Friday, May 20, 2022

Free content from Disney?

An article on The Streaming Advisor this past week suggested that Disney may expand Disney+ with a free tier. But, there's a catch.

There's always a catch, isn't there?

Well, this take by Ryan Downey was worth a read. He mentions FASTS, or Free Ad-Suported-Streaming Services (I know, the letters don't match, but oh well):

There is constant hand wringing about subscription fatigue, which is the idea that people are reaching the breaking point in their willingness to sign up for more subscription streaming services. This is coupled with the rise in the popularity of FASTS.

Only a few years ago Pluto TV was an independent startup company with curated YouTube channels. Now it is a key part of Paramount Inc after first being bought by Viacom. XUMO too started as an independent company with an aim to bring valuable brands together on Smart TVs and streaming platforms. Ir is now under the auspices of the largest cable provider in the US and a large part of its future as seen with its integration into the XClass TV infrastructure.

He suggests that Chicken Soup for the Soul might be acquired by Disney, due to its contracts for content with several content providers. Which is an interesting idea. Give it a read.

If it does come to pass, would it be a good thing? Well, maybe. Maybe not. But these kind of things do happen. If it makes my Streaming Life better, then great. But I have my concerns.

Thursday, May 19, 2022

The PGA Championship

I'm not a golfer. My son is, however. He enjoys it, and does it in his spare time, when he can mange to get some spare time. A lot of people golf, and seem to enjoy it.

A lot of people watch it, as well. And one of the big events in golf is this weekend. It starts today, in fact.

The PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma is one of the four major tournaments in the USA. The Masters was in April, and Scottie Scheffler took the Green Jacket. The U.S. Open is next month, and the British Open (properly, The Open) is in July.

The PGA Championship starts today, and if you're a streamer, you can watch coverage of the event.

CBS, ESPN, and ESPN+ will carry various rounds of the PGA Championship.

Today, ESPN+ coverage starts at 8:00 am and wraps up at 2:00 pm. ESPN continues from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Tomorrow's 2nd round schedule is the same.

On Saturday and Sunday each, ESPN+ covers from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, then ESPN from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, and CBS has coverage from 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

ESPN+

The standalone service is $7/month, or can be bundled with Hulu and Disney+ as part of the Disney Bundle for $14/month

ESPN

You can find ESPN on several streaming services.

  • Sling TV (Orange) ($35/month)
  • Vidgo ($55/month; $67/three months)
  • YouTube TV ($65/month)
  • Fubo TV ($70/month)
  • Hulu+Live TV ($70/month; includes Disney Bundle, meaning ESPN+)
  • DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

CBS

You have a few ways to watch CBS, including one free way.

  • Antenna (free over the air)
  • Paramount+ ($10/month)
  • YouTube TV ($65/month)
  • Fubo TV ($70/month)
  • Hulu+Live TV ($70/month; includes Disney Bundle, meaning ESPN+)
  • DirecTV Stream ($70/month)

You have options to include championship golf in your Streaming Life this weekend.

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Chromecast isn't what it should be

I so want to like the Chromecast with Google TV device. I really do. But Google really makes it difficult. They really do.

Google has a troubled history with streaming devices. They entered the market with the Nexus Q and Nexus Player in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

The Nexus Q never really launched. It was doomed from the start, with its $300 high-end price and its low-end specs. It ran Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and required an Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) device to use as a remote to control the device. Like the original Chromecast. They ended up giving them all away and canceling the product. The $300 Nexus Q was replaced by the $35 Chromecast, which also requires a mobile device to control it, although it's not limited to Android devices.

The Nexus Player did a little better than the Nexus Q. It was actually in production for a year and a half. It was an actual streaming player, with a remote control and access to the Google Play store. And, it had the features of a Chromecast as well. However, in 2016, Google stopped selling it, and support ended in 2018.

For a while, Google had only the Chromecast as its streaming device. It's a current product, though it has undergone some hardware updates along the way. It's a pretty good streaming device, if you can deal with needing to use a mobile device to launch and control content.

Chromecast is great for casting from a mobile device or a Google Chrome browser. As an everyday streaming device, it leaves much to be desired, at least for me.

Enter Chromecast with Google TV. It's a Chromecast, and more. It has a remote and access to the Google Play store. It's a full featured streaming device, as well as having all of the functionality of the basic Chromecast. And it's a great little device. Almost.

I say "almost" because the Chromecast with Google TV (Chromecast/GTV) is a little light on the specs. While it has more onboard storage than Roku devices, Roku can offload apps and just keep running. Chromecast/GTV requires you to remove apps if you run out of space. It does not have good storage space management.

Here's why that's such a problem.

With Roku, if your device is full, and you launch an app that you already own but isn't on your device, your Roku device will move off older apps and install the newer app. There's a delay of a second or two (usually no more than that) while this happens automatically. It's a pretty decent user experience.

With Chromecast/GTV, if you own an app that's not installed on your device, you are prompted to install it. Once you do that, if you're out of space, you get an error message telling you that. It's up to you to find the apps that you have installed and how much space they have, then determine which one or ones to remove, then go back to the app you wanted to run, install it, then launch it. That's not a good user experience.

The solution is to either increase onboard storage, or have an app manager to handle all these things for you. And if you have ever used an Android device, you know that it doesn't really manage apps this way.

Could it be done? Sure. But it would take some work. Both Roku OS and Android/Google TV are built on a Linux core, so they're cousins in a way. However, they are different enough that this wouldn't be an easy thing to accomplish.

Still, when you cast an app to Chromecast devices (basis or GTV) the Chromecast does actually run the app. How they go about it, I'm not all that clear. But the fact you can launch many apps, cast it to Chromecast, then turn off your phone and it keeps running shows clearly that the content is playing from the Chromecast device. It certainly seems as if there is some kind of app management going on. Why it's not in Chromecast/GTV user interface, I have no idea.

Chromecast with Google TV could really be a good device, if it was a more powerful device and the app management was a lot smoother. I have found myself using the device less and less over time, and that's disappointing. I really want to like the device. But as it stands now, I can't recommend it over other devices as the thing on which to build your Streaming Life.

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Fire TV devices on sale, but is it worthwhile?

I saw where Amazon has their Fire TV devices on sale this week. And it looks like some good prices. But is it really? Let's take a look.

The Amazon Fire TV Cube is currently on sale for $70. I'm going to cut right to the chase. If you've been thinking about one, get this deal. That's a very good price for a very good device. And, just in case you haven't been following along, I'm firmly in Camp Roku. But the Fire TV Cube is good, and this price is more than good. It's great.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is also on sale for $45. This is a top notch streaming stick, and while the discount isn't as deep as that of the Fire TV Cube, it's still good deal.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is discounted to $35. That's a good price on a decent stick. It's not quite as good as the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, but it has been a reliable device for me.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick is on sale for $25. While that's a $15 discount, that's too much in my opinion. Likewise for the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite. Even though it's marked down to $20, it's not a reliable device over time. For both of these, they work fine when you first take them out of the box. If your experience is like mine however, in a few months, though, it'll seem sluggish. I would skip them unless you really want a really cheap stick. It's better than the similarly prices Onn Stick from Walmart, but it pales to the the Roku sticks, and to the Fire TV 4K and Fire TV 4K Max devices. In my opinion, the higher priced Amazon sticks are worth the money. Not so much these cheap ones.

Let me offer another take on this. If you're looking to start streaming, these two cheapest Amazon Fire TV Stick devices are a good way to start cheap. But plan on upgrading in a year. If you can accept that, then sure, go for it. There are a lot worse ways to begin your Streaming Life. But, as I have indicated, a lot better ways too.