MagellanTV Documentaries Reviews

First, I want to thank the Magellan customer service rep (Nancy) for her courtesy and professionalism. A full refund was granted along with the promise of a subscription extension had the technical problem been solved.

If you are like me, away from home for a long period of time, caretaking for elderly loved ones, without Wifi, but relying exclusively on an iPhone and an excellent-performance Unlimited 4G wireless plan...then Magellan might not be for you.

You’re fine if you choose to watch everything on your iPhone screen; subtitles display if you request them. But if you attempt to Airplay (via Apple’s Lightning-to-Digital adapter and an HDMI cable), you won’t ever see subtitles. (You’re fine with Airplay if video and audio w/o subtitles meets your needs.)

It was explained that lack of subtitles using Airplay is a limitation imposed by one of Magellan’s technical partners, and there is no estimated fix time.

As I explained in an earlier review, I’ve used about two dozen iPhone streaming apps, and nearly all of them support Airplay (key exceptions being ESPN and Peacock). But Magellan is the ONLY app supporting Airplay that doesn’t support subtitles via Airplay. One might guess that Magellan’s subtitling support is something fancier than most apps, of marginal value, that cause the bigger problem encountered here.

The iOS app itself crashes when trying to watch any video, from any category. It works great on the computer, or when watching through a browser, but outside of that there is absolutely no way to watch. And good luck getting it to stream an entire episode on the TV version of MagellanTVDocumentaries , it is just as buggy with constant freezes and no resume playing function.

Outside of MagellanTVDocumentaries issues, the service is absolutely great. The documentaries are informative, and very different from the normal barrage of trash on Network and Cable TV. Some may be a bit dated, but the information is still relevant, and can usually generate a chuckle when looking back at the awful styles we wore back then. Ick.

All in all, the service itself is worth 5 stars as soon as they can fix the issues with their apps on all platforms.

MagellanTVDocumentaries is buggy. It’s constantly freezing or jumping to a different part of the video. Can’t pause/play videos through headphones. To even be able to listen to anything while your phone is locked you have to lock it, unlock it, play the video, lock it, then hit play but even that doesn’t work sometimes. MagellanTVDocumentaries needs some serious updates immediately. This is probably the most frustrated I’ve been while trying to watch any form of media. I emailed the company and was told they’re updating it but that was like a while ago and there hasn’t been a single update at all. I’d cancel my subscription but I’ve already been charged for like half a year. If you haven’t tried Magellan yet, wait for changes first. Fix MagellanTVDocumentaries.

I love the content however the streaming platform is horrible. The videos either freeze a minute in or there is no video but only sound. I’ve tried to watch videos on MagellanTVDocumentaries through my iPad, iPhone and even my smart TV and I have the same issue with freezing or just no video at all. I believe the developers of MagellanTVDocumentaries need to upgrade the functionality of MagellanTVDocumentaries or else you will lose more subscribers. Unfortunately lower priced streaming app subscriptions have much better functionality. It’s quite disappointing to not be able to watch great videos on MagellanTVDocumentaries due to a horrible streaming platform. It’s certainly not worth the price unless the developers upgrade the functionality of the streaming platform.

This service is good, not stellar and has a decent quantity of documentaries available to watch.

My chief complaint regards the controls on MagellanTVDocumentaries . There is no way to fast forward or backup the way you can in virtually all other video apps. There is no button for this, and clicking on the left or right part of the screen does nothing. The only way you can navigate within a video is to adjust the slider on the bottom, and if you only want to go back 10 seconds or so, it’s nearly impossible to do this without going back minutes.

A very annoying problem with a relatively easy solution I’d think.

I’m not sure how it is for others but on my iPhone 11 Pro Max it gets so buggy. The video stops and the audio continues. There’s no way to go ahead or back 10 seconds or anything so I keep having to close and open MagellanTVDocumentaries again and then it starts me ahead of where I was when I closed MagellanTVDocumentaries . Like it kept running on the server even though I closed MagellanTVDocumentaries . I love the content. Even though it would be nice to have all of the episodes of some of the programs but I love the content. I just can’t watch it when I can get History or You tube and it’ll work great without the stops and starts etc. And just fyi it happens on 1G fiber Wi-Fi and on verizon 5g. So it’s not a connection issue.

