My Streaming Life

For many sports fans that stream, a standalone sports package -- one that doesn't require other non-sports packages -- would be wonderful thing. Today, if you want to stream ESPN, you have to have a subscription to a service such as Sling TV, YouTube TV, Vidgo, Fubo, or DirecTV Stream. The cheapest of those includes a lot of non-sports. In fact, all of those simply streaming cable-like packages. The difference is that you use the Internet to get them, and subscriptions are one month at a time, not years at a time. You can get packages without sports, the most popular of those are Philo and Frndly.TV, but you can't get one that's only sports. Fubo started as a mostly-soccer channel. Fubo, futbol. See? But it became simply another streaming-cable package. Well, mostly. It's still pretty sports heavy, and not just soccer. Over the last few year, many of these live-streaming/streaming-cable packages dropped the regional sports networks. Fox Sports Net channels disappeared f...

I got a new office chair! Yeah, I get it. Big deal. It's a chair. Well, yeah, it really is a big deal. In more ways than one. Not every chair holds someone that's over 200 lbs. Of course, I'm 6'2" so I need a chair that's not only more sturdy for heavier, but for taller as well. Sitting in most desk chairs makes me feel like I'm in a kindergarten chair. Really, my knees should not be higher than my waist. I had a used chair that a good friend passed to me several years ago. But all the years of usage in my home office -- I worked from home part time for years, then full time for a while -- it gave out. It was old when I got it; he had replaced his and passed his still-good one to me. Only after a few years, it had reached end of life. So, a few years ago, I bought a cheap office chair. Mostly because I'm cheap. Well, it didn't last all that long. It was one of those "under 200 lbs" chairs. I should have read the print better before I order...

I saw a news release from ION announcing the name change of the Court TV Mystery channel. They're all owned by the same company, so it's a name change. Or a rebranding. Or something. If you don't know the background of ION, it started as Pax TV, entered and left deals with NBC, changed the name a couple of times, settling on ION, although the capitalization changed a few times. The news release from earlier this week uses all capital letters, so for now, so will I . "Mystery has added popular procedural dramas to its schedule and with the network's programming now more connected with the hall of fame line-up of hit dramas on ION, aligning the two networks creates increased consumer recognition, expands brand affinity and cross-promotional strength, and facilitates the ability to naturally share content and more," said Lisa Knutson, president of Scripps Networks They even had a video. [ Link ] Here's the mystery, to my thinking. Does this mean the Court TV ...

I've been wanting to build a Raspberry Pi streaming device. Why? Because it can be done, of course. And I actually did build one . I had some issues, but I wondered if it might be that I used a smaller Raspberry Pi than intended. You see, the requirements are a 4 GB device, and I only had a 2 GB device. Still, it worked. Well, mostly worked. I ordered a 4 GB device and it arrived, but it had issues, and I've sent it back for replacement . Now, it'll probably be a while before it comes in, but I actually ordered a kit (the one with the board that is being replaced) and a standalone board. The standalone board works. Well, it does and it doesn't. When I put a regular Raspberry Pi OS in the device, it boots and runs just fine. But, if I put the card with the Android TV setup, the card that runs in the 2 GB device, it won't boot. Some research shows that the build for the Android 11 TV OS is not compatible with newer boards . You can use LineageOS 19 builds that ships ...

There are the big boys of free ad-supported live streaming, such as Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Stirr, Sling TV Free, Plex, Peacock, and the like. You've probably heard of most of those, and have probably watched at least some of them. They're really all worth a look. Some of them have really easy to use interfaces, and some are not quite as user friendly. All of those are pretty good insofar as free live streaming is concerned. Some of them have more that live streaming. They all offer on-demand content to varying degrees. Some actually have other original intent, but added live streaming after launch. Plex, for instance, didn't start as a live streaming service. Peacock is actually a pay service, but has a free tier. Same goes for Sling TV. The Roku Channel was free on-demand content and added live TV much later. These aren't the only live streaming services, though. I recently ran across one called Distro TV. They've been around since 2019, but only r...

