HISTORY: Shows & Documentaries Reviews

by 1TrinityJITiU

HISTORY is awful. I stream a lot and this is the only app that can never make it through an episode without buffering to no end so I have to stop and get back in, then it’s near impossible to get back to the place you were at—so you have to watch a ton of commercials AGAIN to get back to where you were. It will also freeze for no reason and then the same thing again—-commercials until you can get back to where you were. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 tries to get back in to watch the show, it’s very frustrating and I often just abandon watching whatever I was watching. What’s the point of ‘signing in’ when shows are not saved and HISTORY does not show what I have watched? No, it is not my ISP. This is a very buggy app. Wait until it’s fixed to download. Why don’t you take a hint from other apps that do this quite well—Netflix comes to mind.

by Wildzapper77

HISTORY could be great but it really is unwatchable because of the advertisements and commercials. It’s one thing to have too many ads but it’s another for the ads to literally strangle out the shows. I have done testing and I have discovered that the this app shows draw little in data compared to most Which does tend to affect video quality but the ads seem to only play in very high and clear quality. So the data is nearly double or quite often extremely high compared to the shows so they tend to freeze a lot more often. Most of the time they don’t even resume playing again so you have to restart the whole app and hope that you don’t get the same commercial that froze it last time. The Google AdSense ads are even worse because they never play straight through because they’re trying to draw so much data at once that it just freezes. I have even tried this on Wi-Fi gigabit speed‘s and it still freezes and will not continue to play. All of the ads and commercials have made HISTORY unbearable and unwatchable. Until they resolve this issue it is not recommended that you waste your time and effort and dad are just forward to keep freezing.

by Lzrnoodle

In theory, HISTORY is simple, watch this app Channel content on Apple TV. In practice it borders on unusable. Video streams repeatedly glitch out and repeat the last few seconds, after which the audio completely loses sync. To fix it you need to stop the stream, exit HISTORY , go back to the stream, exit the stream to the episode menu and then restart the stream. I’m exhausted just typing all that. Now imagine having to do that it every. few. minutes.

If that were not bad enough, once the video starts you call look forward to 8 or 9 ads in a row, you guessed it — every. few. minutes.

Often it’s the same ad, 9 times in a row. If the goal is to make me hate a product and the this app Channel brand, then mission accomplished.

Recently they added a NEW ad feature. Now they completely pause the program to ask me if I want an “interactive ad” instead of the 9 usual ads. If I say yes another ad runs, then makes me hit play again. After which I still see, you guessed it, ANOTHER ad. So to recap, now I have to constantly use the remote just to get through an endless stream of ads in the hopes of catching a couple minutes of a show here and there.

It’s ridiculous and unwatchable.

by Iluvtofumt

The this app channel streaming app for Apple TV is the worst network television streaming app ever and has been for several years. All of the issues others have listed are true, and still occurring after years of complaints. Let’s take my experience tonight as an example. I thought I would try to catch up on Forged in Fire. I think I was four episodes behind. During each of those episodes, when the show reaches a commercial break HISTORY either simply crashes, or better yet, skips over the whole section of the show and goes into the next commercial break. These issues didn’t happen occasionally, they happen at every commercial break. This isn’t the first time I encounter these issues. I only have enough patience to use HISTORY maybe once a month. Every time I use HISTORY these issues reoccur. Luckily for you, I have the solution. Fire everyone involved in app development, everyone from upper management to ground level developers and testers, and start from scratch. With how long HISTORY has been so horrible it’s obvious no one cares to give their customers a quality experience. And if I’m lucky I’ll get a reply to this review with their canned response to email them for assistance. Tell me this, how is your support going to fix this for one user, why not actually produce a quality product for all of your users.

by Mish Jean

I downloaded HISTORY onto my Apple TV when I started to watch a this app Channel original series. Though I was excited to watch this series I became a fan of on this app, the headaches began as I started to watch. Frequently, and multiple times per episode, audio will desync from the video. This only way to fix this issue is to back out of the episode and then to restart it, resuming where I left off.
What makes it worse, is that HISTORY does not keep track of where you last were watching, constantly hopping between seasons OR episodes within a season. This means having to search around to find the right episode.
Worse yet. At times, after the episode is restarted to fix the audio, the video will change it’s ratio to a 4:3 with a large big black box off the right 1/3 part of the screen. To fix that, again, I have to stop the episode again, deal with the issues mentioned in the previous paragraph, and hope and prey to some deity that it will work when I restart it again.
Overall, I’m greatly disappointed by an app that has been released by such a large organization like the this app Channel. I would come to hope to find something that works a lot better for a channel this large.

