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Comment by berbec | Hacker News Reader

So now there's streaming under the AT&T umbrella (directvnow) from $15 to $70. I have the full DirecTVNow package, and it's great. Saves me about $100/month and removes cable boxes, dvrs etc. They just implemented a 12-hour cloud dvr built into the app. Very nice service.

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12-hour cloud based DVR sounds like a solution for an artificial problem. Do we really need a DVR for what's basically a on demand streaming service?

Yes because you can't fast forward during commercials for on-demand content while you can for DRV'ed content.

This probably gets around streaming/broadcast licensing differences. You can save and watch later if licensed only for broadcast.

Only because not everything is available on demand, or cannot be saved for an extended length. In a perfect world the DVR is an outdated concept.

What's your monthly charge for just Internet? Optimum just jacked up their rates to an unreasonable monthly bill for me -- over 100% more than what new customers pay, so I'm planning to cut cable and give that a try.

I pay $70 a month for AT&T's gigabit (up/down) internet all fees, taxes, and modem included. DirecTVNow has intermittent buffering issues on my Roku TV/Roku sticks -- and I'm getting 200Mb u/d wireless from the location near my TVs and one of my Roku TVs is actually connected via Ethernet.

I didn't get the buffering issue when I switch over to my 3rd generation AppleTV over AirPlay. It's also not as bad on the 4th Gen ATV with the native app. If you get DirecTVNow, I suggest you take advantage of the free ATV 4K offer when you prepay for 3 months ($120). Even if you're not in the Apple ecosystem, you can still download the various streaming apps.

We use DirectTV Now app on our Apple TV over a Comcast connection. I really like it. The only problem we have is Comcast imposes a data cap of 1TB. With 3 TVs going in the house, kids watching Netflix, and my wife and I watching a separate shows we occasionally hit this limit then get charged an extra $10 per 50GB. Seems ridiculous.

Same with ATT (non-gigabit). There's a $30 dollar option to add unlimited cap to your account which puts internet only at around 70 dollars.

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