assistant), and also supports wifi 6. And Verizon still sells it at the same $70 retail price point (while also giving it away as a freebie to new Verizon 5G Home customers).
     
  20. Jan 14, 2021 #660 of 800
    lparsons21

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    While you and he may be right I certainly don’t think the $120 price point will hold up.

    And while I’m here...

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see AT&T sunset the grandfathered ATT TV Now subscription levels sometime over the next 6 months, maybe even sooner. And with the rumor that there is one potential buyer that wants all of ATT TV it would give them cover since ATT TV Now technically doesn’t exist.
     
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