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FYI, it looks like Target is clearing out their Roku 2 XS (Angry Birds edition) inventory ahead of the Roku 3. Mine has about 30 on sale for $69.99
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Apr 3, 2013 22:47
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Well, I was contemplating buying a Roku but I was holding off until they announced whatever it was that they were going to announce. I guess I'm glad I did because I can save $30 and get the Roku 2. Really, the only difference with the Roku 3 is the remote. Since I was likely going to use my Harmony remote most of the time and I could use voice search from within the app, there's really no reason at all to get the Roku 3 now.
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Apr 6, 2015 22:06
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HBO Go has the commercials too. It's really rather silly when you think about it. They are advertising stuff that you already get by paying for the service. I guess you could make the argument that it's incentive to watch something else and not cancel the service, but I think most people who subscribe to HBO knows what content is out there.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:56
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Brocktoon posted:My wife and I just moved into our first home, so I figured it was a good time to cut the cord and try going streaming only. We rarely watch live TV anyway, and I figure between Netflix, Amazon and Hulu we can hit everything we want to see. My question, though, is if there is an app or a website where I can track shows we like to watch as they are airing? So, for example, I don't have to check whether or not a new episode aired that week or going into each show individually to see if there are unwatched episodes, but instead just look up our list and see "There was a new SHIELD this week, we're two behind on Louie, no Bob's Burgers this week..." Does that make sense and does something like that exist? (I haven't signed up for Hulu yet, and was wondering if they had something like that built in...) https://trakt.tv/ does exactly this and if you have an Android device you can load up SeriesGuide which integrates with Trakt.
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May 1, 2015 16:25
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Seems odd that you would get WPXI, which is on the north shore near Allegheny General Hospital but not WTAE which has its tower all they way out in Buena Vista, halfway to Greensburg. Maybe it's an elevation difference. My old apartment was so close to KDKA's transmission tower that back in the analog days I could pick up KDKA without attaching any antenna at all to the TV.
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May 9, 2015 18:17
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Hulu actually did open up mobile app access to a very limited amount of content last summer without Plus.
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Jun 1, 2015 17:01
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Jose Oquendo posted:If I get Hulu Plus or whatever the paid version is called, can I access EVERYTHING or do some things require a provider login? Some stuff (Helix on the Syfy channel comes to mind) still requires a provider login regardless of whether or not you are paying for Hulu.
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Jun 1, 2015 17:39
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Jose Oquendo posted:It's just for their own poo poo I think. They haven't really said what it's for. It could be for their own stuff or it may be for an alternative pricing tier, we don't really know. Nothing at all may come of it either.
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Jun 1, 2015 21:00
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SIR FAT JONY IVES posted:They have, and it's just for their own shows. Ah, Engadget has since amended it's article with that info since they originally posted it.
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Jun 1, 2015 21:14
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Of the current models though, only the Roku1 has anything other than HDMI. The new Roku 2 is basically an old Roku 3. The older Roku 2 XS did have analog connections, but you would have to either buy that used or find a place that hadn't gotten rid of inventory yet.
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Jun 29, 2015 23:04
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FYI, Verizon FiOS customers can now subscribe to HBO Now. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/28/9060555/verizon-hbo-now-announced
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Jul 29, 2015 03:02
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Anyone who's ever bitched about ads on hulu drat well better put up the extra $48 a year the no commercial option costs. There's no clearer way to drive home the message that ads suck and are ruining everything.
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Sep 2, 2015 22:35
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AlmightyBob posted:the clearest message would be to not pay until ad free is $8 a month because paying for ads is bullshit Yeah, that's not the way things work. You pay for cable too and see ads, this is a OnDemand version of that. Not paying for it at all sends the message "People aren't interesting in streaming content next day under a subscription model" and nothing more.
