# DIRECTV iPad App (V1.0.8) - Issues/Discussion



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

*Systems in this software version
Apple iPad*

*Available starting:*
Friday, March 11, 2011

*Download*
iTunes Store

*New features*

none

*Improved/Updated*

performance
stability

*Notes*

This is DIRECTV's first app designed specifically for the Apple iPad


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

No problems found yet. It appears that they are now prefetching the guide data as soon as you open the app rather than waiting until you select the guide tab. App overall load time seems a bit faster but it is hard to tell if that is due to server response improvements or the app itself. No change in the issues that I have previously found.

Does not take advantage of iOS multitasking.
No way to dismiss the detail dialog in guide list view mode.
No consolidated playlist.
No real MRV capability except by using remote control mode.
In the movies tab, Browse Movies/What's on Now does not list all the movies currently playing "now".

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

Populates pretty quick and works smooth.

One hiccup, I was touching the tabs on the bottom (Movies, Guide etc) and one time when I pressed Guide it was 100% blank (after it had already populated). Touched another tab and Guide again and it came back. Have not been able to reproduce but it did it once. 

In sports, the upcoming shows are missing Golf. It's number 3 on my listing in order, there's a Golf event at 3 EST today on NBC but it's not in the sports tab. Touching Golf on top has nothing. But its in the guide for this afternoon on CBS.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

None of the NCAA Playoffs (ACC, Big Ten, etc. ) are listed in Sports . . .


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

Looks like their are issues in a couple of the views. As an example, right now the final round of the PGA Tournament at Doral is on NBC. Under sports/golf/today nothing is listed. Under sports/NASCAR/completed nothing is listed. Their are other examples. Looks like the sports views still need some work.

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## dirtyblueshirt (Dec 7, 2008)

So far it's running well on my HR22-100 (the HR23-700 is still dead, awaiting a visit on Tuesday). Since I had the forethought when the first HR23 died of transcribing all 39 series manager items on my now-dead second HR23, I decided to use the iPad to populate the series manager on the replacement HR22 with all the shows from the other (have I lost anyone yet?).

One glaring omission I hope they correct soon: When setting a series recording, there's no way to specify the First-Run/Repeat/Both option. It defaults to "Both" forcing me to edit all series recordings to "First-Run". Despite that problem, I've been very impressed with the iPad app.

Oh, and one other minor thing: when setting a series recording that conflicts; the iPad simply says the recording was "unsuccessful" with no explanation. I had to set the series via the receiver to find out it was due to a conflict, and then manage the conflict from there. A minor thing, but it'd be nice to manage that from the iPad.


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

Managed to duplicate the blank Guide issue. Was off line trying to set up a recording.

Can't duplicate it 100% but this works about 20% of the time.

Tap Sports, wait for scores to appear.
Tap Guide, then about .5 secs later, tap guide again. Have to be quick but not instantly quick. And the guide goes blank.


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## heddhunter (Aug 10, 2009)

Does anybody else find that loading the playlist is incredibly slow? I only have one receiver, which is plugged into my home network via ethernet. My iPad is right near the wireless point (showing full strength). It takes 2-5 minutes to refresh! I don't think I have that much content on the device. It's about 35% free in fact.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

heddhunter said:


> Does anybody else find that loading the playlist is incredibly slow? I only have one receiver, which is plugged into my home network via ethernet. My iPad is right near the wireless point (showing full strength). It takes 2-5 minutes to refresh! I don't think I have that much content on the device. It's about 35% free in fact.


Something definitely does not sound right. I have two HD DVR's in my network and the playlist refreshes only take about 2-3 seconds on either of them and they both have a fair amount of content.


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## heddhunter (Aug 10, 2009)

mjwagner said:


> Something definitely does not sound right. I have two HD DVR's in my network and the playlist refreshes only take about 2-3 seconds on either of them and they both have a fair amount of content.


Well I did some snooping, because I'm a nerd...

I used the excellent Charles web proxy on my Mac, and set up my iPad to use it. In this manner I was able to snoop all the traffic between the iPad DirecTV app and the DVR (plus all the calls to the directv api to get the guide data, account data, etc.). I have 112 items on my DVR. The app fetches them in chunks of 25. They could use this info put up a progress bar to let you know how long it has to go... maybe in a future version. It takes the DVR around 5-10 seconds (sometimes more) to generate each 25-item chunk. So best case scenario for 112 items would be 5 chunks times 5-10+ seconds. I tried requesting the same chunks from my Mac, which is wired into the same ethernet as the DVR, so it eliminates wireless performance as a variable. It's slow no matter what. Maybe my DVR is just old and tired.

Since they are fetching in chunks they could show at least a partial list while the rest load. That would go a way toward making it feel faster.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

Another bug to add to the list:

Search results are inconsistent at best and just wrong many times. Example, currently Paranormal Activity 2 is playing on D Cinema but if you search on either Paranormal Activity or Paranormal Activity 2 you get a result set that does not include Paranormal Activity 2.

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

Any word on when they will start populating more of the sports tabs with valid info? I haven't checked them all but Golf and NASCAR are definitely not correct.

