Cordkillers 146 – D-U-M Dumb!

Cordkillers / November 22nd, 2016

Apple makes a play to be your default set-top box, Amazon Prime Video expands (sort of), and Hulu tries to get better at recommendations. 

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CordKillers: Ep.  146 – D-U-M Dumb!
Recorded: November 22 2016
Guest: None

Intro Video

Primary Target

How to Watch

  • Amazon Prime Video is going global next month to take on Netflix
    – In a video promoting Amazon’s upcoming car show The Grand Tour, host Jermey Clarkson announced the show will be available in more than 200 countries in December. The show is exclusive to Amazon which seems to mean Amazon Prime Video will be expanding outside its four markets soon. The Grand Tour comes to Amazon Prime Video Friday in the UK, Germany and Japan and went live Thursday in the US. 
  • The Grand Tour: The Official Trailer
    – The Grand Tour. Following a rather public spat, former hosts of BBC’s Top Gear Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have essentially re-launched the show on Amazon Prime Video as The Grand Tour. From the little I’ve seen of Top Gear, The Grand Tour is a pretty faithful recreation of the format: commentary, car ranking, and comedy bits breaking up longer segments on unique and high performance vehicles. The show is bold, each episode being filmed in a travelling tent/studio in a different part of the world with incredible production value, but it’s still bouyed by the hosts’ chemisty. And when I say “production value,” I mean it. There are some very expensive, very short moments in the first episode, but their wow-factor might be worth the price. I’ll leave the surprises for you to enjoy, but it’s a gorgeous, charming show.

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

Dispatches from the Front

Hello Brian & Tom,
I know back in the day the show was at over 2k but now below 1,800. I’m assuming that the money you have coming in from a lesser number is still enough to keep the lights. However, is there a number below which you guys can’t continue? Hopefully we are well above that number. And I doubled my pledge to a whole 2 bucks an episode to help out.

Thanks,

– Norm from Visalia, CA
 

 

Hi Tom and Brian

I’m just wondering what I can expect from Amazon Prime’s video content when Amazon begins full operations in Australia next September? I remember when Netflix started here they had most of their exclusives except for a couple like Star Trek and Breaking Bad that were licensed exclusives. Is the Amazon Prime library full of exclusives that Amazon owns and therefore will in all likely hood appear on day one or are shows like Man in the High Castle and The Tick owned by third parties and could complicate the launch?

– Thanks from Nik.

 

Brian,
While you’re forgetting to cancel your Starz subscription this month, be sure to catch the Starz original, Ash vs Evil Dead.
All of season one is available and most of season two is now in there for your viewing enjoyment. If you love Three Stooges slapstick and way over-the-top blood and guts horror, Ash is the man!
Keep up the fight to rid us of cable
And tune into my podcast, Too Much Scrolling, every Tuesday on the same podcast app you’re using now or on our website toomuchscrolling.com
I’ll see you in the future.
–Steve 

 

Hey guys,

Just one of your free listening, faceless masses here. Just thought you guys should know that some thing’s happened to the Can I Stream It website you say you use on your show. Apparently both the app and website no longer give out current information on streaming options. No clue about when and why, only that I (and many reviewers on the Android app store) have noticed the fallout. Any suggestions for a backup option? thanks.

– Isaac from Portland

 

I’m not a fan of brian’s coined “convenience trumps fidelity” as I’m an advocate for hdr, low compression, and high quality monitors and speakers … but brian’s right.

I have a question for you guys, and maybe the cordkiller community .. I would like to take my box of DVD’s and Bluerays downstairs and port them over to digital licenses. Is there a service out there that does this?

I think Walmart did it for a while, but charged for it, which I think is ridiculous to have to upgrade my license considering they’re going to get user data and behavioral data out of this deal. Ideally I’d love to convert my physical media to itunes or google play at no charge. Is this possible? 

– Joe

Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 145 – The Recline of Cable TV (w/ Brian Dunaway)

Cordkillers / November 15th, 2016

We’re calling it: cord-cutting is real, but people still watch live TV. PSVue has grown-up cable problems with Viacom. With special guest Brian Dunaway.  Brief Dr. Strange spoilers 30:44-31:08.