The Beijing Olympics ended with horrible ratings. But not for streaming viewership. While overall rating for the Olympics were a huge disappointment for NBCU, the streaming audience grew. And that's a good thing for streamers like you and me. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Winter Games were down 42% from the previous Winter Games, and down from last year's Summer Games . The topline figure is that the Olympics averaged 11.4 million viewers across all of NBCU’s platforms in primetime. That’s down 42 percent from the 19.8 million average for the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea — in keeping with the trend both from the first few days of the games (and, in fact, closing the gap with four years ago a little bit) and the general decline of broadcast network ratings in the past four years. NBCU’s coverage from Beijing is also down about 26 percent from the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which averaged 15.5 million primetime viewers in the company’s “Total Audie...

My Raspberry Pi streamer project has gone okay so far. There are a couple of issues, which I covered in two earlier posts: Update 1 , Update 2 . Now I've run into a new issue, but this is a very different issue. Very different. But I also had a good experience to go along with it. First the good. I didn't really like the remote I originally bought for it, and found a different one that I thought would be better. It is better. I like the new remote. I found it on sale from Walmart.com , and haven't been able to find it elsewhere. The mouse part doesn't work well, but that was true of the first remote. However, the buttons are great. The remote looks and feels a lot like an Apple TV remote, but larger. I like it. Now the bad. If you recall, I installed the Android TV setup on a 2 GB Raspberry Pi . It recommends a 4 GB device. I didn't have a 4 GB device, so I decided to try it on a 2 GB device just to see what would happen. It ran, but I still wanted it on a 4 GB devi...

Today is Washington's Birthday. Well, it's not the actual anniversary of the day George Washington was born, that's tomorrow. But there is a federal holiday, and it's called Washington's Birthday, and here in 2022, that's today. Here's the listing of this year's holidays from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management : Can you read that part at the bottom? The part that references today's holiday? It says: **This holiday is designated as "Washington’s Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law. Some of you, maybe most of you, are thinking that today is Presidents Day. It's not. There is no such thing. And some of you may want to argue about it. "The combined W...

Tonight is the National Basketball Association's all star game. If you are a streamer, you can watch the game, as long as you have a subscription to one of the live streaming services carrying the game. If you have an antenna, it won't do you any good. The game is on TNT and TBS, and you can't find that over the air. So, how can you, a streamer, watch it? There are four streaming services that carry either of those networks. Actually, they carry both of them, so you can choose. Well, six services, if you county Sling three times. Because Sling is, well, Sling. TNT/TBS Sling TV (Orange) ($35/month) Sling TV (Blue) ($35/month) Sling TV (Orange+Blue) ($50/month) YouTube TV ($65/month) Hulu+Live TV ($70/month) DirecTV Stream ($70/month) Sling TV has two different plans. They carry many of the same channels, but the Orange plan has some channels the Blue plan doesn't have, and the Blue plan has some channels the Orange plan doesn't have, and the Orange+Blue plan combines...

I've generally thought well of Fubo TV. I remember when it launched, that it was essentially a live streaming service for soccer fans. I assumed the name "Fubo" came from the Spanish word for the sport the USA calls "soccer" and others call "football" or "futbol." It expanded beyond its soccer roots and became a full-fledged serious streaming service that would rival YouTube TV, Sling TV, Hulu+Live TV, Vidgo, and others. If you wanted a live streaming service, particularly if you were a sports fan, Fubo TV was one to consider. Recently, Fubo TV conducted a little experiment. They dropped their monthly plan for new subscribers, requiring them to subscribe for a quarterly term only. They have since brought the monthly plans back for new subscribers. And here's where the big lie came into play. Ahead of the change from monthly to quarterly, Fubo was $65/month. There are bigger plans that cost more, but the basic plan was $65/month. When they...

