PlayOn Cloud
Has anyone used PlayOn Cloud? According to their site, it's "The mobile app that lets you record and download streaming shows and movies to watch offline."
Forum Discussion
Got the app on my android phone and I am using the free credit to download a 20 minute TV show from Netflix. Echostar 17, Gen5 10GB, 2.4GHz (down the hall from it) for reference. Downloading in SD format. Will see how it goes on the first device then try to watch it on other devices.
Amanda wrote:Got the app on my android phone and I am using the free credit to download a 20 minute TV show from Netflix. Echostar 17, Gen5 10GB, 2.4GHz (down the hall from it) for reference. Downloading in SD format. Will see how it goes on the first device then try to watch it on other devices.
Is fun to play and test something so I took the plunge also and here are my results so far.
1. It does work. I recorded an episode of Travelers on Netflix about 49 minutes in length.
2. Then downloaded to my phone. Can set to automatically download or set schedule in settings which is beta so don't know how that works yet.
3. It takes about the same length to record on the cloud as to watch the video, so my 49 minute video took a bit over that to record and do whatever it does on their side.
4. Nice thing is you can set everything to record during the day while you're awake and won't download until you do it manually or what you have set in the schedule. So user does have control when they actually use the data to download it. But the recording sits there in the cloud for 7 days to do so, unless you also buy a cloud package.
So kind of up to the folks here if it is worth it to them sign up for the service. Is pretty neat IMO. Do need to realize when it is downloaded it is going to use the data just like normal so the higher definition used the higher the download amount. Someone who goes crazy with HD download during Bonus time is going to burn that data up fairly quickly. Also download speed during Bonus time goes up and down depending who is doing what and when just like the daytime. If lots of folks start using this service and download during Bonus time it could have a large impact on speed depending how many are doing it on a particular beam/gateway.
Amanda will probably have something to add.
So it uses data to DL (which of course makes sense) but not to play, right?
BirdDog wrote:Is fun to play and test something so I took the plunge also and here are my results so far.
1. It does work. I recorded an episode of Travelers on Netflix about 49 minutes in length.
2. Then downloaded to my phone. Can set to automatically download or set schedule in settings which is beta so don't know how that works yet.
3. It takes about the same length to record on the cloud as to watch the video, so my 49 minute video took a bit over that to record and do whatever it does on their side.
4. Nice thing is you can set everything to record during the day while you're awake and won't download until you do it manually or what you have set in the schedule. So user does have control when they actually use the data to download it. But the recording sits there in the cloud for 7 days to do so, unless you also buy a cloud package.
So kind of up to the folks here if it is worth it to them sign up for the service. Is pretty neat IMO. Do need to realize when it is downloaded it is going to use the data just like normal so the higher definition used the higher the download amount. Someone who goes crazy with HD download during Bonus time is going to burn that data up fairly quickly. Also download speed during Bonus time goes up and down depending who is doing what and when just like the daytime. If lots of folks start using this service and download during Bonus time it could have a large impact on speed depending how many are doing it on a particular beam/gateway.
Amanda will probably have something to add.
Awesome, Amanda. Do report back-- if it works well, it may be a nice thing for people to have if they want to stream without buffering. It doesn't sound expensive at all, either. I understand it's something like 40 cents a download.
Amanda wrote:
Got the app on my android phone and I am using the free credit to download a 20 minute TV show from Netflix. Echostar 17, Gen5 10GB, 2.4GHz (down the hall from it) for reference. Downloading in SD format. Will see how it goes on the first device then try to watch it on other devices.
Hi- sorry I got caught up in other stuff :)
The download finished at 1:15 PM EST - that's about 20 minutes to download a 20 minute show in SD....Actually, scratch that. This is what it does
"watches" the show for you (they call it recording)
After it is done recording, a notification appears telling you that your video is ready to download
You get a download and a separate play button - hitting play seems to stream the video all over again.
Downloading it then prompts another process of actually putting the recording on your device. In this case, I had to download a 211MB video file.
Checking my usage now, I am missing 400MB of Anytime. Might be a fluke but I am interested to see how much data BirdDog ended up using in the end. Anyway, the video plays smooth after downloading it to my phone.
edit: Want to also point out that since I'm logged into my phone w/ my Google account, Google tried to automatically "back up" the video file to my Photos (Drive). That would have been a 200MB Upload :O
I don't use it but there has been lengthy discussion on the "other guys" site about it. Seems it does work and they now let you schedule the time, have to be careful how you watch as it could actually double your data amount (or more) if watching from multiple devices.
https://community.viasat.com/viasat/topics/playon-cloud
https://community.viasat.com/viasat/topics/using-play-on-to-record
Yep, Other Guys is where I learned about it. I thought that after downloading something, you could watch it offline, not using any more data, so thought it might be useful for those "but I can't streaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam" users. They could download during bonus time and watch at any other time. Edit: Since it seems to work for people using Other Guys (whose plans have lower speeds), I was wondering if anyone using HN had used it and if it worked for them.
I don't see a place to ask this question, but maybe someone would be kind enough to answer without complaining. Years ago we had HughesNet and it was possible to download a movie to the tv during the "free" hours (you could even schedule it) and then wacth it later. Is that still possible?
The great thing about PlayOn Cloud is that there is no buffering when watching it, as you download the file and watch it, not the stream. I've been contemplating getting this so I can stream things to the cloud using their mobile app, then download them to my laptop and play them on my TV via HDMI cable. And again, no buffering!
It would be a great way to take full advantage of the Bonus Zone data.
GabeU wrote:The great thing about PlayOn Cloud is that there is no buffering when watching it, as you download the file and watch it, not the stream. I've been contemplating getting this so I can stream things to the cloud using their mobile app, then download them to my laptop and play them on my TV via HDMI cable. And again, no buffering!
It would be a great way to take full advantage of the Bonus Zone data.
I have an Android 6.01 phone that casts perfectly to my smart TV without using anything like Chromecast. In fact it is not even the phone I use for calls, doesn't have a SIM card in it, so is like a media playing device right now. The video I downloaded today from PlayOn played perfectly so this is sweet to have a real option to record/download one or two Netflix shows during Bonus time. Not to mention some of the other providers they support. I still have 4 records in the bank with PlayOn to use when I want.
Thanks maratsade for bringing this up. I think I glanced at the service quite some time back but never really delved into it. Glad you made me look at it again.
