General Discussion Streaming Frustrations, Part 2 (2 Viewers)

[Todd Erwin]

I'm still amazed that TCM hasn't stepped up to create a TCM+ service?

In an al carte world, TCM needs to smell the roses of opportunity and go outside of thier comfort zone take advantage of an additional stand alone app.

As Josh alluded to above, that is not going to happen under the Warner Discovery umbrella, and the shuttering of CNN+ just days after the Warner Media/Discovery Communications merger was completed and less than 2 weeks after the service debuted indicate that the company's ultimate goal in terms of streaming services is to have one centralized "hub" for their content.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

As Josh alluded to above, that is not going to happen under the Warner Discovery umbrella, and the shuttering of CNN+ just days after the Warner Media/Discovery Communications merger was completed and less than 2 weeks after the service debuted indicate that the company's ultimate goal in terms of streaming services is to have one centralized "hub" for their content.

I guess they could/might expand their offering on HBO Max or whatever eventually bigger merged(?) hub platform/service-bundling, if they go that route...

_Man_

 

[Capt D McMars]

As Josh alluded to above, that is not going to happen under the Warner Discovery umbrella, and the shuttering of CNN+ just days after the Warner Media/Discovery Communications merger was completed and less than 2 weeks after the service debuted indicate that the company's ultimate goal in terms of streaming services is to have one centralized "hub" for their content.

noted, and a "centralized hub" would be answer against the traditional cable mindset. With all of these intities shuffeling and changing and augmenting I don't see anything happening well into the tme when the smoke finally starts to dispurse.

 

[Capt D McMars]

I guess the fact Amazon, et al don't offer a TCM streaming channel off TCM's existing "linear channel" feed (like they seem to do some others, including some very niche ones) is indicative of that likely complication.

_Man_

Amazon is restructuing to less free programing and more IMBd free with ads mindset...I thinking about dropping them. There was a change about 6 moths ago, with thier IMBd featues.These series that were originaly free with (Danger Man and theSaint for example) Prime regrouped to free with ads!!!

The other tactic is like Suits for example, you get so many seasons free with prime and the last seasons or 2 you have to buy...bait and switch tactics does not make me happy or content as a Proime Video subscriber...I'm sure I'm not alone in this assesment.

 

[Chris Will]

I agree about Amazon but, as long as it is bundled with there Prime shipping service I will not cancel since we shop so much on Amazon.

 

[EricSchulz]

I recently hit on Hulu’s $1/month for three months promotion to specifically watch Season Three of Pose. Unfortunately, two episodes “freeze” after the first commercial break following the opening. I have tried EVERYTHING including deleting the app and reinstalling it. Nothing works. Is this anything others have experienced?

 

[Clark Green]

What platform is your app tied to? Vizio? Amazon? Google?

 

[Malcolm R]

I recently hit on Hulu’s $1/month for three months promotion to specifically watch Season Three of Pose. Unfortunately, two episodes “freeze” after the first commercial break following the opening. I have tried EVERYTHING including deleting the app and reinstalling it. Nothing works. Is this anything others have experienced?

I'm almost convinced that they provide inferior service for those bargain promotions. I had Hulu for 12 months at $1/month and had nothing but problems with freezing and buffering. I've never had any of those problems with Amazon or Netflix.

Seems odd that they'd degrade the service when hoping you'll stay on as a subscriber at regular price, but I don't have any other explanation for why their service was so technically bad while others are problem-free using the same devices.

 

[Harry-N]

I recently hit on Hulu’s $1/month for three months promotion to specifically watch Season Three of Pose. Unfortunately, two episodes “freeze” after the first commercial break following the opening. I have tried EVERYTHING including deleting the app and reinstalling it. Nothing works. Is this anything others have experienced?

OMG! Is Hulu still not fixed after all these years?

We bought a Sony "Smart" TV in 2012 and were given a one-year subscription to both Netflix and Hulu. I stretched it out so that we started the Hulu subscription later than the Netflix, but it was sometime in the 2013 - 2014 time frame. On Hulu, I was finally able to access the LOU GRANT series, seasons 2 and 3 which weren't anywhere else at the time. And just what you described happened often to us during that series watch. They'd break the show for a commercial - often a repetitive commercial break with lots of the same spots over and over. When the show was to return, the system froze. With no other resolution, I had to actually get up and unplug the TV, restart and log back in to Hulu. And after a fast-forward, I had to sit through that same commercial break again!

It convinced me that I will never ever pay for Hulu, and your post has convinced me again!

 

[Clark Green]

I have had zero issues with Hulu using Google TV app on our Hisense Android tv

 

[Capt D McMars]

What's got me crazy is Amazon Prime...I used to get all kinds of great movies and tv series commercial free!! Now, since IMBd has aquired many of the tv series appearing on Prime, they changed from FREE to Free WITH ADS!!! WTH!!!! This lowers the overall quality experience in Prime and have gotten so bad that I'm dropping it!! If that kind of programing is what I wanted there are plenty of live ROKU channels that don't cost me monthly and at least there I can understand the reasons for the 30 tapon and soda ads...but Prime just ain't so Prime anymore!!

 

[Clark Green]

If Prime wasn't so cheap via student discount, I drop it like a hot potato. I think I've used it twice in a year to watch a movie.

 

[Desslar]

What's got me crazy is Amazon Prime...I used to get all kinds of great movies and tv series commercial free!! Now, since IMBd has aquired many of the tv series appearing on Prime, they changed from FREE to Free WITH ADS!!! WTH!!!! This lowers the overall quality experience in Prime and have gotten so bad that I'm dropping it!! If that kind of programing is what I wanted there are plenty of live ROKU channels that don't cost me monthly and at least there I can understand the reasons for the 30 tapon and soda ads...but Prime just ain't so Prime anymore!!

Yeah, it if wasn't for the free 2 day shipping and the 5% cash back with the Prime card I would probably drop Prime immediately. There's just not that much exclusive content to watch anymore.

 

[John*Wells]

One thing I’ve noticed since I’m watching “in the heat of the night” on freevee is that while not perfect, they place commercials better than the Roku channel

 

[Todd Erwin]

One thing I’ve noticed since I’m watching “in the heat of the night” on freevee is that while not perfect, they place commercials better than the Roku channel

The frustrating thing about that is that *IF* you try to contact the service that is placing commercial breaks incorrectly (FreeVee, Roku Channel, Pluto TV, etc.), they will almost always blame the "content provider." When I had the ad-supported tier of CBS All Access (now Paramount+), the commercial breaks for the season one finale of Star Trek: Discovery were placed about two minutes later than they were supposed to be. When I contacted customer service, I was told just that, despite the fact that CBS was the content provider. They then tried to place blame on the producers... (but that is another issue altogether for some )

 

[John*Wells]

The frustrating thing about that is that *IF* you try to contact the service that is placing commercial breaks incorrectly (FreeVee, Roku Channel, Pluto TV, etc.), they will almost always blame the "content provider." When I had the ad-supported tier of CBS All Access (now Paramount+), the commercial breaks for the season one finale of Star Trek: Discovery were placed about two minutes later than they were supposed to be. When I contacted customer service, I was told just that, despite the fact that CBS was the content provider. They then tried to place blame on the producers... (but that is another issue altogether for some )

And you would think that CBS/Parmount would know the commercial location for their own content

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The frustrating thing about that is that *IF* you try to contact the service that is placing commercial breaks incorrectly (FreeVee, Roku Channel, Pluto TV, etc.), they will almost always blame the "content provider." When I had the ad-supported tier of CBS All Access (now Paramount+), the commercial breaks for the season one finale of Star Trek: Discovery were placed about two minutes later than they were supposed to be. When I contacted customer service, I was told just that, despite the fact that CBS was the content provider. They then tried to place blame on the producers... (but that is another issue altogether for some )

Back when I was the content provider, the different services had different requirements for how to format that metadata, but it was on us to provide it. Some of them wanted the breaks presented as measured by number of frames (i.e. first break at frame 32367), some wanted by number of seconds (first break at second 3982), etc. None did it by timecode. Who knows how it’s changed since then but a decade ago none of the content providers had standardized metadata formats so you’d have to do separate calculations for everyone.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Back when I was the content provider, the different services had different requirements for how to format that metadata, but it was on us to provide it. Some of them wanted the breaks presented as measured by number of frames (i.e. first break at frame 32367), some wanted by number of seconds (first break at second 3982), etc. None did it by timecode. Who knows how it’s changed since then but a decade ago none of the content providers had standardized metadata formats so you’d have to do separate calculations for everyone.

We can provide timecodes for breaks with our streaming titles, but it's not a requirement now. The providers say they'll insert them "appropriately" if we don't. The problem is each AVOD provider has different specs as to how many ads and where they get placed.

 

[mark-edk]

Having just finished 'Primeval: New World' I was looking for a place to rewatch the original UK series. Hulu and Pluto had the show but with mono audio. I could get stereo on iTunes but I'd have to rent or pay. Finally found it on Tubi where they have all the episodes in stereo (and the last two seasons in HD). Why would Hulu, a pay service, NOT have the show in stereo, while free Tubi does? I find this inattention to audio a major frustration with streaming.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Having just finished 'Primeval: New World' I was looking for a place to rewatch the original UK series. Hulu and Pluto had the show but with mono audio. I could get stereo on iTunes but I'd have to rent or pay. Finally found it on Tubi where they have all the episodes in stereo (and the last two seasons in HD). Why would Hulu, a pay service, NOT have the show in stereo, while free Tubi does? I find this inattention to audio a major frustration with streaming.

Unfortunately, when it comes to free or subscription services, we are really at the mercy of what the content provider supplied to the service, unless it is a major blunder, but those are few and far between. The only two I can think of off the top of my head were Birds of Prey on HBO Max (the broadcast version had been uploaded in error) and Back to the Future Part II on Netflix (an edited European version was provided by Universal in error). Both were corrected fairly quickly once the filmmakers were notified by fans.

Yet, you will still find 16x9 fullscreen versions and "downgraded" audio from time to time on subscription services, and the response will almost always be "that is what was proved to us by the studio." When it occurs on a service where you actually purchased the content, as long as you have not viewed it in its entirety and contact the service almost immediately after your purchase, most companies (Amazon, Apple, Vudu) will provide a refund.