by CaptShaun

Where do I begin? This is the first app I have ever given less than 5 stars. The this app App has it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good part is that I can watch the shows I love anytime I want anywhere I want. The bad news is that sometimes HISTORY is glitchy and I have to restart my Apple TV to get it to work properly. The ugliest piece of the puzzle is the exhausting amount of ads as of late. I was completely OK with 3 (often repetitious) ads during each break, but now it has doubled to 6 (often repetitious) ads during the 5 breaks on a 40 min show. After reading recent reviews, I find most customers are feeling the same way I do. However, I do not believe this app knows or cares what the viewers want. If HISTORY continues down this path, then I fear that soon it will finally live up to its name and become this app!

by Fjddjrd

I really like that the this app channel has decided to join the streaming service community. They have a great variety of pretty much all the shows you see on the this app channel through a TV service provider.

However, i’m a bit disappointed that you have to have a TV Service provider in order to get any access above the very few select episodes they offer for free. I wish they would follow suit to the other streaming services and offer a monthy, tri-monthy, 1/2 year, or a year’s subscription plan at some rate for those that do not have a TV service provider, but would like access to these shows.

With the vast array of streaming services becoming more and more available, I believe it is only a matter of time before streaming services completely take over from TV service provider’s. My family is finding that it is much cheaper to pay for the tailored channels and streaming services we like, often at a much cheaper rate than tv service providers. For that reason, we are trying to do away with our own tv service provider. But the fact that this app Live requires you to have a Tv service provider does not make that option readily available to those following this path, or simply unable to have tv service. I believe the this app channel would be able to profit much more and attract a greater audience if they offered membership rates (monthly, 3-months, 6-months, 1 year) in addition to the free option already available if you have a tv service provider.

by Hclip1976

I love the this app channel and the content they provide, American Pickers is probably my favorite show. But at least 5-10 times an episode of whichever show I’m watching the audio goes out of sync with the picture. I have to menu click out of the episode, then resume the same episode and it seems to work for a couple minutes then goes out of sync again. This is on tvOS, I don’t encounter this problem on iPadOS. I’m at a point of not using the Apple TV app anymore because of this. Also, holly smokes are there a lot of commercials! And they repeat over and over, if you’re bing watching get ready to see the same 5-10 commercials 50 plus times. Sometimes they will play the same one 4-5 times in a row!

by Deliberate Living

This review is for the tvOS app. No complaints about the shows on this app Channel. In the tvOS app they look and sound fine. But the UX in HISTORY is rough and riddled with bugs.
1. Constantly repeats the same show segments after an ad. I suspect this is triggered by the ad insertion system as it only seems to happen after fast forwarding through a show segment (which typically triggers a commercial). This happens a LOT!
2. So many commercials. It is almost unbearable to see the same commercial this many times. Forcing viewers to sit through the same commercial 15 times during an episode is bad business. Binge watching? I hope you’re ok watching a commercial a hundred times or more.
3. Mediocre navigating. I have to work harder than I’d expect to find what I want to watch in HISTORY.
4. I have to log in / activate every other time I launch the tvOS app. Super annoying and time consuming. Multiple AppleTV’s have the same issue.
5. TvOS app doesn’t always remember what episodes I’ve watched so I’m constantly guessing which episode was last viewed. Add to this the issues above with fast forwarding and I’ve spent longer trying to get to the last 5 minutes of an episode than the length of the episode itself.

I’m still using HISTORY to binge some of my favorite shows but the bugs and UX issues make it a lot more difficult than it should be.

by Mdigginit

I use HISTORY on my Apple TV and it glitches on every single episode. When this app Channel app first came out, I watched all the time because I could stream all my favorite shows WITHOUT COMMERCIALS. Now, commercials are integrated into everything and I’d rather pay more to not have them than be inundated with crap that I don’t want or need and doesn’t even pertain to this app. The commercials are probably why it glitches so much now. I have to stop and reload the episode to fix the sound/video glitches and even force closes HISTORY to make it run at all.
Now, HISTORY on my phone runs much better, but there’s no pop-out option for the video, so I can’t multitask on my phone.
Please get rid of commercials and fix the glitches. I’d rather not watch tv than have to interact with commercials or do so much to get the episodes to play.
Sincerely,
Frustrated

by Andrewthekid

I have HISTORY on my Apple TV to watch this app Channel shows. HISTORY will freeze and you will have to either back out of the program and try to start it again or sometimes you won’t get the chance to try that because HISTORY will close itself completely. There are a lot of commercials, they offer ‘interactive’ commercials where you only watch a single commercial but you have to interact with it to close it. Problem is that after interacting with the commercial it will still show you more commercials anyway. All that is nothing compared to the audio constantly coming out of sync with the video. The audio will glitch and jump backward 15-20 seconds, but the video keeps going. The only way to fix it is to back out of the program and go back in. It will happen over and over again in a single episode. Sometimes every 3-5 minutes. I like the content on HISTORY . But they need to fix the bugs.

by T REDS

I absolutely love watching the ALONE series. I have watched it since day one and I’m never disappointed in the show. This season however the number of commercials is annoying. They continually remind you of the other few series they have, which I understand but it is so repetitive that it is painful. At least maybe make the commercials survival or show relevant somehow. Or tap a couple outdoor sponsors since most folks watching this would be folks who likely purchase from such retailers and have less commercials. Please, please keep doing this show and don't change anything about it! Just a few less commercial breaks would be awesome.

by 2lten

Wishing I could see this without paying because my income is to low for such things. Have no cable at all. The antenna doesn’t get you hardly anything at all. What you do get is just terrible. Can’t believe they would dumb us down this way or at all. We are being influenced by what we see n hear and if you can’t or won’t see n hear you won’t learn anything at all. Our world is based on knowledge and learning for process. How are we to better ourselves without the proper information. Love this channel and miss it dearly. Just found HISTORY and I’m watching what there is free. Thank you for that much. It’s nice and wish it were free for all of it. Commercials are to much to long. Please be considerate about this.

by Libertylovr

Love the this app channel, hate commercials taking up so much time! Vikings is my fave, can’t get enough, but you see 2 maybe 3 scenes and then boom! you’re bombarded with umpteen commercials! Give us a break! More show, less commercials. It would also be nice to see more historical period pieces like Vikings, as there are many of us who love love love ancient this app. Not a big fan of the re-enactment shows though.
The this app app is great, but there is a lot of black screen and once again, those horrid commercials! When something is first run on TV, advertisers are getting their commercials on at that time. Why do we have to endure the same thing online? There should not be commercials on any shows that are viewed online. It’s advertiser greed.
Libertylovr

by TabbiWytch

But many years later, I’m very interested in this app, especially of our origins. I’m a huge Ancient Alien fan now and I’ve been trying to catch up on all the episodes that I’ve missed, but sadly they’re not all there. I’m not sure why the this app Channel app would skip some of the episodes in a given season. It’s ok, Discovery+ has them, tho they only have up to season 8. Also, why can’t I watch things on my smart tv? There’s no symbol there to click on so I can change it. Please fix this. You’ll have one happy this app customer and I’ll change my rating. Thx!

by Tltusa

Capturing this app and preserving it for the next generations is what it is all about. If only I had such a TV series like this when I was a young boy I believe I would be standing next to Rick and Marty. My admiration of such conviction is what drives my anticipation for the next episode. I wish our younger generation would have an educational system which would instill such a drive and determination. This series is a credit to the success of the this app channel. Trying to solve mysteries and uncovering artifacts is what dreams are all about. Without dreams and aspirations man does not move forward. Keep the struggle for mankind moving forward through the Oak Island and other Templar related series. Keep the legends and intrigue burning dreams into our minds. I am looking forward to winning the sweepstakes!

by Alabama Man 66

This show is watch by country boys and hunters , out door people. I think you need to make sure the contestants have the skills that allows us to learn from . The woman that left because of the hook in her had was a shame all county boys have took a hook out of their hand it’s a simple thing to do . When she lashed the knife to her arm let us know she’s miles behind the average country boy in skills . I won’t to see people that don’t just survive but thrive in the woods . They still lack the knowledge to use the fish to kill a bear . To hunt at night when the animals are walking threw their camp . I love the show it’s great
Just my adopt make it better . Thanks for all you do your biggest fan .
Game Man

by See A Fish

I can only say that when we studied things like the “Roaring 20’s,The Depression,The Boston Tea Party,The Roman Empire, right on back to when the Dinosaurs roamed the Earth” and we as children could not escape from the exciting things we were being taught, only a lot of the ways we were taught was matter of factly very boring. I really liked it when there was a film, even fact filled documentaries were great. As valuable as a books knowledge can be, they’ll never be as interesting as someone else doing the reading and telling about it.
Ever since I can remember and before is how far back my true desire to be next to GOD goes. Now with that being said, Please this app Channel Accept My Full Hearted Thankfulness!!!! You Make this app Fun!!
I Sincerely hope that you continue to be a large part of the knowledge that we seek the most.
Knowledge of Ourselves!!!!

by Thunder Storm Pod Cast

Apparently I’m suppose to create a review of HISTORY or channel or Shows. It must be extremely difficult to fill a 24/7 channel with shows with an unknown projected budget from Advertising and Payed cable .From that aspect you have to deploy a budget sparingly and support certain project and kill them off if ratings come back unfulfilling .But how long to give each project a chance would be by each shows Budget . If they can not self sustain themselves by ratings and budget you would have to terminate the program. From this aspect I find your channel to be going work . I only enjoy one or two of your shows. project blue book being one of them. Thank you for the entertainment.

by Leela Turanga

Right now I’m having trouble with my Xfinity account because they can’t figure out why when I record something it won’t play back. I can just hear the audio and they’ve tried several things to fix it that haven't worked. So I appreciate the fact that the this app channel puts everything on its app and you can go there and watch it. I was able to watch the show that didn’t tape properly just by going there. What frosts me is Xfinity is now having shows taken away and put on an app that you have to pay for and when the show doesn’t tape it’s not even on HISTORY !! (D+) Thank you this app channel for not being so stingy even though ads have to play.

by Asdfvbnmlkjh

Liked HISTORY at first. I could catch up on the shows I didn't have time to watch at original air. Tried watching an episode tonight and I got through about 7 min with only a few commercials. Then it happened, 12 commercials back to back. And they were all car dealers or wealth management people who were nowhere near my local area. I exited out of HISTORY and closed it. Only to return to the same nonsense when I reopened it. I let it run to see just how many ads it would try to force me to view. But after 15 more, I shut it down and deleted HISTORY . I realize you guys are selling advertising and the shows are only there to get people to see the ads, but how greedy do you have to be to run so many ads compared to such little content?

by Phil6163013

I like several of the shows on the this app channel and this is a way to catch up on those i have missed. But the number and repetition of the commercials has driven me off of HISTORY. I too have experienced the black screen malady but i had to delete HISTORY and reload it to regain control of HISTORY . I thought seriously about deleting HISTORY altogether but haven't done so yet. However, i have not used HISTORY since that time principally because of the number and repetition of the commercials. I was no even able to fast forward through the commercials nor even be able to see just how much time they ran. Sorry! If i need the memory this will be the first app to go. How are they going to get their commercials seen if the viewers do not use HISTORY ?

by Pdb322

I downloaded HISTORY and tried watching a show to catch up on it however I was only able to get through half the episode. The episodes are interrupted by commercials every five minutes. At one point I there were five commercials back to back and then the screen went black without the episode resuming. I then had to close down HISTORY and reopen it to watch my show. The video resumed without issues, unfortunately it was the commercials that started playing again and not the episode. The same thing repeated itself, several commercials and then a black screen! I repeated the process twice more with the same results and then gave up. There's no point creating an app like this if these are the results! Don't waist your time downloading it!

by BA Baller

Way, way, way too many commercials. And they are way too long, and you play the same one two, sometimes 3 times in a row. I already pay for the provider. Collect money from them and make your commercials much shorter. And don’t play the same one, over and over again. I got the message the first time. Just annoying and unnecessary. Please fix this ASAP! I love the shows on here, but the commercials, come on! I’m able to fast forward through them on my cable box. I’d like that Same option when watching on my phone through HISTORY. Other than that, Great shows, keep up the good work. Please do something about all these long overly played commercials. Thanks

by SIA In Germany

I really love the shows the this app Channel produces. Being able to watch them on my phone is just too cool. Even includes a few commercials but far fewer then when watching tv but what I don’t like is the limiting of how many episodes I can watch without including my tv service provider. Why? If I have HISTORY why can’t I watch the programs I want to watch? Either make people pay for HISTORY or let them watch the shows.
Keep
Up the great programming though...I love Vikings and now Knightfall but just watched Ancient Impossible. I will be looking for that on the tv as I really like it.

by Poisonivy1221

I completely agree with some of the other reviews that I have read here regarding the commercials! I absolutely love the this app app and all the wonderful shows that they provide but the commercials are ridiculous! I can understand throwing one or two in there throughout the show but the amount of commercials is too much! We are viewing online not on live television where the advertisers have already promoted. So that is my one suggestion for making HISTORY better! Thank you for all of your wonderful programming with shows like Alone, Mountain Men, Vikings, The UnXplained and many more!!

by SSunday13

I enjoy the shows on this app App , just wish that when I use my cable company to log in I didn’t get a ton of ads I get all the ads if your not already paying a cable company and want to see shows but i am and think those of use who use a provider should get way less ads. Feel there is more ads then contain sometimes. Plus once every show the audio disappears and I have to go out and back in. Hopefully they fix that .

by Risrichy

I love this app and also love HISTORY, but felt like it too much commercial on the 1 episode. pop up every break time for 3-4 commercials in one break. it made me feel got interrupted more than enjoying. I don’t really mind much for having commercials during the show(maybe 1 break for 1 commercial), but this way is too much to take it. Worse case is sometime, I want to stop and end up with the show. that’s sad because I’m never get bored or want to give up for studying about this app, but HISTORY can make me feel on that way.
Anyway, thank you for the good stories that you’re sharing.

by 24Blue

I just finished watching/listening “The Food That Built America” via my Fios account, and I loved it. I’m working a long hours so I don’t mind the commercials because I wasn’t actually watching but more of listening. However, I do notice that the streaming process was great as there wasn’t any interruption at all. The reason I’m saying this because if I was watching my shows on my phone via fios top box while I’m home my shows get interrupted every 20-30 minute and it’s just spinning forever. I have to log back in again over and over. But watching this app Channel today was no issues at all. I’m happy!

by Quit Hardrock

Was recently on vacation in up state California and was seeing many logging trucks and lumber mills. My grand father was a lumberjack and ran a small saw mill in the 30’s and 40’s. As a kid I remember seeing some of his old hand saws and chain saws in the old barn. Watching the Ax Men series has enlightened me as to how hard and dangerous lumbering was and is. My hat goes off to people that have done and are still doing that difficult job. Many thanks to the this app Channel for all the great programs they show. As for the concerns some people have about commercials, I believe it’s a small inconvenience for what we are getting in high quality entertainment.

by Terpsichorean Kat

As the updates flow the previous tech issues are resolved. I enjoy and follow many of their unique but timely (no pun intended) series. Oak Island, Knightfall, Vikings, and Forged in Fire all offer a peek into worlds that this app books describe but paint only poor shadows of the people and events of the times. These series allow the viewer to realize that even legends are human, with all the pratfalls of our condition. For this app to live on it must be reexperienced by the living in some way. I feel the programming on this channel strives to that goal.
I also give them kudo’s for producing shows in which the cutting edge researcher’s investigative paradigm falls under ‘Forbidden this app’ or possible conspiracy theory. Yet, by the end of the series (I verify the purported data when it’s available to the public to determine any issues or theories counter to those presented) I support the conclusions of the researcher.
This is the kind of TV I want to see-keep up the great work! 😺