Cordkillers 317 - Five Z Words (w/ Roberto Villegas)
Are cloud DVRs useless now? Plus, cordkilling news from WWDC, AMC re-opening July 15, and Hamilton is coming to Disney+. All this and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Roberto Villegas.
CordKillers: 317 - Five Z Word
Recorded: June 22 2020
Guest: Roberto Villegas
Intro Video
Trailer for Hulu's Palm Springs
Primary Target
Do we need DVR anymore?
Cordcuttersnews.com has a great breakdown of the DVR services from the major streaming TV providers. YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, Fubo, Philo, Aling and ATT TV Now.
- Streaming DVRs have generally been inferior to real DVRS in limiting commercial skips, expiring your recordings and limiting storage, all disadvantages they shouldn't need to have. A lot of these are going away though.
- All of them have commercial skip now, although Hulu makes you pay for enhanced DVR to get it and Sling doesn't allow it on all recordings.
- As for recording expiration, most don't expire recordings anymore. Of the ones that do, YouTube TV has a 9 month limit. ATT does 90 days, and Philo 30.
- A better limit is the storage which is more comparable to a DVR. A big advantage of streaming services is to offer unlimited. Which YouTube TV and Philo do. ATT is the next most gernous at 500 hours, Hulu is 50 or 200 if you pay for enhanced, Fubo has 30 and Sling a paltry ten but you can pay to upgrade to 50.
- But.... Do we need a cloud DVR at all?
How to Watch
Watch the first trailer for ‘Foundation,’ coming to Apple TV+ in 2021
- tvOS 14
- Xbox controllers
- PIP in all cases, including airplay
- TV app coming to Sony and Vizo later this summer
- Apple TV+ original: Foundation trailer
YouTube will be viewable in 4K.
AMC Reopening Theaters on July 15
AMC Theatres Will Now Require Patrons To Wear Masks In Wake Of Backlash
Cineworld Confirms July Re-Opening Of All Cinemas, Sets U.S./UK Dates
Cinemark Unveils Details About Reopening Circuit & COVID-19 Safety Procedures
- Cineworld, owner of Regal will start reopening its cinemas in the last week of June with all its theaters expected to be back open by the end of July. US locations will start opening July 10.
- Cinemark began reopening in Dallas-ForthWorth with all locations open by July 17.
- AMC will open 450 US locations on July 15 and the remaining 150 by July 24.
- About 2-4% of theaters won't come back and will be closed.
- Phase 1 will block out every other row and sell tickets to 30% capacity
- Phase 2 raises it to 40% and by Labor Day they expect to reach 50%. They hope to reach 100% capacity by Thanksgiving.
- There will be more intense cleaning between screenings, and overnight sprayers to shoot electrically charged cleaning fluid on seats.
- Everyone will be asked to wear masks. Employees will have their temperature checked.
- AMC was going to follow Cinemark and Regal in following local law on mask requirements. But then the CEO of AMC Adam Aron said in an interview with Variety that they "did not want to be drawn into a political controversy,” which immediately drew them into a political controversy and they have now announced all locations will require masks.
What to Watch
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Hamilton’ Releases First Trailer for Disney Plus Launch
- A trailer for the movie version of Hamilton is out. The movie was hot at one of the original cast's Brodway performance and will premiere on Disney + July 3. It's getting a PG-13rating which implies some of the language may have been edited.
’30 Rock’ Returns to NBC With New Hour-Long Special That Will Double as an Upfront Event
- A special commercial-free episode of 30 rock will air on NBC July 16 at 8 PM to introduce people to NBC's new fall lineup. Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and others, will reprise their roles as part of the NBC upfront presentations as the characters from 30 Rock present “the stories and talent featured in NBCUniversal’s 2020-21 television season."
Disney plans to entice you back to theaters by showing The Empire Strikes Back in 4K in theaters, the first time any of the original trilogy will be released to theaters in 4K.
If Buffy found religion: A Catholic order battles evil in Warrior Nun trailer
- There's a trailer out for Netflix's Warrior Nun based on the comic series by Ben Dunn. A young woman wakes up in a. Morgue to find she carries an embedded divine object that's brought her back from the dead with superpowers to fight evil. Warrior Nun comes to Netflix July 2.
Apple TV+ picks up eight-part Israel-Iran espionage thriller 'Tehran'
- Apple TV+ is getting "Tehran" Starring "Iron Man" actor Shaun Toub and Navid Negahban of "Homeland" fame alongside Israeli actress Niv Sultan. Sultan plays a Mossad hacker-agent undercover in Iran trying to take down a nuclear reactor. But things go wrong and she goes rogue, partnering up with a pro-democracy activist.Apple TV +
Hulu will stream IMAX’s gorgeous documentaries, but not in 4K
- Hulu is partnering with IMAX to exclusively carry 16 of the technology company’s documentaries in the United States, including A Beautiful Planet, Destiny in Space, and Into the Deep — but none of the titles will be available in 4K.
Fox's ad-supported Tubi, annocuned a dedicated Spanish-language destination Tubi en Español, andthe addition of library content like LEGO Masters; titles based on Mattel franchises like Barbie and American Girl; and more.
