MagellanTV Documentaries

• Free to download
• In-app purchases

Last verified 31 Jul 2026

4.6 3852 ratings · App Store

1. 1/5Not even worth the free trial!

   I downloaded this documentary streaming app and began with a free trial but I will be cancelling the free trial even with 6 more days left as it was disappointing from the second I opened the app. I don’t know what the issue was but every title I select winds up showing me something so boring and far different from the title. Then 1 specific title I really wanted to watch wouldn’t even show me anything. I even tried choosing the info on that selection and it showed me a blank screen where nothing loaded. I closed the app completely to reboot it and try again but that particular selection , nothing! Anything else I choose opens up immediately (not that it played what I selected). Sure , the 1 documentary I;wanted to see more than any other happens to not work. Yeah it’s no wonder I’ve never heard of this streaming app. Not off to a good start I must say! I’m going to cancel & delete now.✌🏽

   Robyn Borrero · 31 Jul 2026

2. 2/5Good content, terrible app

   There is a lot of good content available for those who enjoy documentaries. However, navigating the app is not a good experience. The best way to do it is outside of the app, such as in a web browser, then add the content to your list so you can see it in the app. There is a playlist option which does a good job of curating the content, but sometimes content is in unexpected places and I’m not sure if I’m seeing everything. The genres category is where the problems begin, because the thumbnails are for some reason sized smaller than the actual thumbnail image, and there are no titles. The images are cropped and often where the title would be, so all you can see is a picture but with no idea what the content is. In all cases, if you tap on one of these thumbnails, you’re presented with a tiny box with ridiculously tiny text for the description. The only way to close the box is to tap on the tiny little X button. Tapping somewhere outside of the box does not close it, a behavior that has become common. Overall, the app leaves a lot to be desired and I can only give it any stars for the content.

   Smfplayer1 · 31 Jul 2026

3. 3/5The service is great but...

   The iOS app itself crashes when trying to watch any video, from any category. It works great on the computer, or when watching through a browser, but outside of that there is absolutely no way to watch. And good luck getting it to stream an entire episode on the TV version of the app, it is just as buggy with constant freezes and no resume playing function. Outside of the app issues, the service is absolutely great. The documentaries are informative, and very different from the normal barrage of trash on Network and Cable TV. Some may be a bit dated, but the information is still relevant, and can usually generate a chuckle when looking back at the awful styles we wore back then. Ick. All in all, the service itself is worth 5 stars as soon as they can fix the issues with their apps on all platforms.

   TheWarNet · 31 Jul 2026

4. 3/5iPhone Airplay users: BEWARE (no subtitles)

   First, I want to thank the Magellan customer service rep (Nancy) for her courtesy and professionalism. A full refund was granted along with the promise of a subscription extension had the technical problem been solved. If you are like me, away from home for a long period of time, caretaking for elderly loved ones, without Wifi, but relying exclusively on an iPhone and an excellent-performance Unlimited 4G wireless plan...then Magellan might not be for you. You’re fine if you choose to watch everything on your iPhone screen; subtitles display if you request them. But if you attempt to Airplay (via Apple’s Lightning-to-Digital adapter and an HDMI cable), you won’t ever see subtitles. (You’re fine with Airplay if video and audio w/o subtitles meets your needs.) It was explained that lack of subtitles using Airplay is a limitation imposed by one of Magellan’s technical partners, and there is no estimated fix time. As I explained in an earlier review, I’ve used about two dozen iPhone streaming apps, and nearly all of them support Airplay (key exceptions being ESPN and Peacock). But Magellan is the ONLY app supporting Airplay that doesn’t support subtitles via Airplay. One might guess that Magellan’s subtitling support is something fancier than most apps, of marginal value, that cause the bigger problem encountered here.

   ForrFive · 31 Jul 2026

5. 3/5Excellent library of videos but the player and app needs work

   First of all, this is an excellent library of videos and I recommend the app and service based on that. I have been looking for space related documentary content for a while and Magellan has a ton of great stuff to watch. Unfortunately the app needs work still. Firstly, there doesn’t seem to be a way to switch profiles between other users in your family like every other streaming service. Also, watched content doesn’t get marked as such. There’s no “play next” button or auto play feature for series of documentaries, which is particularly annoying right now because I found a series with a bunch of episodes that are about 5 minutes long and I have to keep poking around in menus to find the next episode every five minutes. This is even more annoying when none of the videos are marked as watched so you’re not sure if you saw the video. It seems the series episodes aren’t organized in order making this even more irritating. The video player on iPhone doesn’t have the double tap to rewind/fast forward feature, nor does it have a button to skip forward or back 15 seconds. The player also has a full screen button which doesn’t really do anything, but if you don’t press it the white bar along the bottom of the screen doesn’t go away. I also have a problem playing 4K content on my roku because I don’t have a 4K tv and the app doesn’t seem to downscale the video quality, it just errors out. While all of these issues are minor, they add up to give the app the feeling of being kind of being half baked. If they fix some of the errors I listed, that’s a 5 star review for sure. Again, great content but kind of a rough user experience.

   HeLikesItHeLikesItNot · 31 Jul 2026

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