PBS: Watch TV & Documentaries Reviews

by TeX King

PBS doesn't seem to let me watching TV from my cable subscription. It requires membership with requires a payment. This is rather greedy. Many other app, like CNN and CNBC, let me watch TV programs using my cable subscription.

Even if we Ignore cable subscription, the "Public Broadcasting Service" is supposed to serve those who do not have money to pay for TV service. With the requirement of paid membership, the this app does not serve those who do not have money. This is not public service. The name of this app is now meaning "Premium Broadcasting Service."

At times I was thinking of donating money to this app, but I held back because I realized that my donation serves only those who are rich enough to pay for this app membership. The donation will never benefit those poor kids. I am happy to donate to help the poor. But, what's the point to donate to help the rich?

by Hzwyfee1

Like most comments I did not think if I had PBS I would have to PAY to view the programs I love. I “MET” Ken Burns via this app. I MET Andrea Bocelli there also and countless ballers and plays and wonderful documentaries galore. I had access to this app when I had no cable. It USED TO BE wonderful. I was hoping to be able to have the same experience through PBS. I get it, they need money too but um, I’VE SEEN THE NAMES of the WEALTHY PATRONS scrolling by before and after some of the programs. WHY put the pinch on the average citizen trying to watch? Especially NOW. Most of America thanks to some overzealous governors and mayors have ruined the economy and most of America is out of work. I work at the Welfare office [from home now] and the amount of applications has quadrupled! People are broke PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATION! Why not give the PUBLIC a break and allow access for FREE and have fundraisers line you were doing via television access. Quarterly or whatever it was.
I used to give during the fundraising because I love so many of the shows. Oh well, so long.

by Parisbelle99

I get it’s public television, but don’t offer the service when it’s full of bugs that never get fixed and it’s not operational! Then when u “submit ticket” it NEVER gets fixed...EVER. I love this app & this has great potential if it was supported.
I don’t know if others are having issues watching on TV too, but besides constant crashes, you cannot access past seasons even when they show as available, just get spinning white circle. Only the “current” season that’s one season behind, and for some shows, that’s just 3-4 episodes that are often story arcs from past seasons so that’s out, too. It’s NOT WHAT THEY ADVERTISE SO BE PREPARED.
I never write reviews but this is so shockingly bad, I wanted to set expectations. Your $5 “donation” is just that. It certainly doesn’t get you a working, stable, supported streaming service!

by Spsulli

It’s this app, it’s an American classic. Unfortunately if you want to stream it PBS is infuriating. The chromecast support is terrible, it fails to cast 50% of the time, never remembers where you left off and god forbid you want to rewind EVER. Once streaming you have no control over the video as it always reads as 00:00. The most insulting part is that even when you donate to this app as a passport member you are still forced to watch an ad every time you stream. (The most insulting part being that the ad ALWAYS loads even when the episode fails. So you watch a whole ad just for it to finish and just stream the this app logo.) Best solution I have found so far is disconnecting from chromecast go to the episode and spot you want on your phone, then reconnect, still only works about 70% of the time but still better.

by Cabster Bee

I love this app and all most of their shows so I downloaded PBS thinking I would have access to the many programs. Wrong, you have to pay for a passport membership, not so public access of them. I was really excited at first, but I got over the initial disappointment when i did some frustrating time consuming research and found it only to be $5 a month. I didn’t think that too much after i got over the “too good to be true” high, and figured it was worth it considering. So this whole process drug out and I finally got the account set up. Well even bigger disappointment to find nothing I wanted so badly to watch was no available. Only clips. I thought this app was above to whole nickel and dime rat race of the world today. Bait and switch totally. I was such a big fan of this app all my life, but this second I feel duped.

by 1Maura1

Download to watch the free shows offered, get bombarded with gimme money ads. Every couple minutes those ads break into whatever you are watching. After a while ( if I remember correctly) about a month, you can’t access anything Unless you donate money. Free becomes pay or else. I didn’t, I removed PBS instead. Being harassed to donate is not my idea of enjoyable viewing. I removed PBS , went straight to my consumer blogs and warned people off.
If PBS was like the tv channel had been, a monthly fund-raising drive, it would’ve been much better, but not as it is now. Makes the this app station seem desperate and greedy.
If I could give Zero stars I would. Not worth the bother to get. Go to CW Seed for good, free viewing, don’t get PBS, it’s useless unless you want to pay out every month for what they claim is free.

by D. Poole

If you attempt a short rewind to get something you missed,, knowing how far back you’ve gone involves reading two tiny timestamps on screen, stopping at the desired point, resuming play, then waiting a variable and lengthy number of seconds for the navigation bar, program name, and overall length to clear and the screen to brighten. Unless you go way back, by the time that has happened, you’ve often missed what you wanted to repeat.

Those who designed and now maintain PBS apparently have never themselves even tried to use it. It’s sad, this app, given the availability of non-this app streaming apps that navigate easily and that this app users pay a Passport “donation” to gain access.

by KingJunkie

I love this app, I grew up on it and it is still one of my favorite channels to watch. That is why I was excited to use PBS so that I can catch up anytime with current shows and revisit favorites from the past. There are a few things that I find irritating, however.

1) No auto play option. So, for each episode of a series, you need to pull up the episode and go through the steps to get it to play.
2) No recollection of what had already been watched. If you have to stop in the middle of something, when you go back to watch it, it will play from the start.
3) There have been issues with casting from PBS to a device that basically render you unable to watch on your tv; these issues have been slow to be fixed.
4) I understand that content needs to leave at times. However, when one says that something is available to 8/16, it should be available throughout 8/16. I’m now left with only one episode of a series left that is no longer available. Had PBS not had as many issues as it has lately, I probably would have finished.

by AmandaRabbit

My biggest frustration is that PBS doesn’t start playing the video I’ve selected, being though I’m a subscriber. It seems to just freeze. I haven’t yet figured out what the problem is, but I will most often get a black screen with nothing playing after I select the show I want to watch. Some it will then go to a 30 second ad and sometime it’s just frozen with black screen.

The second biggest frustration is that if I pause an episode, I can’t easily find where I left off. Unfortunately PBS doesn’t remember where I stopped the video. There’s a rewind-10-second button but not any kind of fast forward.

by Wheeill

I love PBS and want more than anything to see this app gain more momentum without falling into the capitalist trap of conforming to viewership views to bring in dollars. I’m not sure how that can be done while also enriching the access experience.

What I mean is, I would love to simply sign up through PBS and pay for it monthly but not dramatically effect the way that this app is able to sustain. The advantage of the pay model is that the content could potentially increase in quality and in quantity but there is a lot more to maintaining public television than simply scuttling funds toward content and so my thought is either allow users to select a monthly contribution of their choice or I’d even be willing to pay as much as $20 a month.

I don’t know what the best solution is. All I know is that as of today, accessing additional content can be cumbersome and confusing and because there is no way to upgrade through PBS nor manage your account you can end up with multiple accounts or funding going to the wrong networks. I ended up sending donations to the network out of Pennsylvanian rather than my local network and then had to reach out to them to directly to cancel my donations.

If PBS could become the primary place to manage funding, accounts and networks to reduce the complexity I’d be more than grateful.

Also, please take advantage of being able to migrate existing accounts to Login with Apple.

by SRMH

Masterpiece Theater has been a major part of my life since it’s early days in the 1970’s❤️ It is always a joy and a comfort to slip into an ongoing story, and live through it with all the special characters. I have never been disappointed, and I really have looked forward to this new season of All Creatures Great and Small. Even though I grew up in an American Suburb, I love to see these beautiful stories of country life in Great Britain. Thank you for making my week with this lovely show😊

by Sarahs2cents

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a drastic change from one version of an app to another. PBS went from being mostly inaccessible to possibly completely accessible. I haven’t tried every feature yet, but now I can look at shows, I can choose categories of shows I don’t think I have seen any unlabeled buttons. Much much better for those of us who use voiceover! Thanks for the update.

by Kiddo Peptides Ilddodoodcjod

Emmett Till was murdered 10 years before I was born. Our government did not give justice to this death. On January 6, 2021 we are still paying the price of ignoring racism. White Supremus raise their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren to Hate. The people that stormed our capital are the same people that are happy that Emmett Till was murdered. Thank you for sharing the truth. I know this Hate because my cousin stormed the capital. He now brags about how nothing was done to him. He went to court but only got 20 days that he can serve on the weekends. He was in Nancy Pelosi‘s‘s office, he videotaped it and put it on social media and no one cares. I am hated by that part of my family and they refused to speak to me because I said to my cousin you are a traitor of the United States! This show has helped me to have a strong resolve and I will not ignore this hate!! There must be justice given or it will continue to the next generation!!!

