Cordkillers 53 – Blasphemy

Cordkillers / January 13th, 2015

Internet TV arrives in Hollywood, why it’s OK NOT to cut the cord, and a full Windows PC that plugs into your TV’s HDMI port for $149.

 

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CordKillers: Ep. 53 – Blasphemy
Recorded: January 12, 2015
Guest: Lamarr Wilson

Intro Video 

Primary Target

  • Amazon, Netflix Win Big At The Golden Globes
  • Amazon wins
    – Jeffrey Tambor (Best Actor, comedy or musical TV) (Beat Gervais in Derek)
    – Transparent, best comedy or musical series (Beat OitNB, Girls and Silicon Valley)
  • Netflix Win
    – Kevin Spacey, best actor in TV drama
  • Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin plugged upcoming Netflix show Grace and Frankie
    – One of the award intros remarked it doesn’t matter what screen you watch a show on…
    – Hulu plugs telling people to watch shows
  • No major network show made the cut for nomination as best comedy series (Broadcast TV took 2 awards, best supporting actress drama (Joanne Froggatt, Downton Abbey) and Best Actress TV comedy or musicl, Gina Rodriguez CW’s Jane the Virgin))

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

Front Lines

  • Verizon CEO Says Video Effort to Debut in Second Half, AOL Acquisition Report Inaccurate
    –Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam speaking at the Citi Media Conference indicated the companies online video service will debut in 2nd half of the year. Also it will focus on mobile and wireless.
    -Why mobile? Well McAdam said: “Millennials are not signing up for 300 channels that they have to sit in front of the TV at 8 o’clock to see a certain show. (Our service) is probably going to be a 20- or 30-channel offering, and the content that we see will be very compelling.”
  • David Cross’ new movie will be the first feature film distributed in a BitTorrent Bundle
    –David Cross of Mr. Show and Arrested Development fame is showcased his movie Hits sat Sundance last year to mixed reviews. So Feb. 13 he’ll distribute it as a pay-what-you-want BitTorrent Bundle, the first feature film distributed as a Bundle. He’s also launching a Kickstarter to raise $100K to rent theaters and do marketing for pay-what-you-want theater showings.
  • Tablo is building a beautiful Roku app for its cord-cutting DVR
    –Tablo previewed new apps for Roku, Android TV and Fire TV at CES The Roku app should come to users by the end of March. They also showed off Tablo Metro DVR with tiny built-in antennas for folks who live within 25 miles of the TV towers. It’s also expected in March for $249 with two tuner capability.

Under Surveillance

2014 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Brian: $426,279,690
  2. Scott: $412,921,238
  3. Tom: $362,581,351
  4. Brett: $337,754,420
  5. John: $224,307,968
  6. Justin: $154,196,092

Dispatches from the Front

Hey guys,
Is spoilering time strictly for shows that you are currently watching or can we make special requests? I love listening to spoilering time as like a tv digest. I don’t really have (or necessarily want to have) time to watch some shows and spoilering time is like my clif notes to popular tv. Long story short; I love being spoiled! If requests are granted then please spoil for me LOST. I’ve only watched up to season 3 and although I don’t particularly want to watch the rest of the seasons I would like to know how it ends. Love the show!

Your boss,
Adam 

 

 

Hi Guys,
Couple of thoughts from the last show:

Didn’t feel justified sending a message without being a patron, so here I am. Also, I was disappointed to hear that being not being a patron put me in with the majority of your listeners so I am proud to be part of a minority group.

On the subject of the Sling TV service, if a similar service was available in Canada it would boost my chances of cord cutting over 80%, my wife just wants to turn on the TV and watch. She doesn’t want to choose the programming, we have Netflix but even going through that menu can be frustrating and using the internal network becomes frustrating with quality glitches and buffering.

Also Brian being one of your latest bosses, I need you to change your schedule. I fly to England on January 19th so, please change your Hacking the system premier to January 18th, thanks.

Ian in Ontario, Canada.

The Geeky Brit.

 

 

Hey Brian and Tom, I think the “Gear Up” section should be called “Cord Cutlery.”

Thanks, love the show.

Kirk

 

Hi Brian,

Unfortunately, the government (and studios) interpret the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (a predecessor to the DMCA) such that violating your terms and service can be a criminal act. The wording is:

“No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.”

Kind of what a VPN does when you use it to watch content in a region where it is not available.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201

This is pretty much how they threw the book at Aaron Swartz.

Not that any of this is a good thing.

Alan (not a lawyer?) 

 

Greetings, programs. Just wanted to share with you my handy guide for whether or not Sling TV is right for you. Perhaps you and your viewers might find this interesting.

http://www.whatyoupayforsports.com/2015/01/is-sling-tv-right-for-you-a-guide-for-potential-cord-cutters/

Dave Warner
 

 

This may be parsing things too finely, but I wanted to comment that we almost bought one of the Hisense TVs with Roku built in. My non-techy husband was at the store, and called me to discuss what to buy. He said the box indicated that the TV comes with a Roku stick (instead of having the software built into the TV). It was $30-40 more than the same size Hisense TV without the Roku, which is what we ended up buying. Our model only has 3 HDMI ports (if the Roku version is the same, that leaves two open ports — I guess you get what you pay for).

