Cordkillers 209 – Watch Something Prescient (w/ Anthony Lemos)

Cordkillers / February 27th, 2018

Reboots galore, Legion’s coming back, and a Fox News superfan channel. With special guest Anthony Lemos ( ritualmisery.com )

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CordKillers: Ep. 209 – Watch Something Prescient
Recorded: February 26 2018
Guest: Anthony Lemos

Intro Video

Primary Target

How to Watch

  • Fox News to launch an over-the-top streaming service, Fox Nation
    – Fox News is starting its over the top streaming service in Q4
    – Designed for Fox News Superfan.
    – “Fox Nation” will have live exclusive daily programming
    – access to exclusive events, library of 20 years fo Fox News programming
    – No pricing set yet. Will be paid unlike CBS News.
    – Fox is describing it as “supplemental” to Fox News Channel and refers to it as as an “over-the-top opinion platform” in its announcement.
  • CBS launches a 24/7 streaming sports news network, CBS Sports HQ
    – CBS launched CBS Sports HQ, a 24 hour streaming sports news channel. It’s available for free on most platforms in the CBS Sports app. Viewers will be able to watch previously streamed segments.

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Disney loses in Redbox copyright row
    – Last December Disney filed a lawsuit over Redbox selling digital download codes for Disney films separate from the DVDs the codes came in. The Hollywood Reporter says a California federal judge rejected Disney’s request for an injunction to stop the practice, saying the wording on the box was not an enforceable contract and that Disney was misusing copyright law in trying to prevent the sales. Redbox has distribution deals with other studios like Warner Bros., which allows it to buy physical DVDs and Blu-rays and then offer them as rentals at its kiosks. But with Disney, Redbox buys retail copies of the films and rents those discs, and also sells the digital download codes from the physical copies at a fraction of the price.
  • Sling TV now has 2.2M subscribers, making it the largest internet-based live TV service
    – Dish announced Sling TV now has 2.2 million subscribers putting it ahead of DirecTV Now which last announced 1.2 million. PS Vue is estimated to have 670,000. Sling also announced the NBA League Pass service which costs $29 a month is available as an add-on.
  • OnePlus 5/5T update enables Netflix playback in HD, but you have to mail the phone in
    – The OnePlus 5 and 5T cannot play Netflix video in HD because it shipped without Google’s Level 1 Widevine DRM. OnePlus can now update the handsets but only with a physical connection from an authenticated PC, meaning users would have to ship their device to OnePlus in order to get the update that would allow them to watch Netflix in HD. OnePlus will pay for courier costs and promises to turn the phones back around in less than 5 working days.
  • Apple will disconnect ‘obsolete’ first-gen Apple TV from iTunes in May
    – Apple is making security updates to its iTunes service that will mean it won’t work with older devices. Among the now obsolete devices are the 11-year-old original Apple TV as well devices running Windows XP and Windows Vista. The update will cut off the devices starting May 25th.
  • FilmStruck Expands its Movie Library to Offer Iconic Hollywood Classics Through a New Partnership with Warner Bros. Digital Networks
    – Turner’s FilmStruck is partnering with its corporate sister Warner Bros. Digital Networks to add more old films to the Filmstruck library. That includes some big names like Citizaen Kane, Rebel without a Cause and Casablanca. FilmStruck is $7 a month or $11 a month to add the Criterion Collection.

Dispatches from the Front

Hi Brian and Tom,

I live in a region where Netflix carries a fair bit of periodically released content. Sometimes there is a delay of only a day after broadcast in the home market (Star Trek Discovery on CBS All Access), sometimes a week (Black Lightning on The CW) and in the case of David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” on Netflix, an entire month.

I used to use “My List” to remind me when such shows were available but the notification algorithm has gotten to the point where it lets me know when a new episode is available, without ever having to manually tag a show as something I’d be interested in watching again.

My notifications are generally a mix of returning shows and new shows I might like. Even if I get 3 notifications for the week, they never feel ‘spammy’.