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CordKillers: Ep. 145 – The Recline of Cable TV
Recorded: November 14 2016
Guest: Brian Dunaway

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • 486,000 Pay-TV Subscribers Cut the Cord in the Third Quarter
    – Pay TV lost 486,000 customers in Q3 down 1.4% – MoffettNathanson about the same as last year in Q3 (432K).
    – Does not include Sling TV’s 204K
    – BTIG est. 8 biggest providers have 88.2 million (off 926K)
    – MoffettNathanson est. total at 96.8mm w/ smaller providers
    – Telecoms (ATT, VZN FiOS) lost at a rate o 11.7% – mostly losing subs to other providers
    – Average Revenue Per User not dropping, so likely not full of skinny bundles or throw-in packages.

How to Watch

  • PlayStation Vue’s streaming TV service is losing all Viacom channels
    – Sony announced Tuesday that it will drop all Viacom-owned channels from its PlayStation Vue service starting Friday, November 11. That includes channels like Comedy Central, Spike and MTV. Sony also announced the addition of BBC America and NBA TV and the future addition of Vice as well as more CBS and Fox local stations. 
    – “As part of our ongoing evaluation of the PlayStation Vue offering, we have determined that removing the bundle of channels from Viacom is the best way for us to continue to offer the most compelling value to our customers.”
     

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • The truth about how much live TV we’re watching
    – A TiVo study found that 80% of all broadcast TV viewing takes place live. 18% of viewing is time shifted up to three days and 2% is time-shifted 4-7 days. On cable 91% of viewing happens live. Primtime time broadcast shows are recorded more often with 23% in the 3 day window for broadcast and cable is recorded less often with only 11% in 3-day. Exceptions exist network by network especially among younger audiences. The CW, for instance, is only viewed live 56 percent of the time.
  • FCC Has ‘Serious Concerns’ About AT&T Direct TV Mobile Video Service
    – The FCC’s wireless bureau sent a letter to AT&T outlining concerns about the company’s practice of not counting DirecTV video against customer data caps. AT&T allows any video service to exempt its data from AT&T customer caps for a fee. The FCC said the practice “may obstruct competition and harm consumers.” AT&T says DirecTV pays for the right to exempt customers from caps just like any non-AT&T owned business would. Friday AT&T announced its Stream Saver program will reduce customer’s video streams to standard definition starting in early 2017 to help save data costs. 
  • TiVo’s leaked Mavrik is a cloud-based DVR
    – ZatzNotFunny reported last week on leaked images of a new TiVo model called Mavrik. The device includes the ability to record OTA television to cloud storage for streaming from TiVo apps. Details on storage options cost and release date have not been discovered.  
  • ESPN Continues to Plague Disney as Revenue Misses
    – Disney reported that revenue from its cable networks fell 6.8% last quarter to $3.96 billion. Analysts had expected $4.13 billion. For comparison Disney’s movie business rose 1.57% to $1.81 billion. 
  • Vudu’s upgraded mobile app brings offline rental viewing
    – Vudu updated its Android and iOS apps with the ability to download rented movies for mobile. Vudu also announced support for movie extras and iOS users get 1080p and airplay functions. You can also buy DVDs and Blu-ray from within the apps.

Dispatches from the Front

Today is a dark day, and no I am not referring to the election results.

Vue adds BBC America (yay) and NBA TV (yawn). And announced they are removing 20 some odd Viacom channels including Nick, Comedy Central, and many more. Thanks for refusing to pay an arm and a leg in carriage fees under the guise of protecting me, but you are keeping the difference. Hey, Sony … leave the channels or lower the price!

So now, in Miami, I can give up my DVR and half my locals and go to Sling. Or, wait for DirecTV Now and give up different locals, no word if there’s anything DVR oh and if you like NBC on your TV, too bad suckers!

Or I can wait and see what compromises these dinosaurs force on Hulu, Google, and maybe one day Apple’s service.

Why can’t I have been born a Millennial? Then I wouldn’t care about these legacy networks and the shows I like on them. Instead, I’m the last generation that needs my Must See TV. Another plus millennial me would have had… I wouldn’t have to be 40.

