Peacock stepping up

There are lots of little things I don't like about Peacock TV. Every bit of the problem is related to the user interface. Features that I don't like or want because they don't have them. But one thing that isn't a problem is the content. Good content can cause a person to overlook a lot of other issues.

Peacock TV has some really good content. Of course, the NBCUniversal library is huge and contains some really good stuff. So yeah, it's expected that Peacock would have good content.

Recently, though, they did something I didn't expect. I saw it and thought perhaps I wasn't seeing what I was seeing. But there it was. Jurassic World Dominion was streaming on Peacock.

My first thought was that it was the previous movie, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, but nope, this was the recent movie. As in the movie that was released in the USA less than 90 days ago and had nearly one billion dollars in box office receipts. That movie.

Right now, if you want to watch that movie, you can simply watch it on Peacock. You don't have to buy it. If you are an Xfinity Internet customer, you get Peacock for free. If not, it's $5/month. You could watch Jurassic World Dominion for 720 hours straight for $5.

Peacock has the movie for the next four months, before it moves to Amazon Prime Video for 10 months, back to Peacock for four more months, then on to Starz.

I've seen where films have been available for home rental while still in theaters, but this is available for watching on a high quality, low price streaming service. Peacock is doing its best to be a part of your Streaming Life. Moves like this help.

Older Disney movies

I regularly visit sever Websites that focus on streaming. I list many of these in the sidebar. One is The Streaming Advisor, and I saw a post there that got me really excited.

The post was entitled "How To Find Wonderful World Of Disney Movies On Disney+" and if you know me, you know that caught my eye.

I'm of the age where I used to watch Walt Disney's Wonder World of Color, which also went by other names over the years. The it was called the Wonderful World of Color when I started watching it, so that's how I always think of it.

I had previously gone to Disney+ during a time when I had an active Disney+ subscription (see "Streaming more content with fewer services" for more about my rotating subscriptions). I saw different categories for Disney owned movies, but I didn't find a grouping for the older movies that aired on Wonderful World of Color.

What I had to do was browse through the movies or search for a specific movie. I was disappointed. Then, a few days ago, I saw the post by Ryan Downey at The Streaming Advisor about how to find those movies. I was excited.

Turns out my excitement was all for naught. He hadn't discovered some trick to finding the movies, or posting about a new feature that Disney+ had implemented. Rather, he was lamenting the same thing that I'm saying. And he had to do the very things I was having to do.

He was addressing what you have to do to find the movies, not sharing some secret. There is no secret. There is no easy way to find those movies. He was explaining what you had to do:

For those looking for films from The Wonderful World of Disney series, you will have to either do a basic search for the title you are seeking or scan through the section simply labeled as Movies. From there the selections will be among the rest of the catalog via the A-Z sorting choice. Why Disney has not broken the movie into their own category considering it has a Disney Channel Movies section and more is a question above my pay grade.

And he is right. That's exactly what you have to do. He doesn't like it. I don't like it. And Disney seems to not care.

Oh, well. If I want those classic Disney films in my Streaming Life, I have to find them the hard way. But you know what? It's worth it. I just wish I didn't have to do it that way.

LInux laptop update

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I got a Linux laptop running on an older MacBook Pro. I said at the time that it had been going well.

Well, it has been a couple of weeks -- a little more than that, actually -- and now I am no longer saying that it's going well. It's going really well.

I'm actually a little surprised how much I've gotten used to using the MacBook Pro running GNU/Linux operating system. I really do like the experience.

Now, much of it is because it's really good hardware. I know a lot of people that really hate Apple products, but I have to say that they make really good hardware.

In fairness, Microsoft makes really good hardware. In fact, there is a noticeable difference in running Windows on a Microsoft Surface laptop and running it on a Dell laptop. Or any other brand laptop.

I will say that a Dell XPS 13 running Windows is a good experience as well, though I prefer the Microsoft Surface to the Dell XPS 13, but not by much. Most of my Windows experience is on lesser devices, and most of those lesser devices are, in my opinion, the problem with Windows devices. Windows itself is actually an operating system I could get used to running at home again. I just don't want to.

I liked using Mac OS (formerly OS X) and was disappointed to learn that the new version due out this fall won't work on my older (2015) MacBook. I gave Linux a shot, and I'm actually quite happy with the move.

So far I've not run into any issues with the laptop -- it is a MacBook Pro, after all -- nor with the GNU/Linux operating system. I'm running Ubuntu Desktop 22.04.1 on my MacBook, and it works quite well.

Switching to Firefox has been a little adjustment, but as I used Firefox in the past, it was easy enough to switch to Firefox from Chrome and Safari. Firefox works well, and there are plenty of Chromium based browsers if I prefer to use one of those. I don't, so Firefox it remains.

Office software has been surprisingly easy to use as well. I'm using OnlyOffice as my Office suite. It's very compatible with Microsoft Office document formats. LibreOffice has been good as well, but I'm focusing on OnlyOffice at the moment. Apache Open Office doesn't quite cut it for me. I prefer the LibreOffice and OnlyOffice interfaces much more, and the compatibility issues of Open Office were the deciding factors on that.

