As the title indicates, I've been using FabIPTV for three months now. Given all of the drama going down lately, I thought I'd toss my own experiences into the ring.
Before I get into my experiences, I know my internet isn't ridiculously fast - you can interpret that in terms of the way Fab performed for me as you'd like. With that said, I would like to briefly state that my backup services, particularly Epic and Flawless, run very well. I'm not kicked from channels, content is streamed in HD, and buffering is extremely minimal (very minimal - like a brief buffer after several hours of watching the same channel). I am personally not willing to blame my internet connection, then, on all of the issues I have experienced with Fab because multiple other services performed well using the exact same set up.
#The Basics
Internet Connection: 30 Mbps up down, 10 Mbps down up
Device Used: Amazon Fire TV using both Kodi and Perfect Player
Months Tested: June, July, and August
"Backup" services used concurrently: Epic, IPGuys, WSS Premium, and Flawless
Channels Most Frequently Watched: US/CA entertainment and news. I don't think I ever accessed Sports Corner except to check for a GoT backup stream. So whenever I comment on the quality of picture or getting kicked, etc., know that I'm not talking about sports channels and can't comment on them at all. I also used the VOD not-infrequently, and in my opinion it's a great one. There's a lot of selection there.
Kodi Addon: The Kodi app is something I used very briefly, to be honest, as I discovered Perfect Player fairly quickly. I will say that when I did use it, Fab integrated easily and quickly with iVue EPG and I was pleased. The "addon" itself was more akin to a repository with channels just organized into various folders. There was no real interface or anything to speak of, but I think this is pretty on par with other providers?
Perfect Player: I used Perfect Player for the vast majority of my time with Fab. The EPG was great and complete, at least for the channels that I used often. Fab also provides a "URL generator" for Perfect Player that shortens the long URLs you would otherwise have to type into the player, which is a nice touch. Aside from that, all I can say is that Perfect Player runs great for me and I doubt any issues I experienced are due to the player.
#My Experiences
I opted for a Fab sub as my first venture into IPTV. As many others will say, at first it was great. The Facebook group was very responsive and everyone who responded was polite and cheerful. The channels were not necessarily abundant, but that was okay with me as I wasn't looking for a huge lineup at that time. The channels that were offered were generally stable and worked well. I was rarely kicked from a channel or experienced buffering. I don't recall encountering any broken channels during that point in time either. June genuinely passed by fairly uneventfully for me, and I enjoyed the service very much. I was happy to sub again for July and expected more of the same.
July was a mixed bag for me. I started getting kicked from channels often as well as running into some significant buffering issues. I like to have the same channel on for hours on end as "background noise" that I can just watch as possible in-between work projects, and that was absolutely impossible with Fab by the middle of July, I'd say. This is the month where I really started to look into "backup" services - and I put that in quotes because they quickly became my main providers for most channels. Despite what happened during July, I opted to sub again for August. Why? Well, because the service was great when it worked and it also ran GoT literally buffer-free after the first episode or two. That's important to me, so I decided to keep the service even if just for that particular show.
Fab really seemed to struggle this month (August). I think they've experienced some form of "DDOS" attack every week so far, and it's completely taken down their service multiple times. All channels were down for the entirety of 08/20, for example, and even today (08/21) I can't get into a single channel on my favorites list because the servers are still down. And lest you think that I'm just complaining over the most recent downtime, this has actually become a rather frequent occurrence. Looking at the forums, for example, I see reference (by admins) to "bad DDOS attacks" resulting in a near-or-total takedown of service on August 5th, August 11th, August 14th, August 20th, and August 21st. Even just last night, an admin posted that the GoT and Summer Slam channels were back up and running... only to quickly lock the thread with a message that the server the admin had managed to get running had been hit by a DDOS as well (I tried those channels literally one minute after that message was posted, FWIW, and they were absolutely not online).
In addition to complete service takedowns, many channels were very unstable this month, too... increasingly so from July. Every day when I turn on the television, I start with my Fab playlist in Perfect Player. And almost every single day this month, I'd be using another provider maybe 20 minutes later because the channels that I was trying to watch were either timing out, buffering like crazy, or down completely. The other services that I've been using (listed above, but namely Epic as well as Flawless more recently) all worked perfectly during this time. This is not an internet connectivity issue, it's a service issue. And why do I emphasize that?
The Forums: Well, let's quickly talk about the forums. Fab recently migrated from FB to their own dedicated forums, ostensibly to better serve customers. The behavior of the admins has been pretty bad since then, to be quite honest. Their standard response to almost every complaint of channels being down is "it must be your connection bud, try restarting your device/router". It's only when dozens of people raise tickets that they decide to look at the actual service itself - and by that time, they're inevitably irritated by the number of tickets they've received so they snap at anyone asking for updates on the forums. I've seen multiple customers inquire as to what is going on only to be essentially chastised for asking and told that they are single-handedly delaying the return of channels because they dared to ask a question and take away the admins' attention from working on the servers. Threads that are anything other than praising the service are quickly closed, and during the past two service outages they have closed all threads relating to the issue... and while I understand not wanting the forum flooded with posts, it seems kind of shitty to take away customers' ability to discuss the issue.
So, that brings us to today. All channels are still down, and an admin only recently posted a comment (hours after the last update of any kind) saying that they're working on it and an update will be posted "very soon". That was about an hour ago.
Pros: When Fab works, it's great. The channel selection is very nice, the picture is good, and I really do adore their VOD library. Their EPG is also great, and rarely do I encounter a channel without information.
Cons: The service has become increasingly unstable over the past three months. There has been a definite and steady decline in quality - it's not just a single attack that is creating issues. Some of the admins are not great at being civil during times of stress, and seem to complain about their tickets as well as anyone complaining quite a bit. They also refuse to publicly acknowledge that there's a significant issue until everything goes to shit and all of the servers are down (something that has also been happening with increasing regularity this month).
Bottom Line: Would I recommend Fab? No, I wouldn't. Not only has the service gone from stable to unusable over the course of three months, but the customer service also leaves a lot to be desired. No service is perfect, and I understand that. But there are many services in the same general price point as Fab that actually work well and haven't been having channel issues all month. I know this because I've been using them concurrently as Fab has become so unstable. And even if a service is a couple of bucks higher than Fab, it's worth it to have access to channels that actually work.
I really loved Fab, and even still they're the first provider that I try to use every day... but it's become increasingly frustrating to even attempt to do so. The admins say this is all due to DDOS attacks. IDK how common these actually are, but as I mentioned earlier, I know that none of my other services seem to experience them with anywhere even near the frequency with which Fab apparently does. Whether that says something about their luck, security measures, or something else is anyone's guess.
If you're truly interested in Fab... give it a month or two before investing. And if you decide to pay now, I personally wouldn't invest in anything more than a one month sub. If the service continues to degrade at the rate it has been, you'll be lucky to catch the servers when they're actually up.
EDIT: Cocked up my internet connection lol.