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Sep 2, 2015 23:09
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The Gunslinger posted:Considering its owned by all of the content companies themselves I suspect it will find a way to license its content and survive even if this ad free tier takes off in popularity. What will likely happen is carriage fees will rise again. That's why you see MSOs get into pissing contests with content providers and channels dropped for periods of time. So, you'll have cable people subsidize the streaming side. That will only work for so long though.
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Sep 3, 2015 18:15
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Hadlock posted:Did I read that right? Did Hulu recently introduce an option to watch TV without the ads? Maybe I missed that upstream. Yes, there's a $11.99 option that's inturruption free. Only caveat is that for 7 shows, they will have 15 second preroll ads and 30 second post credit ads. Those shows are New Girl, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Grey's Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and Grimm. Likely the contracts were structured in such a way to prevent the complete removal of ads. There will not be ads during the shows though.
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Sep 3, 2015 20:01
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Bizarro Kanyon posted:I wish I knew when the next Roku is coming out. I have thought about an Apple TV but if the Roku 4 comes out soon, I will wait for that. Roku already refreshed their line this year. There isn't going to be a Roku 4 anytime soon. I'm actually more interested in the refreshed FireTV that's been spied in benchmarks. I picked up a FireTV stick awhile ago for my bedroom and I was pleasantly impressed by it. I'm getting the feeling that the best combo for streaming is a Chromecast and a FireTV. My Roku just feels so drat slow.
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Sep 5, 2015 04:45
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Call Me Charlie posted:Roku isn't half bad if you need something that can play Vudu or Google Movies & Music. They also seem to be the first destination for weirder apps. The only way to watch Warner Archive in HD is through Roku. The Vudu app is good, but the Google movies app doesn't do multichannel audio and it doesn't do anything with Google music. One of my reasons for getting the Roku was for the Google Movies and it was a huge disappointment.
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Sep 6, 2015 01:48
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Roku 4 is official. http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/06/roku-4-4k/ I'm actually a little bit surprised as I really didn't think we would see more hardware from Roku this year.
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Oct 6, 2015 06:40
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The performance may be nice. I find the current Roku slow as molasses. But, I just took delivery on the new FireTV last night so my Roku is being retired at my main watching position.
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Oct 6, 2015 15:17
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tonic posted:Really? I have both the Fire TV (non 4k) and the Roku 3. I much much prefer the Roku 3. It feels much faster to me. The hardware buttons for Hulu/Netflix are awesome whereas the FireTV feels like it takes ages to navigate menus to find the app I want. Also the updated Plex app on Roku is 1000x better than the crap on the FireTV. Finally, I love the headphone port on the remote on the Roku 3. I have a Roku 2 on my main TV (but the new one with the Roku 3 internals) and a FireTV stick on my bedroom TV and I've really enjoyed the fireTV stick more. Moving around netflix seems a ton less laggy on the FireTV stick and I'm tired of having to reboot the Roku before I use netflix to get it to recognize I have 5.1 audio. The SlingTV app (the one for slingbox, not the TV service) is also leagues ahead of the Roku's sling capabilities as it's an actually thick client that doesn't require casting. Roku also just has a ton of low resolution assets (which may be resolved in the upcoming update.) Stuff like the scrub bar in a lot of apps just feels really dated. Roku has a ton more apps, but they really don't feel all that polished. Honestly though, I just bought a Tivo Bolt which does Netflix AND Amazon Instant better than any platform I've seen so far, including Amazon's own FireTV, so I'm not sure how much I'll use a full interface streamer anyways now.
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Oct 6, 2015 17:50
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Looks like Amazon is responding to the Roku 4 announcement and dropped the price of the new FireTV to $79 today.
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Oct 7, 2015 15:12
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4k will show up on TVs simply because the panels will be there and in the right pricepoint. Otherwise UHD will follow on the same path as HD. Wowing demos, reaching for content, content becomes more common but overall quality lowers, finally the norm will be an overcompressed poorly encoded signal just with a shitload of pixels. One of the biggest content hurdles is that nearly every movie post 2001 has been done using a digital intermediate at only 2k resolution (4k happens, but is still relatively uncommon even if it's filmed in 4k.) So, similar to all those TV shows that were edited on video rather than film, any REAL 4k conversion is going to require going through the entire post production process again. That gets very expensive once you start moving into movies with liberal use of CGI. So, movies in the last 10 years are going to be hurt the worse since CGI was used for things like set extensions. It isn't a trivial process to get that stuff to 4k. A good chunk of newer stuff is completely boned because there was a high probability that it was shot 2k digitally. That stuff will never go to 4k as anything other than an upscale. So, there's going to be some awesome 4k stuff but some stuff won't really benefit much to at all. I'd love to see a 70mm film like Blade Runner on a huge 4k screen. However, something like The Avengers is never going to be true 4k since the majority of the live action was shot in ARRIRAW 2.8k (with some 35mm for high speed shots.)
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Oct 7, 2015 21:20
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EugeneJ posted:I talked with someone who helped do a 4K restoration of Wizard of Oz a few years ago and asked if the film would ever be restored in a higher resolution. He said no because anything clearer than 4K can't be distinguished by the human eye. Well, in many cases even 1080p does that depending on screen size and viewing distance and even the subject matter. Keep in mind that the professionals, the ones that we rely on to make these worlds real to us, have very different views on what's necessary than marketers from TV manufacturers. Many visual effects are rendered below 1080p because motion blur and such makes it pointless to do higher. But yes, in general (and as much as you can make such comparisons between analog and digital), most 35mm film stock shows very little benefit from being scanned above 4k from a detail perspective. 70mm can still show advantages above 4k, but 35mm rapidly has diminishing returns as you approach 4k. 4k SHOULD be all that we ever need in home theater, but you know that won't be the case because TV manufacturers gotta keep that train rolling and not go back to the pre-HD dark days of TV sales.
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Oct 7, 2015 22:14
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Yup, 1080i60 and 1080p30 should be equal in picture quality assuming a good deinterlacer and a correctly constructed signal. Your can, at least on paper, perfectly reconstruct a 1080p30 signal from 1080i60. Since most scripted content is 24fps, there's little incentive to move to 1080p and 1080i should offer superior picture quality than 720p (when higher framerate doesn't matter.) And if you have a really good tv, the motion engine should be able to go further and deconstruct the 1080p30 3:2 cadence into a native 24fps signal.
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Oct 8, 2015 02:09
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blugu64 posted:In my opinion pay the money and get a TiVo with lifetime. No muss no fuss. I don't think lifetime is actually worth it anymore. They don't allow lifetime transfers anymore as far as I know and your break even point is 5 years. Chances are you'll want a new device by then.
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Jan 14, 2016 18:13
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Don't pay $15/ month for TiVo service. You pay the whole year for $149. That's $30/year cheaper. That'll pay for a few months of streaming service right there.
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Jan 14, 2016 23:08
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There actually isn't anything special about TiVo guide data. They just use tribune media services like everyone else (actually, you could argue that the frequency at which it phones home to update it is a liability.) You have to weigh the cost of home building a 4 tuner setup yourself and maintaining it compared to $149/year (after the first year) as well as the yearly power costs associated with keeping a full pc running. Relying on Hulu alone requires quite a bit of discipline as most shows only keep 5-6 episodes of the current season. So, if you get too far behind for some reason, you are left with having to buy episodes to catch up. My opinion is, if you want any sort of DVR setup for OTA, then TiVo is still your only viable choice. The Magnavox DVRs could be tempting, but it will take about two years for ROI and the landscape can change a lot in that timeframe.
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Jan 14, 2016 23:58
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Ixian posted:constant updates (why would that be a liability?) I'm saying it doesn't phone home enough. For example, I've actually seen more instances where TiVo has missed a last minute new episode guide change than, say, FiOS equipment.
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Jan 15, 2016 15:14
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Ixian posted:Huh, that is something I don't remember happening, but I haven't used Tivo in a few years. Do they let you fiddle with that setting at all? Not from what I see. To be clear, I'm not in love with TiVo. I just think it's the best of other alternatives right now and it's maddening that someone hasn't come in and eaten their lunch. The UI has the style of a 2003 'Web 2.0' site with all its rounded corners and gradients. Information density on the screen is way too low (we aren't all watching on 40" TVs anymore.) It remains the only interface I've seen where the 'back' button makes less sense and changes context more times than Android's implementation. Most functions require way too many button presses. Finally, the included remote doesn't have a dedicated button to jump straight to your list of recordings (fortunately my Harmony does.) The biggest fault I have though is the selection of streaming services in it. The search option is fantastic, everything you search includes all of the video providers. Yet they only really have Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Vudu. They really need to get HBO Now on there if they want to position this as an all in one cord cutter package.
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Jan 15, 2016 17:08
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Thermopyle, one thing you've been missing when talking about Usenet is that it usually requires a subscription. All of the major ISPs have dropped their Usenet servers and if you want good quality unlimited binary access, you are going to pay for it. Granted, it's not a ton (usually $8-$10 /month), but it is a cost that goes beyond just setup and equipment.
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Jan 16, 2016 19:18
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Ixian posted:The Bolt also does 4k and has a faster interface/apps. Though their app support is fairly limited they do support Netflix and Amazon 4k with the new UI. HBO Go is there but now Now, which would be annoying for cord-cutters. The Bolt does not have HBO Go.
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Jan 20, 2016 00:36
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More than just the Fire and Roku have Amazon. Both my Sony blu-ray player and TV have amazon apps. Most smart TVs have Amazon apps. There's also all the consoles as well. When you really get down to it, Play Movies has far less device compatibility than Amazon.
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Jan 31, 2016 09:30
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Silly Burrito posted:But do they all support Amazon Prime? I remember a while back, maybe it was my TiVo, but for the longest time it wouldn't play Prime videos. Most I have seen have, yes.
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Feb 1, 2016 02:48
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Speaking of Roku, it just got DD+ support (along with AndroidTV) in Play Movies. That's an incremental improvement for AndroidTV since it already did multichannel audio, but it's a massive improvement for Roku which has been stuck at 2 channel audio until now. Play Movies is actually a viable option on the platform now. No word on if DD+ is going to eventually hit Chromecast.
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May 4, 2016 20:24
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It's my experience that the Roku 2016 sticks are more powerful (at least, more responsive) than the Roku 3. Only get the 3 if you need the various physical inputs it provides (Ethernet/SD card) or want to use the remote for voice searching, mic output, or motion control.
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May 24, 2016 21:18
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Nvida just announced today that they are partnering with Plex and that the Shield TV can be turned into a full Plex server. http://www.androidcentral.com/coming-nvidia-shield-tv-32-update-brings-full-stand-alone-plex-media-server-support-and-more quote:You'll be able to stream HD video using Plex to any other connected and authorized device directly from the Shield TV with no PC required to act as a server. Using the Shield TV Pro's 500GB internal storage, attached USB storage (folks who bought the 16GB model, have no fear) or even a mounted network storage device to hold all your videos, the included Plex server can stream multiple simultaneous streams using the Shield TV's beefy hardware. Says the Plex team:
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Jun 9, 2016 14:22
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The mapping of NAS shares is great too. Just buy a cheap Synology for mass storage, map the shield to it in Plex, done.
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Jun 9, 2016 16:53
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That's only $100 cheaper (less if you added a flash boot drive) and about 3x the footprint of my DS216+. Sometimes DIY makes sense, but there's s something to be said about plugging in a solution and having it work with zero futzing around.
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Jun 9, 2016 17:58
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The ShieldTV is doing the transcoding in this context.
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Jun 10, 2016 15:26
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Synology doesn't natively do Plex.
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Jun 10, 2016 19:38
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