I've been looking to write about Roku's move to drop non-certified apps. There are a bunch of people getting their panties in a wad over it on the Roku support forums. Personally, I don't like everything about the approach Roku is taking, but I understand the reasons behind it. Most of what they're doing, I'm fine with. The only part that really bothers me is the 20-user limit. Yes, Roku will only allow a beta app to have 20 users. That's not enough. But the overall idea of no longer allowing unlimited users for an unlimited period of time is something I understand. So, I prepared to write up a post telling what's going on and my thoughts about it. Then, I found a video published by Cord Cutters News . This YouTube video on their channel offers good information. [ Direct link ] I can still offer my thoughts. So, do watch the Cord Cutters News video first. I think that Roku needs to do something about their Private Channels, now known as Non-certifies Apps...

There was a report this week that Fubo TV would switch back to monthly plans today. I hope this is true. Well, I kinda hope it's true. The hesitancy is because of that I'm seeing with the quarterly plan pricing. In case you forgot, or never knew, the background, Fubo TV changed to quarterly plans earlier this month . I didn't see anyone else pick on on one things I noticed. Along with the move to quarterly, Fubo updated the monthly pricing, raising it around 24%. See that monthly price? The one that's marked through? That indicates you still get the $65/month price, but only if you subscribe for a quarter at a time. If not, the price is $81/month. Of course, there was no monthly option, so this is either classic salesman lie-speak, or it's a sneaking in of a massive price increase. The report about Fubo TV going back to monthly plans was from the Twitter account of The TV Answer Man , Phillip Swan. FuboTV says its quarterly-only plan is expected to end on Thursday....

I saw an article online this week that said new Amazon Fire tablets had received FCC approval. The actual FCC document doesn't mention Amazon, However, evidence points to it being a new Amazon Fire tablet, according to Liliputing . The case for this being a new Fire HD 10 tablet? The FCC documentation doesn’t mention Amazon by name, but everything was submitted by a company called Abyssal Plain, which is the same name as the shell company Amazon used to submit documents for the 2021 Amazon fire HD 10 tablet. And FCC IDs for the new listing (2AWRO-8768) and last year’s (2AWRO-8762) are very similar . What does this have to do with streaming? Well, you can stream from a tablet, can't you? It's how I stream away from home. Many will pack a Roku stick or Fire TV stick when traveling, but I'll just use an iPad. I could just as easily use an Amazon tablet. I like the Amazon tablets, but not as much as I like an iPad. Still, they are good little devices. Perhaps the newer tab...

I've been a fan of Roku devices since I bought my first one in late 2010. It was a good device, and I've kept good Roku devices in use ever since. Yes, I've used Apple TV exclusively for periods of time. I've used Chromecast exclusively for periods of time. I've used Amazon Fire TV devices exclusively for periods of time. But each time I came back to Roku. None of this was a lovers spat. You have to remember, in the early days, not every device has every major app. Some stuff only worked on Roku, some stuff only worked on Apple TV. I didn't say anything about Chromecast or Fire TV in the early days, but that's because those are latecomers to the game. They weren't around. When new devices came out, I did try them out. I was able to get a new device every so often, and I did. Some people I knew liked one thing or another thing, and I tried them out to see what I thought. I gave away all my early Fire TV devices. I gave away early Chromecasts, but as gifts...

It's St. Valentine's Day 2022, and you may have plans this evening with your Special Someone. Or not. Maybe your plans (if you have plans) include dinner and a movie. I don't have any McDonald's coupons to offer but you might want to check the app; there are specials there (I'm a cheap date). But, maybe I can help with the movie afterwards. I went to a few Websites and looked up lists of Valentine's Day movies. These are some of the ones listed, with most of these on several (or most, or all) of the lists. I'll list some of the subscription or free services where you can watch it, as well as a link where you can buy it from Amazon if you want. The Princess Bride is on Hulu, Disney+. Amazon . Pride & Prejudice (2005) is on HBO Max. Amazon Casablanca is on HBO Max. Amazon . When Harry Met Sally is on HBO Max. Amazon . Say Anything is on HBO Max, Cinemax. Amazon . It Happened One Night is on TV Time (free), YouTube TV, Philo, Retro Reels (subscription). Ama...

