History review | PCMag

History Channel’s video streaming service offers all major network shows, such as: star pawn employment forged in fireYou can’t watch the vast majority through the app if you don’t have a cable subscription to the History channel. The app is well designed, but you cannot download videos to watch offline, all videos contain non-skippable ads.

History vs History Store

The History Channel offers two dedicated streaming services: History and History Vault. History Vault is a paid service that provides access to documentaries and feature-length documentaries like America: a story for usemployment ancient discoveries, employment bible puzzles. The record is free for cable subscribers and features full episodes of fan favorites like America’s collectors Other reality shows are currently in production.

What do you see in history?

History features 99 documentaries and series, most of which fall under the realistic genre. For example, you can watch all 602 episodes of the hit TV show star pawn Via a cable subscription, along with a live feed from the History Channel. Without a cable subscription, you can only watch 5 of the 99 series on the app and live TV is not an option.

While testing the app you chose to watch Just, a reality show in which contestants live alone in the wilderness; The person who survives the longest in harsh outdoor conditions wins $500,000. If brutal survival shows aren’t your thing, there are 194 episodes of forged in fireA show in which knifemakers compete to recreate historic weapons.

If you are looking for a real historical topic, the app offers some military documentaries like the WarriorsWhich displays real pictures and footage of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sister History Vault is a better choice for documentaries because it streams thousands of hours of movies. CuriosityStream contains many educational and entertainment documentaries that also explore topics such as history and science. The streaming giant Netflix has hundreds of documentaries and reality shows, including popular shows forensic files Italian Serie A.

How much does history cost?

First, the good news: History is free to download. However, the bad news is that the vast majority of the app’s videos are only available to cable subscribers who have a subscription to The History Channel.

Additionally, the app requires everyone, including cable subscribers, to go through multiple unintended ad breaks during each show. For example, while testing, I experienced seven ad breaks during an hour-long episode of Just. Each ad break consists of three or four ads, and each ad is between 20 and 30 seconds long.

History’s ad-supported content model is similar to that of the CW Network’s dual apps: CW and CW Seed. Both are free and also include frequent ad breaks. However, none of these apps require a cable login.

Editor’s Choice Kanopy is free for anyone with a valid university email address or library card. Hulu’s ad-supported Streaming On Demand plan costs $5.99 per month. A MagellanTV subscription starts at $6.99 per month and includes ad-free documentaries and support for offline downloads on mobile platforms.

A History Vault subscription costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. A subscription provides ad-free, streaming access to the entire library of that service. I hope two apps from The History Channel will unite in the future into an ad-free paid subscription app that allows offline downloads and doesn’t require a cable subscription.

History is not available on the web or game consoles, but you can download the app for mobile devices (Android, iOS, iPadOS), media streaming devices (Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku), and Samsung TVs. I tested the service on Apple TV, iPhone 12 mini, and Samsung Galaxy A71 5G.

Experience the history of the mobile experience

I downloaded history on my iPhone 12 mini running iOS 14.7. The iPhone app has a black background and bright and vibrant thumbnails for each video. In the upper right corner is the Live TV button. The app doesn’t have a navigation bar, so you have to scroll down, bypassing the featured shows, to get to the Watch Without Sign category, the homepage of free videos. Scroll beyond that category to see the category of Shows in Premiere. This is where the shows currently airing on the History Channel are updated. A search bar is installed at the bottom of the screen. You can search for programs by name, but you can’t filter the results like you can with the History Vault.

When you touch the thumbnail of a series or documentary, the app takes you to the landing page. Tap the red play button next to the episode to play it. To watch a video in full screen, turn your iPhone to landscape orientation or tap the full screen icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. Select the CC icon in the upper right corner to enable closed captioning.

In the Settings section of the app (found in the upper left corner of the home screen), there is an option to stream video over your cellular connection. Unfortunately, you cannot download videos for offline playback.

I also downloaded History’s Android app on my Samsung A71 5G running Android 11. The app looks much better on Android than on iOS. Design features bright miniatures on a dark blue gradient background.

I tested the performance of log streaming over a Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-Fi connection (450Mbps download) on a mobile phone. I saw an episode of Sole: Gray Mountain On my iPhone and walk from Counting cars titled “McQueen for a Day” on my beta Android device. Videos play on both systems over Wi-Fi without interruption or buffering.

History interface on Apple TV

I also downloaded the history to my Apple TV for testing. The app is similar to the iPhone version with a black background and a minimalist video thumbnail design. The Live TV, Search and Settings tabs appear at the top of the interface.

I watched half an episode of The food that built America On my iPhone, when I logged into my Apple TV profile, the second half of the documentary was waiting for me in the Keep Watching section. The streaming experience was smooth and choppy on my Apple TV over Wi-Fi.

Accessibility and parental control

History lets you turn captions on and off, but that’s where the accessibility features stop. You don’t get options to change font size, font family, font color, or text opacity. Netflix allows you to customize your subtitles. It also offers streaming services and many other audio descriptions. This accessibility feature provides an audio narration of on-screen events, from characters’ facial expressions to changing settings, that wouldn’t appear from dialogue alone.

The service does not offer native parental control functionality, but if you have a cable subscription and have parental controls set up for this service, the history will filter the videos accordingly. However, the app does not have a lot of content that is specifically aimed at younger audiences. The service lists at least content ratings for its videos, and in our TV-14 test it was the highest rated content I’ve seen (for American CombinePresentation about serial killers.

In the future, the registry should allow parents to create separate profiles for children using filters based on ratings. Disney+ lets you create specific profiles for younger viewers, while Kanopy has its own section for kid-friendly programming.

History and VPN

A VPN makes your online browsing experience more private and secure, but many video streaming services do not allow VPN traffic. For testing, I connected my Samsung A71 5G to a ProtonVPN server in the US. The app crashed when I tried to upload a video. Then you connect to a server in the Netherlands. When I tried to watch a show called The machines that built America, a message appears on the screen stating that the content is not available on my site. The Archives support page states that videos are only viewable in the United States.

Choosing a VPN service that works with your favorite video streaming services can be difficult, as video streaming services restrict VPN traffic to protect the rights holders of the videos on their platforms. While it can be tempting to choose a VPN service based on whether it works with the services you subscribe to, we recommend choosing a VPN based on your privacy practices and value.

For fans of the cable history channel

History has a large library of current shows and popular series from The History Channel that will appeal to fans of reality shows, so they know that they need a cable subscription to watch most of the content. The app will benefit from including feature-length documentaries in the History Vault, and hopefully the two apps will be integrated in the future. Other drawbacks to the history include non-skippable ad breaks, inability to download shows for offline viewing on mobile devices, and limited accessibility features.

Among the other documentary apps we tested, Kanopy, the free streaming service, is Editors’ Choice for a large library of educational content. Netflix remains another Editors’ Choice winner for its impressive collection of original and on-demand movies.