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Streaming Video Services: There Will be Blood...


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I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. No local over-air TV, no cable. I hardly ever watch Amazon Prime because the user experience sucks - bad UI, some programs are free, some aren't, some you download, some you stream...

 

In August, a notice appeared on my Sony set top box (which I got mostly to play Blu-Rays): Starting August 14, Hulu would no longer be available. Okay, so I had to open it from my web browser and go through Chromecast...not a big deal.

 

Now Disney (who I believe owns Hulu) is getting into the act and so is Apple, although with iTunes, I always felt Apple was a player. There have been a ton of articles about how the Netflix boom is over because they raised rates and because of the burgeoning competition. Netflix thinks investing bazillions in original content is the answer (I don't agree). But they're so established they'll make changes and stick around.

 

I can't imagine all these services surviving. People just aren't going to spend the money to get all of it. And it's going to be frustrating as hell, because each one will have stuff you want to see, but mostly, stuff you don't care about.

 

So here's what I think is going to happen over time: Production houses are going to go direct to consumer, and eventually, bypass movie theaters and streaming services. It's happening in the music business for products - you can buy direct from Fender or JBL, you're not restricted to getting stuff from Guitar Center or Sweetwater any more. I could see Lionsgate or Bad Robot, for example, having a web site with a list of their movies and you do pay-per-view. They get to keep all the money - no distributors - and maybe they sign a deal to let Apple have their movies for a couple months to build momentum.

 

But who knows? Do you? What services do you subscribe to? Where is this all going...

 

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Apple is spending a S***-ton of money on Atmos production facilities, so I think original production is in their future. Cinema houses will still have something over streaming. The sound and picture you cant get at home. But I do see some movies sort of trying out streaming before release. It would be a good way for a movie to get interest when it otherwise might get lost in the shuffle at theaters.

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Transamerica Audio Group

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I use several free streaming services - PlutoTV, Sony Crackle, Tubi. I also subscribe to Netflix and Slimg for now, but I plan to drop sling. If I want to rent something, I use FandangoNow. For music I use the free version of Spotify. All of this is on my Roku TV.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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We have a Sony DVD player that provides all the subscriber-type content. Over time, the apps for various services have dropped off. Youtube was one of the first to go. Now Amazon is no longer available through the device, and as of Dec 1 coming up, Netflix will drop off.

 

I don't watch a lot of TV. I stream the NFL through NFL Game Pass. It's rare that a TV show keeps my interest for long - I'm just too much of an habitual reader rather than a watcher. But we do watch at least one movie per week - so we'll be shopping for something to take over the old Sony device duties.

 

My daughter and son-in-law say just get a Roku - cheap and more than you'll ever want in terms of available content. I've yet to look into it, but that will be my first idea.

 

We tried casting from a PC - none of the USB casting thingies worked with our setup.

 

We might just get a Smart TV so the internet in general will be available on the TV. But maybe you run into the same thing - the Smart TV makes deals with the streaming providers, which deals run out at some point....

 

All in all, screen entertainment is pretty low on my priority list. Now a new phaser pedal or softsynth....that gets me excited.

 

nat

 

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We tried casting from a PC - none of the USB casting thingies worked with our setup.

 

That's odd Chromecast works fine, but I think you have to do it from a Chrome browser for the best results.

 

All in all, screen entertainment is pretty low on my priority list. Now a new phaser pedal or softsynth....that gets me excited.

 

I'd rather spend an hour in the studio than an hour watching TV! Mostly it's a show like Silicon Valley during dinner, or a movie from time to time when I want to veg out...which admittedly, doesn't happen much.

 

I still like going to movies in a theater, although I've become a bit of a snob...I have to think twice if it's not IMAX. The IMAX theater in Nashville is really good.

 

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Well my smart TV (brand is TCL) has Roku built in. So as long as Roku has channels available, the TV does. I used to use my PS3 for everything - it had Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, etc, but the Roku TV has a lot more and it's really easy to add channels. I like that everything is integrated - even antenna TV. When I watch antenna tv it pulls in the channel guide and all the info. While watching something, I can hit * and it will show other options for watching that show, like if you wanted to stream it later from another channel. From the home screen I can search for a movie and it will show me all the channels where it is available as well as rental options.

 

Lately I've mostly been watching PlutoTV which is free and has lots of "live" channels as well as the ability to watch stuff on demand. It has a bunch of movie channels, some of the old MTV shows, a whole comedy section, a dedicated Hell's Kitchen channel, a bunch of news channels, music documentaries, several home improvement including amdedicated channel of This Old House 24/7, etc.....all free, but you have to watch a handful of commercials over and over.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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We tried casting from a PC - none of the USB casting thingies worked with our setup.

 

That's odd Chromecast works fine, but I think you have to do it from a Chrome browser for the best results.

 

 

Everyone told us that Chromecast would work. Google advertises the universality of the device, but it is really not universal. After doing a lot of web digging, I found a list of the TVs that are not compatible with Chromecast and sure enough, our exact make and model was on the list. After, of course, spending the $$ and a number of particularly frustrating hours trying to get the thing to work with our TV.

 

Could be a newer version of Chromecast would work - but I'm not in a gambling mood as of late. Will just get a new TV here pretty soon, anyway.

 

 

 

nat

 

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And if you don't want to get a Smart TV, the Roku stick is pretty cheap (I think around $40) and just plugs into the HDMI port on the TV. This is nice if you travel because all you've to do is plug it into the TV and connect to wifi - though most hotels have all the channels you would want. But suppose you're binge watching a series on Netflix, you can take it with you and pick up where you left off. Of course you could do that over a laptop as well, but it's pretty convenient to just plug it in and go.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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And if you don't want to get a Smart TV, the Roku stick is pretty cheap (I think around $40) and just plugs into the HDMI port on the TV.

 

Hmmm, I think I know what I'm going to buy myself for my birthday :) Thanks for the info!

 

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No streaming, no cable here. I just watch what I can get over the air. Sadly, the weekly network shows seem to have much shorter seasons now. In my youth, a show most of the year with a couple of weeks over the summer, and some reruns during holiday weeks. Now it seems that I see four or five new shows, then they start reruns. Must be tough to be a TV actor.

 

I think that after a few years, people thinking that they're going to save money by cutting the cable will realize that they're subscribing to six or eight different streaming services and paying as much as they did for cable TV, with a lot less convenience.

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Not me. I was up to over $200/mo between my "bundled" phone, cable, and internet. Without the "bundle", internet has skyrocketed to almost $70/mo, but I'm only paying for Netflix. The rest is all free. And all of those old sitcoms are available to watch anytime I want. Any of the Star Trek series, lately I've been watching That 70s Show, you can watch Friends, Cheers, Fraser, not to mention all of the cable series like Breaking Bad, all the D.C. And Marvel series. I have no need to pay for any other services. The one thing other people might want to subscribe to is if they are really into sports and want all the NFL stuff and all that. I don't care about all that so I'm good. I wish we had better internet options so I could reduce my internet, but other than Spectrum (which I have) it's just ATT which is horrible around here, or some sort of cellular which is not cheap, unually not unlimited, and MUCH slower. I think I can actually downgrade with Spectrum to a slower service and be just fine.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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And if you don't want to get a Smart TV, the Roku stick is pretty cheap (I think around $40) and just plugs into the HDMI port on the TV.

 

Hmmm, I think I know what I'm going to buy myself for my birthday :) Thanks for the info!

We"ve been using the Roku stick for a while. Quite happy with it.

 

dB

 

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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After realizing that some DVD's stream previews from the Internet without notifying the user, a problem made worse when they disable skip and menu buttons, I refuse to connect any DVD or Blu-Ray player to the internet. For streaming content I use Fire TV for 90 percent of my streaming to TV and Apple TV the other 10 percent. I'm in a contract with Dish for another year after getting a DVR upgrade and will most likely drop Dish when the time is up. I use an iMac for YouTube content and watch enough of it that it is worth the $10 a month to not see commercials. Honestly, I watch YouTube more than Dish. A lot more. My issue is the Internet itself. I live in a rural area and my DSL is far from great. I never know when it is going to be out so I still get a lot of DVD's.