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. That means a lot of people will be watching the Super Bowl. It's one of the biggest broadcasts of the year, and has been for quite some time. Last year, on average, 91.6 million people viewed the game, with 5.7 million streaming the game [source: Sports Media Watch ]. That's an increase in streaming numbers of 2.3 million from the year before, but an overall drop of 8.8 million viewers overall from the same year. Streaming is gaining, despite traditional TV dropping. This year, how do you watch the Super Bowl? Well, you have a couple of options. The game is on NBC, and if you live close enough to an NBC affiliate's TV tower, you may be able to pick up the game over the air with an antenna. If you live close enough, an indoor antenna will work. If you live far away, you may need an outdoor antenna. For example, I live over 40 miles from the NBC station's tower near Savannah. I need an outdoor antenna, but I have one and it works great. Or, you...

I mentioned earlier about a project to make a streaming device out of a Raspberry Pi . I ran into a couple of hiccups along the way , but found an excellent tutorial that really helped. (Thanks TripleM ) I left off with an issue with the remote. That's not fully resolved, but it's working better than it was. I don't like the remote, and ordered one that I think I will like. We'll see. However, since the remote is working better -- still aggravating, just not as bad -- I've actually used the Raspberry Pi streamer a little bit. I've added YouTube, Movies Anywhere, Pluto TV, and Prime Video, since I'm currently using those apps. I also added HBO Max and Paramount+ to see if they would load. You see, I found some videos about others using a Raspberry Pi as a streaming device. Some loaded apps that wouldn't run. I was worried about that, for a couple of reasons. First, the fact that someone had a video of an app not running was pretty good proof that somethin...

I'm not a big fan of subscription TV. That is to say, I believe it serves a purpose, but I don't think it's worth subscribing to a service year-round. I'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now, I want to talk about a report from Tubi, the streaming service. According to its yearly report -- this year's called " The Stream: 2022 Audience Insights for Brands " -- Tubi says that free streaming will surpass subscription streaming in 2022. Here a a few definitions to cover first: AVOD - This is ad supported video on demand. Things like Pluto TV, Tubi, Xumo, and the like. SVOD - This is subscription video on demand. Think Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, and the like. TVOD - This is transactional video on demand. You buy a movie, order a pay-per-view event. Things like that. When you see AVOD, think free ad-supported content. When you see SVOD, think subscriptions like Netflix. When you see TVOD, think purchases or rentals. Okay? Good. Back to the Tubi ...

Roku is the most popular, and one of the easiest to use, streaming platforms. There are a lot of good things about it. I'm a fan of Roku. But there is one aspect that I don't like: Roku Pay. Now, Roku Pay has its purpose, but I will only use it on rare occasions, and generally recommend that people not use it. For the most part. Here's what Roku Pay is. It's Roku's system of paying for stuff through your Roku account. You can purchase apps, you can subscribe to services, you can buy things through your Roku. It's really nothing more than having your credit card stored and using it to pay for stuff. That's all it really is, when you get down to it. Roku really likes it, because they make money by making it easy for you to buy or subscribe using Roku, and they get a cut. And they make it really easy to set up Roku pay. When you create a Roku account, it automatically goes to a page where you can fill out credit card or PayPal information to be stored and used ...

I didn't expect to post so soon about my project to build a Raspberry Pi streamer, but here we are. After I posted, I realized I had everything I needed to begin the project except a remote. I already had a Raspberry Pi device that worked, although a very basic one. It was connected to a keyboard, mouse, and video monitor via a KVM switch. I already had that up and running, so I knew the hardware was good. I had another microSD card and reader, and was able to set up the software on it. I didn't want to reuse the working OS for the Raspberry Pi, but rather have the streamer OS and software on a separate card. That way, I could just place the card I wanted in it, boot it up, and it would function as I wanted. That's how most will use project devices. I had everything except a remote. So, I looked for a remote to use with it, and found one that claimed to work with it. That arrived Tuesday. Last night, I decided to see just how complicated it would be to do this. And, yes, it...

The news hit this weekend about Fubo's new pricing structure. If you're new to Fubo TV, you can sign up, but the monthly plan is no longer available. The shortest plan is a quarterly plan. And, the pricing is all jacked up, too. That's the really big story, I think. Let me clarify: by "jacked up" I mean a couple of things. One thing I mean is a price increase. Fubo seems to have hidden a price increase into all of this. They've upped their prices by a huge amount, then turned around and discounted it to the current price. The other thing I mean is that whoever at Fubo knows math was left out of the whole thing. The math is wrong. But, as I'll show, even if you take the best way of looking at it, the prices are really high. And Fubo is now the most expensive live streaming service, taking the crown from DirecTV Stream and Hulu+Live TV. First, let's look at the pricing schedule for new users. I don't see a monthly plan. And neither do you. Now, if y...

I may have a new project to do. I recently updated my Plex server, and have a couple of other things I need (okay, want) to do. But in the last several weeks, another project has come to mind that is more streaming related. For Christmas, I gave one of my grandsons a Raspberry Pi kit. I had thought about doing a Raspberry Pi project for some time, but never really got around to it. Well, when I was trying to decide what to get this one grandson, the idea of a Raspberry Pi was floated, and that's what I ended up doing. I'm not sure he really got into it, but it did get me to thinking. I know there are several projects that one can do with Raspberry Pi devices, including a streaming device. Now we're talking. I'm shopping around for the things needed to build a streaming device out of a Raspberry Pi. From everything I can tell, the newer, more powerful devices will run Android TV. I've used a couple of different Android/Google TV devices, and I think it's a f...

The NFL all star game, called the Pro Bowl, is this afternoon. For years, it was played in Hawaii. From 1979 through 2015, it was in Hawaii every year except 2009 (Miami, FL) and 2014 (Phoenix, AZ). After four years in Orlando, and a cancellation last year, the game returns, being played in Las Vega, NV. As often happens, players from the two teams in the Super Bowl won't play. Well, most from the Bengals and Rams that were selected have opted out, but as of this writing, some are still on the roster. Other stars often opt out as well. The NFC starting QB Aaron Rogers, along with Tom Brady (his 15th Pro Bowl selection), are not playing. The Cardinals' Kyler Murray, along with replacements Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson will play, as of this writing. On the AFC side, the three selected quarterbacks are still scheduled to play. Starter Justin Herbert, along with Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are still expected to play. I won't go over the entire roster, but you can see...

If you're an Amazon Prime member -- and I've been one for years and years -- there's a price increase coming. The current price of $119 will become $139 come February 18 for new customers, or March 25 for those renewing. As I've said, I've had an Amazon Prime membership for a long long time. I was a Prime member before there was a thing called Prime Video. I was a Prime member when Unbox was introduced. Unbox became Instant Video on Demand, and is now called Prime Video. That's how long I've been a member. I think (I really should check to be sure) it was originally $79/year. It went up to $99/year, then to $119/year. Now, the next price increase is coming and again, it's another $20/year increase . Amazon last hiked the price of Prime in 2018, when it increased to $119 from $99. Four years before that, it raised the subscription fee to $99 from $79. Amazon’s annual increase amounts to about a 17% rise in price. Amazon also raised the monthly price of a ...

One of the issue for sports fans -- and if you're a sports fan, you already know this -- is accessing regional sports networks when streaming. Cable systems offer the regional sports networks with their plans, but those are for everyone, not just sports fans. If you don't care about sports, you are paying for something you don't care about. But if you are a sports fan, and your favorite teams are only, or often, or even occasionally, carried on a regional sports network, then you appreciate them. I bring this up because NBC Regional Sports Networks, specifically Bay Area, California, Chicago, Washington, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, are only available on DirecTV. Well, most of them. NBC Sports Philadelphia isn't available, but the others are, both satellite and streaming (DirecTV Stream). The DirecTV Stream package that includes the RSNs is $90 and up. That may be a good deal, depending on what you've been paying for cable, but it's a bit more than I want...