It seems like this is only worth it if you don’t have a Roku already, and even then only marginally. I wanted the software actually built-in to make it easier for my non-techy hubby. We already have 2 Roku boxes.

I’m bringing this up because you often talk about these TVs with stuff built in, and I’m wondering how many of them are really just selling the devices together in the same box, and whether you think this is better or worse than built in.

Love the show!
Beelissa
 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

Cordkillers 51 – I’m Not a Reality Show Kinda Guy

Cordkillers / December 30th, 2014

The Interview hits online, Netflix says goodbye and hello and 4K apps on Vizio.

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CordKillers: Ep. 51 – I’m Not a Reality Show Kinda Guy
Recorded: December 29, 2014
Guest: None

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

2014 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Scott: $378,364,906
  2. Tom: $325,740,292
  3. Brian: $317,556,820
  4. Brett: $223,479,164
  5. John: $133,316,656
  6. Justin: $74,147,621

Dispatches from the Front

Brian,

I already told you… eBay your jail broken first gen AppleTV. You will get enough money to buy at least two current gen AppleTVs in return. Look on eBay and see for yourself. Get it done, and stop bashing the AppleTV!

David

 

 

Hey Brian and Tom,

I just thought you would find this confirmation of the ending of the legend of korra series.
One of your bosses

Rodrigo

 

 

Im now saving 136.00 a month I cut the cable tv and phone and just kept internet went from 187.00 down to 51.00. I spent around 200.00 to install a DB8E antenna on the roof with a four way distribution amp. I live about 40 miles from new orleans and mississippi gulf coast so i have one antenna bay pointed to new orleans and the other to the gulf coast and I get all the channels from both markets a total of 41 channels. I have a roku stick on each of the four tv’s and with the antenna and roku’s with amazon, hulu, and netflix im set.

Randy

 

 

Hi Brian and Tom,

I have been watching you all for a couple of years now and really like the show. I wanted to let you know about this device I came across the other day, it’s called Brilliant TV. It’s from a small start up company near West Palm Beach, FL where I live. From what I can tell, this device seems to be close to what the old Boxee Box use to offer. It’s a small set top box that runs a version of Android and it’s an aggregate of all on-line content that is available for free. To include TV Shows, Movies, sporting events and foreign television as well.

Again, they are a small company and the device is a little expensive.($500 is what they told me but is says $599 on their web site.) However, these guys seem to have done a pretty good job on the delivery of the product from what I saw in the demonstration.

Take a look at this device and see what you think. You can find it at this URL: http://geekypickers.com/product/brillianttv-set-top/

I look forward to hear what you all have to say about this device.

Keep up the great work Brain and Tom.

Jimmy 

 

 

[SPOILER TALK] for The Walking Dead

On the last spoilerin’ time I listened to you mentioned that you stopped reading The Walking Dead comics before the Eugene reveal and I realized that you did the exact same thing as me. I read the comic up to the point where Abraham’s crew appeared and stopped, and I watched the show until the disappointment that was the governor and stopped. My roommates continued to watch the show in the living room where I catch glimpses and can tell what part of the story they are in (me being the only one to have read the comics in the house) and they got to the point where Abraham appeared and I thought “Oh no… I don’t want the crappy show version to ruin the comic for me” (though now that I have seen parts of season 4 and 5 I see that they are taking even more liberties with the source material and is at best loosely based on the comics) so I took the plunge and read (renting from the library) the nearly 100 issues I needed to to catch up, it was the best decision I have made in a long time. The most recently completed story arc literally shook the core of my humanity (maybe not so much, but it was really good), so I suggest that you continue the comics.

TL;DR Continue the walking dead comics!

 

 William

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

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Cordkillers 50 – State-sponsored Satire

Cordkillers / December 23rd, 2014

What should Sony do with The Interview? Will anyone watch Vessel? Do you want a wristband to pause your TV?

 

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CordKillers: Ep. 50 – State-sponsored Satire
Recorded: December 22, 2014
Guest: Justin Robert Young

Intro Video 

Primary Target

  • You Will Get to See “The Interview,” Sony Lawyer Says
  • -Sony lawyer David Boies told Meet the Press Sunday:
    -“Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed.”
    – “What Sony is trying to do is to get the picture out to the public but at the same time to be sure the rights of its    employees and the rights of the movie going public are going to be protected.”

