DirectTV has announced plans to offer HBO GO and MAX GO apps for mobile devices. Right now the services allow DirectTV subscribers who pay for HBO and Cinemax to view content online via a web site for no additional charge. Eventually mobile apps will also be available for Android and iOS.
There are 1400 titles available from HBO including Boardwalk Empire, true Blood, The Sopranos, and Sex and the City as well as original movies, miniseries, and other content. Cinemax content includes 400 titles including movies and the Max After Dark series.
The company says iPhone, iPad, and Android apps will be available later this year. Last summer HBO was saying its video streaming service would be available for the iPad within 6 months, but it looks like the network missed that target.
I still don’t understand why this HBO GO isn’t appearing on lean-back platforms like Roku and TiVo.
HBO has said they are building the HBO GO client into new TV sets from several manufacturers, so HBO seems to be fine with letting the client loose into the lean-back environment.
So what is the holdup on it appearing for Roku or TiVo?
Why is it DTV offering this instead of HBO? As a Comcast HBO subscriber, I don’t get it.
Michael, more licensing shenanigans I’m sure… and I bet money is changing hands for an early exclusive or something.
Chucky, Wasn’t there some lean back HBO GO experience I was supposed to test? My mother in law has HBO GO, but I forget what device I was supposed to test it on. Hm.
“Chucky, Wasn’t there some lean back HBO GO experience I was supposed to test? My mother in law has HBO GO, but I forget what device I was supposed to test it on. Hm.”
I’ve read that HBO GO lean-back is supposedly enabled on the Logitech Google TV Revue Extravaganza, Now with Four-Speed Blender and Swiss Army Knife™
Ugh, that awful box? ;) Will try to remember to drag it out and give it a try. Mother in law is out of country at the moment, so it may have to wait until she’s back and I can retrieve her credentials.
“Mother in law is out of country at the moment, so it may have to wait until she’s back and I can retrieve her credentials.”
Folks of an older generation all keep their passwords written down on a piece of paper they store under their mattress.
So if you’ve got access to her home, you’re good to go.
“Ugh, that awful box? Will try to remember to drag it out and give it a try.”
In a way, it all plays out perfectly. The Logitech Revue was only worth getting your hands on if you wanted a box that wasn’t usable on a day-to-day basis, but that would be a toy that let you play around with the future until you got bored with it.
And stuff like HBO GO lean-back may be the future, so if you can play with it now on the Revue, then the universe is all in alignment.
To clarify, DirectTV isn’t developing these apps for the HBO Go and Max Go offerings. They will be available for U-verse, Comcast, Cox, Fios, Suddenlink, and Dish customers (Dish has the service in beta). The apps are expected to be completed within two months. Of course, their coders aren’t worth a damn, as anyone who has used HBO’s iPad app knows very well.
Chucky, yah that’s why I’m OK hanging on to it… it sits in a cupboard, but I assume there will be future updates to cover. (Not to mention I received it from a former coworker who periodically seeks product and outreach feedback, rather than their press group who we’ve had a real hard time engaging.)
Did a quick Google search and came across a note from January that suggests Revue HBO GO access might be web-based versus an app, and that Comcast customers are redirected to Xfinity.com which is blocked from Google TV. Hm.
Adam, can you get us some beta screengrabs? ;)
The links I got from Dish are:
http://www.hbogo.com/beta/index.html?aff=dish and http://www.maxgo.com/beta/dish
“Did a quick Google search and came across a note from January that suggests HBO GO access might be web-based versus an app”
That would be bizarre. If they are building it into TV’s, then they must have a lean-back interface, no? And if so, why wouldn’t it be on the Revue as an app if the Logitech specifically promoted HBO GO at their rollout?
I do hope it works as an app on your Revue, since I’m curious about the PQ HBO is delivering. Few folks beyond Netflix either want to (Hulu) or care about doing the groundwork to (everyone else) deliver Official Netflix-Style “Good Enough” 720 PQ for Lean-Back™.
A TV-optimized interface doesn’t necessarily require or imply a dedicated app. For example, on Google TV, YouTube is basically a web page but features a “lean back” UI:
http://www.youtube.com/t/leanback
Similarly, Sling created a Flash-based website for Google TV which I saw at CES. You type the URL in the first time, then bookmark or PIN it to your dashboard. (I happened to make a note of their URL…)
https://zatznotfunny.com/2011-01/watch-slingbox-on-google-tv/
Regarding pq, I wish I had an efficient and accurate method to measure. For example, Glenn asked what my experience is with WatchESPN. How to quantify? Hm.
“Regarding pq, I wish I had an efficient and accurate method to measure. For example, Glenn asked what my experience is with WatchESPN. How to quantify? Hm.”
It’s easy.
Use a 45+ inch screen, and look for the first things that break down under compression. Fast motion, water, and clouds are some of the first things that break down.
Compare to something with Netflix “Good Enough” 720 PQ for reference. (I recommend using The Thin Red Line as a baseline, since it’s chock full of fast motion, water, and clouds.)
If you’re dealing with more profound issues like jerkiness, sync issues, or overall blockiness, then that’s well below the level we’re discussing as “Good Enough” lean-back…
WatchESPN is an iOS app and my first cut/criteria is just figuring out resolution. Then again, qualitative trumps quantitative. As we know, there’s a lot more to picture quality than pixel count.
I got the Google TV hooked up. HBO Go is definitely the web page, not an app. As is Cartoon Network and most other Spotlight “shortcuts” (which I guess we can’t really call apps). It took a little while, but we basically just hacked into the mother-in-law’s account so I’ll sign-on in a sec and will probably blog the (non) results in the AM.
“WatchESPN is an iOS app”
Well, that’s a whole ‘nother flock of seagulls.
When you’re dealing with postage stamp sized screens, PQ essentially ceases to matter. That’s why you’re fine with Hulu at the gym.
But all the money is in lean-back quality video, which is a lot more PQ dependent…
“HBO Go is definitely the web page, not an app.”
Weird. I guess they have something else brewed up to put into the TV sets than they put into the Revue. Web pages are a great UI for discovery, but not so much for the lean-back experience. (Which is why your Revue lives in a closet.)
Is everyone too stupid to follow the Netflix path to world domination? Just spend the effort getting your lean-back client everywhere, and put in the groundwork necessary to deliver “Good Enough” lean-back PQ over IP.
If no else is doing those things, then the fact that Netflix’ hi-def library is limited ceases to matter.
Perhaps Netflix will end up dominating for the same reason Amazon dominated. They were the only folks in their niches who actually cared about the details.
Hah! Off-topic, but the funniest thing I read today was that one of Sharp’s official marketing point for their new 70″ LCD TV is “It makes me feel like I’m Donald Trump”.
Some folks want to watch movies in the full cinema cathedral splendor, while other folks want to appear to their friends like they wear a bad toupee…
@Dave,
re WatchESPN picture quality, if it looks good it looks good. Don’t worry about resolution per se. Just look for blockiness or artifacts. As Chucky says, fast motion (esp when the camera is moving, so the whole screen is shifting), waterfalls, fire, heavy rain, anything red. I’d say watch a football game when the camera pans you’ll see what I mean. But hey, you can’t. Just post what you think.
@Chucky,
Postage stamp sized screens don’t matter? Hey, on my iPhone I can totally see the difference between when I use “Watch with Auto Convert” (e.g. for 3G) vs. Watching stuff encoded for the iPod Touch. Not exactly HD resolutions I know…
Basically the question is if you had the choice to watch some sports event on WatchESPN OR from your Slingbox which would you choose? I know the Slingbox will nearly always work, but the latency in responsiveness is a pain and I’m not a big fan of the UI, so if WatchESPN worked (when it wasn’t blacked out) and maybe offered better picture quality…
And speaking of the Google TV, its mid-April. Weren’t we all expecting an update by now with apps and shit? Something that made us look at it afresh instead of slowly forgetting that it ever existed?
Oh, and on the original point of the article, I think its good that HBO is getting this out there. As a Comcast subscriber, I can already watch this stuff via VOD on my iPad, but honestly I don’t care what app I have to run to watch some show I want, I just want the opportunity.
And given how the market is almost certain to play out, and how the young’uns are learning to consume their media on anything BUT a big TV, I’d think that most networks would be looking at doing apps like this rather than suing Time Warner for interrupting their sleep.
Control your brand, give you options to go around Pay TV operators in the future if you want/need to, advertise your other shows, keep young people interested, plan for targetted advertising. All good things right? And for now you force the user to enter their login to prove they’re already paying for the channel so you still get paid.
“Postage stamp sized screens don’t matter? … the young’uns are learning to consume their media on anything BUT a big TV”
Again, all the pricing power, all the money, is in lean-back PQ video.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t folks interested in video on mobile devices.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t differences in picture quality even on mobile devices.
That doesn’t mean the various companies don’t have incentives to provide their services on mobile devices.
That doesn’t mean Dave Zatz doesn’t enjoy the (deliberately throttled low-PQ) Hulu on his iPhone at his gym.
All I’m saying is that all the pricing power for streaming video lies in stuff with the PQ for “Good Enough” lean-back.
Streaming video with lower PQ has all the pricing power of audio – aka almost none.
And in thinking about the future of tech, you follow the money.
(Of course, there are going to be a few exceptions to this rule of pricing power residing in lean-back PQ. Stuff that works well on radio and in newspapers, like Major League Baseball for example, will have some real pricing power even with lower PQ video. But exceptions are exceptions because they’re rare.)