The dwell TV streaming service AT&T TV seems like a half-measure, each for AT&T and for potential cord-cutters.
Like different dwell streaming bundles similar to YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, AT&T TV offers dozens of dwell cable channels over the web. But not like these different providers, AT&T TV comes with its personal streaming field that retains conventional TV ideas. It launches straight into dwell TV while you flip it on, has devoted information and channel quantity buttons on its distant, and comes with an easy-to-use cloud DVR. (The service is completely separate from AT&T TV Now, which does not use proprietary {hardware}.)
The concept is to provide individuals an off-ramp from cable—or, in AT&T’s case, an alternative choice to its quickly declining DirecTV satellite tv for pc and U-Verse TV providers—with out throwing them into a very alien streaming expertise. If you may look previous just a few minor annoyances, the strategy largely works.
The important downside is the price of the service, which requires a two-year contract and will get a lot pricier after the primary 12 months that it would not save a lot cash over cable. At that time, those that’ve dipped a toe into cord-cutting may kick themselves for not diving in headlong as a substitute.
AT&T TV: What it prices, and what you get
Here’s the complete breakdown of pricing for every AT&T TV tier:
- Entertainment: $50 per thirty days for one 12 months, then $93 per thirty days
- Choice: $55 per thirty days for one 12 months, then $110 per thirty days
- Xtra: $65 per thirty days for one 12 months, then $124 per thirty days
- Ultimate: $70 per thirty days for one 12 months, then $135 per thirty days
All tiers aside from Entertainment additionally embody a regional sports activities payment of as much as $8.50 per thirty days. And in case you cancel service earlier than the two-year contract is up, you may owe $15 for each month that is left. AT&T does take $10 per thirty days off in case you bundle AT&T wi-fi service, and $20 off with U-Verse gigabit house broadband the place obtainable, however these are additionally simply one-year promos.
As for what every package deal contains, AT&T has a full channel comparability here, however the “Entertainment” package deal covers native stations, main information channels, nationwide sports activities networks, and a broad vary of leisure channels. Regional sports activities requires one of many larger tiers; you may verify on particular native channel protection here.
AT&T would not cost tools rental charges, and it contains one set-top field at no additional cost. Additional containers value $120, with the choice to pay them off in $10-per-month installments. Alternatively, you may entry the AT&T TV app at no additional value on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung sensible TVs, Chromecast, iOS, and Android.
The AT&T TV service contains one set-top field, however you should purchase extra for $120 apiece.
DVR service would not value additional, both, and contains 500 hours of cloud-based recordings. Unlike with cable, you will not have the ability to watch these recordings offline, however on the upside, they’re going to be obtainable from any gadget you utilize to entry the AT&T TV service.
I’ve already written at size about the problems with AT&T TV’s price structure and will not belabor the purpose right here. But with the common pay TV invoice costing about $110 per month, AT&T TV is not providing a lot of a value financial savings after its one-year promotional interval. Other dwell TV streaming providers are less expensive, together with YouTube TV ($50 per thirty days), Hulu + Live TV ($55 per thirty days), and Fubo TV (additionally $55 per thirty days). Even AT&T TV Now has a decrease commonplace pricing of $55 per thirty days, but you may’t get that package deal with the AT&T TV {hardware}.
Not simply one other cable field
If you are not turned off by the prices, you may discover an Android TV-based streaming gadget that does its finest to imitate the cable expertise, whereas additionally offering entry to exterior streaming apps.
The tech specs are nothing particular, with a quad-core Broadcom processor, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. Around again, there are ports for wired ethernet, optical audio output, and a USB port for equipment (similar to a sport controller). While the gadget streams in as much as 4K decision with HDR10, it doesn’t help superior HDR codecs similar to Dolby Vision or HDR10+. (AT&T says it is engaged on supporting these codecs down the highway.)
Jared Newman / IDGThe AT&T TV field has ethernet, optical audio, and USB accent ports in again.
It’s actually not as quick as, say, an Nvidia Shield TV, and I sometimes observed some prolonged delays when transferring between apps or citing voice controls. Still, the core TV information feels responsive and animates easily.
Meanwhile, the distant management does a lot of the heavy lifting to emulate cable TV. Beyond simply the fundamental directional pad for navigation, the AT&T TV distant has devoted buttons for the TV information, earlier channel, recording operate, and DVR checklist, together with a quantity pad for folk who prefer to memorize channel numbers. It additionally has an infrared emitter built-in, so you may flip the TV on or off, regulate or mute the amount, and change TV inputs.
Jared Newman / IDGThe AT&T TV distant is barely a bit slicker than what you’d usually get with cable—and that is by design.
AT&T TV integrates with Google Assistant as properly, so you may hit the microphone button for voice management. Again, this sometimes took just a few seconds to reply, however leaping immediately into dwell channels or launching DVR applications by voice was fairly satisfying when it labored.