 

As for movie theaters, when I bought a 65 inch 4K TV and connected it to a good surround system I stopped going to the local movie theater. I just wait a few months and if It is a movie I think I will like I buy the 4K Blu-Ray. If I am not sure I buy a cheaper alternative. My digital video purchases are limited. I don't like the notion that when I die my account will deactivate and all those purchases go into never never land. I've already told the family that my great nephew gets my DVD/Blu-Ray collection.

 

One thing that Dish has going for it is the DVR. So far streaming alternatives cannot compete. I first thought that YouTube TV was there, but then I noticed the sentence in the description that said "good for 9 months." I've had Dish for 10 years and some of my recordings are almost that old. College championship games with my team, friends on the news, etc... When it is time to upgrade the DVD I back up to an external drive and move those recordings to the new unit.

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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it's just ATT which is horrible around here

 

Don't feel it's localized. ATT is horrible EVERYWHERE. But they also have the worst possible customer service, so at least they're consistent in their awfulness.

 

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Depending on what I count I got about a hundred thousand views on youtube over the last decade or so. There's some people that believe the democratization will continue and allow a lot of independent people (what's independence in the age of Big Data ?) to provide content that might not make it along with Laurel and Hardy for a hundred years to come, but popularity of small productions, personal video's. product vlogs etc. are part of the "free" experience.

 

I currently am watching "Yankee" on WebFlux, which I suppose is more than entertainment, and I'm up to snuff with Star Trek (whatever the latest incarnation with the "spore drive" is called exactly) and 6 seasons of Flash and then there was "The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco".

 

It's true I rather have a good Bluray with a expensive pro film production, but lots of people prefer toned down stuff, and well, a tenner per month isn't that much I suppose, though cheaper is desirable..

 

TV

 

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There's some people that believe the democratization will continue and allow a lot of independent people (what's independence in the age of Big Data ?) to provide content that might not make it along with Laurel and Hardy for a hundred years to come, but popularity of small productions, personal video's. product vlogs etc. are part of the "free" experience.

 

The biggest problem for me isn't that so many people can participate, but that it's so hard to find the good stuff. I must have watched about two dozen videos on mixing just to see what people were saying, and it seemed to me that only a couple of them were from people who really knew what they were talking about...as opposed to knowing how to make a video, and post it on YouTube.

 

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When the internet exploration with the first mozilla browser had just been "invented", I recall the use of a search engine was still clear and understood: you'd type some search terms in AltaVista, and from all the scanned sources you'd get for instance ordered-by-time links to pages where the search terms were matched.

 

Maybe some people don't like that, it's like: you can suggest video's or web pages to people, and you can offer them search options, but someone appears to want diabolical presence in the process. It's just too tempting, all that world wide good data.

 

There are technical slip-ups like when a parallel farm of computers needs to gather sorted data, sometimes the sorted data isn't combined perfectly. Also, you could build in fakebook friend suggestion tags in secret, so certain people will be more readily found, and others never.

 

How that all really works in reality isn't always clear, there aren't necessarily laws occupying themselves with all these subjects, and, unfortunately, even Google, the beacon of truth in terms of Open Source software has succumbed to making important products closed source, and certainly aren't offering tours (virtual or real) of their server and data mining facilities, or publishing their big data algorithms or software. Very questionable, and a bad news development.

 

T

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I actually do not know if Google in some sense has said to analyze data from mail accounts. I did get personal data downloads when a certain part of their services was ended, or decoupled from youtube or what it actually was. It would be preferable to have a well summed up list of ins and outs for various services, with opt in and out alternatives.

 

About videos: there's also darkness about the choice of playback quality and the fidelity of the translation of the uploaded video to the downloaded one: I often strive for quality that somehow maximizes the viewer's experience, but it seems most services want that principle to be hidden and not adjustable.

 

None of the video viewing options for (cable) TV and internet film and shows I've tried out are comparable with good blurays, pretty much ever, even when they are bearable (I can watch Netflix without feeling bad about the quality, but it requires some adjusting and is only so-so IMO).

 

T

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