CBS announced today that CBS All Access now offers offline viewing for most of their content. Offline viewing is a popular feature that has been added by Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, and will soon be available on Hulu. The mobile app feature allows users to download content locally to their device, which can be convenient for viewing when no internet access is available, such as car rides or airplane trips, or if you just want to limit your data usage when not on a Wi-Fi network.
CBS calls the feature “Download & Play.” It’s available on iOS and Android devices with the latest CBS app (version 6.0) which was just released. Download & Play is considered a premium feature, so it is only available to subscribers with the $9.99/month commercial-free plan. It is also only for those who subscribe directly to CBS All Access, and not currently available if you subscribe through Amazon Prime.
The new download icon in All Access version 6.0
Downloaded content is accessible for 30 days from the date of download or 48 hours from start of playback. Downloaded content is not playable outside the U.S.
Most content on All Access is available to watch offline, including:
- Exclusive original series from CBS All Access: Star Trek: Discovery, After Trek, The Good Fight, One Dollar, Strange Angel, No Activity
- Reality competitions: Big Brother, Survivor
- Network primetime dramas: Blue Bloods, Bull, Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver, NCIS: New Orleans
- News magazines: 60 Minutes, 48 Hours
- All classic shows available with CBS All Access (for example: All the previous Star Trek series, Cheers, Twin Peaks, etc.)
The Downloads screen of All Access
Surround sound rolling out on All Access
In other All Access news, proper surround sound support is being rolled out to select devices with the All Access app. Currently, the supported devices are mostly standalone streaming devices, notably game consoles aren’t surround enabled yet, but CBS says they should be rolling out support in the coming months.
The following devices now support 5.1 sound with CBS All Access:
- Apple TV Gen. 4 + 4K (tvOS)
- Apple TV Gen. 3 (Legacy)
Roku (Gen. 3+)[Broken by a Fall 2018 update]- Chromecast
- Fire TV (Gen. 2+)
- Android TV
New at All Access
CBS continues to expand the number of original series for All Access. In the summer they released the first season of the paranormal drama Strange Angel. At the end of August, they launched the crime drama One Dollar. And on Halloween, they will debut the modern-retelling of fairytales show, Tell Me a Story (see trailer below).
At San Diego Comic-Con, CBS announced this fall they will debut Star Trek: Short Treks a series of four mini-episodes tied into Star Trek: Discovery. The second season of Discovery, which is currently over halfway through production, will debut in early 2019. The next show to debut on All Access in 2019 is expected to be the reboot of The Twilight Zone, which is currently being developed by Get Out writer/director Jordan Peele.
And of course CBS All Access is developing multiple Star Trek series, with the first featuring the return of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.
Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Netflix everywhere else.
The first season of Star Trek: Discovery will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 13th.
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news here at TrekMovie.
Well this should at least help solve their buffering issues the site constantly has. It was OK for me 70% of the time but some episodes got REALLY annoying stopping every ten seconds, commercials not loading (and not being able to get back to the show) and so on.
This site still has a long way to go to feel more competitive against just a lot of better sites with better performance and content out there but this is definitely a more positive step in the right direction.
Offline viewing,I rather True ALL Access? I unsubscribed because so many shows offered were incomplete seasons, some only 4 episodes! Some shows with two parters only had Part one.How frustrating!
the reason cause they are not finished with the series or it just began or the they dont own the rights to the whole series yet and only put up what they do own
they have every episode that is currently out for both five-0 series , jag, all 3 ncis series , both macgyver series ,all 7 star trek series ,sabrina the teenage witch , just to name a few
I know about Trek and Five-O and the New series. I also love JAG but the only full Season was Season one,also my wife likes the Brady Bunch with only about half the episodes. Did they change it in the last month?
Murder She Wrote! Airwolf! Jake & The Fatman!
I’m having surgery on Friday, and I’ve downloaded “Amok Time” to take to the hospital with me. Thanks, CBS, that’s great timing!
Spock’s Brain might be a good choice.
Hee!
You don’t have Netflix or Amazon Corylea? I been downloading Star Trek from both of those for years now.
I didn’t know that about Netflix and Amazon (I don’t use either of them that much), so thanks for the tip!
Maybe one day in the future, I’ll be downloading a Jeff Probst cameo on Discovery. (A guy can dream.)
No 4k or surround sound streaming for xbox one? It’s 2018 now. I’ll pass on this until cbs can enter the modern world
From all accounts, Discovery isn’t produced in 4k, so streaming it at 4k wouldn’t improve things. I agree that missing surround sound is annoying. Even the big players like Amazon and Netflix don’t support surround sound on all devices.
It seems like CBS is making efforts to improve their service. That’s good to see. I think they are aware of their shortcomings. Hopefully, by the time Discovery season 2 is released they will expand the new functionalities to more devices.
And this is why I am not 100% on board with streaming yet. Netflix has gotten better over the years but my DVR still works much much better than anything streamed.
See, I have cable TV, only a few HD channels, most still in SD. The HD channels are 720p only (not 1080p or even 4k), and some of the SD channels show really bad compression artifacts. So for me, streaming is usually better quality than traditional TV unless my internet is acting up.
I don’t live in the US so I can’t speak to the quality of CBS All Access.
I can say that Netflix works MUCH better than CBSAA. It has a superior image and not nearly the glitch problem CBS has. The Netflix image is only slightly better than what I get from cable. But cable is faster and easier to control and navigate. The difference in the image, to me, is not worth the loss of ease of functionality. Yes, I am aware that the streaming functions, sound and other things will improve in time. Right now, cable is still the superior option for my use.
Cannot get 5.1 on Roku Premiere (new, 4K model), just stereo. I think that part of the article is incorrect.
The following devices now support 5.1 sound with CBS All Access:
Apple TV Gen. 4 + 4K (tvOS)
Apple TV Gen. 3 (Legacy)
Roku (Gen. 3+)
Chromecast
Fire TV (Gen. 2+)
Android TV
You bought a brand new model that wasn’t released when the article was written. It should in theory support 5.1, CBS and/or Roku may need to update to enable it. Also do you have the Roku connected to an A/V receiver or sound bar that can decode Dolby Digital? if not, it will always fall back to stereo, because that’s all a TV can handle.
It is connected to a receiver – I’m getting 5.1 in other apps where it exists (Netflix, Prime, HBO). Strange.
Thanks for responding!