Listener Review: DirecTV Nomad

We had asked if anyone listening to our podcast had any experience with DirecTV's Nomad device. Luckily for us Nick Horman of Wisconsin did! The following is his review:

DirecTV Nomad

Features:

• Sync your home HD DVR with up to 5 mobile devices. (You must be within your home network and connected to Wi-FI to sync your HD DVR with your mobile device).
• Set nomad™ to automatically prepare new episodes to watch on your cell phone, laptop, or tablet as soon as your HD DVR records it.
• No Internet connection is required to watch, so you can view your favorites anywhere, anytime without interruption.
• See progress of content download on your cell phone, laptop, or tablet.
• Set parental controls/locks to block content on your cell phone, laptop, or tablet and enjoy peace of mind over what your children are watching.
• Access up to 20 hours of recorded programming on your computer or mobile device at a given time.
• An external hard drive (not included) can be connected to your DIRECTV nomad for additional hours of programming.

I purchased the Nomad 2 months or so ago and overall I’m satisfied.  I also have a Slingbox and have had that for 3+ years.  The reason I added the Nomad to my TV watching arsenal was that I was picking up a new iPad for the family and we opted to go with the WIFI version of it, so when on the road the Slingbox wouldn’t give us much benefit on the iPad.  I also ride the bus to and from work most days, which is a 30 minute trip each way.  I was using the Slingbox with that, but when the bus was around downtown Milwaukee Wisconsin, the AT&T network and my iPhone just didn’t give me consistent enough signal to stream without encountering several choppy scenes.

So the Nomad allows me to transfer recordings from my DVR to my iPhone, iPad, or laptop and store the recording on the mobile device itself.  Setup was simple, I already had my DirecTV DVR connected to the internet, so I just plugged the Nomad into power, and connected an ethernet cable and hooked that into my switch.  I downloaded and installed the Nomad app for my iPhone and started the registration process.  I encountered an issue where the Nomad would not detect an internet connection, but after I changed it from being plugged into my switch to going to my router it connected fine.  I’m not sure why there would be any difference, since both were behind my router/firewall – but since it worked I didn’t worry about it after.

As for the apps, I really only have used it on my phone and iPad, and I am disappointed that they don’t have an app designed specifically for the iPad yet, but you can run the iPhone app on the iPad, and just have it stretch to fill the screen.  DirecTV says they are in the process of creating an iPad version, which will be nice as I’m sure the picture quality will be better having it made specifically for the larger iPad screen.

To transfer a recording to your mobile device you have to be in your home network and open the Nomad app.  It then shows you a listing of all the recordings that are on your DVR.  You can select one or many and it will queue them up.  The first step is it “prepares” the recording which basically transfers it to the physical Nomad box you connected to your network as well as encodes/compresses it for your mobile device.  This process takes a little longer than the show you are transferring, so for an hour long show it takes around an hour.  Once you have started this process you do not need the app to be running and you no longer have to stay in your home network.  You can also setup shows to auto-transfer so as soon as they get recorded on the DVR it will start “preparing” it and transferring it to the Nomad with no manual intervention, and without having to be home.

Then once the recording is on the Nomad device, when you open the app again and are back on your home network it will inform you that there are downloads pending.   You can start the download and from there it typically takes 5 minutes to transfer an hour long show from the Nomad to your mobile device.  Once it is stored on your device it will keep it there for up to 30 days at which time it expires or if you are done with it before then you can manually delete it.

As for playback, you can do this at anytime with or without a data connection and not having to be on your home network.  When you open the app and aren’t on your home network it will tell you it can’t connect to your DVR but you can get the listing of what shows are stored locally and select one and either play or delete it.  Playback is very smooth, and the picture quality is excellent (on an iPhone 4 using the iPhone app).  The picture quality is good watching on the new iPad using the iPhone app.  I’m hopeful it will be excellent on the iPad once they come out with the iPad specific app.

Fast forwarding and rewinding is easy, and just like when you watch a video on your iOS device.  You have a slider bar timeline and can slide it anywhere on that timeline.  That does make precision timeline movements a bit more difficult especially for longer shows, but the more you use it the easier it gets.

I would recommend this device to someone who wants to watch a lot of recorded shows on their mobile device and does not have wireless data, has spotty coverage, or does not have an unlimited data plan.  It is cheaper than the Slingbox, provides better picture quality, and the app for the mobile devices is free.  The benefits of the Slingbox is the ability to watch live TV as well as not having to plan ahead and make sure to transfer whatever you want to watch.  Granted the cost of both is fairly expensive, but when you pair the Nomad with the Slingbox it really gives the ability to watch whatever, whenever, and wherever.