Long email short, one day we will give up linear TV in my house. Every year there’s more on Netflix, Hulu and Prime. Soon I’ll choose to live without network and cable shows or just buy them or watch them a year after the fact for free on Netflix.

Maybe the networks epitaph will read “Oops, we finally annoyed our last customer away.

– Scott

 

 

 

I’m in my 11th grade year and we were doing a college tour. I saw one of the students watching a show on their laptop and got to thinking: if I use the same family account I use now when I go to collge is it illegal? My family won’t be giving me the password at that point, and at the time that they gave me the password it was totally legal for them to do so. I thought that the FCC ruling specifically mentions sharing passwords, not using the account.

From,
– Amar
 

 

To Brian & Tom,
After listening to you two talking about Sling TV nearly every episode, thought I try it out on the one week trial.
I only have DSL with an average of 5mbs down. But it has worked great so far. On my cell phone, tablets, desktop, and Roku. No hiccups. I have mainly binged on ESPN, CNN, and AMC. I got the Orange bundle. The other channels are in my opinion the usual crap you get in a cable bundle.
It is weird seeing all the commercials! I cut the Cord seven years ago and I am used to the commercial free VOD services.
I believe I will keep SlingTV until the football season is over. I did miss ESPN the past seven years.
FYI from a Cordkillers Fan!

– Michael

 

 

 

Comcast putting Netflix on it’s cable box may be a smart move for Netflix, but it’s not good for cord cutters. Do you think it is a coincidence that this happened within months of Comcast enforcing their data caps? This is just a double down on those data caps. Comcast says, “Hey, quit complaining. Just watch Netflix on your set top box, and you’ll have plenty of data.” Don’t forget, their set top box can cost more per month than your Netflix subscription.

 

– Sam

 

 

 

  •  

Hi Brian and Tom,

Would you like to check out our new eBook How to Watch TV Without Cable? Also, it’d be awesome if you could consider giving us a testimonial we could post on our site (that is, if you like the book).

Here’s the book’s MOBI version:
http://cordcutting.com/files/How-to-Watch-TV-Without-Cable.mobi

…and here’s a PDF:
http://cordcutting.com/files/How-to-Watch-TV-Without-Cable.pdf

Cheers,
– Ville

 

Links

 

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 144 – Star Inflation

Cordkillers / November 8th, 2016

Criterion Collection goes solo, Sony’s PS Vue hits the PC and Twitter takes on more live.

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CordKillers: Ep. 144 – Star Inflation
Recorded: November 7 2016
Guest: None

Intro Video


Primary Target

  • After Delay, Turner Launches Netflix-Style FilmStruck Service With Classic, Indie and Foreign Movies
    – The Criterion Collection, pulled its classic movies out of Hulu as of November 11, in order to team up with Turner Classic Movies on a service called FilmStruck. ThFilmStruck launched Tuesday in the US for $6.99 amonth without the Criterion movies or $10.99 a month or $99 a year with the Criterion Collection. FilmStruck will pull its movies form indie studios like Janus and Zeitgeist along with major studios. 70 curated programming themes will be refreshed regularly along with bonus commentaries, outtakes, interviews and introductions. Its available on Web Apple TV, Fire TV, Android and iOS.


How to Watch

  • Sony’s PlayStation TV service comes to Mac and PC browsers
    – Sony’s PlayStation Vue is now available in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 10+ browsers at vue.playstation.com/watch/. The new browser version has a mini player that can shrink down in the corner while you browse. 
  • Roku TV sets can now pause live TV
    – Roku updated its Smart TVs with the ability to pause live television for up to 90 minutes and listen to audio privately on a phone running the Roku app. The televisions must have an antenna and at least 16GB of USB storage attached for the pausing to work. Roku OS 7.5 started rolling out to TV sets Tuesday and should reach all of them by the holidays.