I love Magellan and can’t recommend it enough! But as I’m primarily using MagellanTVDocumentaries , the video playback is stuck in 2008. You can’t easily go back or skip forward 10-15 seconds as literally every other video (be it app or web browser) allows you to do. Do not expect PiP. I’m not mad about that as it very new....but those rewind and fast forward have been around for Yearly

Honestly I would have loved to have given this 5 stars but the mobile viewing experience feels like it’s in beta. Please sort this because I really love Magellan!

Magellan tv has everything for everyone. I love MagellanTVDocumentaries I have watched over 24 hours of crime and there’s still plenty I haven’t seen yet. MagellanTVDocumentaries is amazing when it comes to quality. There’s absolutely no lagging while I watched the videos MagellanTVDocumentaries is perfect for people who love mystery and learning they have something for everyone in the whole family. It’s truly great tv watching I give MagellanTVDocumentaries a 5 I’m so hooked on Magellan tv

After a little research, I thought we’d like the content.

After signing up however, we had issues — primarily on our iPad Pro.

Sent an email to support….expecting little, no or slow response and much to my surprise a real human responded and clearly was engaged.

Wishing a few days my bug was resolved.

Perhaps the finest customer support I’ve enjoyed in last 5-10 years!

And, we like the content even more than expected!

Con: app needs skip forward and back (like 15 seconds) feature….so I’ll admit still not perfect.

I was REALLY ready to love MagellanTVDocumentaries. What could be better for someone who loves to learn, than a service like this. Unfortunately, I was terribly disappointed to discover a very annoying viewing experience on iPad. MagellanTVDocumentaries developer did not hide the status bar at the top of the screen or MagellanTVDocumentaries quit bar at the bottom of the screen, when displaying full screen video. I might expect this in a ad supported app, but as an app developer myself who knows how easy this is to fix, I find this completely unacceptable in a subscription app. Please fix it, and I'll change my rating.

The content is awesome. But the streaming video content shows a black screen with audio playing and I have to either change the audio source or drag the progress slider to get it to rebuffer. Also if there is a place to go where it shows the shows you watched or are in the middle of watching I can’t find it. It didn’t save my progress of a documentary I was watching and doesn’t have picture in picture/background play like other streaming apps.

I log in using my correct username/password and MagellanTVDocumentaries just cycles me back to the login page. Yes, I’m using the correct login info. Although it will conveniently take you to the screen that gets you to start a new account and choose a plan (typical). I’ve also tried to just watch by going to the actual website and EVERY single attempt is met with “504 gateway time out.” Why am I even paying for this service? I’m going to choose a different subscription provider because this is idiotic.

Love MagellanTVDocumentaries , the only complaint is when I watch a show with multiple episodes, MagellanTVDocumentaries will not automatically switch to the next episode.

So, we pulled our kids out of public school months ago due to the inconsistent behavior of the federal government. We use Magellan TV in conjunction with their Home School curriculum and they absolutely LOVE IT! Excellent idea, very easy to use!! Well worth the money!

Great documentaries, though app frequently freezes the video, even some with downloaded version. Have to restart multiple times, and usually have to find where I left off. Would give 5 starts if fixed video play issue, and added picture-in-picture.

It would be nice if I could leave a review for the quality of the content on Magellan TV but to do that I’d have to be able to log in first. The annual subscription I bought for my father is a total waste as there is no option to log in on your smart TV—Just to cancel or buy yet another subscription. This has to be a scam or something?

Do not buy this service, especially as a gift for someone.

I’m really enjoying MagellanTVDocumentaries so far. If you’re into crime shows and drama/crime etc movies, this is MagellanTVDocumentaries for you. It’s like Netflix but with just documentaries and reality crime shows. It’s dope. I’ll be renewing my subscription next month for sure.

This is just cruel and unusual punishment. Promises of all these amazing cool documentaries to watch and not a single one will play on my tv. Video stops working 5 seconds in every single time on every single documentary. It honestly feels like a scam and I’m not even sure these documentaries are even real in the first place considering the fact that nothing will play. Severely disappointed. Would not recommend to anyone in a million years

This is an awesome documentary service which has many high quality documentaries in an easy to browse format. The ability to add programs to your watchlist, high quality streaming, excellent documentary choices, and relatively low pricing make this a top choice.

Great shows, and a lot of them. 100% worth the money, which isn’t a lot to pay for what you get.

Very difficult to watch anything. The video goes black or freezes. Sometimes videos I’ve watched in the past start playing while watching a different video and 2 audios are going at one time. It’s hard to get anything to work right when starting over. Even this review I’m typing in MagellanTVDocumentaries isn’t showing the text. Just white screen. Terrible programming.