The distant’s design might be higher, although. Its rectangular form by no means fairly nestles comfortably within the hand, and I want the directional keys had been raised larger or had some dimples to assist information your thumb into the suitable place. The rockers for quantity and channel controls are a pleasant contact, although.
Jared Newman / IDGGoogle Assistant voice search enables you to tune to dwell channels or bounce to on-demand applications.
Solid software program
The notion of preserving cable familiarity additionally extends to AT&T TV’s software program. Unlike with Roku or Fire TV gadgets, there are not any additional menus between you and dwell TV. When you flip the gadget on, it merely jumps to the final dwell channel you had been watching, and TV continues to play within the background as you navigate via menus.
Jared Newman / IDGThe AT&T TV field takes you straight right into a menu for its personal service; different apps are off to the facet.
Hitting the distant’s house button brings up a handful of choices: Guide results in a conventional grid of dwell channels, Watch Now presents a look at featured dwell and on-demand programming, My Library brings up the DVR checklist and any on-demand reveals you’ve got bookmarked, and Discover provides you bunch of different methods to browse the AT&T TV catalog. You also can seek for particular films, reveals, actors, and administrators.
Jared Newman / IDGThe AT&T TV grid information has a 14-day preview and loads of filtering choices.
The grid information is de facto the star of the present right here. You can scroll out as much as 14 days, create a listing of favourite channels, and filter by films, reveals, sports activities, and kids’s programming. Scrolling over a program brings up a thumbnail picture and episode description, and clicking this system brings up extra info and recording choices. When you are watching dwell, AT&T TV will routinely buffer this system so you may pause or rewind with out having to document it first, although you may as well hit the DVR button to avoid wasting this system for later.
Jared Newman / IDGAT&T TV has different methods to find content material past the grid information.
The DVR expertise is first rate, with 500 hours of storage and no restrictions on advert skipping, however it could profit from extra sorting and filtering choices. There’s no approach to routinely delete older episodes of a particular program (that is primarily helpful for information and discuss reveals), and the grasp DVR recording checklist appears to don’t have any discernable order to it. On the upside, AT&T TV does show a progress bar for any applications you are watching so you may simply choose up the place you left off, and it presents to delete recordings as soon as you’ve got completed watching them.
Jared Newman / IDGThe DVR menu places all of your recordings into one lengthy checklist.
AT&T TV additionally will get excessive marks for video and audio high quality. Like AT&T TV Now, it preserves 60-frames-per-second playback on each relevant channel and program, and even helps 5.1 encompass sound for dwell channels. (AT&T’s rival dwell TV streaming providers are nonetheless caught in stereo for dwell TV.)
When you wish to use exterior streaming providers similar to Netflix, you may scroll over to the Apps tab, the place you’ll launch some pre-loaded apps and obtain further ones from the Google Play Store. This largely works as anticipated, however the lack of any deeper content material integration with AT&T TV’s personal menu system looks like a missed alternative. Browsing Netflix, for example, requires you to exit the AT&T TV menu system completely. Also, you may nonetheless want a separate streaming gadget if you wish to watch Amazon Prime Video or Hulu, as a result of they are not obtainable in any respect on the AT&T TV {hardware}.
Jared Newman / IDGThe AT&T TV field can run most Android TV apps (however not Hulu or Amazon Prime Video).
There’s additionally a significant disadvantage in case you’re accessing AT&T TV on a separate streaming gadget similar to Apple TV or Fire TV: The AT&T TV app on these gadgets would not help visible preview for recordings, so you may’t inform in case you’ve completed quick forwarding via commercials.
Inherent downsides
Overall, AT&T did a positive job porting the cable TV expertise to its personal streaming {hardware}. But in doing so, it should cope with some points that do not exist in conventional TV.
Streaming TV, for example, is inherently much less dependable than cable, and whereas I personally had no points watching AT&T TV, I even have a 200Mbps house web connection and a state-of-the-art wi-fi router. A number of of us have not made these sorts of investments, or lack the technical experience to troubleshoot points like buffering. (This is anecdotal, however the most typical kind of e mail I get is from people who find themselves having issues with their streaming setup and may’t work out why.) They may be dealing with data caps that restrict what number of hours of TV they will stream each month.
With streaming, you additionally get a lot larger latency for dwell broadcasts. In my assessments, native channels in AT&T TV lagged about 35 seconds behind the identical channels from an antenna, which is fairly typical for dwell streaming providers. (Cable additionally tends to lag behind over-the-air indicators, however not by practically that a lot.) This could be a dealbreaker for individuals who prefer to sustain with social media or discuss to pals whereas watching dwell occasions.
For many cord-cutters, these drawbacks are price tolerating for the fee financial savings. Yet AT&T TV is not providing a lot financial savings in any respect, and its contract-based pricing will create the identical type of invoice shock individuals already despise about conventional pay TV service. Until AT&T comes up with a greater value construction—and even simply ports over the cheaper AT&T TV Now packages it already presents—the brand new AT&T TV providing will likely be powerful to advocate for anybody.