Cordkillers 165 – Asgardians of the Galaxy

Cordkillers / April 11th, 2017

Why YouTube TV is the best and worst of the new streaming TV options. Amazon gets Thursday Night Football, and why Twitter might not care. Plus, NBC may bring out its own CBS All Access-like service.

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CordKillers: Ep. 165 – Asgardians of the Galaxy
Recorded: April 10 2017
Guest: None

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • YouTube’s live TV streaming service goes live in five US cities for $35 per month
    – YouTube TV launched in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. The service packages in more than 40 channels including all major broadcast networks including the CW plus SyFy, Disney, ESPN, a YouTube Red channel and more, though availability varies by market. You can also add on Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus for $11 and $15 respectively.The app has three tabs. Live, Home for recommendations, and Library for things you’ve bookmakred or recorded to your unlimited DVR. The first month is free and then costs $35 a month afterwards with a free Chromecast to boot. You can watch at tv.youtube.com or get the app on iOS and Android.
  • YouTube TV Will Force You to Watch Ads on Many DVR’d Shows
    – Big caveat: YouTube will force users to watch the “on demand” version of shows when available, not the DVR version. Ads cannot be skipped in on-demand versions.

How to Watch

  • Amazon outbids Twitter for rights to livestream Thursday Night Football games
    – Amazon purchased the rights to livestream 10 Thursday night football games for the forthcoming NFL season. The rights cost Amazon $50 million. Last year, Twitter paid $10 million for largely the same deal. Amazon will stream the games exclusively for Prime subscribers. The livestream will be the same content as broadcast over the air by CBS and NBC, including ads. Amazon will have a small groups of ads slots to sell for the stream as well.
  • Twitter targets tie-ups with pay-TV broadcasters in live video push
    – Twitter wants deals with pay-TV companies that let subscribers watch live channels on Twitter with authentication.
    – Basically link your subcription to a channel to a Twitter account.
    – Twitter COO Anthony Noto told the Telegraph “Bringing the video forward [onto Twitter itself] allows us to give the consumer on one screen the things they’re talking about and [a] timeline of the best tweets on Twitter at that moment in time. We would love to have the Premier League… we would love to have live games and we’ll continue to try to find creative ways to get there.”

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Comcast Is Planning a Netflix Rival Using NBC Shows
    – Bloomberg says its sources say Comcast plans to launch a streaming service for NBC Universal TV shows within the next 12-18 months. Details like whether live channels would be offered and for how much have not been decided. The service would focus on NBC but could also included shows from other networks like Bravo, USA and SyFy.
  • Netflix reaches 75% of US streaming service viewers, but YouTube is catching up
    – Comscore’s latest numbers show 53% of WiFi households in the US use a streaming video service. Netflix is still the leader in 75% of those households but YouTube is catching up at 53%, Amazon’s at 33% and Hulu is at 17%. On average people watch streaming content 19 days a month for 2.2 hours per day. Sling leads that measurement with its users watching 47 hours a month. Netflix came in second at 28 hours.
  • Showtime makes its entire library available for offline viewing on mobile devices
    – Showtime now lets subscribers download any of its programs for offline viewing on iOS, Android and Amazon Fire tablets. Users can choose between 540p and 720p versions.
  • Sling TV adds Showtime, expands its add-on lineup
    – Sling TV added the ability to subscribe to Showtime for $10 a month. It already offered HBO, Cinemax and Starz, so it’s the first to offer all four big movie channels. Sling also added the $5 “Heartland Extra” package with PixL (movies), Family Net (classic TV), Sportsman Channel, Outdoor Channel, RFD-TV (a rural lifestyle channel that focuses on agriculture, equine and more), and World Fishing Network. Sling also added Estrella TV, Vme Kids, and El Financiero to its best of spanish TV package.
  • MGM spends $1 billion to take full control of the Epix channel
    – MGM bought out Lionsgate and Paramount’s shares of movie service Epix for just more than $1 billion. All three studios will continue to supply movies to Epix. Lionsgate just purchased Starz and Paramount’s owner, Viacom has been moving away from streaming services.
  • Netflix adds a screensaver to its TV apps to promote its original content
    – Netflix has added a screen saver to its TV apps that promote Netflix originals, and Netflix rolled out its thumbs up and down system and percentage match ratings to replace the star ratings.

Dispatches from the Front

I was listening to show 163 and you guys were discussing Netflix’s new rating system going from 1-5 stars to just thumbs up or down. Like you, Tom, when I was having to manage my disk queue on their website I was very diligent about rating all of the movies I got from them along with any I saw in the theater. Since we stopped getting disks a few years ago, I’ve not been to the Netflx website once, nor have I rated a single show. Too lazy I guess.

But after further reflection, I submit that Netflix doesn’t need us to interact with their website or app one little iota to figure out if we like a show or not. They know exactly what we watch, how long we watch it, the exact spot where we stop watching and/or rewind it, and if we continue a series after one or two episodes or if I binge watch all 5 seasons of a show in a weekend. In my opinion, that gives them 1000X more data about my feelings on a show than does 1-5 stars along with very specific details that they can pass back to producers. Thoughts???
Love the show! =-)

– RapidEye

 

 

Your boss Rick from outside Orlando here. just today Netflix switched (at least on streaming titles) to thumbs up-thumbs down from the old 5 star system. I really hate this for two reasons. Mainly, the old system turned the star yellow which reminded me years later if I saw that title. And secondly, it is far too general a rating vs a 5 star system. I hope they don’t do it to blu ray titles but I’m not confident they won’t soon

– Rick

 

 

Just to add-on to the Vudu Disc-to-Digital conversation:

In January, my wife and I used the service to convert about 60 standard def DVDs into high def digital copies. Watching standard def DVDs was almost painful and this has given us access to a bunch of our older movie collection in a format that’s enjoyable to watch and easy to access for $2.50/movie. (We took advantage of that 50% off 10+ movies discount mentioned in Episode 164).

Then, we used decluttr.com to sell our physical copies and get some of the money back. While the payout per movie is low (between 25 cents and a dollar, on average), it’s more than we were getting by having them buried in the back of a closet!
Happy Cordcutter for 3-years
Love the show,

– Eric

 

 

Hi Tom and Brian,

Until last year I was a not so proud employee of one of those cable monoliths you skewer so well. When I was involuntarily retired (laid off) after 36 years I decided to stick it to the man by cord cutting. I signed up for Netflix and Amazon. I bought and installed a rooftop antenna, Tablo DVR, Roku streamer, new AV system, Plex server and a Logitech Harmony remote to control it all. I hardwired my network to maximize throughput. Tested and tweaked until everything was working great. On the day my severance ended I called the monolith to cut back to internet only or disconnect entirely. Take your box back you stinkin monolith! They informed me that since they show me as a retired former employee I can continue a robust cable/internet package at the same discount rate (about $40/month) I had while employed. I said thank you and hung up as quick as I could. I guess I’m just a cordcutting fanboy now, I’m so ashamed!

Cheers,
– The alt-cordcutter

 

 

 

We’ve been following the skinny-and-not-so-skinny bundles for a while and might get Sling Blue pretty soon, but I’ve found it strange that in some cases the big three news channels aren’t included in the packages. For instance, Sling Blue has only CNN in its basic package and you have to get News Extra to get MSNBC. Fox News isn’t included either, for some reason, despite a bunch of other Fox channels being included. TheBlaze is featured in News Extra….Why is this the case? I have not noted such glaring exclusions when it comes to other kinds of cable channels when other channels the parent company owns are included.

From,
– Amar

 

 

Hiyo, it’s your boss Roy here. I’ve just signed up for my free month of YouTube TV and right off the bat I see problems. Problem #1 is that the app needs to be installed on a phone or tablet and not my Roku stick. These handhelds are my second and third screens. I realize that Chromecast has been a success so clearly people are okay using their handhelds as TV remotes but committing one to be my TV remote isn’t going to fly in my house. Problem #2 is that my Nexus 7 from 2013 is too old to install the app. Now my phone clearly needs to be my remote and that’s a double problem. Problem #3 is that they don’t have entire back catalogs – I’m specifically looking at CBS. I haven’t seen any of the current season of Big Bang Theory because I’ve postponed buying the season. YouTube TV has only some episodes from the current season. No Bueno. There are pros, too, like live TV in my pocket. It’s really fast and easy to jump into live content. The DVR looks pretty intuitive, although I haven’t yet watched any recorded content to comment. Hopefully in a future update they’ll bring my content from Google Play Movies and TV into the app, sort of like how I can access it on the standard YouTube app. Keep up the good work guys. You all are rad.

– Roy

Links

2017 Summer Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 164 – Eyes Wide Shut Streaming (w/ Mike Range)

Cordkillers / April 4th, 2017

Verizon may launch an internet-only TV service, Comcast will launch one but only to its Comcast internet customers, and Apple may be contemplating the skinniest of bundles. With special guest Mike Range.

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CordKillers: Ep. 164 – Eyes Wide Shut Streaming
Recorded: April 3 2017
Guest: Mike Range

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Verizon Said to Plan Online TV Package for Summer Launch
    – Sources tell Bloomberg Verizon has been buying streaming rights to TV networks in advance of a US launch of an online TV service. The package will supposedly have a few dozen channels and go on sale this summer. CBS previously said its contract extension for Verizon’s FiOS TV service included “future digital platforms.”

How to Watch

  • Comcast could chase cord-cutters with ‘Xfinity Instant TV’
    – Reuter sources tell it Comcast will roll out a streaming only TV service called Xfinity Instant TV for $15-$40 a month and included major broadcast channels, sports channels like ESPN and spanish-language channels. The service would launch in Q3 to any customer of Comcast broadband Internet. This would be a revamp of Comcast’s Stream service trialed in Boston and Chicago.
  • Amazon is making Twitch a destination for original shows
    – Starting April 5 at 4 PM Eastern Amazon will start running three of its spring pilots, Oasis, dramedy The Legend of Master Legend and comedy Budding Prospects, on repeat for 24 hours at www.twitch.tv/twitchpresents. Also the first Twitch Studio original comes out April 7th at 5 PM Eastern. Ironsights tells the story of Big Buck Hunter champ Sara Erlandson.

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Apple wants to sell HBO, Showtime and Starz in a single bundle
    – Sources tell ReCode that Apple is pitching a deal to bundle premium services HBO, Showtime and Starz for one discounted price, potentially accessible in a standalone product. The three services are currently sold separately by Apple for a combined $35 a month.
  • Netflix is rolling out offline playback for its Windows 10 Store PC app
    – Windows Central notes Netflix’s option for offline viewing of select content is now available in the Windows 10 Netflix app. The update has begun rolling out to Windows 10 users through the Windows Store, though updates to the Windows 10 Mobile and Xbox versions of the app have yet to appear.
  • Smart TV hack embeds attack code into broadcast signal—no access required
    – Security consultant Rafael Scheel demonstrated a proof-of-concept exploit that would allow someone to take control of a smart TV using a low-cost transmitter to send a malicious TV broadcast. The attack worked against two fully updated Samsung TVs by exploiting known security flaws in the Web browsers. The attack gave full control of the TV.
  • Netflix nabs ‘Archer’ team for its first animated feature
    – Netflix’s first animated feature film, America: The Motion Picture, will be an R-rated comedic take on the founding of the United States. Archer’s Adam Reed and Matt Thompson will lead the production team and Thompson will direct. The Expendables’ Dave Callaham will write the scrip. And Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Will Allegra from the LEGO Movie will contribute. Channing Tatum will produce and voice George Washington.
  • NBC will broadcast its entire 2018 Olympics programming live across the world
    – NBC announced it will broadcast events live regardless of timezone for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. NBC previously streamed all coverage live, but tape delayed large portions of the TV broadcast for prime time viewing.
  • ESPN’s new Apple TV app behaves like your cable box
    – ESPN’s WatchESPN app which lets subscribers to SlingTV, PSVue and such watch all the ESPN content in one place has a couple feature updates on Apple TV. IT will start playing one of its channels immediately upon logging in, it also has a curated selection of on-demand video and some nice interface tweaks. The app also gives users a look at the miniseries We the Fans on April 9, two days before broadcast.

Dispatches from the Front

Add me to the fellowship of cord killers! I signed up for Playstation Vue last week for a trial run and just worked up the nerve to call Charter Spectrum to cut off my tv service. They offered me a couple different discounts, but it wasn’t near the savings I would have needed to stay. Not all is perfect as I’m losing access to local channels (OTA signal is hit or miss where I live), plus I lament having to give up the wonderful interface of my TiVo Roamio. Yet, the extra $50/month in my pocket will help to ease the pain.

Speaking of interfaces, for the Playstation Vue app on Apple TV, does anyone know how to keep the on-screen menu from disappearing after only a few seconds? It’s incredibly annoying, especially when you’re not sure what you want to select.

Thanks guys, I wouldn’t have had the courage to make the change without your show.

– Chad

 

 

 

Im excited about the vudu upc code add feature. I have over 800 movies on vudu 500 of them cane from the disc to digital at home feature. When doing it at home with a blu ray drive you get 50% off when you do 10 or more. Also when going from a blu ray to hd digital its only $2 before the discount. I love having them on vudu because i dont have to worry about wear and tear of disc or keepinh them in alphabetical order. It also makes it easier to share with my parents. I bet the upc code way is alot more accurate. I love the show.

– Kevin

 

 

My curious mind wanted to see if a Barcode from a picture of the blu ray cover online would also work, and it did. The barcode had to be a quality scan. A person could easily get 100 movies for $200 of they wanted to game the system here.

Keep up the good work.

– Tim

 

 

I do have a question I wanted to ask regarding authenticating broadcast channels. I’m able to use my SlingTV credentials to authenticate certain apps like WatchESPN, etc. However, I haven’t seen a way to authenticate any of the broadcast channels for antenna users. Occasionally, I’ll miss a show and will try to watch it on that channel’s ATV app or website. Many of them are now wanting you to authenticate provider credentials which seems rather stupid since it’s free, broadcast tv. Seems like they should at least provide antenna usage as an option. Do you know of anyway to do that?

Thanks in advance!

– Sonny

 

 

I recommends the Inteset INT-422 Universal Learning Remote on Amazon. This is a basic 4-in-1 remote, and comes pre-programmed to control a Roku, Apple TV, X-Box 360 and Media Center. Any of the device buttons that you don’t want to use can be reprogrammed to control another device, and each individual button can be reprogrammed or even moved. This is nice because a few of the buttons to control the Roku were in weird spots so I moved them to a different button.

It also has some nice features like quick launch buttons for Netflix and Amazon Video, and volume and mute punch-through so they work in any mode.

I’ve had this set up for about a month and it has fully passed the wife test to the point that last night out of the blue she said “I really like this remote. Thank you for buying it.”

And one of the best features is that it was only $26.

The one downside is it is an IR only remote, so the Roku needs to be line of site to work, but it’s a small price to pay for the convenience of one remote.

If you need to get your remotes under control or just win points with your wife I highly recommend this remote.

Love the show!

– Biocow

 

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the good info but I have 1 request for the show. Most of the time when you talk about “what we’re watching”, the viewers get a all male perspective on the shows to watch. I was wondering if at least once a month that you could throw in a few things that your wives are watching. Since I was the one the one who initiated this whole cord cutting thing at our house, I feel it is my responsibly to bring my wife some content that may not be my cup of tea which is all Scifi, science and tech oriented. I am not saying that women don’t like that stuff too but they sometimes cast a wider net than I do

Thanks for everything
– Mikey C

 

 

Hello gang! Paul from Dayton again. Thanks for reading my email last episode about my subtitle difficulties. Just wanted to follow up on a couple of things. I apologize for not mentioning which programs I use, sent the message a bit late at night lol. I use NextPVR to record video signals and Plex to play the video files back.

I believe you guys are right about the subtitles being embedded in the video signal. When I used Windows Media Center as my recording/playback software, I could enable subtitles easily by either pressing the subtitle button on the WMC remote, or by opening the menu with my mouse. In the new setup with Plex and Kodi, there are subtitle enabling buttons on the menu interface, but toggling these options do not bring up the subtitles. I’m guessing that something in NextPVR is either not enabled or not working, lol. Haven’t found anything there which works either.

– Paul
 

 

Links

2017 Summer Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers

Cordkillers 162 – Rusted Fist

Cordkillers / March 21st, 2017

Netflix switches to thumbs and might edit shows for screen size. Plus, Tom actually watched Iron Fist.

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CordKillers: Ep. 162 – Rusted Fist
Recorded: March 20 2017
Guest: none

Intro Video

Primary Target

How to Watch

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • ABC News’ Apple TV app will now let you have up to four of its dozen news feeds on screen at once.
  • Unfinished Orson Wells gets a Netflix Commitment
    – The New York Times reports that Netflix has agreed to finance a restoration project for the unfinished Orson Wells film The Other Side of the Wind. Producers Frank Marshall, Filip Jan Rymsza and Peter Bogdanovich, had previously secured the rights to the unfinished film in 2014, but raised only $406,605 out of a needed $2 million in crowdfunding to complete the project. Netflix’s agreement will require a renegotiation with the films rightsholders.
  • The truth about cord cutting? More talk than snips.
    – Crimson Hexagon, a social media analytics company, found that discussion of cord cutting is more common than the actual practice. Mentions of cord cutting have risen from roughly 20,000 posts at the end of 2013 to 120,000 last autumn, a 600% rise. But the number of actual number of cable households has not declined by that much of course.
  • The Matrix is reportedly getting a reboot
    – The Hollywood Reporter has sources who say Warner Bros. is in the early stages of developing a Matrix reboot with Zak Penn being sought to write the Treatment and Creed’s Michael B. Jordan as a headliner.

Dispatches from the Front

Hey Cordkillers,

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents (or rather yen) in here. In the last episode, you were talking about flipping through channels on analogue cable TV before digital. A streaming service with a similar feature launched in Japan last year.

It’s called Ameba TV and the interface is designed to allow swiping through channels of content quickly and easily, There’s almost zero lag between channels & you can even see the edges of other channels as you browse. It does have a programme guide (which mostly seems to be for their paid premium DVR service) but the app & channels are totally free! 20+ channels of content, available on streaming devices & mobile. (Only in Japan… :P)

– Kaylee

 

 

Hey I absolutely LOVE the podcast and I did subscribe. Quick thought on Viacom and CBS. I couldn’t care less about anything on their channels. I don’t think they have anything like walking dead or game of thrones to give them much leverage so they’re probably hurting themselves. Also I was really let down by CBS all access. I tried it out but all the classic shows like star trek, cheers, and others have their entire back catalogue available on both Hulu and Netflix and I think some on prime. What I really wanted was Big Bang theory but didn’t even get the current season. Just the most recent 4 or so episodes and in my area I can’t even get live cbs stream so this is hot garbage as far as I’m concerned.

Thanks guys, love the show!

– Bill

 

 

Hey guys,

In response to Jon’s question a few weeks ago about pre-ordering a physical disc and getting the digital copy early there are a few options. The first is Vudu’s awesome Disc + Digital service where you can pre-order the Blu-ray on Vudu.com or even the mobile apps and you get instant access to the digital copy:

http://www.vudu.com/movies/#featured/14106/DVDs-Blu-Rays

Shipping is sometimes free, sometimes not (it has been for me but I often order within their promotional periods on new movies) and comes from Walmart.com usually very close to if not before the physical release date. The only major downsides to the service is they currently don’t work with UHD Blu-ray’s (sometimes you can pre-order the UHD Blu-ray from Walmart.com and get the digital copy, what they refer to as Instawatch, when it comes out but it’s a crapshoot at best) and neither Warner Brothers or Disney titles are available through the Disc + Digital program. Also the program has been riddled with some technical glitches as of late which never affected me by the way.

The other option is through Bestbuy.com which I am not as familiar with but if you pre-order select titles like Sing they will email you a digital copy code soon after then ship you the disc when it comes out.

Hope this information is helpful.

-Kenny

 

 

 

Hi Tom and Brian,

In your discussion of Britbox, I started thinking “How DO you create a successful back-catalog streaming service?” You mentioned Netflix’s lackluster initial offerings when it was called “Netflix Streaming”. But that was OK for them because they were a successful DVD-by-mail company. Amazon’s initial offerings did nothing to pique my interest, but I didn’t care because all I wanted was the 2-day shipping. Any other successful service that focuses on back-catalog falls into the category of being the owners of the content they’re making available: Hulu, CBS All-access, HBO Go/Now.

Can you think of any path to success for a streaming service that primarily offers back-catalog without either having some OTHER successful moneymaking venture or by being the content owners themselves?

Love the show,
– Tom 

 

 

 

As a British ex-pat in US (there are 3/4 million of us). This was a huge promise and a total failure in execution. My biggest hate is no news except “the papers”. Question time, newsnight, panorama all missing. The classic comedy is just PBS left overs. No classic BBC shows like “Two Ronnies” & “Dave Allen”. So I’m going to be sticking with YouTube since it has a better selection of classic BBC TV than this services which should be called BritSoapBox.

– Mark

 

Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 161 – Bigger Than a Britbox (w/ Amos and Kent from Ritual Misery)

Cordkillers / March 14th, 2017

Some people get enough TV without cable. Whether Britbox is a failure or genius. What’s coming to Hulu’s live service. With special guests Amos Lemos and Kent Fellure from Ritual Misery.

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CordKillers: Ep. 161 Bigger Than a Britbox
Recorded: March 13, 2017
Guest: Amos Lemos and Kent Fellure

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Real answers: Why people are choosing to cut the cord on cable
  • For the first time, more people subscribe to Netflix than have DVR
    – TiVo surveyed US and Canada found
    – 17% do not subscribe to pay TV, 1/5 of them just in the past year
    – Many said they didn’t feel they needed it between OTA TV and streaming services.
    – TiVO determined 18 channels would be the optimum size for most subscribers (as long as it was the right channels)
    – Leichtman Research survey of US adults
    – 54% have Netflix, 53% have a DVR
    – 2011 it was 28% Netflix, 44% DVR
    – How many people feel there’s “plenty to watch” and don’t need to have access to everything?

How to Watch

  • British TV streaming service BritBox launches in U.S.
    – BritBox $6.99 a month
    – Classic TV and currently airing in UK
    – BBC Worldwide and ITV (AMC)
    – Web, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Android (Roku and Chromecast coming soon)
    -Premieres
    – Cold Feet, New Blood, Silent Witness. (1 day or more after airing in UK)
    – Classics
    – Blackadder, The Office, Are You Being Served, AbFab, Upstairs Downstairs, Fawlty Towers

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Sling TV expands access to its Cloud DVR, as streaming TV competition heats up
    – Sling TV brought its cloud DVR feature to Fire TV and began charging $5 a month for 50 hours of storage. Not all channels can be recorded. Roku beta testers will not be charged and get 100 hours. New testers have to have an Amazon device to get into the “First Look” beta program, but once in the users can also access the DVR on Android as well as Roku.
  • DirecTV Now is giving early subscribers a free year of HBO
    – DirecTV Now is giving its early adopters HBO access free for a year. If you signed up to DirecTV Now before March 6th you should have access to HBO now.
  • Nintendo says Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon video ‘will come in time’ to the Switch
    – Nintendo America head Reggie Fils-Aime told the Washington Post that Nintendo is talking to a number of companies about bringing services to the Nintendo Switch, “companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon — things that will come in time.” But Fils-Aime stressed that how you play and what games you can play will continue to be Nintendo’s focus.
  • Hulu adds A&E, History and Viceland to its live TV lineup
    – Hulu announced Friday that A&E networks will be available as part of its live TV service when it launches later this year. That includes A&E, History, Lifetime and Viceland. However, Bloomberg reports Viacom may be backing out of a deal with Hulu. CBS, Fox, Disney and Time Warner channels are expected to be available at launch.
  • Facebook will stream live MLS soccer matches this season
    – Facebook signed a deal with Univision to stream 22 Major League Soccer matches in 2017. There will also be 40 Matchday Live analysis shows exclusively on Facebook. The first match available on Facebook will be Chicago Fire at Atlanta United FC at 4PM ET on March 18th. Facebook has a deal with Liga MX and is reportedly in talks with Major League Baseball.

Dispatches from the Front

Hey Tom, Brian and Bryce,

I am forwarding this link to an article that extols the virtues of the new ATSC 3.0 digital over the air broadcast standard. From what I see it could be very beneficial for cordkillers. The broadcast signal is going to be stronger and have adaptable frequencies that can travel farther from the source and penetrate deeper into the home for much better reception. You will also be able to get a receiver box for the signal that can be hooked up to your home network so you can distribute it throughout the house from one source. The new standard will also allow broadcasters to deliver their signal to targeted areas for specific purposes. Portable devices such as smartphones and or tablets will also be able to receive the signal.

– Cliff

 

 

Hello Cordkillers

Just wanted to drop a note saying we signed up for YouTube Red explicitly for no commercials and YouTube Red originals. We always use the YouTube Music app and I have a teenager so we had to get access to the Dan and Phil Live Tour content that is exclusively on Red. To be honest, I’m so used to YouTube not having commercials now I forget people get ads and get very angry when I see one because I forgot to login.

Thanks for the great show!

– Dominic

 

 

 

 Brian,

I am one of those people that loves my YouTube Red subscription. How can you not love not seeing ads?

Some background: Our primary source of content for our Living Room TV is YouTube. Last summer, I was getting really annoyed with YouTube showing me ads for R-rated horror movies on the TV. While they were actually relevant to my interests, my 6 year old daughter was watching with me most of the time! And I really didn’t want a separate account for the TV. Right about then, YouTube offered me Red for the entire summer for $3, so I jumped on it, and just kept it after the three months were up. Can’t imagine going back to ad infested YouTube.

Amusingly my experience is opposite of Tom’s: I HATE GOOLE PLAY MUSIC! I used the Google Play Music App with my own (legit purchased) music before getting Red, and really liked it. Now the voice search is useless: There’s no way to tell it to play *my* music, and instead it’s bound and determined to stream! Meaning when I ask for a song by The Returners while driving home from work, suddenly I’m listening to Frank Sinatra! Even though the song I want is on my phone! Even if you tell it use downloaded songs only, it turns that feature off the moment you voice search.

Honestly if I could get Red without Google Play Music, I’d take that in a heartbeat.

– Chris

 

 

 

 

Long time listener, Ben, here. I’m a software engineer by profession and recently have heard more and more of my co-workers are using Android/Kodi boxes to access day-of movies and to stream any shows they want for free. We all know doing this is illegal (I’m not a lawyer of course) but I was wondering if you guys could lay down some facts for these wayward coworkers for me?

Their argument for doing this seems to hinge on 2 insane points:
1. It doesn’t say it’s illegal to do this like it does at the beginning of DVDs/Blurays.
2. Streaming isn’t the same as downloading, and is therefore legal.

I know I’ve read recent articles about some re-sellers of “fully loaded” Kodi boxes in the UK getting into trouble with the law, but I’d really appreciate it if you could scare straight the folks that think it’s Ok to steal.

Keep up the great work on the show, and thanks.
Your boss,
– Ben 

 

 

 

 

“I was inspired by a recent emailer’s Chicken Challenge result with his DIRECTV account. I have the HD Genie DVR with two additional miniGenies and pay $150 a month.

I anticipated having no DIRECTV for the weekend but the chance of saving a good chunk of change outweighed the possibility of missing the next The Walking Dead, if I had to wait for customer retention to call back in a day or two.

I got a regular service rep and I explained that, based on my viewing habits, I could buy the shows I wanted to watch and it would be much cheaper than my $150 a month bill, so please cancel my account. Between you and me, I hadn’t looked at a single price comparison.

The rep offered to reduce my bill to $106 a month but I said that was still too high and to please cancel the account. He quickly came back to me with a price of $86 a month for the next year and could throw in a special they were running where I’d get HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax for 6 months with no need to cancel when the time was up. (I declined the free sportsball package as no one in our house watches sports.) I felt that was quite fair for the package and equipment and “”reluctantly”” accepted his offer, saving me about $65 a month.

Onward, Chicken Challengers!
Keep the great work!

– Chris

 

Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers