Streaming the NBA

The NBA season is underway. The first games were actually Tuesday night, with more games on tap last night. If you're an NBA fan, perhaps you got to see some games in which you were interested. But if you're a streamer, what did you do? Well, you could have watched some of the games as well.

All games, except those affected by regional blackouts or games on national broadcasts, are available through NBA League Pass, which can be used on the major streaming devices.

Other games will be available on networks that are part of streaming packages.

• ABC
• ESPN
• TNT
  
• NBA TV

So, how can you watch those channels?

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.

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.

TNT

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

NBA TV

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

If the NBA is something you want in your Streaming Life, you have plenty of options this season. Blackouts may be a problem, but that's how many sports are currently. Perhaps one day, you'll get the ability to watch your favorite team and not worry about blackouts.

New Apple TV lineup

It's been expected for some time, but Apple also did the unexpected, as they'll sometimes do. And the unexpected is very welcome.

Apple introduced a new Apple TV lineup yesterday. All Apple TV devices are now 4K devices. That means the Apple TV device that has been around for a few years is no longer available. Or will be no longer available when they sell out the current stock. Heck, you can't even buy the 1080 version of it online anymore.

All Apple TV devices are 64 GB or higher now. Gone are the 32 GB devices. Gone are the HD devices.

The new lineup featured two versions of Apple TV:

The new Apple TV 4K is available in two configurations: Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi), which offers 64GB of storage; and Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi + Ethernet), which offers support for Gigabit Ethernet for fast networking and streaming, Thread mesh networking protocol to connect even more smart home accessories, and twice the storage for apps and games (128GB). Customers can order the new Apple TV 4K with Siri Remote today at a new starting price of $129, with availability beginning Friday, November 4.

Both feature the A15 chip, which is a little bit of a bump up. Oh, and talk about burying the lead: if it looks like they are cheaper than they used to be, it's because they are. The $129 and $149 prices are lower than the previous pricing, making them in line with the Amazon Fire TV Cube and only a little more than the Roku Ultra, as well as cheaper than the Nvidia Shield.

If you already have an Apple TV 4K device, there's really no reason to rush out and get one. If your Apple TV is the HD device, then maybe, if your TV is UHD/4K, might it be worth it. But otherwise, no reason to replace a working device.

If you are thinking about adding an Apple TV device to your lineup, don't buy one of the current ones if you find one in a store somewhere. Wait for the new ones that arrive November 4, then enjoy the new Apple TV device as part of your Streaming Life.

Netflix with ads for $7/month

The launch is two weeks away -- actually just over at 16 days away -- but we have a launch date and a price for the new lower priced Netflix ad-supported tier.

Starting November 3, 2022, you'll be able to subscribe to Netflix for as low as $7/month. The current tier of ad-free plans remains. The current $10/month plan gets a slight boost in that the resolution will increase from 480 to 720, which is actually a good bump. It should be noticeable.

There will be no changes to the $16/month or $20/month plans. Just the resolution increase for the $10/month plan, plus the newer $7/month plan.

So, what do you get for $7/month? Well, it's essentially the $10/month plan (including the higher resolution), but with ads.

Basic with Ads offers all the features people expect from Netflix’s Basic plan, with a few differences:

• What stays the same: A wide variety of great TV shows and movies; personalized viewing experience; available on a wide range of TV and mobile devices; change or cancel your plan at any time.
• What’s different: Video quality up to 720p/HD (now for both our Basic with Ads and Basic plans); average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour; a limited number of movies and TV shows won't be available due to licensing restrictions, which we’re working on; no ability to download titles.

It's not a bad deal, or so it seems. The number of commercials is not great, and in line with what Hulu offers for the same $7/month price.

If you're considering Netflix as part of your Streaming Life, or if you have it, but wish it cost less, you'll have this option starting November 3. If you like it, great! You'll have saved some money. If you don't, you can easily upgrade to one of the existing tiers and have the experience to which you've become accustomed.

Just givin' some love to Pub-D-Hub

I've talked about the streaming app Pub-D-Hub a time or two before. I don't bring it up a lot. Not many people do. But it is one of the apps I've used nearly as long as any other, except Hulu.

While it's been free since it launched -- I'm not sure when it launched, but I've watched it for nearly 10 years -- I've been a paid subscriber for many years.

The free service has enough to enjoy, so it's not necessary to subscribe, but there is additional content available to subscribers. Additionally, even if there was no additionally content, I appreciate the content that is offered, and don't mind showing some support. After all, it's less than $5/year to upgrade to a paid account. And yes, that's $5/year, not a month.

In recent years, they increased their traditional lineup of on-demand public domain movies and TV shows, as well as commercials and short films, with live streaming channels.

The selection isn't quite that of Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi, Roku Channel, or others, but it's still a good selection of live streaming channels, 352 in all.

If you've not checked out Pub-D-Hub, give it a look. It's free. And, if you are already using the free service, consider upgrading for $5/year. It's definitely worth it. It's something I've had in my Streaming Life for years, and expect to have it for years to come.

VPN, but not as most use one

Last month, I mentioned that I was satisfied with the job my Pi Hole installation was doing. And, a month later, I'm still quite satisfied. Even more so, since I added a VPN to the setup.

Many people will use a VPN, either a free ad-supported one, or a paid one, to try to get around geolocation restrictions for streaming content. I use a VPN for other reasons.

I'm using Open VPN to power everything, and am running the VPN on a Raspberry Pi (of course). In fact, it's the same Raspberry Pi I use to run Pi Hole. I can use it to connect devices to my home network.

I'm not connecting to a service in another location. I'm connecting to my home network when I'm not at home. So why would I do that?

Well, most of the time, I'm having my mobile device connected to my network via VPN in order to take advantage of my Pi Hole setup. That way, I can have tracker blocking anywhere. And, if I need to get to something on my network, I can. Now, admittedly, this rarely happens. Very rarely. But using Pi Hole when I'm away from home my home network is great.

I found out how much I liked it yesterday, in fact. A friend was having trouble with her cell phone. She was unable to log in to a particular Website. Now, to be sure, there were several things she could have done, but the way she like to do it involved launching her default browser and logging in to the Website of a particular store. And that's a perfectly legitimate way to do it. It should work.

Well, it wasn't working. She uses ad and tracking blocking on her mobile browser, as well as popup blocking. And recently, this particular store's Website was not longer accessible for logging in. It kept giving her a message about turning off ad and popup blocking.

She didn't need to actually turn everything off, but all of them together were stopping her from logging in. Whether that was because of an update to the browser, or (more likely, in my mind) an update to the login process of the store, I can't say with certainty. But by experimenting, I found that using it all stopped her from logging in. If she turned off, say, popup blocking, but left the ad blocking in place, things worked. So, she had to turn off popup blocking, then log in, and when she was done, turn it back on.

By the way, if she turned it back on in the middle of her session, it logged her off. So, she had to turn off and leave off popup blocking.

I, on the other hand, am able to access the Website with no issues via my VPN. Pi Hole tracker blocking works different from the ad blocking on cell phones. And so it can't tell I'm using it. Remember it's the combination of all that which causes the problem. So, I don't have an ad or tracker blocker on my browser. It's on my home network, and I'm using a VPN to connect. Meaning the superior blocking of Pi Hole is coming into play. I get the benefit, and not the issues she has.

That was something I had considered, but now I'm aware of it, I'm even happier with my VPN setup. While this isn't directly affecting my Streaming Life, it does make my mobile connected life much easier.