Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fargo (210), Master of None (Season 1), Making of a Murderer (Season 1)
01:40 – Winter Movie Draft
5:43 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
14:20 – Fargo (210)
18:26 – Master of None (Season 1)
22:56 – Making of a Murderer (Season 1)
Will Netflix die? Game of Thrones wins most pirated again. Roku comes to HDR and 4K TVs.
CordKillers: 102 – What the Cool Kids Do
Recorded: January 4, 2016
Guest: Fraser Cain
Intro Video
Primary Target
Signal Intelligence
Gear Up
Front Lines
Under Surveillance
Dispatches from the Front
Hey Tom & Brian,
Netflix just released a special episode of Marco Polo – Wait! don’t delete this message so fast!
This is probably the best episode of Marco Polo, yet. It’s all about Hundred Eyes and Kublai Khan and how they met. Marco Polo doesn’t appear at all.
Yeah, I thought you’d like that.
Love the show!
– Tom
Happy New Year Tom and Brian,
Like you guys, I was pleasantly surprised when the MPAA launched WhereToWatch.com last year. The site looked good and was fairly comprehensive and easy to use.
Imagine my surprise then, when two weeks ago, I went back to the site to search for some holiday movies and Netflix was no longer showing up in the search results. I double-checked and sure enough, Netflix has been completely removed from the site.
I know there are several alternatives, but I was curious if you guys had heard anything about this or if you had any thoughts or insights.
Thanks,
– Adam
Howdy,
Well, finally cutting the cord, for the 3rd and hopefully final time. This time I think it might actually take. I’ve had a similar issue as Tom with the spouse not quite being ready. We’ve had a Chromecast for a while, but she doesn’t really like having to rely on her phone to work the tv. But now we’ve got an Apple TV, and she is loving it, especially the new remote. I unhooked the cable box for a week before we had our U-Verse TV service disconnected, and we never missed it. We can get all of our shows on Netflix, Hulu, and the network tv apps. Plus we already have a small library of movies in iTunes. Even my 8 year old loves it cause she can watch her YouTube stuff on it.
So my suggestion if you have a reluctant spouse or family member: the new Apple TV!
– Andy in Taylor, Tx
Hi Brian and Tom,
I’m collecting as much current and updated information as I can to include in a revised/updated version of “Cord Cutters Guide to Motorsports” that I’ve posted the past couple of years to the CordKillers Reddit.
Not even sure how many in the CordKillers family know about it, but before I post the update, I’m looking for any feedback you or viewers may have.
Open to feedback on how I may possibly improve the formatting, organization, and any information I’m missing that people would like to see added. A table of contents at the top is being considered.. The good news, many more options are becoming available, the bad news, it’s getting unruly to keep it all organized in the current format!
Anyone wishing to give feedback can just drop me a note on the Reddit at “perfectface4radio”
I hope to have the 2016 version posted before the end of the week, and will continue to update it as updated information becomes available throughout 2016.
Take care.
– Jeff (perfect face for radio)
Brian and Tom,
It occurred to me as I was listening to a recent episode of Cordkillers on Doggcatcher how perfect podcast consumption is compared with TV shows. I don’t watch a ton of movies, and they don’t really apply to this concept, but do you ever think that watching series will ever approach the convenience and simplicity of consuming podcasts? Think about it – you subscribe to the shows you want and unwatched episodes appear in a single, consolidated chronological feed. As you watch the shows, they disappear from the list. You could binge on any show or watch a mix in order of release date. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to create a way to pay to subscribe to an RSS-like mechanism to add a show to the feed. It may not be a pain point for some people, but I’m usually around 5 episodes behind on all of the series I watch, and tracking which episodes I’ve seen and bouncing around the different services is arduous, even with apps like SideReel.
I’d – gasp – start paying for a package again if I could create an interface that took the searching and thinking out of the equation and simply gave me the shows I wanted without the headache of having to remember where I left off or fighting through a ton of distracting excess content (see the HBO GO Roku interface).
Think we’ll ever get there? Is it too pie in the sky? I know you can do it today with torrents, but do you think in 10 years there will be a way for consumers to compensate creators in such a way that we will be able to do it legally?
Thanks for awesoming weekly,
– Aaron
Links
It’s a special, super-sized Spoilerin’ Time with Anthony Carboni, Jeff Cannata, Owen JJ Stone, Kristi Kates, and Jaime Ruiz-Alvera, who join Tom and Brian to talk about Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Netflix wants to save you bandwidth, cable companies have some double-edged good news, and the hot new shows coming in 2015.
Winter Movie Draft, Triage, Transparent (201), Fargo (209)
00:50 – Winter Movie Draft
05:02 – Triage (Movie Draft)
07:33 – Triage (The Leftovers)
10:09 – Transparent (201)
15:55 – Fargo (209)
How YouTube could win a Golden Globe and why Mystery Science Theater is genius.
CordKillers: 100 – Cat Video Stink
Recorded: December 14 2015
Guest: Hammond Chamberlain
Intro Video
Primary Target
Signal Intelligence
– Netflix (8)
– Robin Wright House of Cards (Best Actress – Drama)
– Orange is the New Black (Best Comedy)
– Uzo Aduba OITNB (Best supporting )
– Idris Elba – Beasts of No Nation (Supporting actor)
– Narcos (Best Drama Series)
– Wagner Moura – Narcos (Best Actor Drama)
– Aziz Ansari Master of None (Best Actor – Comedy)
– Lily Tomlin Grace and Frankie (Best Actress Comedy)
– Hulu (1)
– Casual (Best Comedy)
Gear Up
Front Lines
Under Surveillance
Dispatches from the Front
Dear Cord Killers,
My email should be reaching you in time for the last episode before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I’m sure that you’ll be going to see it on release day, and so I need to ask you for a solemn promise: PLEASE. DO. NOT. SPOIL.
Personally, I’m waiting until I am back home with my family, so I won’t be seeing Star Wars until around Christmas. I’m aware that other places and people will be throwing spoilers left and right, but I’d like you to set the standard: Please keep spoilers to Spoilerin’ Time, at least for the first two weeks.
Please (and I’m looking at you, Brian) try to avoid dropping little tidbits here and there as you skirt around important plot points. If you liked it, or you hated it, I’m fine with that, and by all means say so, but I don’t need to know why right now.
Or, if you don’t think you’ll be able to contain yourself, please tell me now, and I’ll hold off on watching Cord Killers until the new year.
See you on the other side!
–Karl
Hey Brian & Tom,
With the release of The Force Awakens just around the corner, I thought I’d share my view on the craziness surrounding the premier of this movie.
I’m 23, I’m a geek, and I love sci-fi and fantasy stuff. That being said, I’ve never been in to Star Wars. My parents where never really in to it, and when the prequels came out, I was still a bit too young to really notice or care on my own. I actually hadn’t even seen a Star Wars movie the whole way through until 2013, when I decided I’d finally sit down and watch all the movies.
I hate to say it, but I was really underwhelmed. I’d had basically everything spoiled from me from the ridiculous number of references in pop culture, and that certainly contributed to my indifference, but besides just that, it seemed like any other cheesy 70’s sci-fi movie. I wanted to love Star Wars as much as I see everyone else loving it, but I couldn’t understand the hype surrounding this franchise.
So I thought about it for a while, talked to some of my friends about it, and I think I understand why it seems like so many people love it and why I personally can’t get in to it: Nostalgia. Everyone 30+ seems to LOVE everything Star Wars, but when I speak to people around my age about it, they respond with the same passive interest as me. No one hates it, but they don’t love it either.
I think a lot of the hype surrounding Star Wars comes from the fact that people grew up with it, and as children we’re much more forgiving and think things are much cooler. My generation actually has something similar to this: Harry Potter. It comes up in like 90% of conversations we have, we get super hyped for anything new in the series, and we look back on it with fond memories. My friends and I are even trying to plan a trip to Harry Potter World in Universal Studios. On the other hand, I don’t think Star Wars has come up more than a handful of times in conversation, even with the leadup to Episode VII.
It’s been an odd experience watching the hype build for The Force Awakens. It seems like 50% of the news stories are related to it in some way, podcasts are dedicated to it, no one seems to be able to stop talking about it. I’m not complaining, and I’m not asking you guys to stop, I just think it’s interesting from an outsiders perspective.
Of course I will go see the movie when it comes out, and I do hope I like it enough to start getting in to this series a bit more. Just thought I’d share. “””
– Jacob
How can we make an argument for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX to stream their programing on demand? Now we record their shows and blow by the commercial with the 30 second forward button. Streaming on demand we are forced to watch the commercials. Try to fast forward and they make you watch another commercial. Would that not be a good selling point to their clients?
Best Regards,
– Stan
If NBC wants me to fork over $4 a month for their streaming comedy service Hoo-Ha* there is only one way for them to make it happen. Stream all of David Letterman’s Late Night and his morning show and I will gladly subscribe.
* Hoo-Ha may not be the name for their service but it should be.
– Mark
Just wanted to share a thought on YouTube Red after hearing you talk about the value of it. I have to admit, I was definitely one of the people that saw no reason why I would ever pay for YouTube Red (since YouTube is free after-all) but after using it, unbeknownst to me, since the day it came out I don’t think I will want to go back to the days of free YouTube with ads.
Google/YouTube made the smart move of including this as part of the Google Play All Access membership. I signed up for a great music service and ended up with a great ad free video service as well.
I was also pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly it all appeared on my devices. Roku, XboxOne, and obviously my phone all gave me the YouTube Red logo at the top of the app on day one.
The way they did this reminds me of when I had my 4 disc a month Netflix account in college that then introduced streaming, and eventually lead to my streaming only account. Or my Amazon Prime account that I started for the shipping that also lead to yet another streaming account I use on most of my devices.
Have you being using Red? Thoughts?
Cheers!
– Byron
Nile Says: I think Brian asked about this, but it might have been someone else on one of Tom’s other shows. I never speed up the playback of a podcast I’m intimately familiar with, because the change in voices messes with my head. HOWEVER, when I start listening to a new podcast, I’ve been in the habit of playing it at around 1.25x so I get the efficiency, and my mind thinks the hosts voices sound that from the very start. Thanks for the show guys!
– Nile
Links
Winter Movie Draft, The Man in the High Castle (104), The Leftovers (207-210), Fargo (208)
02:33 – Winter Movie Draft
07:17 – The Man in the High Castle (104)
12:47 – The Leftovers (207-210)
21:05 – Fargo (208)
Winter Movie Draft, Triage, Jessica Jones (Season 1), Fargo (207)
01:08 – Winter Movie Draft
03:28 – Triage (Winter Movie Draft)
05:16 – Jessica Jones (Season 1)
27:55 – Fargo (207)
The top shipping streaming boxes may surprise you as will how well TiVo is doing. And Amazon wants all your streaming money in one place.
CordKillers: 98 – Ask-It Basket
Recorded: November 30 2015
Guest: None
Intro Video
Primary Target
Signal Intelligence
Gear Up
Front Lines
Under Surveillance
Dispatches from the Front
Amazon video vs Netflix interface. Yes, there’s a lot wrong w/Amazon’s interface, BUT, its X-ray feature, which I dismissed at first, makes it feel like Netflix is missing out on a huge feature. X-ray, you click a button and it tells you the name of the characters on screen and the actors. Very useful for keeping track of who’s who in shows with huge casts. Click up and you can drill down into each actor and it lists the movies and shows they’re most famous for. Click down and you’re back in the content. It’s like those popup bubbles on I forget what cable channel it was, but when you want it and what you want. You may already have talked about it and know about it but I’ve ignored the feature for so long, I didn’t know what I missed. Maybe others have as well.”
– Steve
Android TV as a platform has a lot of the big native apps. It adds even more with Cast support built-in. But the only standout Android TV hardware, the NVidia Shield, is focused on gaming first. TiVo is stuck trying to convince developers to support yet another platform. TiVo misses enough of the big apps that it can’t be a cord cutters Only box. TiVo would easily stand out IF they could make a combined OTA DVR & Android TV box. The combined feature would be unmatched by the other big players. Google should have incentive to help in order to drive further adoption of their platform. Partnership is cheaper and easier than building or buying a platform. It is a big IF on how they could develop such a box, or even IF the new CEO would want one. But looking at the lessons of Blackberry & Nokia in phones, if this is the move, better to make it sooner than later.”
– Roy
Hi Tom & Brian,
Just a brief review of my experience on the PlayStation Vue service that I tried over the holiday weekend.
I don’t own a PlayStation, but used the service with my Fire TV Stick. I like the interface and the picture quality is more than good enough. While watching live TV you can almost forget you are watching streamed content.
However, the DVR functionality was lacking. After advancing or rewinding, the video would repeat itself multiple times. It would often freeze as well, causing me to close the app and restart it. Of course, this happened while I was trying to sell my wife using this to cut the cord.
I wondering if these problems are due to me using the Fire TV stick, a problem with the service or just bad luck.”
– John
“In episode 97, the talk of people now being more loyal to individual shows instead of broadcast networks really struck a chord (no pun intended) with me. I rarely even think about what network a show is on anymore. I don’t think, “”Oh yeah, FOX is the channel with Gotham.”” I just know I need to watch it on Hulu. The network is mostly irrelevant to me.
… I think a la carte becomes far more interesting when we’re talking about picking and choosing individual shows instead. …I would love a streaming service that charged perhaps a nominal base fee per month, and then allowed you to pick and choose shows to add to your monthly account at a reasonable monthly rate. Want to subscribe to Agents of SHIELD for an additional $2.99 per month? Just click the check box. Decided you really didn’t care for Heroes Reborn after a few episodes? Uncheck it for next month.
You can kind of do program a la carte now by buying seasons on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, etc., but at ~$20 a season, it’s a much bigger up-front investment, and locks you in to a show that you might not want to continue watching a few episodes in.
Love the show,
– Justin
As a long-time timeshifter (Three Beta machines at one time, then TiVo, now MythTV and RoKu), I’m still in search of something that fully replaces the TiVo season pass. Sure RoKu and other streaming devices allow searching across multiple services to find a program, but I want something to manage the shows that I already do watch.. So, when the new Daredevil episodes come
out, they should pop onto the list of available un-seen episodes automatically. I shouldn’t have to constantly check Man in the High Castle to see if the newest episodes are out yet. So, I want the device to keep track of what series I watch and keep tabs for new episodes, then once I have watched them.. The Netflix “”My List”” can sort of do that, but just for Netflix content, so long as I manually add/remove shows when new content is available and when I finish the current episodes.. With all of the steaming
services coming around, I want to manage all of them consistently and not have to constantly be manually polling each service and show to find if new episodes are available. That tedium is what computers are good at.”
– Marcus
Links
Winter Movie Draft, Triage, Agents of SHIELD, The Man in the High Castle (103), Jessica Jones (101-104), Fargo (206)
01:19 – Winter Movie Draft
05:00 – Triage (Winter Movie Draft)
07:17 – Agents of SHIELD (to date)
12:02 – The Man in the High Castle (103)
20:43 – Jessica Jones (101-104)
33:39 – Fargo (206)