Signal Intelligence

  • Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar Pulls Back the Curtain on Vessel, His YouTube Rival
  • – Jason Kilar posted 12/17 Vessel last week trying to encourage creators to apply.
    – Creators give Vessel a 3-day exclusive
    – Creators paid out of a pool of 60% of subscription revenue PLUS 70% of ad revenue (YT shares out 55% of ad revenue)
    – Has Shane Dawson and Ingrid Nilsen and Alec Baldwin
    – Has Time Inc. and Warner Music Group deals
    – Subscribers pay Vessel $3 a month plus watch ads
    – Free tier has ads too but not the early access
    – Vessel still won’t go live until next year.

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

2014 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Scott: $362,056,280
  2. Tom: $299,168,428
  3. Brian: $201,148,554
  4. Brett: $129,002,243
  5. John: $57,795,715
  6. Justin: $55,114,516

Dispatches from the Front

I think HBO will offer a two tier pricing structure. A 24.99 per month plan and a 19.99 per month plan with a 12 month contract. They will do this to discourage people from signing up just to watch a season of a particular show. I would guess there is more overhead if a lot of people subscribe to watch Game of Thrones and then cancel. Then they resubscribe to watch True Detective and again cancel when that season is over. This type of behavior will happen a lot more with a streaming service as I am sure it will be easier to cancel than trying to cancel from a cable company.

 

Ken

 

 

OK, so as your boss, I thought it would be a good idea for us to have this little chat. You see, as I look at my Patreon, I’ve been your supervisor now for 368 days… you know what that means? It means several things:

1.) I’m not a crappy boss, because you’re still here

2.) I need to give you more work, (see #1)

3.) It’s time for our annual employee performance review – please see attached, sign, and have back on my desk by close of business today.

Also based on you’re scores (if budget allows for it in 2015) there will be a Merritt increase for cost of living allocation, congratulations.

Thank you for your service to the organization, and let’s make 2015 a very successful year.

Your Boss

BigJim <>

 

 

 

Hi guys,
My wife and i just finished watching all episodes of Marco Polo ,we really enjoyed it, well, much more than you guys did. We were really looking forward to your spoilers on Marco Polo, , we agree with your initial critique of the 1 st ep , story really gets better after 3rd ep.

After watching it, what a disappointment the MP segment of spoilers was. you actually dd not even spoil anything. You guys became Shwood & Meritt @themovies, and proceeded to thrash the heck out of MP. Calling it a netflix flop ( maybe to those who didnt watch the entire show) , no story, etc. what bothered me, was you actually formed your opinions, not on 1 ep , but what you assumed the whole movie would be after only watching 45 min of a 500 min movie, wow, i could understand if you watched 5 or 6 eps and give up on it, .
I Just feel you were very harsh on MP, especially, since you spent so little time viewing it.

In past eps, you guys would want to stop watching certain show, but was told by the other, “just stick with it” it get better. imo, MP does get much better., Not games of thrones better, but what show right now does.?

you still might come to same conclusions of MP even if you had watched all episodes , now, that’s fair, but bashing a entire show based only 1 episode, i think thats a disservice to your viewer. But then again, i might be way off .

Some shows/ documentaries we loved an you might want to checkout, or not. Damages, The Killing, Happy Valley, Luther, Ripper Street, Peaky Blinder, Black Fish, Altman, Cray Love, Hot Coffee, Talhotblond, and one the best reality docs ‘Dear Zachary’.

thanks for your time.

cordially,
John G

Oh yeah, love the show

 

 

 

 AHEM! -> “Black Mirror: White Christmas
This feature-length special of Charlie Brooker’s dark drama series stars Mad Men’s Jon Hamm and consists of three interwoven stories. In a mysterious and remote snowy outpost, Matt and Potter share a Christmas meal, swapping creepy tales of their earlier lives in the outside world. Matt is a charismatic American trying to bring the reserved, secretive Potter out of his shell. But are both men who they appear to be? With Rafe Spall and Oona Chaplin
Channel 4 9:00pm Tue 16 Dec”

I guess you’ll have to wait to watch it since you don’t believe in VPN’s 😉

Carlos

 

 

 

Hey guys,
Last summer I wrote in to share my experience of reading the Game of Thrones books after having seen the show. After finishing the last book (and getting depressed when searching for info on the book 6 release) I decided to rewatch the series.
My wife had never expressed any interest in the show and had repeatedly told me that it wasn’t the type of genre she likes. I convinced her to at least watch the first episode with me and told her that she could go back to her other shows afterward. When the credits rolled on that first episode she grabbed the remote and immediately started episode 2. Now she makes me call her Khaleesi.
I thoroughly enjoyed the rewatch. The scenes have so much more meaning to me and I knew who everyone was and where everyone came from. Sharing it with my wife I immediately became that guy, the one who would pause the show every 10 minutes to fill her in on who people were and their back story. I also took great pleasure in seeing her reaction to the big series moments.
Now we both anxiously await the next season and it’ll definitely be a show that’s been added to the “don’t commit TV adultery” list.

Thanks,
Scott from Houston

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box