What to Watch


What We’re Watching


Front Lines

  • DirecTV Now Leak Reveals Channels, Promotions, Challenges of AT&T’s TV Service
    – Variety reports DirecTV will give away Apple TVs and Fire TV Sticks to customers who sign up for 3 months of its streaming TV service. The details come from customer su pport documents inadvertently posted online. The documents also list channels from CBS, Fox, Univision and Sony Pictures. DirecTV had not announced deals with those providers. A few other tidbits: 72-hour catchup for some but not all channels. And NBC local channels will only be available on PC and mobile, not set-top box or Smart TV.
  • Nielsen Stands by Report of Big Cable Subscriber Losses at Viacom, Time Warner, Disney
    – After an “extensive” review, Nielsen stands by its estimate that 82 of 119 networks lost subscribers in the last month and ESPN dropped 621,000. Ten networks lost more than ESPN including 1.1 million for CMT Nielsen attributes the losses to cord-cutting not cord shaving. Several networks maintain the losses do not match their internal figures. 
  • YouTube is now streaming HDR video
    – Google enabled support for HDR video on YouTube Monday. Creators like MysteryGuitarMan, Jacob and Katie Schwarz and Abandon Visuals all worked with YouTube to have HDR content ready and now anyone can upload HDR video. Google Chromecast Ultra supports HDR playback.
  • Netflix might get offline playback after all (but maybe not in the US)
    – Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told CNBC the company is considering offline playback for developing markets. Sarandos said, “I think as we get into more and more (of the) undeveloped world and developing countries that we want to find alternatives for people to use Netflix easily.”
  • Hulu signs deals with Disney, Fox for new streaming TV service
    – Hulu announced Tuesday it has signed deals with Fox and Disney to add programming to its streaming TV service expected to launch in early 2017. Hulu specifically called out entertainment, news and sports from Fox and ABC and ESPN from Disney. Time Warner owns 10% of Hulu and has confirmed its networks like TBS and Cartoon Network will be on the service. 
  • Netflix Launching on Comcast X1 Next Week, Could Yield Up to 5 Million New Netflix Subs
    – Netflix arrives on Comcast’s X1 cable boxes this week. Viewers can sign up fro Netflix through the box and add the subscription fee to their cable bill. Analysts expect Netflix could add 4-5 million new subscribers through the boxes. 
  • Sling TV goes after parents with launch of new on-demand Kids channel
    – SlingTV has added an on demand kids channel called Sling Kids. For $5 a month you get access to NickToons, TeenNick, Nick Jr., Boomerang, Cartoon Network, ducktv and Baby TV on the Blue package or if you have the orange package, add Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD. The programming is divided into 2-4, 5-7- and 8-11 age groups. Sling also added news channels Cheddar and TheBlaze. 


Dispatches from the Front

Hey guys. Thought I would tell you a heartwarming story. On Wednesday, I wavered back and forth about setting my Silicon Dust Homerun HD to record game 7 of the World Series. Meh, but I’m a Reds fan. When my shift at work was over, the game was in extra innings with a rain delay. Now I was chomping at the bit to get home!

I get home and my wife is watching a show on Plex in our living room on the TV with the good OTA. Well I’m not going to boot her off the TV so I mulled it over. Eureka! I went into our office and opened Windows Media Center, went to live TV, and got to see this historic moment in sports history!!!

I am a proud cord cutter and thankful to you guys for providing many ways to watch our content!

– Adam in Oklahoma

 

 

 

 

Tom and Brian,

The Apple TV single authentications will be awesome. I am a cordkiller and find myself reauthenticating almost weekly with many of the apps – and there are at least 15-20 of them. Mind you, not all of the are this way. In fact, well established networks like Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Amazon ask for re-authentication rarely, if at all. But networks like Comedy Channel, AMC, NBC Sports and many others seem to require authentication several times per month. It’s maddening as I have to get out my computer and tediously go through the authentication over and over. If Apple is successful at this, it will be amazing, even if Netflix isn’t included.

Thanks for your show. I am your boss.

– Steve

 

 

I’d like to watch election coverage, but my over the air reception is spotty. I’m a cordcutter with Roku, Xbox, and the Amazon Fire. Any suggestions for how to watch on TV? I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon, and HBO, but nothing with a live component. I’m puzzling over Twitter video, and whether that’s a PC only thing.