‘Scoob!’, After Skipping Theaters, Hits HBO Max June 26
‘SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run’ Skipping Theaters to Launch On Demand and CBS All Access
-The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run will forgo a theatrical release and launch on PVOD (premium VOD) in early 2021. It will eventually debut with the entire SpongeBob back-catalogue on the upcoming re-branded CBS All Access.
Netflix will bring back ‘Lucifer’ for Season 5 on August 21.
‘The Witcher’ Season 2 will resume production in the UK on August 17
Eyes On
Brian: The Last of Us Part 2 (also still watching Lost)
Tom: It's Okay Not To be Okay
Roberto: Beastars
On the Lookout: Never Have I Ever
Front Lines
Hulu Unveils Details Of Steve Martin & Martin Short Comedy As ‘Y: The Last Man’ & ‘American Horror Stories’ Become FX On Hulu Originals
- Hulu announced the Steve Martin and Martin Short series Only Murders in the Building about three New Yorkers who have an interest in True Crime about murders that happened int heir building. FX on Hulu has a Jeff bridges show The Old Man and Y The Last Man starring Diane Lane among others. For Halloween there will be Books of Blood based on Clive Barker's book, and horror satire called Bad Hair as well as Marvel's Helstrom. Disney also announced a unified ad platform across its streaming properties called Disney Hulu XP.
Hulu Rolls Out New Ad Format And Measurement Tools, Unified Disney Platform In Virtual NewFronts Pitch
Rick and Morty creators drop hints about how season 5 is coming along
-Dan Harmon told The Wrap's Emmy magazine that they are working on new episodes of Rick and Morty in two-hour blocks on Zoom. Meanwhile Ryan Elder told Inverse that it seems like both Beths will stay around.
Michael Keaton in Talks to Return as Batman for 'Flash' Movie
-Hollywood Reporter says Michael Keaton is in negotiations to play Batman in the DC movie The Flash. The movie stars Ezra Miller as The Flash and is directed by It's Andy Muschietti. He might even show up in other DC films as sort of a Nick Fury-like character. The Batman starring Rob Pattinson is being seen as separate from the other DC Movies.
NFL Network and NFL RedZone No Longer Available On Dish And Sling TV Amid Distribution Deal Impasse
- The NFL Network and NFL Red Zone are no longer on Dish or Sling TV as the NFL and Dish negotiate a new carriage agreement. Not as big of a deal right now with no games happening, but preseason is coming.
Philo Streaming Bundle Adds Starz And Epix To Lineup With Promotional Prices
- Philo is adding Epic and Starz as add-on options to its streaming service. Epic will run Philo customers $6 a month and Start will be $9, though both have introductory discounts. Philo offers 50 channels, including A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network and MTV for $20 a month.
Variety's sources say Quibi's negotiations with Amazon have picked back up. Roku which seemed closer now seems far with Roku apparently ready to walk away based on an inability to agree on revenue sharing.
Dispatches from the Front
Hey coworkers! I know Brian mentions how he watches his streaming content on his computer from time to time and with the whole stay at home thing I spent way more time looking at this Mac Touch Bar than I used to in the office where the machine is typically docked. I felt this was a completely useless thing Apple made until I found CLICKER. https://www.dbklabs.com/ No this is not an extremely fungal infected human from The Last of Us, in fact this will be your new best friend.
Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Youtube TV all have Clicker apps and operate pretty much the same way, A Native signed Mac App that you can install to access the streaming services. Heard this story before … I get it. BUT! Clicker goes ahead and places your Continue watching Strip directly on that now Amazing Touch Bar. Get back into that episode of Avatar Boom your are playing in one click no scroll required. Switch to an amazing episode of Ozark two taps and your in! Need to quickly go from full screen to a pop out window, boom Thank you clicker for making my Touch Bar worth the investment and my streaming experience so much more enjoyable.
Just don’t be watching it while you are working Brian and Tom… Get back to work.
Your Boss
- Troy
Hi Tom and Brian,
My name is Chris and I’m a big fan of the show. I’ve been listening since the TWIT days and have had Tom in my ears… pause… since BOL.
I wanted to share my thoughts with you on the temporary removal of Gone with the Wind from HBO Max. All though I get what Brian was going for when he mentioned the idea of have two versions available, one the original movie with a disclaimer and another with the questionable parts removed, here is why I am against that route.
As a black man, when I sit and watch a piece of content, from the past or something current, that contains something either blatantly racist or just subtly questionable, I recognize it and I have to process it. I have to decide if I want to continue watching it. I have to decide if I acknowledge what I just saw to the person sitting next to me. I have to sit and deal with the uncomfortableness that is watching someone who looks like me portrayed in a certain light.
That is why I am for leaving Gone with the Wind as is, but with the addition of a short segment added to the beginning, maybe a minute or two long that explains what scenes are wrong and why. I prefer this option because now not only do I and other Black individuals have to feel uncomfortable when watching this movie, everyone does. Because once you are informed that something is wrong, it makes it very hard to ignore it when you see it. If you provide a version that cuts out scenes it provides an easy way out for those that do not want to feel uncomfortable to feel better.
Again love the podcast and appreciate what you do,
- Chris