Cordkillers 241 - Is a Dumb Pipe a Smart Move?
Netflix getting cocky, Roku's back in Mexico, and The Real World is back All this and more on Cordkillers!
CordKillers: Ep. Is a Dumb Pipe a Smart Move?
Recorded: October 22 2018
Guest: None
Intro Video
Trailer for Narcos: Mexico
Primary Target
Netflix surges after crushing earnings
- Netflix announced its earnings for Q3, with subscriber growth of 6.96 million beating its own estimates of 5 million. 1.09 million came from the US, also beating expectations. Netflix also predicted it will grow by another 9.4 million in Q4. The company’s net income rose to $402.8 million, or 89 cents per share. Netflix also announced it is borrowing $2 billion to use on original programming and acquiring content.
Reed Hastings to the rest of the TV industry: Give up, just focus on news and sports
- In Netflix earnings report Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had a lot to say about New Fox. That's the part of Fox that Disney isn't buying, mostly Fox's broadcast channels, Fox News, Fox Business and the national Sports Channels. Hastings said "New Fox appears to have a great strategy, which is to focus on large simultaneous-viewing sports and news.... Other linear networks are likely to follow this model over time."
Hulu plans to move some channels from its live TV service back to on-demand
- Hulu CEO Randy Freer says the company is considering breaking down its $40 a month live TV service into smaller cheaper bundles. Freer said the company might drop some channels in favor of on demand. Hulu wants to aggregate offerings from other companies the way Amazon does with Prime video.
How to Watch
Roku to resume sales in Mexico, following court ruling
- The ban on sales of Roku in Mexico has been lifted. Cablevision sued Roku because Roku's private channels feature, meat for developers, was being used to watch pirated channels in Mexico. Roku began cracking down on abuses of the private channel feature. A ruling from the 11th Collegiate Court in Mexico City has lifted the ban.
Sonos in talks to add Roku's voice assistant to its devices
- CNET reports Sonos and Roku are in talks to add Roku's voice control to Sonos devices. That way voice commands for Roku could be sent from a Sonos speaker. Roku is adding support for control by Google Assistant devices as well.
What to Watch
Orange is the New Black's 7th season will be its last. Netflix has called the show its most watched original series.
Netflix canceled Luke Cage. Variety reports Netflix decided after talks that a third season would not be feasible.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Is Finally Becoming a Real Movie at Netflix
- Netflix announced it has picked up the movie Pinnocchio which has been in development for several years by Guillermo Del Toro and the Henson Company. It will be a dark adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s original 1883 novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio and set in Mussolini's Italy.
Season 3 of the Expanse which was the last to air on SyFy will arrive on Prime Video November 15. No word on Seasons 1 and 2.
MTV’s Real World will be revived with interactivity on Facebook Watch
- MTV's The Real World is coming to Facebook Watch this Spring. Viewers can vote on the final cast member to join the house and use synchronized viewing to watch episodes along with the cast. The 32nd season of Real World aired a year and a half ago. Facebook Watch will also launch The World’s Most Amazing Dog, an interactive global competition show. Viacom also has reportedly signed a deal to make a sequel to "To all the boys I loved before" also for Netflix. Viacom chief Bob Bakish has said previously thatcreating a competitive Netflix-like service would be too “capital-intensive.”
Eyes On
Brian: caught up on s13 of Always Sunny, Dirk Gently, The Good Place, more Spiderman game, more American Vandal
Tom: Daredevil
On the Lookout: The Good Cop
Front Lines
MoviePass’ parent company being investigated over fraud concerns
- The New York Attorney General's office is investigating MoviePass's parent company Helios and Matheson over allegations of misleading investors regarding its finances. Helios and Matheson believes its disclosures have been "complete, timely and truthful and we have not misled investors."
YouTube TV Is Really Sorry It Went Down, So It's Giving You a 1-Week Credit
- YouTube went down Tuesday, taking YouTube Music and YouTube TV with it. YouTube TV sent its customers a form which if filled out will give them a $10 credit, the equivalent of one free week. Users have until 3 AM Eastern October 24 to fill out the form.
Funimation shows leave Crunchyroll following Sony's acquisition
- Funimation is breaking their partnership with Crunchyroll/VRV following Funimation's acquisition by Sony. Under the partnership, Crunchyroll and Funimation partially shared libraries (with Crunchyroll focussing on subtitles and Funimation on English voice dubbing) and Funimation was included in VRV's combo subscription service, VRV Premium. The final post-split libraries of both services hasn't been announced. Funimation will be leaving VRV (and the VRV Premium subscription) in favor of its own FunimationNow service.
Warner Bros.’ DramaFever Korean-Drama Streaming Service Is Shutting Down
- Also in bad news for digital services, in the wake of the AT&T-Time Warner merger, it's been announced that DramaFever and Super Deluxe will be shutting down. Much of DramaFever's staff will still work at Warner Bros. Digital Labs. DramaFever streamed a variety of Asian dramas and SuperDeluxe was a comedy studio working on digital and television programs.
Dispatches from the Front
I'm listening. Bryce, how do you pick the music for the after show? Thanks?"
- Charlie
Hello Tom and Brian,
I am one of the people who never left piracy. However, I also pay for Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Amazon Prime Video.
I live in Canada and I want to watch what I want when I want on whatever device I want. I also cannot stand commercials. Those two things just aren't possible legally. Most shows aren't available in Canada until much later or are only available on cable or one of the cable channel's free streaming apps. That means that I'm either limited to watching live or within the window they are available. They always have commercials. Watching live or on a DVR that only keeps my recordings for 30 days doesn't live up to the "when you want" part of the dream.
The only way I've found to have everything I want is to pirate the show and put it on my Plex server. Then all my devices can watch all the shows I want to watch on demand with no commercials. I would gladly pay for the content but only if a company offered a service with no windowing, was available on all platforms and offered all the content they produce at the same date and time to the whole world. Until that happens, piracy is just the only way to have everything I want.
- Anonymous
Just catching up on my cord killing podcasting ingestion and wanted to comment on whether or not I’ve considered getting back on the piracy bandwagon.
I welcome the ease of access that comes with the newer streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, both of which I’m a subscriber. I’m also a fan of RedBox. But just a couple of weekends ago, I was hanging out with a group of friends when we decided that we’d like to watch Cannonball Run. We tried every possible option trying to find a legitimate way of watching it legally. We’d pay for a rental if we could find one.
Nothing.
So I jumped on That Scurvy Body of Water. Within 20 minutes I had it downloaded to a thumb drive and were watching it. Is that going to be my normal route? No. But it remains a perfectly viable option if I can’t get it from legitimate sources.
Thanks for the great show.
— Some guy from Jersey
I just have to comment on the ITunes TV. I preference this by saying I may not be their demographic, as I'm an Android user. I hate the thought of buy a device to watch a TV program. I think of it as HBO having a streaming device for their service. Vudu actually does have a vudu only stick but I watch it on Roku. I laughed when I saw it, but I think they were giving it away with movie purchases or something. Amazon has the fire stick, but I can still watch it on Roku and other can watch it on Apple TV or Navida Sheild. Google Play has boxes for Android TV but I am sure it's on Roku as well.
Either way there is the UI to consider within Apple's case I will say it's very good I'm sure, but as an Adroid person I won't be swayed to them or watch their shows. Maybe like Google and Amazon they won't consider Roku competition and open a channel via Roku as well.
Finally, Subscription Fatigue.
I am going to try this Trim application mentioned on last show.
I have to say though there are 2 things that I would prefer. If a subscription service might average less then $5- $7 a month, give me a yearly option to gift or receive. DC Universe is a perfect example. $79 for the year. I don't have it pecking at wallet every month. I could give it to someone for a birthday or holiday [hint, hint to the nephew]. Another option would be what I've mentioned before. 3 or 6-month subscriptions. HBO, BritBox, Stars, CBS All Access are perfect for gift cards that might cover that amount of time. In fact, I think I saw a CBS All Access Card at Walmart $25 - $50 options. Perfect for those Star Trek fans that just can't add it into their budget.