by 2_stars

Logging in and out is painful, but the only way to update the watch list? Watch history isn’t intuitive, and often restarts an episode rather than resuming where you left off. Also - paying for passport, but still have ads at the beginning of episodes that cannot be skipped, and replay when resuming episodes - if you can resume. No option to jump forward during episodes, just backward. I love the content but the interface is rotten.

by D's Angel

I love this app and don’t want to know what life would be like without it. Yes, Passport has a fee, but so does Netflix, etc. Plus, the programs are top quality without annoying commercials every 5 minutes. For 5$ a month you can immerse yourself in classic films, amazing wildlife programs, original dramas written by brilliant playwrights and superbly acted with highly talented performers. Not to forget the many wonderful musical concerts from many venues. Splurge once and explore the wonder of quality television.
Many of these programs are presented free of charge during regular programming. However, if you miss it or would like to watch again, your Passport membership takes you there...more.

by On The Road Gal

I have been a sustaining member of this app for decades. We were inspired to build our own home by watching This Old House. We raised our son through watching this app of the 80’s.

After 911, I was inspired to return to Graduate School at the age of 55 after a loss of long-term employment in the airline industry. I earned my MAT in Teaching and my LBS with honors and began my 11-year favorite career teaching amazing special needs students. My heroes.

Now in retirement, I am enjoying my Grandchildren continuing the circle of lifelong education through the ever improving learning choices that this app creates. Thank You for the excellence you have given my family and the world.

by Ms Emmy Rose

I absolutely love this program series! It is wonderfully written. The stories are so rich in content. The actors portray their characters so wonderfully with true character and spirit. It is a pleasure to watch and to feel all the fantastic variety of emotions that are evoked through the acting and the story. I look so forward to every segment each week. I wish it could go on and on without a wait for another season. It has become a real part of my life. I love to rewatch the segments and to laugh and cry all over and over again enjoying this great programming and to take in the beauty of the English countryside and structures. It is very artistically done. In the words and added vocal expression of Mrs Hall … Audrey, “Well done!”

by Sifta7

I liked PBS , and it is nice to watch the shows on demand rather than on the station schedule.

After reading some of the comments of those disappointed about the premium content (which I don’t pay for), I think they have a point. Streaming doesn’t have the same costs as broadcast — it’s more expensive at scale since they have to pay for every stream and not just a fixed cost of transmission.

But I don’t think that having a tiered haves-vs-have-nots model is a good idea. Maybe they should have campaigns to unlock free content for everyone — like a kickstarter. I think there may be a lot of creative ways instead of following the same big tech and for profit models and we need public interest media to rethink this.

by JackieJ.

Update: I received a nice reply from the this app Video Team although they were unable to help without more information from me. In the meantime, however, I am no longer experiencing the glitch. Not sure what happened, but it’s all good now.

I really enjoy most of the this app programming and I’m happy to be a Passport member. I use my Apple TV to watch. However, there have been a couple of times recently when I’m watching a program and another program’s audio starts running in the background simultaneously with the audio of the program I’m watching. The only way I’m able to get rid of the second audio is to delete and reinstall PBS . That’s not a reasonable process because it’s too cumbersome. A quick search of their support issues did not find a different solution. I hope they fix this bug soon!

by Pamas.

I’m an unashamed Jane Austen addict and devoured Sanditon’s Season One, gladly suspending any disbelief I had regarding the characters and plot as it unfolded. My biggest frustration was not being able to catch a bit during waits in stores and doctors’ offices. I’m grateful to a friend who told me that she was watching Season Two on her phone with PBS ! Now I can grab a few minutes or an entire episode whenever possible, and I’ll binge watch Season Three when it drops. The graphics are clear and the controls are intuitive, so it’s easy to use and the content is great. I love PBS!

by Jpsl3

I used to love PBS but some recent update seems to have broken it. Now every time I pause a program mid play it doesn’t remember where I paused it. Then I am forced to watch a stupid ad for 30 seconds even though I am a subscriber. And the ad is usually for the this app App which I have already downloaded (obviously since I am watching on it) so it is so stupid to show that.

