BACKROUND

This review is based solely on the use of US and sports channels only over a one month period. That's all I watch or personally care about, and didn't bother either using or testing any of the other content that is offered. So as always, anything below is a direct reflection on that specific experience.

Eternal was run with both the APK and on a fresh install of Kodi 17.6 with no backround addons other Vader Streams and Ares Wizard used to auto set my advanced settings. Internet speeds generally tested out at 75mbps+ with IPVanish running in the backround, and on a wired connection through my 2017 Nvidia Shield or Gen 2 Firetv. While I don't consider myself Mr. Tech or anything, I am confident in my researching/tinkering ability enough that any trouble shooting done was both accurate and with every possibility exhausted to best isolate any non-Eternal issue.

My viewing times/habits are as follows: Wed - Sat I'd watch maybe an hour or 2 of ESPNs/FOXSPORTSs/MLB/WWE/NESN/NBA/NFL channels in the afternoon before work, then another 3 hours afterwards (usually 11pm est on) with some movie surfing mixed in. Sun - Tues I have completely off, so Eternal would be used or running in the backround most of those days. Red Sox games and UFC/WWE PPV's are also my specifically targeted sports interests. All in all I'd estimate that this review is based on roughly 70 hours of use as my co-primary IPTV source (with Vader Streams as the other and another service test sprinkled in here and there when I wasn't using those two).

SETUP/CUSTOMER SERVICE

Setup is standard as far as a Kodi install goes, from their own add source repo. Same goes for the APK, which was a simple matter of downloading it through an APK installer like Downloader and then inputing your log in info.

I'd rate overall customer service as below average nowadays, starting with the fact that none of the direct info needed for the above is even listed on their purchase website (unless I'm just missing where it is). No Discord chat that I'm aware of either, and my multiple attempts to join the facebook page starting day 1 all went unanswered. Which honestly wasn't a big deal for me, but for those that do need the extra level of hand holding you should probably plan on both searching/watching some Youtube to get yourself setup. Which still beats the old school way of waiting for ticket responses imo.

Eternal also only offers the option to pay by credit card. Which to me wasn't a con in that I'm the type who's concerned with hiding my identity...as much as i just don't like giving my bank or credit card info out online period. Enter my first venture into prepaid credit cards. Not too much of a pain, but I'm still docking them for hassle points since I had to go out of my way over my usual preference of Paypal to do it.

EPG

I didn't set up the full simple client EPG on my Kodi, which instead had Vader using it and saw Eternal with short cut links to all the channel groups I wanted. So can't really comment directly on that.

Outside a mostly adequate population factor, the full EPG on the APK was kind of a let down overall. Especially after being initially intrigued when I read they had fixed the scroll issue that plagues the old one. For starters, the fix there basically came at the expense of eliminating the ability to scroll backwards from what's currently playing. Which combined with the fairly condensed listing screen area ultimately makes for some fairly awkward looking and hard to visually follow load outs. That is also before even getting into the frequency in which the highlighted scroll box glitches out, which happens quite a bit (as I'm writing this it won't scroll around period atm). All in all it just makes for a very clunky experience, and I found myself abandoning it altogether early on in favor the Live TV section (which still had a box to the right at least usually showing the next show due on. Sometimes the next couple). No real issues to note while using the latter either, and if you can live without the full EPG it's an adequate fill in.

The sports section listings were a mess and frequently absent of any data. Want to know what channel the MLB game you want to watch is on? Get clicking through the 16 channels to find it. Even the times there was a listing, which again were also subject to the same awkard issues noted above mind you...they were mislabeled more then right. Although to note, overall accuracy was a *little* better on Kodi then it was on the APK, which would sometimes list what was on when the APK wouldn't.

One feature to note that I really liked with the APK was the option to go in and easily filter out all the channels groups i didn't want showing up. Definitely scores big points there for that, and especially in relationship of it helping to "dumb things down" so to speak. Even my mother didn't get lost clicking around this thing.

CHANNELS/QUALITY/RELIABILITY

Eternal's US channel selection is pretty par from the course and what you'd expect out of any IPTV service nowadays, although their movie channel selection isn't quite as extensive as something like GearsTv or Vader. They do have 40+ regional channels to note as well, which are pretty random (it's not the Big 4 in different cities) but potentially interesting if something specific you want is in there.

Picture quality certainly isn't at the top of the IPTV food chain, but is pretty surprising solid as a whole. You won't find the selective peak picture quality potential with some channels that you might find with a provider elsewhere, but most feeds are HD and I honestly don't ever recall running across a crappy quality feed during my time surfing around it. In fact I just clicked through all their movie channels in the attempt to find one and didn't...which is actually pretty stellar in my experiences since that's the first place I always expect to find them (granted and as noted above, there aren't carrying as many total).

Everyday viewing server stability was really a tale of two different halves. The first half of the month it pretty much performed what I went in almost expecting out of a service riding such a big wave of hype, while offering 5 connections at $10 and which weren't IP locked. Which saw easily overloaded servers with lots of drops/random buffering, and really just an overall unreliable experience where I almost decided to stop essentially roughing it and drop this testing altogether. Which isn't to say it was all bad, but as a whole it just wasn't really measuring up in any way to the other/better options I had previously tested...and certainly not standing out even at a "value" price.

The second half of the month fortunately saw quite the every day stability rebound though, to a point I'd roughly grade it as average for a popular IPTV provider, and for comparison's sake a tick better then Vader over that time period. The drops, buffering, and load issues are still there, but have been nowhere near as frequent. All of which I'm guessing is partly due to a combination of them recently closing the purchase option on their website to more then just off-hours US time, and frustrated customers who moved on to using something else for the time being. Regardless though as things stand at this exact moment I'm generally content most of the time, outside the unrelated to Eternal surrounding preference that it was being paired with a different service then Vader (the surface appeal of 5 connections on each played out a lot better in theory. Too much overall switching back and forth in reality, and instances where they were both having simultaneous problems with the same channel). As a further note, switching to the Kodi player sometimes eliminated the buffering I was otherwise getting on the APK. I know a lot of people hate Kodi and prefer the convenience of an APK...but yeah. As a whole Kodi's player was/is more stable.

I only tested one PPV which was UFC 225, and only caught the latter half of it. They had 2 feeds up, and the one I used was perfect up until a couple quick freezes during the main event, and overall provided me with a solid experience. Outside that the couple times I used it as backup for Red Sox games when Vader's feeds were struggling it stepped in and played them with only minor buffering/drops here and there.

As far as channels going down goes I didn't notice any during my sub on the ones I frequent. Couple times on random movie channels was it, which seemed to always be back up the next time I was randomly surfing around.

FEATURES/VALUE

CATCHUP - The first week it was mostly in a broken state, and 6 of the first 7 things I tried use it for wouldn't play. The following couple weeks after that it was pretty solid though, and I didn't run into any issues using it on the Nvidia Shield.

Channels covered by catchup are limited to 18 total US/Sports, that seemed like a targeted compromise to only include those with highly popular shows/content. Which I'm honestly still giving a big value plus on, and represents an approach I'd like to see more services out there adapt instead of not having it altogether. Other then PPV catchup, which almost nobody offers anyway, those select channels actually covered everything I personally needed it to (or more specifically, what I couldn't just find/get easily enough on Kodi or Terrarium TV).

VOD - This was removed shortly before starting my sub, which really is just following suit with a lot of other providers trying to avoid landing themselves in the same boat Set TV found themselves in. If you are on android go to youtube and search Terrarium TV. That's your VOD.

24/7 CHANNELS - Don't care for or ever use them, so can't comment on their current status here. But for testing purposes I just checked the 74 they have listed and none seem to be working FWTW. In fact some are even crashing the apk when i click on them.

ADDITIONAL CONNECTIONS - Apart from the basic $5 for one connection account, Eternal also offers the option for 3 connections for $8, or 5 connections for $10. No IP lock either, so accounts can be shared. Which in itself obviously offers a lot of potential face value. But as always, I'm going to also point out that this can be a double edged sword, and that the search for that type of value is going to always come at the trade off cost of consistent server stability. Instead of getting too caught up in the surface appeal there, keep in mind that the provider you might initially dismiss because they only let you run one simultaneous account stream in comparison also doesn't have up to 5x the people logging in to their servers off that one account. As far as IPTV and *you* the the viewer in front of your one Tv set is concerned...more isn't always better.

CONCLUSSION

As noted above, had I written this review 2 weeks ago I would have chalked Eternal TV up as an over-hyped service that had already oversold itself beyond it's flavor of the month run. Between it being solid enough the last 2 weeks though, and given the notable decline in subs being sold through their website lately, I'm willing to give it the short term benefit of the doubt for now. There certainly is value to be had here at the price tag, and the additional bonus of a catchup feature and upgraded APK is currently replacing my previous recommendation of TNT as far as the $5 services go. In fact a great way to generally sum Eternal TV up imo is as a poor man's Vader Steams. Same general stream stability at a lesser cost, but minus Vader's notable polish edge and some of their extras.

So overall I'm putting it down as a BUY. At least with a couple conditions. The first being you don't have it in your head that you are going to just buy a stand alone account of Eternal, slap it on all the TVs in your house, and live out some hassle free IPTV experience. Not gonna happen. As always I'm going to *highly* recommend this be run with a second provider. Secondly, you understand that Eternal is built on a very shaky foundation that shouldn't come with the expectation of sustained success. There is no big corporation money backing this stuff up or offering you some guarantee that they'll make every effort to balance spending on the other side to keep up with demand. More so then most it's not a matter of *if* an aggressive connection offering provider like Eternal goes down in oversold flames...it's a matter of *WHEN*. Enjoy the moment and while it lasts, and don't be that sucker crying foul down the road about still having X amount of time left on that yearly sub you bought in the attempt to save a few measly long term dollars. Month to month here. Period.

Where to buy: https://eternaltv.net/billing/cart.php

Youtube channel for updates and install guides: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl1mshyMa1f97O-YVlLK-Uw/videos