Happy Cord Cutting.
- Nicky M.
Hey Tom, Brian, Brice, and way cool guest (unless any one of you's not there),
Thoughts on superhero media stuff:
This might be a little long winded, but here goes. I fall into the demographic of comic book shows/movies being my jam, but not all of them. This is my personal issue, but I'm tired of things being fun if not good (i.e. the majority of what seems to be said about Venom). Marvel Studios has embraced being good more than anything else, which is what I believe makes the MCU as profitable as it is. Warner Bros. just can't seem to get past being cool as opposed to be good (for me both in the movies and TV). Marvel on TV/Netflix is suffering from this a bit too, although I think Daredevil and Punisher are the two shows that rise above that more than the others. My point with all this is that I'm not going to give something a chance when the trailer turns me off, and word of mouth is only ho-hum about it. I'm voting with my money and my attention (to whatever logarithm is tracking me) to only support what's at least good, if not great. I want the good stuff to keep coming, and I want the message to be sent to studios that making just ok isn't going to cut it anymore (looking at you DC/Warner Bros.). Am I crazy for thinking that will happen?
Recommendation:
I know Brian has sung the praises of Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender already, but I just recently caught up and finished the 7th season. If anyone's waited on this this, go watch it all now, as the final season will hit in December. I grew up watching the original (American version), and can't stress enough how awesome and epic this show is! Plus the random D&D inspired episode in season 7 was just delightful! Watch it!
Keep calm and stay shiny
- Audie
Dear Tom, Brian, Brice, and guest if applicable
I am giving you a little bit of Patreon money, you didn’t actually save me money but you did something more important!
We love Windows Media Center and years ago when Microsoft killed support for Netflix in Media Center we knew that eventually we would have to transition away from Media Center. Windows Media Center had a killer user interface and with a TV Style remote it passed the “babysitter test” and a really good DVR interface.
We watch mainly OTA TV and Netflix so initially we got a chromcast for Netflix, and continued to use our Media Center for TV.
We considered a Tivo OTA, but on your show you talked about Silicon Dust doing a kickstarter for beta software for their tuner to record OTA with a Nvidia Shield TV.
We bought a second generation Shield TV and the Kickstarter Beta Silicon Dust HD Homerun.
This worked ok, I setup the HD Homerun software on my desktop computer in the other room and managed recordings on that computer so I didn’t have to attach a hard drive to my Nvidia Shield. But we still ended up using the Media Center for our TV recordings, the Kodi or HD Homerun software was nowhere near as polished as Microsoft’s Software.
Then on your show you told me that Plex.tv was adding OTA support with a HD Homerun! And it would delete tv commercials! My wife hates commercials!
So I purchased a Plex Pass.
I setup a plex server on my desktop computer, the commercial skip works really well, it sometimes leaves commercials in. We learned to not skip the commercials for The Goldberg’s since it seems to cut off the last bit with his real family. From the time it finishes recording it is only a few minutes until the commercial-less video is ready for viewing.
The Plex UI is not nearly as polished as the old WMC interface but it is good enough, and with the new Android Shield Remote app I can use the keyboard on my phone to enter in passwords on my TV!
So thanks to you, I have purchased; Nvidia Shield TV, 2, HD Homerun Connects, and a yearly Plex Pass.
The important part, WE NOW ONLY USE ONE INPUT ON THE TV!
That one input gets us
Live and Recorded TV on Plex
Netflix
Amazon Prime Video
HBO
YouTube
Twitch
Various TV network apps
Plex will even play our old .wtv files recorded on WMC and have some of the meta data!
So we now watch what we want on our TV with only ONE HDMI input!
As far as “watching when we want”, we were flying on a Sunday and were able to download a commercial-less Saturday Night Live that recorded the night before and watch it on our phones on the plane!
PS One time you said that the Nvidia Shield is hard to use, it has google voice built in if you say “play stranger things” it will open Netflix and play stranger things, I have never used a fire stick but I don’t see how the Shield could be much more difficult than a fire stick, and it is much easier than chromcasting.
Your Temporary Boss
-Nathan
Links