Your app used to work properly and remember my pause points. Please fix it. It would be great if that even worked across devices but I would settle for it working on even one device.

by Waiting To Lose

So I’m paying for access to this app shows but there are missing seasons and missing episodes to many many of the shows on here! Also, everytime I leave the this app app it cancels everything out so when I go back in I have to go through a bunch of crap to find the show/episode I want and it doesn’t have playback which means I have to watch an ad every single time and then I have to fast forward to find the spot in the show I was at. It’s so freaking annoying! I’d recommend finding some alternative way to watch your favorite shows until they can fix this😡

by Left Coasting

For me, the most frustrating issue (of MANY frustrating problems) is the failure to allow one to pause/stop a viewing midway and return to the same scene later. That’s ridiculous.
this app is clearly NOT devoting enough resources to this Application, despite constantly pushing with their Passport sales pitch. But I suspect that senior management says internally to the IT / Web team not to worry: “Our audience members are wimps, and mostly aging boomers. They won’t complain, and they have nowhere else to go.”
For $60+ a year, we deserve a state-of-the-art App! I’m sure the tiny App team is working as hard as they: this is a management gap! Maybe senior management salaries could be garnished to repair PBS.

by OneBuddah

Would like to again enjoy other apps on iPad Pro while watching this app videos as before. Since September 2019 update for iPads this isn’t working. I’ve deleted and reinstalled PBS and it’s still not working properly! And why does PBS not pick up where I left off in a video, like Netflix for example. I go from device to device while traveling, so this would be VERY CONVENIENT and less time consuming. Thank you for such great entertainment, worth the $5 per month donations.

by Turtlebutt2

PBS is good when it works, though I agree with another reviewer that it should allow you to pick up where you left off in a show instead of restarting. My biggest complaint is that it crashes constantly...or just doesn’t play the show I select. I get a black screen and have to restart several times. Going through a browser is a more reliable way to get content but defeats the purpose of PBS . You can do better this app!

by Grandmadebi3

This is a good app when it’s working. It is less flexible than I would like. If I forget to turn the brightness up before I start a video, then do so, I am booted out of the video and made to watch an ad before I can get back in. Why am I watching ads when I am a paid member of this app? Now this evening, after repeated efforts, the only thing it will show me is ads. An ad plays, then stops with the last frame of the ad filling my screen. Any effort I make to move on from there results in more ads, which always stall at the end.

by Lovebirdphoto

I understand the need for marketing and the need for sponsors. But the commercials won’t play through. They are 23 second commercials played before each episode that skip, pause, jump, and cause shows/app on both TV and devices to shut down. Whhhhhy?!? Fix the commercial problem-I don’t mind seeing them. Just fix them!. Also, I can’t see the new episodes on my iPhone. I have downloaded the new version, too.

by MrM3000

The content? What can be said... It is possibly the last place in America to get quality content that’s far more substance than flash.

But unfortunately the best content can’t save PBS from it’s sorry and poor quality problem.

As others have mentioned, it suffers from amateurish problems like a never ending spinning icon in the middle of the screen that won’t go away if you dare fast forward or rewind. It won’t remember your last position if you have to stop the video to resume later. The clock, wifi, and other status indicators at the top of the screen remain visible in full screen.

On the positive side, a weird bug with Chromecast has been fixed and PBS is a bit more polished. I hope they continue with more improvements in future versions to enjoy the top notch content better.

by Bgaffe

this app is my favorite channel. I would much rather donate to this app and get this app streaming than pay for any other streaming service. I don’t have any major issues with PBS , except one thing.

The watch list display used to include the expiration date, but not anymore. Without having the expiration date displayed, I am missing out on viewing several things in my watch list because they expired, unbeknownst to me. Developers, PLEASE return the expiration date to the watch list display. Then I could give PBS 5 stars.

by WKJonesy

My overall user experience was awesome. Very easy sign in, at least as a Passport member. Efficient access to content - quality search engine results. My only suggestion to the this app site design team is to provide a simple option for a user, once they are in PBS , to provide feedback. Based on my experience, the vast majority would be positive. Keep up the good work! :)