@Cerridwyn@werehatrack I thought it was pretty darn good. Not super impressed by season 3 of Picard thus far(only up to episode 3). I can’t put my finger on what it is but it’s not grabbing me like the first two did. I hope it ends with a bang because this season is it for Picard.
@hchavers yes. However how often they have been happening. Never mind the three minute. Or 45 minute ones. Is beyond. Annoying. Yes they can be skipped. But. FFS.
This is open source and if you want to try it you should install per the instructions for downloader but there really are no ads and it can skip in stream commercials as well and is configurable.
Totally works with Chromecast with Google tv. And works really well. The only reason I still use the actual YouTube app is because I have not remapped the button on my remote although there is an app for that. And the algorithm has built up some of what I want to see even though I’m not logged into YouTube. I have to search a little more when using smarttubenext and need to reroute the remote button.
It is honestly impressive how well it works. Google may try and come for it later but it’s not doing anything illegal and not using the API
@tweezak yeah for some sports it’s great. It absorbed the old “NBC Sports” channels and now includes many cycling and gold events. That’s why I picked it in today’s poll.
Based on the one that’s been getting the most use lately, Disney+. I’ve had Netflix since close to its inception but these days I mostly use it for Stranger Things. D+ is back in the spotlight right now since The Mandalorian season 3 just started.
To be honest, I hate the entire concept of having to pay a bunch of separate companies to get everything I want to watch. If the cable companies would let us pick and choose what channels we want on an individual basis and not charge us an arm and a leg for it, we wouldn’t be here right now.
@PooltoyWolf Everything being spread across dozens of different services these days is exactly what’s making more and more people go back to just pirating everything like in the old days.
@PooltoyWolf Based on usage hours, we’d be rating YouTube TV as the best, followed by Philo. Despite several efforts to the contrary, a plurality of viewers in our home just want a normal channel on. With commercials. It almost doesn’t matter what is on, provided it’s something.
@PooltoyWolf idk. I just kind of switch them on and off one at a time each month to watch the thing I want that is finished. Then anything else they have. That might be interesting. So that sort of is cheaper. I don’t feel the need to have disney plus for months since they do one week episodes ofoki or scarlet which of mando. When I get bored I’ll buy it for a month. Watch. Cancel. Same with hbomax. Etc.
Usually there is one backbone service. Currently Netflix but. Not watching as much of that as I used to.
@brennyn@PooltoyWolf I refuse to buy Comcast’s cable TV service because I simply will not subsidize the content of certain channels that they provide by default. If I could get just the ones I want, and nothing else at all, I’d be willing to pay slightly more than what they charge for their many-channels-of-spewage packages.
@brennyn@PooltoyWolf@werehatrack You are lucky you have a choice. Where I live you have comcast or nothing for cable tv (although some parts of town have choices) and the stations are 30-35 miles south of where I live in the geographic center of the area (so 40-45 miles for plenty of others) so antenna TV only works for some. And of course satellite except apartment buildings usually don’t allow that. The upshot for me is not much TV. Haven’t really looked into internet TV. I guess I need to read this thread and hunt for the older ones. Not sure if I have a smart TV or not. I guess I’ll have to look.
@katbyter i think you can use the « calm » app for that but after free trial it will charge you a monthly fee also, So even a peaceful mountain stream isn’t free unless you literally take a hike.
With friends and family shared passwords, we pretty much have all of them. Which has become annoying because we sometimes lose track of shows that we’ve been watching, and they disappear.
@2many2no Prime Music’s library had way to many holes in it for me, and it seemed much dumber than ordinary Alexa stuff on voice commands. I dumped it for Spotify a couple of years ago and have been very happy.
I’ve got a large MP3 collection, but I’ve discovered and rediscovered a lot of great music on Spotify.
@kostia idk. Last week tonight is on YouTube Monday very early Monday morning. Those two of just buy at hbomax and watch at the end of the season. Weekly episodes are blah.
But I do appreciate you subscring to pay for them so I can watch them later.
Maybe one day I’ll be bored and start game of thrones.
@Salanth well. I will say I’m not going to “buy” a digital movie. It needs to come with the disk and the the code. I mean for the $.50 it will cost at least give the option.
A. I’m not renting it I’m buying it.
B. The Internet goes out sometimes.
A. I’m not renting it I’m buying it.
B. The Internet goes out sometimes.
And possibly more important, digital purchases that can only be streamed can also be vanished, as has recently happened with a huge pile of older, less popular titles that a certain studio decided to write off and take out of their back-titles library permanently.