I suspect the system works well for me because of my usage patterns (Netflix is used several times a week.) Your mileage may vary 😉

Thanks,

– Graham 

 

 

B&T

Something very strange happened to me in the night on Feb 23. I was watching Netflix with my fiance and between episodes it signed me out and asked for my credit card info to resubscribe… I knew this must have been a mistake or a glitch on my ps4 so I tried to load Netflix on a few other devises. All the same. None of my credit card info has changed and the card is active.

After resubscibing with the same card it logged in just fine, but I think I was given new options for tiers… A $15 ultra HD 4 logins at once and a $10(I think) for us and 2 logins at once.

I’m curious if anyone else has had the same thing happen, I googled it but didn’t find anything.

– Gaspare

 

 

 

Hi Brian and Tom

I have not yet finished watching the first season of Star Trek Discovery but I have discovered how I will be watching it and wanted to share in case other were waiting for the whole season to become available.
…

The … thing that turned me off to CBS All Access was the complete lack of Dolby 5.1 or any other kind of surround sound. This is a huge let down!…

Last night I was browsing for shows on Amazon Prime Video on my Shield TV and noticed they were advertising an addon CBS All Access subscription. I clicked on the .. page and they had a 5.1 icon listed with each episode. I thought it might be a mistake, but thought I might as well try …. and was offered a week long free trial, turned on an episode of Discovery and was happy to see my receiver switch over to DD+ 5.1 audio!

Now we have a week of commercial free CBS All Access at no cost if we cancel before the first bill. More than enough time to watch all episodes of Star Trek Discovery and we get to enjoy it with 5.1 surround sound in our home theater!

If other listeners have been waiting for the season to be complete before signing up for CBS AA, I recommend going through Amazon Prime Video if they have it. Watch the whole season for free if you watch it in less than a week.

Thanks for the show!
(I’m a few episodes behind on CordKillers, sorry if you guys already talked about this)

 

 

 

Hey Killers,

My Dad got Sling TV Blue a little less than a year ago, and I realized that the streaming video quality from Sling TV is probably the worst that I’ve seen out of online video streaming. Of course, OTA is going to have higher quality than streaming video, but it hit me last night when my Dad was watching college basketball on FS1. I walked by and was struck by how good the video quality was. The frame rate was really good, the color was vibrant, and it didn’t seem to have as much noise as usual. I casually said to him “Hey, that looks really good for Sling TV.” However, he replied “Sling TV? No, this is Fox Sports Go.” I had not expected such a noticeable difference between Fox Sports Go and Sling TV.
You guys have tested probably all of the live streaming services; what has your experience been with the other services’ video quality when compared to cable, OTA, and TV Anywhere apps?

Sincerely in Christ,
– Amar

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 208 – Red is the New YouTube

Cordkillers / February 20th, 2018

Hulu’s gonna make money (promise!), Netflix gets chatty, and Twitter’s going local. 

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CordKillers: Ep. 208 – Red is the New YouTube
Recorded:  February 19 2018
Guest: None

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Hulu is going to be big and profitable, according to Disney’s chief strategy officer
    – Hulu loses close to $1 billion a year
    – Disney’s chief strategy officer, Kevin Mayer said “It takes an investment for sure, and we’re happy to undertake that. There’s going to be a big, profitable service.”
    – Lots of pundits seem to think Comcast will yank licensing rights from Hulu if Disney takes over Fox’s share of the service.
    – But Mayer talked about selling shows directly to consumers.

How to Watch

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys,

I don’t have a TV, and watch broadcasts via Youtube TV. The interface is great for me, and I love watching on various other devices (i.e. cell phone).

My girlfriend cut the DISH cord and was trying PS Vue with a Roku. She found the interface/experience frustrating. So when Roku added Youtube TV, I convinced her to try it out… and we have a winner!

Two thumbs up for Youtube TV.

Thanks, your 1/2000 boss,

– Steve

 

 

 

Hi Tom/Bryan – With T-Mobile’s impending launch of yet another streaming service with their purchase of Layer 3, here is one way they can differentiate themselves. Provide a box that runs on their LTE and is not data capped. The one main reason I haven’t been able to move to streaming only is because we regularly hit our Comcast 1TB limit even with Cable. So if there is way I can stream and not hit my data limit I will be extremely swayed.

Looking for your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
– Josh

 

 

 

Tom and Brian,

Day one supporter love the show. Thought I would share a funny story, that shows just how far we still have to go.

I got engaged two years ago, and my fiance could not get on board with just having internet. She needed cable.

So the Cox bill was $250 a month, 3 tvs, DVR, internet, HBO, Showtime, Starz.

We also have a 1TB cap, and $50 of my bill was to add an additional 500GB. (3 teenage boys will blow through a cap pretty quickly.)

After living with me for the past two years, she finally realized that, in fact, she never used the cable box anymore, and agreed that we could cut the cord. Success!!!

So I called COX and told them I just wanted an unlimited internet plan. NO GO. The best they could do was $180 a month for JUST Internet, which included me paying the extra $50 to get a 1.5 TB cap.

And that was all they could do. Sorry, take it or leave it. So, $180 + about another $80 for Hulu with Live TV, and Premium Channels and I would be back where I started.

So I called AT&T.

And here is where it gets nuts.

Internet alone is $70. I can live with that, but it has a 1TB cap, and their price for overages are nuts.

BUT, if I added Direct TV, they had a bundle that gave me UNLIMITED Internet and DirectTV for $72 a month for the first year. Going to $112 the second year. I could live with this. And I wouldn’t need the Hulu Live TV option.

I said great, but we can skip the dish install, and I would just like to get DirectTV NOW.

NO GO.

I had to get the dish and cable box.

So, they sent a guy out who spent 8 hours installing the dish, wiring the house, etc. INSANE.

End of the day, I am all in is $72 for unlimited Internet and DirectTV, and about $40 for all the premium channels (I decided to get them through AMAZON, as you can now tell Alexa to pretty much do everything on a FireTV and it now has deep integration into channels. “Alexa, play This Is Us” “Getting This is Us on Hulu”, but that integration is an entirely different email.)

So I’m all in at $112 for the first year and $162 for the second. Total savings of $2712 over the next two years.

Keep up the good work.

Your Boss,

– BrettFM

 

 

 

I am hoping the Game of Thrones creators will take the Star Wars universe in a different direction in the same way Deadpool took the Marvel movies in a different direction. What are the chances that they will bring the nudity, sex and graphic violence of Game of Thrones to a rated R Star Wars movie?

– Ken

 

 

 

Re: Ep. 207 – ViaCon
In episode 207 your guest mentioned how the kids in Disney show give no respect to their parents. This really struck a cord with me. I noticed this 10 years ago with my daughter. That was the catalyst to get me to finally cut the cord and we have not looked back since.

– George

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers

It’s Spoilerin’ Time 207 – Black Mirror wrap-up, Altered Carbon, Counterpart

Cordkillers / February 14th, 2018

Brian’s got words about Altered Carbon, Counterpart gets a heart, and we round out the back-half of the new Black Mirror season.

00:58 – Altered Carbon (101-102, Brian’s take)
03:49 – Black Mirror (404 – Hang the DJ)
07:19 – Black Mirror (405 – Metalhead)
09:16 – Black Mirror (406 – Black Museum)
12:41 – Countertpart (104)
21:29 – Deadwood (108)

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Cordkillers 205 – MoviePass Takes a Pass (w/ Mike TV)

Cordkillers / January 30th, 2018

What’s the best streaming TV service? MoviePass can make money. Thor: Leak-narok. With special guest Mike TV.

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CordKillers: Ep. 205 – MoviePass Takes a Pass
Recorded: January 29 2018
Guest: MikeTV

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • How does MoviePass make money
  • Theater subscription service MoviePass snaps up its first film
  • MoviePass stops support for some large AMC theaters
    – Wired’s Brian Barrett has an excellent article called “HOW DOES MOVIEPASS MAKE MONEY? WE’RE STARTING TO FIND OUT”
    – Costs are for the actual tickets which it pays full price for plus customer support which has had some failures.
    – More users means more data which MoviePass hopes to use as leverage.
    – MoviePass subscribers go for indie movies. Indie studios can benefit most from a surge in ticket sales.
    – 3% of all domestic box office is purcahsed by MoviePass. That jumps to 10% when MoviePass promotes a movie. It has more than 4 contracts for promoting movies.
    – As they get more subscribers the potential lift gets better which attarcts big studios not just indies.
    – MoviePass investing in films
    – MoviePass also is using its data to decide what ckind of films to buy at Sundance.
    – Bought American Animals for $3 million alongside indie studio the Orchard.
    – This also can pay off in streaming and rental revenue down the line.
    – How to deal with Theaters.
    – MoviePass has stopped allowing customers to use its service at 10 premium AMC theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston in order to get the theater chain to cooperate with the service. MoviePass offers unlimited tickets for a monthly fee while it pays full price to the theaters. It wants a cut of the ticket prices and concession sales which AMC refuses to consider.
    – MoviePass subscribers spend more on concessions because they’re not paying for the ticket.
     

How to Watch

  • PSVue
    – PSVue is best overall at the moment. Solid DVR that even with the 28 day limit is hardly noticed since most channels rerun things. Wide selection of channels. Downside is mobile restrictions to app which can be offset by logging into network-based apps with PSVue account but can be wnnoying if you want to watch DR’ed shows while traveling
  • Hulu
    – Hulu – This is an up and comer and makes a lot of sense if you watch a lot of shows in the basic Hulu service already. The channel lineup is competitive and the DVR service is solid. It does have an annoying habit of substituting on demand for DVR’ed content which isn’t a problem if you pay fro cmmerical free but keep that in mind when comparing costs. Has a great way of tracking things like sports for your favorite team. Interface needs work but that work is in beta and should come out soon, taking away one of its biggest downsides
  • SlingTV
    – Sling TV – Weird package setup makes figuring out best buy a little difficult. But it has Viacom channels and although it’s DVR isn’t flawless it’s getting ebtter. Sling TV seems best for people who want to watch both in home and mobile.
  • YouTube TV
    – YouTube TV – This one’s great if you want broadcast nets and big acable channels at a solid monthly pricve without having to decide between packages. It has an unlimited DVR and no mobile restrictions in the US. One big disadvantage used to be you could only use a mobile device, which meant you needed to chromecast or airplay it to get it on a TV. But apps are out for Xbox and some smart TVs and coming for the Apple TV. So the main downside is the smaller channel lineup.
  • DirecTVNow – DVR someday
  • Recode’s channel lineup guide tool

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Netflix’s ‘Mudbound’ scores four Oscar nominations
    – The Academy award nominations were announced last Tuesday. Netflix original movie Mudbound got nominations for best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best adapted screenplay (Dee Rees and Virgil Williams), best original song (“Mighty River”)and best cinematography (Rachel Morrison). Mudbound is the story of two families farming the Mississippi Delta. Netflizx documentary features Icarus and Strong Island also got nominated. Amazon’s The Big Sick got nominated for best screenplay (Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon).
  • Thor: Ragnarok leaks onto the web a month early after huge Movies Anywhere mix-up
    – A bug in Movies Anywhere let people who preordered Thor: Ragnarok from Vudu download it from iTunes on Apple TV. Thor: Ragnarok is scheduled to become available February 20.
  • Redbox Demands Disney Lose Right to Enforce Movie Copyrights
    – In response to Disney’s lawsuit against Redbox for selling download codes from Blu-rays, Redbox is suing Disney for copyright misuse, interference and false advertising. Redbox alleges Disney is telling retailers not to sell copies of discs to Redbox. The suit also objects to Disney’s claims that a purchaser may not rent or sell the components of a package that includes a download code.
  • Damien Chazelle Drama Scores Straight-to-Series Order at Apple
    – Apple has ordered a series from La La Land’s Damian Chezelle. No word on what the series will be about but Chezelle will write and direct every episode of the series, as well as serving as executive producer/ Chezelle is also EP on a Netflix musical drama called The Eddy being shot in France.
  • Robert Zemeckis Is Producing a TV Show That Sounds a Little Like Lost
    – Robert Zemeckis is producing a pilot for NBC called Manifest about a plane that disappears mid-flight and reappears years later. No time has passed for the passengers on board though.
  • Meg Whitman to lead Katzenberg’s mobile media startup NewTV
    – Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co CEO Meg Whitman will become chief executive of DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg’s mobile media firm NewTV. The company plans to make Hollywood level short-form videos for mobile.

Dispatches from the Front
On the topic of international shows on Netflix, one potential use is for language learning. It used to take months or years for translated shows to come out on rental DVDs or cable TV here in Japan. But now, Netflix originals have a global release, and some US broadcast shows, with English & Japanese subtitles, go live on Netflix shortly after their US airdates.

This is a game changer, giving language learners an easy way to watch some current shows, instead of always being a season behind. And staying current allows them to participate in the global conversation on social media in real time!

Not to mention Netflix’s model allows for the release of subtitled versions of shows which would otherwise be unprofitable to release internationally, allowing me to get you hooked on Terrace House while also FINALLY being able to show my namesake TV show, Firefly, to my non-English speaking Japanese friends.

– Kaylee

 

 

I live in NW Wi. 5 miles from either of 2 small town and get 65m internet from Charter. 2 providers within sight in opposite directions provide 1g service. Sunday a young lady from one of these shows up at my house offering to bury fiber to my house for free. I said yes and we talked about pricing. I suggested the best value might be if I included TV. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said “You don’t want that. It’s too expensive and we just raised our rates”

– Jim

 

 

 

I believe you guys touched on VPN’s a maybe 6 months or so ago but as I remember it a good chunk of the conversation was about being able to make it look like you’re in a different area than you actually were to watch some sports and other things.

I’ve heard that now that net neutrality is no more that if your isp were to slow down certain services like Netflix that going through a vpn might prevent them from doing so.

I was curious what your thoughts were, what vpn companies you like, and what’s the best way to set it up? For example can you get a router set up so that all the devices connected to it are always going through the vpn? With several roku’s around the house I don’t want to have to log into something every time I use it.

Thanks for all the help, love the show!!!!

– Bill

 

 

Hey guys. I’m really enjoying your show. First I want to give some feedback from the last two shows. John wrote in asking about Hallmark. I guess you guys aren’t aware of Hallmark Movies’ new Netflix -like offering of Hallmark Movies Now (www.hmnow.com ) for $5.99/mo. We were visiting my parents over the holidays and my wife made me watch a bunch of the Hallmark Christmas movies and we saw the advertisement for their new service. Just one more option for cordkillers out there with wives who want more crying in cordkilling.

Second, I am one of those who like the theater-like environment to watch my movies at home with surround sound and floor shaking bass. My kids love when I turn up the bass for the opening train scene in Polar Express so they can feel the rumble of the train pulling up next to the kid’s house.

Also, I guess I am one of the few that cut the cord in order to save money and have actually done so. I created my own dvr setup with a Raspberry Pi with LibreElec (minimalist Kodi), an HDHomerun tuner and OTA antenna. We only subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime (although we don’t watch much on AP). The hardware setup cost about as much as 3 months of cable bills, but we haven’t paid for TV for the last 5 years. I’m just waiting for ESPN and FoxNews to start their own streaming options (apart from Cable verification) and then they’ll get my money each month too.

Thanks for the show. Keep up the great work.

– Tim

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers