HBO GO App Coming To Samsung Devices “Soon”

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HBO GO offers arguably the best value in online streaming. For the cost of a HBO subscription, via your cable or satellite provider, you receive bundled online access to a solid stable of relatively new movies plus every episode of every HBO series. While watching Game of Thrones on my (wife’s) iPad or Eastbound & Down on my iPhone (at the gym) has worked out reasonably well, what many of us have been pining for is the “lean back” experience — HBO GO on the television. My attempts to get the web experience going on Google TV failed (thanks to Comcast), yet a full on HBO GO TV app experience is nearly upon us.

Tech of the Hub has been following these developments closely and it seems we missed news back in May indicating HBO GO is headed to “a variety of TVs, game consoles and streaming devices.” Better yet, Tech of the Hub has learned that Internet-connected Samsung HDTVs and Blu-ray players will receive an HBO GO app “soon” – perhaps within the next week or so. But, having abandoned both Blu-ray decks and smart TVs (for now), I’m hopeful some other entrants in the streaming space (Roku, TiVo, Apple TV) might also have good news for us in the near future.

17 thoughts on “HBO GO App Coming To Samsung Devices “Soon””

  1. Dave if you still have that Google TV give it a try again. I can confim that HBO GO with a Comcast sub works great on my Logitech Google TV.

  2. I see very little value in HBO GO until I can subscribe to the service, sans a cable/satellite subscription. I don’t see a ton of value in being able to watch HBO content on my iPhone while at the gym, on a bus, in an airport, etc. and I really don’t see any value in streaming HBO GO to a device (e.g. iPad, iPhone, television, etc.) while I am in my home. If I have the cable/satellite subscription, why would I feel compelled to stream the content instead? Perhaps there is some great feature or use that I am overlooking, however, HBO GO strikes me as being valuable to a very limited set of users.

    Bottom line for me…and most people I have to believe, is that HBO GO only gets really interesting when I can subscribe to it as a stand alone service outside of a cable/satellite subscription.

  3. What is the selection like? Could you subscribe for a month or two, catch up on a couple of series and then cancel?

  4. jcm, For me, who hasn’t seen all of HBO’s original series it’s quite worthwhile and much easier than renting a disc or with an iTunes subscription… as every episode is not something available via On Demand. However, the ideal use case is watching on a TV not that iPhone. And with decent quality video. Obviously there’s a finite amount of content here but it’d take most folks a long period of time to get through it all. It’s hard to say if HBO would ever offer the service outside of a cable/sat relationship… I’d say it’s unlikely at this point. For $15 or so a month to get a premium movie channel plus mobile access with the full back catalog seems like a decent deal to me. Assuming ones subscribes to cable.

    Marte, visit http://www.hbogo.com – you can browse the catalog. As far as subscription, as long as your tv provider doesn’t lock you into a year contract or bundle it with something else you can come and go as you please.

  6. I would agree that GTV has yet to fully deliver but hbogo is one of the apps I use in conjunction with my comcast acct frequently. I have no problems with the interface and find it much easier to use than comcast’s hbo on demand channel.

  7. $15/month us reasonable unfortunately HBO costs me $20/mo which I think is a bit much. Which is why I just recently subscribed again for Game of Thrones after a long hiatus.

    Looking forward to HBO Go on my Samsung TV!

  8. “Tech of the Hub has been following these developments closely and it seems we missed news back in May indicating HBO GO is headed to “a variety of TVs, game consoles and streaming devices.”

    As my constant refrain goes: we’ll have to see what PQ it is that HBO Go delivers to lean-back.

    I continue to think it most likely that the bit-rate will be throttled below that of Netflix “good enough” HD, probably somewhere around what Hulu delivers.

    I just don’t think it makes financial sense for HBO to let their back catalog open in “good enough” HD to folks who just want to devour for a few months and then cancel.

    But we shall see…

  9. I hope this works out to be true. And that it works with my existing Samsung Blu Ray player. It also paves the way for HBO GO be offered as a streaming only channel, because why else would they offer it only to subscribers that can already watch it on their own TV, with their cable or satellite box? A TV or Blu Ray isn’t portable.

  10. @Dave on teh twits:

    “$15/month us reasonable unfortunately HBO costs me $20/mo which I think is a bit much.”

    If you are looking for a better TV show than Breaking Bad to watch, I feel compelled to mention that Boardwalk Empire is the best thing that’s been on TV in years.

    I’d cancel every other video service I had before I’d cancel HBO.

  11. I watched the first few episodes (live, even!) when the series debuted, but couldn’t get into it. Perhaps I’ll try again now that the delay between episodes has been removed.

  16. I need HBOGO to work on my PN51D7000 and the advertisement in th “Smart Hub” shows it. It even lets me get to push enter to download now, but it just redirects to the app store which does not contain an HBOGO app. BOOOOO!!!!

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