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## davidmoss59 (Oct 14, 2008)

So, I have 4 HRxx connected via whole home DVR. Each is set to see the shows from each other and consolidate into a single guide. This way my wife has her DVR that she programs too, I have mine, and each of my kids have theirs. 
Due to the Whole Home DVR set up it works great in that while we each only record on our device, we can watch anywhere... EXCEPT when using the new iPad app.

The iPad app was not thought out well enough to work in combination with the Whole Home scenario. I can't access the entire guide on each device, therefor can only play back programs from the device it is registered too at the moment. This makes it 100% not functional for me and many others that use the Whole Home DVR function.

What a disappointment.


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

There is a workaround for the whole home playlist at the moment:

Use the remote function of the app to bring up the unified playlist on your receiver.

I agree, not the most elegant process but enough to get us by until we (hopefully) get a unified playlist in a future version of the app.

Remember... it's only version 1. Still cuttin' teeth!


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## davidmoss59 (Oct 14, 2008)

This apps needs to be able to stream shows to it from the receivers similar to Slingbox. TimeWarner and Verizon are both doing this now and DTV needs to catch up.

I did call the DTV customer service department and asked if they knew if this was coming and they didn't.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

davidmoss59 said:


> This apps needs to be able to stream shows to it from the receivers similar to Slingbox. TimeWarner and Verizon are both doing this now and DTV needs to catch up.
> 
> I did call the DTV customer service department and asked if they knew if this was coming and they didn't.


There is a program for the PC (DIRECTV2PC) to do that but, alas, not in the Apple world.

As far as the iPad app goes...well I'm not sure that's what it's intended use was, but who knows what the future may hold? I don't. :grin:

Mike


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## davidmoss59 (Oct 14, 2008)

DIRECTV2PC isn't the same. That is for PCs only, and can only stream from inside the house.


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## Beerstalker (Feb 9, 2009)

We believe that eventually this app will be updated to allow streaming within your own home. However we don't think it will necessarily allow streaming over the internet to places outside your home. For that it appears DirecTV is leaning toward what they are calling NOMAD, which will allow you to actually make a copy of the recording and transfer it to your portable device such as an ipad. There is a thread around here with some information on NOMAD if you look for it.

We don't really have any time frame for either as far as I know.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

I tried the TWC app at a friend's house last week and while it's better than nothing, it's certainly not perfect.

It only streams about 25 live channels (CNN, A&E, HGTV, no locals) - nothing from the DVR. And there's no trickplay controls - what you see is what you get.

You also have to have TWC Internet connection.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

davidmoss59 said:


> DIRECTV2PC isn't the same. That is for PCs only, and can only stream from inside the house.


That's true...although, I didn't say it was for streaming outside the home. I mearly meant it is all there is for streaming at the moment.

Mike


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## danmarcoux (Dec 18, 2007)

I'm having a problem getting the iPad app to see all of my receivers. I've got a total of five HD receivers on my network: 1 HR23, 2 HR20, and 2 H21 receivers. They are all wired and setup with static IP addresses on the same subnet (192.168.2.xxx), with same gateway, and same subnet masks. The wi-fi access point is on the same network as well, and the iPad gets a dynamic address (although I have tried statically assigning the ip info as well) on the same subnet. All of the HD-DVRs are setup for whole home DVR and all receivers see all DVRs, they also all see my media server I have setup for Music, Photos, and Videos. TV apps work as does VOD. 

The problem I am having is the iPad app only sees the two HR20 DVRs automatically. I have to enter the IP addresses for the other receivers and the HR23 whenever I restart the app. It works fine for that session, but since the app doesn't multitask correctly, whenever I switch to another app and back again, I have to reenter the IP addresses again. The two H21's I don't really care about, but the HR23 is in my TV room and the one I'd really like to have it working on. 

What's odd is that the three receivers that don't show up are all showing in the App with receiver IDs of ...0000. The working receivers have valid receiver IDs. I've validated that all of the receiver IDs, access cards, and serial numbers all sync with "My Equipment" on the directv.com website. I've reauthorized the non-working receivers via the website. And, of course, I have reset the receivers multiple times and have reloaded the app a few times. 

Anybody have any thoughts?


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## davidmoss59 (Oct 14, 2008)

As someone said, this is version 1. Lets see how it matures. Now if I could only get my HRxx receivers to change a channel without the 20 second lag.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

davidmoss59 said:


> As someone said, this is version 1. Lets see how it matures. Now if I could only get my HRxx receivers to change a channel without the 20 second lag.


I'm giving D lots of room on this app but honestly this more like a pre-ga release than a v1. Their are just too many key elements that just aren't ready for prime time (see my previous posts in this thread). Remember also that this is the second public release. Granted the first update came out very quickly but the initial release had some real problems that IMHO should have never made it out of QA.


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## mikekimoc (Mar 23, 2011)

I'm having a connection issue I hope someone on here can help with...

I have 2 HD-DVRs. HR21 which connects fine but my HR22 is recognized by the iPad App but cannot connect. The only difference is that the HR21 is connected directly to the router with an Ethernet cable while the HR22 is connected via a bridge. 