Netflix (Wednesday and did a rewatch of The Magicians), HBOMax (right now, Last of Us, Perry Mason), Disney+ (Mandolorian and still a number of Pixar movies we haven’t seen, and all the MCU and Star Wars stuff) are mostly used, we also have Hulu because we got it for the Predator movie and have since found other offerings (Only Murders on the Building, Knives Out), and we could get it at a reduced rate when bundled with Disney. We have Amazon Prime because we have Amazon Prime for the shopping, but mostly disappointing as so much of their offerings are extras you need to pay for) Paramount and Peacock just have not been worth the extra cost, and at least in this area, don’t have any free initial offers.
@Chronicle When I bought my Lifetime Plex pass it was on sale (I think I paid $69). Looks like the every day price is currently $119. https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass/
@Chronicle@Harbingerdc Both are British oriented. Britbox is an ITV/BBC joint venture. (That sounds really weird every time I say it.) I don’t remember who owns Acorn.
@blaineg@Chronicle@Harbingerdc I had Britbox for a year and really liked it. But my husband likes Netflix and I’m trying to cut down. Plus I keep buying stuff on VUDU and won’t get my money’s worth unless I watch it.
The one that was TV. When you could watch major sport events for free at the relatively same time as the rest of the world without feeling elitist or irritated that it was complicated and more expensive to follow/find the whole bracket.
“Best” depends on the criteria used. The one that annoys me the least is HBO Max. The interface is simple, shows stream while they play on cable, and everything runs smoothly. The most annoying one (at present) is Paramount+, which runs adverts for shows when I’m paying for advert-free, and autoruns some programs when I have the thing set to no auto-run. P+ is only the most annoying because I canceled Netflix for being even worse. Hulu and Disney+ have good content, and I mostly use Prime for original content and because I get Acorn, Britbox, and PBS bundled with Prime. The thing I like most about streaming is that channels can added and dropped at will, and without penalty. That, and not requiring cable.
We have a bunch. Yeah, it add$ up, but it’s pretty much our only entertainment. And a couple of the services are included with our cable, so…
Anyway, last month I cleaned up my audio/video cabinet. And thought my little “to watch” list needed some modification. So many services we have a rough time keeping track of what we’re watching.
So, I got some new dry erase markers, a roll of dry erase magnetic labels and used my p-touch label maker to make labels. And assembled. This was the result.
I will let you know when I try one.
Disney+
Star Wars
MCU
I guess the one with the most fish?
Check with your urologist…
Trekkie so while it really sucks
Paramount+
@Cerridwyn I’m with ya. I can’t wait for season 5 of Discovery and season 2 of strange new worlds.
@Cerridwyn @sicc574 yeah that should at least should have been a choice.
@Cerridwyn @sicc574 Disco season 5 will be the last for that series. Grump.
@sicc574 @werehatrack aye.
Too many didn’t like it
@Cerridwyn @werehatrack I thought it was pretty darn good. Not super impressed by season 3 of Picard thus far(only up to episode 3). I can’t put my finger on what it is but it’s not grabbing me like the first two did. I hope it ends with a bang because this season is it for Picard.
YouTube is great and free, if you can suffer through the commercials.
@hchavers yes. However how often they have been happening. Never mind the three minute. Or 45 minute ones. Is beyond. Annoying. Yes they can be skipped. But. FFS.
Solution? Smarttubenext.
https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
This is open source and if you want to try it you should install per the instructions for downloader but there really are no ads and it can skip in stream commercials as well and is configurable.
Totally works with Chromecast with Google tv. And works really well. The only reason I still use the actual YouTube app is because I have not remapped the button on my remote although there is an app for that. And the algorithm has built up some of what I want to see even though I’m not logged into YouTube. I have to search a little more when using smarttubenext and need to reroute the remote button.
It is honestly impressive how well it works. Google may try and come for it later but it’s not doing anything illegal and not using the API
@hchavers Ublock Origin. What ads?
Peacock because it’s free with my internet service and they carry the Tour de France when I want to watch dopers race against each other.
@tweezak yeah for some sports it’s great. It absorbed the old “NBC Sports” channels and now includes many cycling and gold events. That’s why I picked it in today’s poll.
@tweezak If you’re getting it free through Comcast that deal is ending in June.
https://www.engadget.com/comcast-to-stop-offering-free-peacock-access-to-xfinity-customers-092830185.html
@Comedian @tweezak Oh, great - typical Comcast.
Based on the one that’s been getting the most use lately, Disney+. I’ve had Netflix since close to its inception but these days I mostly use it for Stranger Things. D+ is back in the spotlight right now since The Mandalorian season 3 just started.
To be honest, I hate the entire concept of having to pay a bunch of separate companies to get everything I want to watch. If the cable companies would let us pick and choose what channels we want on an individual basis and not charge us an arm and a leg for it, we wouldn’t be here right now.
@PooltoyWolf Everything being spread across dozens of different services these days is exactly what’s making more and more people go back to just pirating everything like in the old days.
@PooltoyWolf Based on usage hours, we’d be rating YouTube TV as the best, followed by Philo. Despite several efforts to the contrary, a plurality of viewers in our home just want a normal channel on. With commercials. It almost doesn’t matter what is on, provided it’s something.
@PooltoyWolf idk. I just kind of switch them on and off one at a time each month to watch the thing I want that is finished. Then anything else they have. That might be interesting. So that sort of is cheaper. I don’t feel the need to have disney plus for months since they do one week episodes ofoki or scarlet which of mando. When I get bored I’ll buy it for a month. Watch. Cancel. Same with hbomax. Etc.
Usually there is one backbone service. Currently Netflix but. Not watching as much of that as I used to.
@brennyn Yep…
@brennyn @PooltoyWolf I refuse to buy Comcast’s cable TV service because I simply will not subsidize the content of certain channels that they provide by default. If I could get just the ones I want, and nothing else at all, I’d be willing to pay slightly more than what they charge for their many-channels-of-spewage packages.
@brennyn @PooltoyWolf @werehatrack You are lucky you have a choice. Where I live you have comcast or nothing for cable tv (although some parts of town have choices) and the stations are 30-35 miles south of where I live in the geographic center of the area (so 40-45 miles for plenty of others) so antenna TV only works for some. And of course satellite except apartment buildings usually don’t allow that. The upshot for me is not much TV. Haven’t really looked into internet TV. I guess I need to read this thread and hunt for the older ones. Not sure if I have a smart TV or not. I guess I’ll have to look.
I’m not qualified to vote, since the only streaming service I use is my kitchen faucet.
@phendrick how do you urinate then?
@phendrick @unksol I think he just answered that.
@macromeh @unksol Thanks, I wasn’t sure I could answer without blushing.
:
/giphy Old Mill Stream
@katbyter i think you can use the « calm » app for that but after free trial it will charge you a monthly fee also, So even a peaceful mountain stream isn’t free unless you literally take a hike.
With friends and family shared passwords, we pretty much have all of them. Which has become annoying because we sometimes lose track of shows that we’ve been watching, and they disappear.
This sounds like an old man gripe.
Prime for music, YouTube for video.
I spend the most money on Netflix, but I rarely watch it.
@2many2no
TMO offers a Netflix discount… So there’s that.
@2many2no @chienfou
T-Mobile will give free Netflix (lowest level service) plus free D+ (I think) plus one year of paramount.
Or something like that.
But my “most used”, by far, is YouTube.
Not YouTubeTV
Just plain YouTube.
I do channels like slo-mo stuff and history vids I don’t have to pay full attention to.
I do have a family thing that means no commercials providing I’m logged into YouTube. I’m mostly watching or listening on a mobile app.
Oh yeah I have prime.
@2many2no Prime Music’s library had way to many holes in it for me, and it seemed much dumber than ordinary Alexa stuff on voice commands. I dumped it for Spotify a couple of years ago and have been very happy.
I’ve got a large MP3 collection, but I’ve discovered and rediscovered a lot of great music on Spotify.
I have them allllll. I’ve got streaming services no one’s ever heard of.
During the “season” (right now, that means new episodes of South Park, Last of Us, and John Oliver), HBOMax is impossible to beat.
Once that’s taken into account, the ones I use most are Hulu and Peacock. Best original content is still Netflix.
I only use Prime when they have something exclusive.
@kostia idk. Last week tonight is on YouTube Monday very early Monday morning. Those two of just buy at hbomax and watch at the end of the season. Weekly episodes are blah.
But I do appreciate you subscring to pay for them so I can watch them later.
Maybe one day I’ll be bored and start game of thrones.
@kostia @unksol
South Park current ep is free on comedy central’s website I think.
Honestly, sometimes getting the DVDs is better, especially with censoring.
Also had an issue with Star Trek II a few years ago where the Klingon captions were missing, so I had to borrow it from the library.
@Salanth well. I will say I’m not going to “buy” a digital movie. It needs to come with the disk and the the code. I mean for the $.50 it will cost at least give the option.
A. I’m not renting it I’m buying it.
B. The Internet goes out sometimes.
@unksol
And possibly more important, digital purchases that can only be streamed can also be vanished, as has recently happened with a huge pile of older, less popular titles that a certain studio decided to write off and take out of their back-titles library permanently.
@unksol @werehatrack or have become “problematic”
@Salanth Say Blu-Ray instead of DVD, and I’ll agree with you.
Netflix (Wednesday and did a rewatch of The Magicians), HBOMax (right now, Last of Us, Perry Mason), Disney+ (Mandolorian and still a number of Pixar movies we haven’t seen, and all the MCU and Star Wars stuff) are mostly used, we also have Hulu because we got it for the Predator movie and have since found other offerings (Only Murders on the Building, Knives Out), and we could get it at a reduced rate when bundled with Disney. We have Amazon Prime because we have Amazon Prime for the shopping, but mostly disappointing as so much of their offerings are extras you need to pay for) Paramount and Peacock just have not been worth the extra cost, and at least in this area, don’t have any free initial offers.
YT TV, got me off Spectrum all the way. Anything that can do that is a winner in my book.
Roku, Sling, Tubi, Crackle, Youtube, and I only pay for Sling.
Plex or Disney+ get the most use around these parts.
plex
The one my wife wants to watch.
@rustyh3 most accurate statement ever…
Discovery for aliens, paranormal, murder mayhem and KENDA!
@KSchweitz Kenda? Cheap Chinese tires?
100% plex… never have to worry about content disappearing
YouTube TV by default, because it’s how we mostly watch TV, but lately I’ve been appreciating AppleTV because of For All Mankind and Ted Lasso.
I bought a Lifetime Plex Pass in 2014 on a whim. Don’t forget to update!
@xenophod Do they still offer it? How much was it?
@Chronicle When I bought my Lifetime Plex pass it was on sale (I think I paid $69). Looks like the every day price is currently $119.
https://www.plex.tv/plex-pass/
We subscribe to several services but the ones we watch the most are Acorn and BritBox.
@Harbingerdc oooh… +1 for using ones I’ve never heard of.
@Chronicle @Harbingerdc Both are British oriented. Britbox is an ITV/BBC joint venture. (That sounds really weird every time I say it.) I don’t remember who owns Acorn.
@blaineg @Chronicle @Harbingerdc I had Britbox for a year and really liked it. But my husband likes Netflix and I’m trying to cut down. Plus I keep buying stuff on VUDU and won’t get my money’s worth unless I watch it.
The one that was TV. When you could watch major sport events for free at the relatively same time as the rest of the world without feeling elitist or irritated that it was complicated and more expensive to follow/find the whole bracket.
Kodi
Paramount +…
Crunchyroll
@z4kanis definitly a good one. Stuff you cant find anywhere else.
Plex
Disney +
Why? Are you kidding me?? Marvel AND Star Wars all in one spot!
The lack of Disney+ is disturbing…
“Best” depends on the criteria used. The one that annoys me the least is HBO Max. The interface is simple, shows stream while they play on cable, and everything runs smoothly. The most annoying one (at present) is Paramount+, which runs adverts for shows when I’m paying for advert-free, and autoruns some programs when I have the thing set to no auto-run. P+ is only the most annoying because I canceled Netflix for being even worse. Hulu and Disney+ have good content, and I mostly use Prime for original content and because I get Acorn, Britbox, and PBS bundled with Prime. The thing I like most about streaming is that channels can added and dropped at will, and without penalty. That, and not requiring cable.
FiOS - at $200+/mth it’s pricey, but it’s definitely the best streaming service out there.
@zinimusprime They pissed me off with their stupid box rentals and I hold a grudge. FOREVER.
Yarrrrg
/giphy Pirate
We have a bunch. Yeah, it add$ up, but it’s pretty much our only entertainment. And a couple of the services are included with our cable, so…
Anyway, last month I cleaned up my audio/video cabinet. And thought my little “to watch” list needed some modification. So many services we have a rough time keeping track of what we’re watching.
So, I got some new dry erase markers, a roll of dry erase magnetic labels and used my p-touch label maker to make labels. And assembled. This was the result.
@lisaviolet I enjoyed The Peripheral - looking forward to season 2.
@lisaviolet @macromeh
and Outer Range was weird and entertaining.
Flomax