 

 

If you want to watch the US election as a cordcutter and you haven’t already you have all the options. Twitter will have coverage, Facebook will have coverage, many networks are taking down their paywalls for coverage. However, if it’s not yet past Tuesday night and you’re looking for another option instead – – Romany Malco is the host of Russel Simmon’s 2016 All Def Digital “Roast of America,” Tuesday at 9 PM Eastern on Fusion. 

 

 

Hey guys,

I am going to sound like a real noob here, but I have a question which I SHOULD know the answer to – but it seems to be just beyond my grasp. 

I want to pay for the highest quality streaming version of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. I own the Blu-ray disk, but never watch it because it is a pain in the arse to load it up. 

I see I can buy an HD version of the concert on iTunes, but my gut tells me that HD is NOT as good as Blu-ray. Or is it? I have a 4K tv now and want everything to look as good as possible…and I won’t be trapped into buying physical media ever again. 

Thoughts?

– Ben

 

I am a long time fan of both of your work, although I have to say I tend to side with Tom on most things not having to do with lockpicking and social engineering 🙂

I wanted to write you because I am almost 100% certain that Tom is quite familiar with the pinnacle of Douglas Adam’s work that is Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and I must ask if he is watching the new BBC America series of the same name starring Elijah Wood.

I am a huge fan of Douglas Adams – I watched the original BBC Hitchhiker series as a kid on PBS with my mother, who also used to read the whole 4 (at the time) book “trilogy” to my brother and I as bedtime stories. So when I heartily recommend the new Dirk Gently’s Series, you can be sure that I am not messing around.
You may know that there was a series of Dirk Gently’s back in 2010 from BBC four, and I didn’t get past the pilot.

This new series is phenomenal. Max Landis captures the tone of Adams’ writing quite well, and he managed to avoid the pitfalls of the previous series by not trying to retell the Dirk stories from before (although he references them as “that one thing with the couch and also some stuff involving Thor”). Instead, Landis seems to be telling an entirely new story which may be loosely based on the unfinished 3rd Dirk Gently’s novel, in which a very rich man pays Dirk to investigate the man’s own murder which hasn’t happened yet.
My only complaint so far is that Dirk is far more of a buffoon than he seemed to me in the books and that he doesn’t have either his rotund stature nor his signature long coat and ridiculous hat (although he does wear a ridiculous coat).
It is only 2 episodes in and I am hooked. I hope you have a chance to watch it and talk about it on the show. If not, I will simply be forced to continue watching and sending my opinions to you regardless.

Thanks for all you do,

P.S.

Have you guys ever considered, given the wealth of quality TV and your limited time, outsourcing one or two shows to some of us listeners as an add on segment to Spoilering Time?

– Davey from WV but currently living in DC

 

 

 

Hi guys, I was wondering your opinion on piracy? I have Kodi with TVaddons installed on 3 fire TV sticks for movies and TV shows. I pay £80 a year for Amazon prime £9.99 for Netflix a month and £85 a month for Sky TV and Internet. 

If I pirate a movie and love it, I can’t find away of giving some money back to the people that made it. I wish there was a service where I could view something and if I loved it pay after. 

I live in the Uk. Thanks for the great episodes I have only listened to 3 so far.

– Mark

 

Hey guys,

I share Brian’s frustration with HBO Now. I’ve been a cord-cutter since 2008. I live in Everett, WA. Comcast is a big deal here as the Xfinity Arena is the home for our local hockey team. I routinely get over 100 Mbps download speeds at home. I recently got HBO Now and usually watch using the app on my Xbox One. When I first got it, it was terrible. It would constantly freeze video while the audio kept going then it sped up the video to get back on track. I noticed something though. It only seemed to do it on older content. It would happen constantly on older movies such as Casper, but would be magically fine when I’d watch something new like Westworld. Maybe it was just a coincidence but I have to wonder if HBO was prioritizing some content above others. It got so bad that I considered getting rid of the service after my free trial was up. There has since been an update to the Xbox One app however and it has fixed almost all the issues I was having. I just binged all six seasons of Game of Thrones in about two weeks and had almost no issues. Hopefully the service continues to get better over time.

– Ken



Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers