I have always liked DirecTV. Before my house was able to get cable we had DirecTV satelite. We did switch to cable when it became available for price and high speed internet. I later got DirecTV in on of the places I moved to later because of the first year price, and channels available.
I have been looking for a good way to cut the cord the past year or so. In my article A quick cord cutting guide, I came to the conclusion that my house could not get rid of cable just yet. There are too many channels (shows) that we want to watch. We are TVaholics and watch TV 6 or more hours a day. I also have little other life.
When I heard of DirecTV Now I thought “This could be it”. DirecTV has great chanel selection, and If you don’t need the satelite service and box I was all ready to make the move.
I just tried the 7 day trial DirecTV Now offers. I am very pleased with the Packages they offer. The $35/mo package has almost every channel my house would want, and If we kept the most basic cable package for local TV it would work fine. The $49/mo package has everything we would want to watch (again minus the local channels).
I used it on my browser and Chromecast. It took a few seconds to laod the shows, but nothing more than some cable boxes I’v had. They offer 72 hour Replay where you can start a show from the beginning for 72 hours. This feature seemed to be on all the shows I looked at.
What it did not have was a DVR feature yet. Even though their comercial for DirecTV Now spacifically says “even if you forget to hit record”. They are working on the DVR, it is just not part of the public service yet.
Unfortunetly not having the DVR is a killer for me using the service. Besides often not being able to watch a show in 3 days, There are movies I keep to watch again later. Right now in April, I have The Santa Clause on my DVR from Christmas day.
If you can change the way you watch TV, you can cut the cord in general and especially by using DirecTV Now you should be able to get all the shows you want.
When the DVR comes to the public service and Roku or PS4 (so I dont need to buy a Roku) I will probably get DirecTV Now and get ride of cable.
Techbreakdown 