I can also successfully ping the HR21 but not the HR22. The odd thing is that I can download content from VOD on the HR22.

On the iPad App's settings, the HR21 shows a green dot meaning it's connected but a red dot for the HR22. I went to the setting and tried entering the static IP address as well...

Any thoughts? Do you think the HR22 is having problems because it's connected via a wireless bridge?

Thanks in advance!


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Mike,

If you haven't already, open a thread in the Connected Home or HD DVR sections with the IP details of your setup. Or PM me directly and I'll help.


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

davidmoss59 said:


> As someone said, this is version 1. Lets see how it matures. Now if I could only get my HRxx receivers to change a channel without the 20 second lag.


My lag is non-existent. Are you on a DECA network or other type of connection? I'm on a SWM-DECA network.


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## danmarcoux (Dec 18, 2007)

I think I'm making progress.... As mentioned previously, all of my receivers show up in "My Equipment" on my account page on directv.com. However, I just found out about tvapps.directv.com - when I sign in there, the two devices that work ok with the iPad app show up in the receivers list on that site. The receivers I'm having issues with either do not appear on the tvapps website at all, or notated as "deleted". I haven't figured out a way to manage the receivers that show up there, so a call to tech support may be in order (why do we feel the need to avoid calling for support?) - hopefully they can get my receivers list updated for tvapps.


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## Karen (Oct 4, 2007)

I just installed it on my new iPad 2 today and love it! I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but I like what I've seen so far.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

Any word on when some of the issues that have been identified will be addressed? Some are just minor annoyances but others are actual missing or not working functionality.

D's competitors are not sitting still: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/25/comcasts-xfinity-tv-app-for-ios-updated-with-more-streaming-and/

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

I tried to watch the trailer for 'Ceremony' and 'Tron:legacy' but get mixed results on iPad and iPad2. Ceremony has a scratch for audio about every other second on the iPad2, but no video or audio on the iPad. Tron has the same scratch on the iPad2 but plays fine on the iPad.

Note: This was after a reboot of both iPads


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Just tried to bring up the Reds game on Fox Sports Cincinnati, and both options gave the channel name as 661, so hitting the one labelled HD brought up the SD feed. I had to do a manual channel change to 661-1 to go to HD.


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## Hutchinshouse (Sep 28, 2006)

Not sure if anyone seen this. A great review on the DIRECTV iPad app:

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/03/28/the-directv-ipad-app-in-depth/

Now bring on streaming.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

Seemed like less of a critical review and more of a how to guide. I think the statement that "This app is almost perfect with only a few minor caveats" is a bit over the top for me. While it certainly has the potential to be that, due to it's not insignificant current flaws...it ain't there yet. IMHO.


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## mgavs (Jun 17, 2007)

Installed yesterday, love it although far from perfect. You would think you could customize the guide to leave channels out though. Kudos to Directv for adding this great functionality!


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

You can customize the guide tab by tapping the hearts next to the channel name. After checking the ones you want, tap the heart near the top of the channel column and it will filter out all but the ones you selected. 

You can also add a "favorite channels" module to the home screen and add your favorites to that.


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## mgavs (Jun 17, 2007)

Thanks! I was looking for something like the Favorites editing, but this is easier.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

Seriously, just checked the sports/golf tab. You would think that "Upcoming" would list AT LEAST the first round of the Masters which is being hyped by D! Come on guys! Can you PLEASE rub the stars out of your eyes for "having an iPad app" and deliver one that really lives up to the hype...

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

First day of The Masters....surely D has the sports tab of their iPad app updated with information. Fire up the app, click on the sports tab...nothing for today, no listing for upcoming either! Come on D, either fix the sports tab or remove it from the app till you can get it working correctly, this is an embarrassment!

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

...and still nothing about The Masters showing up in the sports tab...


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Something's been fixed on the backend - the 'Heritage' is showing up for this weekend.

And the trailer for 'Ceremony' was fixed a few weeks ago. . .


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## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

Disclaimer:

I do not own an iPad (I have an iPod touch, however)
I do not own one of these (but it gets great reviews)
I do not have any stake in Woot

I saw this today, and thought it might be of interest to those using the iPad app to control their STB's. For another $25 (including shipping) you can now control the volume and everything else in your setup.........

Today (April 27, 2011) only at Woot:

http://www.woot.com/

Normal price after today: $46

http://www.amazon.com/L5-Universal-Remote-Control-iPhone/dp/B003B22U8Y


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

While a good idea, I'd be very hesitant to leave that plugged into the iPad (or any Tablet / notebook)- too much leverage for damage.


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## Alebob911 (Mar 22, 2007)

Cool idea. I'm glad that samsung has a free app that allows me to control the volume which then controls my A/V receiver through CEC-HDMI. iPad for DIRECTV and iphone for volume! What more could I ask for!?


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## Clark Kent (May 1, 2007)

Hi all. My DTV iPad app is not validating the receiver when I enter the IP address. Am I doing something wrong?


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

DIRECTV iPad App 1.1.5 has been released to the iTunes store moments ago. I created a new thread here:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=193557


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