DirecTV Stream again

Channels DVR Server TV Everywhere
#1

Late Thurday night/early Friday morning DirecTV Stream went away completely. No channels, nothing. I deleted the tuner and tried to re-add it, but I get this error: authn: POST: https://sp.auth.adobe.com/adobe-services/session: 401: "Data not found"

I switched to DirecTV for the source and I get all my channels there, but there is one problem. At random times while watching, playback will stall and eventually fail. If you back up it will play from the buffer to the point where it stalled and stall again. If you back out to the guide and go back in it will play without any problem. From the time you start watching a channel to when it stalls is completely random. It can take anywhere from a couple minutes from when you start watching the channel to a couple hours.

Anyone else with DirecTV Stream having the same problems?

Dan

#2

I've continued to have consistent issues with DirecTV Stream as detailed in a bunch of threads/posts. I have been using the "hack" detailed below where I switch to a VPN and then back which seems to reset something in the auth flow and fix some of the 401 errors, but it's started to become less and less consistent:

I've actually ordered an HDMI encoder that should arrive tomorrow and plan to try to set up ah4c to see if I can just permanently move away from TVE since I just can't rely on it anymore:

#3

So I have to ask. If you are paying $80+ a month for DTV Stream which reportedly has the best picture in streaming, why are you using Channels and TVE with considerably worse 720p resolution? Wouldn't using the DTV Stream native app and unlimited DVR be a better option or using a less expensive provider if your use case is TVE?

#4

That so called "unlimited" cloud DVR only lets you keep 30 episodes for a series, and deletes your recordings after 9 months

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#5

My point being, if you don't care about quality, there are far cheaper providers for TVE that you can use with Channels. DTV Stream is one of the most expensive out there...

#6

Is DirecTV Stream that different from regular DirecTV? Satellite DirecTV is horribly compressed 720p. Channels uses the TVE streams from network sites, which are generally 1080p.

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#7

Most TVE streams are 720p with 2.0 audio and low bit rate

#8

Most are 1080p, but yes, 2.0 audio. However, my personal experience is that TVE (video) content is superior to DirecTV broadcast quality. (Which is why I dumped them a decade ago.)

#9

That is not true at all. For the most part only the Disney, FOX, Bally and Weigel channels are 720p on satellite, the vast majority of the HD channels including all of the Paramount, WBDiscovery, AETN, NBCU, AMC, Hallmark, HBO, Starz and Showtime channels are 1920x1080i on satellite. Thanks to a bunch of people complaining about the delay caused by switching resolutions, they did force Genie users to select a specific ouput resolution, but the Hx2x receivers still have the native resolution option.

DIRECTV stream does have additional HD channels compared to satellite, like BET Her, Boomerang, CNN International, C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, Discovery Life, Logo, Nicktoons, Pursuit, Sportsman, TeenNick, UP, the rest of the Starz Encore channels and many of the spanish tier channels.

The resolution of TVE streams vary from network to network, and all the ones that are still compatible with channels DVR only offer AAC stereo. Even the ones that offer 1080p still originate from the 1080i source feeds, and if you're lucky you might get one deinterlaced to 1080p/60, but a bunch of them, including Viacom, half ass it and only do 1080p/30.

A decade ago DIRECTV only had a fraction of the HD channels they have now.

#10

Well, then their compression sucks. Because in the past month I have experienced far superior video quality with TVE than with NBCU and WBD networks on recent DTV hardware.

In any case, this is completely tangential to the OP.

Ever since the DTV/ATT merger, and now even after the spin off and separation, authentication is still an issue. (This is not solely relegated to TVE. Shared accounts between DTV and ATT have authentication issues, too.)

You will regularly get these issues until the collective bosses of both get their heads out of their asses and fix things.

#11

I chose DTV Stream for several reasons. The first was that we didn’t lose any channels that we watch, all the other streamers we lost a couple. The next is that my wife doesn’t like using the Apple TV remote, and the Harmony remote intimidates her, but the DTV remote is fine, so on the tv she watches, she has the box. My tv I use the Apple TV. We don’t get all the local channels on DTV Stream (no CW), and I still have a silicon dust flex 4k and rooftop antenna, so I use Channels for that. I kind of like the ui a little better on Channels, and on the DTV app, I can’t enter channel numbers to navigate the guide. Also, if the internet goes down, I still have OTA. I do use the DTV app sometimes, Smithsonian is not on TVE, and there are the 4k channels as well. Watched the Superbowl on there and am looking forward to the Olympics this summer. Recordings being local is a big deal too in case the internet goes down. I can still watch things I’ve recorded. I do have our shows we record set up on both. We use DTV as the backup and channels as the primary.

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#12

Channels doesn't support NBCU's TVE anymore now that they use DRM. NBCU is also one of the few providers with HQ TVE streams, and even offer Dolby 5.1 on supported platforms.

Not sure what TVE platform you're referring to for WBD, but the DRM free Turner streams used by Channels are 720p/30, only their newer DRM protected streams are 1080p. Discovery's TVE streams originate from 1080i sources that are deinterlaced to 1080p/30 instead of 1080p/60.

The 1080i sourced channels on DIRECTV stream (which satellite customers also have access to via the app) are all deinteraced to 1080p/60 and have Dolby digital audio on supported platforms.

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#13

In my case I am grandfathered into an incredibly cheap deal with DirecTV Stream that no other provider will ever be able to compete with so I'm "forced" to stick with them. If it wasn't for that then I would have switched a long time ago.

#14

hello. can you list something better than dtv stream? thanks