Paramount+ Paramount+ Streaming Service (Formerly CBS All Access) (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

I plan on installing the Paramount+ apps on my ATV4K and Roku units later today -- I never had the CBS All Access app installed anywhere. So far, I have only browsed the available content via my PC. I did not notice any type of "watch list" where content of interest could be placed. Did I miss it, or is that feature not there?

 

[Robert Crawford]

I plan on installing the Paramount+ apps on my ATV4K and Roku units later today -- I never had the CBS All Access app installed anywhere. So far, I have only browsed the available content via my PC. I did not notice any type of "watch list" where content of interest could be placed. Did I miss it, or is that feature not there?

I can't find it!

 

[jayembee]

OK, so here's a question...I subscribe to CBS AA and access it through Prime. Now that it's P+, will it carry over (just under the new name)? I guess I've just been assuming this, and hadn't looked into it.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Is the compression improved at all? I remember watching old Twilight Zone's and Mission: Impossible's and the macroblocking was atrocious. It wasn't a bandwidth thing, as those same TZ's looked great on Netflix.

 

[Todd Erwin]

OK, so all the "announcements" that CBS All Access subscribers would need to login this morning into the "new" Paramount+ app was bogus. I checked all my devices this morning expecting to do just that, and found it was not necessary.

However, on my Fire Stick 4K's (which I rarely use for CBS/P+ due to its ridiculous support of only stereo audio), the app still showed as "CBS All Access" until you launch the app, which then displayed a splash screen for Paramount+, yet in the upper left corner of the app's user interface, it still showed as CBS All Access. When I exited the app, it still showed as CBS All Access on the Fire User Interface. Restarting my Fire Stick devices solved the issue.

On my Roku and Apple TV 4K devices, everything has been changed to Paramount+ with no restart required.

 

[Nelson Au]

I had decided to leave my CBS All Access subscription alive and see what will happen today. Last night at 12:20am I looked at the CBS All Access app on my iPad and it still has the CBS logo. But launching it, the CBS logo remained and then I saw Paramount+ logo window. Didn’t seem any different then before except the Paramount logo addition and I’m sure the additional content.

This morning I checked the Apple TV and the CBS All Access app was still there. I launched it and it had a splash screen with Welcome to Paramount+.

About Neil’s question about macro blocking on The Twilight Zone, I checked a random episode in the CBS All Access Paramount+ app, Nick of Time. I don’t have the fastest download speeds, but to my eye, I was surprised how great the image looked. And I’m currently doing a re-watch of The Twilight Zone from the Blu Rays. So the high quality and clarity of the blu ray image is very fresh in my mind. I have to say the image quality is very close to the Blu Rays! If not the same. I didn’t check if there’s a way to see what the resolution is being streamed.

Last year, before the pandemic, I did play a few episodes of The Twilight Zone on the CBS app, and I did see the macro blocking. It was watchable at a distance but a drop in quality was apparent. So it’s pretty neat that the classic shows look so good. I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet a show like The Odd Couple will still have the 480 resolution masters that was used on the DVDs and also have the music cut out in some episodes.

 

[Nelson Au]

You will be grandfathered in on the $5.99 ad-supported plan which includes streaming access to your local CBS affiliate, something only current CBS AA subscribers get and will continue to receive until further notice. New subscribers on or after 3/4 when the name changes will not get their local CBS channel on the service. They may also have limited access to original and other programming (similar to Peacock's free tier). At least that is what I understand from what I've read after the presentation.

That being said, the quality of the live stream is somewhere between 360i and 480i with lots of macro blocking. At least for those in the Reno, Nevada market.

Hi Todd, thanks for chiming in. I’ve been focused on other things at home and work, so I haven’t taken any time to really dig into the details of the new Paramount+ plans.

I guess that extra .99 cents a month will be good for local broadcasting! Ha, ha. I actually have tried the local streaming a few times to see how it worked. I didn’t really look super close, but I didn’t notice the macro blocking. And I usually notice those things, it was mainly the 11:00pm news broadcast, so it wasn’t a movie or CBS TV show. I’ll check gain. Wished this local stuff would include the ABC and NBC affiliates and content too. But of course they are competitors.

 

[Todd Erwin]

OK, so here's a question...I subscribe to CBS AA and access it through Prime. Now that it's P+, will it carry over (just under the new name)? I guess I've just been assuming this, and hadn't looked into it.

Interesting question, and one that all of the press releases failed to mention. I do not care for "Prime Channels" if a stand alone app is available, as it locks me down to one eco-system in most cases. Having said that, on Amazon, that was the only workaround to getting 5.1 audio on CBS All Access on Fire devices, since the CBS-AA (and now P+) app for Fire devices only supports stereo audio.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

On my Roku and Apple TV 4K devices, everything has been changed to Paramount+ with no restart required.

I have several different models of Roku devices, and my experience was different on each. I never had a CBS All Access account, so I was starting fresh on all my devices. The CBS All Access app was already installed on the devices (must have been one of the default apps). In some cases, I had to force an app update before I could login, while in other cases the app changed from CBS to Paramount automatically when I launched it. I may have caught the apps during the transition, though, as it seemed to get smoother with the devices I did later.

I have not had much time to browse the movie content yet. There are some old TV shows I will probably watch, though.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I've skimmed through, and honestly did not see much of anything new in the TV section, but the movie section seemed to have exploded with a wealth of titles, including Young Sherlock Holmes.

 

[Todd Erwin]

OK, so here's a question...I subscribe to CBS AA and access it through Prime. Now that it's P+, will it carry over (just under the new name)? I guess I've just been assuming this, and hadn't looked into it.

Quote from an article on Next TV:

But Amazon released a statement today noting, "Starting today, the Paramount+ app is available both on Fire TV and Prime Video Channels for customers in the U.S., Canada and Brazil. Paramount+ is also available to customers in Mexico via Prime Video Channels."

 

[Todd Erwin]

Annoyingly, Paramount+ (as a stand alone app) still only supports stereo audio on Fire TV devices.

 

[DavidJ]

I signed up for the offer at around 10pm EST on 03/03, so they didn't hold to that GMT deadline.

I guess I should've tried despite the deadline being passed.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Annoyingly, Paramount+ (as a stand alone app) still only supports stereo audio on Fire TV devices.

It looks to be that way on Android TV, too.

Premium services need to understand the word "premium." Disney+ gets it. 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are standard features. When they launched they had the Star Wars films available this way. Paramount+ doesn't seem to have any 4K material, it's all the same old transfers. They have Dolby Vision on a few shows, but they're HD only. And the inconsistency with audio is a turn off. They need to support 5.1 at a minimum on all device to justify the monthly price.

HBO Max is slowly coming around with 4K, DV, and Atmos on their day-and-date theatrical films. It would be nice if it applied to their library as well.

P.S. I just remembered that even Disney+ is 5.1 only on Android TV, but that's still better than stereo only, but no service is perfect.

 

[Nelson Au]

If anyone is interested, I just checked my Apple TV whilst still having lunch. The CBS All Access app is gone and replaced with the Paramount+ app. And it was still CBS AA this morning. The iOS devices I have still has the CBSAA app, it just needs me to update the app.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I can't find it!

It's terribly annoying not to have that. This was a problem on CBS AA also and I was hoping the new app would take care of it. It looks like a rebranded version of the same old app to me.

 

[Todd Erwin]

It's a bit of a headscratcher that the developers went to the trouble of finally giving us user profiles several months ago, but still no real watchlist.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yup, another major miss by Paramount+.

 

[Sam Posten]

Annoyingly, Paramount+ (as a stand alone app) still only supports stereo audio on Fire TV devices.

still 1080p on Xbox. Looks like I was wrong about it being in Atmos. Was simply the best 5.1 I’ve heard tho!

 

[Todd Erwin]

still 1080p on Xbox. Looks like I was wrong about it being in Atmos. Was simply the best 5.1 I’ve heard tho!

I am pretty sure that Discovery (and possibly Picard) are mixed in Atmos, with Netflix streaming Discovery in Atmos overseas and Picard on Prime.