I've not yet done any video editing on Linux. I haven't actually had the need to. I have done that on my MacBook running Mac OS in the past, and will probably edit some videos in the next month or two, so I'll get a better feel about how that goes. I'm hoping it goes smoothly.

I've not ripped any videos from DVD or from purchase downloads on Linux yet. That will probably need to happen soon, as Better Call Saul has wrapped up, and I'll rip my purchases (I already bought the final season) for playback on Plex.

So, the next month or two will be a real test of my Linux laptop, as I'll try to do as much as I can using that device. I could use my Linux desktop, but there's no advantage to that. Well, using a desk vs a recliner is a difference. I'll use whichever I feel like. Since the desktop and laptop are both using the same version of Ubuntu Linux, it won't make a bit of difference.

I never figured that my Streaming Life would lead me to start using Linux on my everyday computer, but here we are. And so far, it's going really well.

Watching college football games this weekend: Week 1, Weekend 2

College football kicked off last weekend, and Week 1 continues into its second weekend.

Yeah, things are weird at the start of the season. In the past, last weekend would have been called "Week Zero," but not everyone is doing that this year. Week 1 now covers two weekends.

There were 11 games last weekend, 10 that were broadcast. And there were 16 games this past Thursday, and another 8 yesterday.

There are only 57 games today, one tomorrow, and one Monday. Not every game will be broadcast, but most will. In fact, all of the games from the SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Big Ten will be broadcast. The Pac 12 and the other conferences all have at least one game that won't be broadcast.

So where can you watch the games? The games that are broadcast will be on one of these networks:

• ABC
• ACC Network
• Big Ten
• Big 12 Network
• CBS
• CBS Sports Network
• ESPN
• ESPN 2
• ESPN 3
• ESPN U
• SEC Network
• ESPN+
• Fox
• Fox Sports 1
• Longhorn Network
• Pac 12 Network

How do you watch these networks? Keep reading.

ABC

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ACC Network

• Sling Orange, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.

Big Ten Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.

Big 12 Network

Big 12 Network games are available through ESPN+.

CBS

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Paramount+ Premium, $10/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

CBS Sports Network

• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Ultimate, $105/month.

ESPN

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN2

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN U

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

ESPN3

ESPN3 is usually included with a service that carries standard ESPN/ESPN2.

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN+

ESPN+ is a standalone sports programming service. It is not the same thing as regular ESPN that you get with cable or one of the live streaming services. Some content from ESPN, ESPN2, or other ESPN networks may be available on ESPN+, but often, it's content that is only available on ESPN+.

• ESPN+, $7/month.
• Disney Bundle, $14/month.

Fox

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

Fox Sports 1

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

Longhorn Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.

Pac 12 Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• Fubo TV Pro, with Fubo Extra, $78/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

SEC Network

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.
• Fubo TV Ultimate, $100/month.

You may have noticed that NBC and Peacock are not listed. That's because they don't have any games so far. That will change when Notre Dame begins playing at home.

Those networks, and the services on which they're carried, will cover all but seven of the 59 games. So what's the cheapest way to watch (or have access to) all 52 of the games this weekend?

That's complicated. No streaming service carries both CBS Sports Network and Longhorn Network. The cheapest service with Longhorn Network is Sling TV Orange with Sports Extra. That's $46/month. None include ESPN+, so that's another $7/month. Meaning that the $80 Fubo TV Pro plan is the cheapest option to add to those, giving you a total of $133/month for those three services to get all this week's games.

I'm not interested in all those games, meaning I can get by with Sling TV Orange with Sports Extra, totaling $46/month. If I want more, I'd need to get YouTube TV for $65/month to cover the games I care about. But if it's everything you want, plan to pay $133/month.

If college football is something that you want as a part of your Streaming Life, you have options. And they can get expensive.

MeTV gains and losses

I've been a fan of MeTV for a while. It's family friendly entertainment of classic TV shows from the 50s through the 80s.

If I have to explain what MeTV is, we are definitely of different generations.

Losses

Anyway, I saw where some TV stations were dropping MeTV. Tyler the Antenna Man mentioned it in a video the other day, and cited several reasons this is happening. The main reason? Money.

Some stations that are dropping MeTV belong to companies that own their own channels. Maybe not the same thing as MeTV, but still channels the parent company owns, and can get a lot cheaper.

[YouTube]

This may be happening even more as time goes on.

So, how do you watch MeTV if your local station drops it? Well, it'll cost you. But not all that much. And, in fact, if you already use one (or both) of the streaming services that carries MeTV, it won't cost you a cent more.

Gains

I posted a while back about MeTV being added to the Frndly.TV lineup. So, if you already subscribe to this family friendly $7/month service, you already have another way to watch MeTV. And, if you don't, you can -- again, it's just $7/month.

And there's another way that somehow crept past me. Philo is now carrying MeTV as well. I last looked over the Philo list of channels in July, and MeTV was not there. But it is now. If you want a good, inexpensive live streaming service that carries many popular cable channels (but no sports or news; at least very very little), then Philo is an excellent option. And now it also has MeTV.

Summary

Money, the reason for most things happening, is the reason that some stations are dropping MeTV, meaning some of you won't pick it up over the air. But there are inexpensive (but not free) ways to get it.

If local stations have removed MeTV from your channel lineup, you have options to get it back as part of your Streaming Life. And that's good news indeed.