Recent content by ncted

Amazon likely never made any direct profit on the Firestick. It is a content enablement platform for them to make money on advertising, data collection, and in-app purchases, and it always has been. They sell it at or below cost. It is likely part of the reason Roku decided to get into the...

TVs should last a lot longer than a cheap streaming device. However, even a high-end smartTV is going to reach a point where the hardware just isn't going to be capable of dealing with the new CODECs, etc., let alone the new advertising and data collection platforms which keep getting bigger and...

As long as it is a paid account, this appears to be the case. If you are using your AT&T credentials from your unlimited wireless or Gig Internet service, very few people have been able to get it to work. Few enough that either they are lying, or they just got lucky.

I liked Android TV fine when I tried the Shield. I am not a fan of the standard launcher due to the small icon sizes. It was fine on the big TV in the living room, but smaller TVs elsewhere had marginal visibility to my 46-year old eyes. At least you can change the launcher on some Android TV...

HBO was part of the Warner Media purchase, not part of the DirecTV purchase.

Reportedly, the sticking point with Roku and Amazon is the revenue share from in-app subscriptions. Revenue from existing HBO subscribers was supposedly split 50/50. That is even more ridiculous than Apple and Google's 30% share. Roku used to make money by selling hardware, and they probably...

Yes. The only thing that I have run into is, with the HBO Max app, if I press Select (middle of D-pad) to skip an intro, it pauses playback. I cannot seem to figure out how to skip intros in that one app.

AT&T wanted Dish to pay for a minimum number of subs, well in excess of historical subscription levels.

I am very happy with my Apple TV 4k in the Living Room. I am seriously considering putting one each of the other TVs with Firesticks (the current primary streaming device) as backups. I haven't powered on a Roku in months.

A lot of municipalities still won't recycle phone books. Mine does, but Raleigh, NC a few miles away didn't at last check.

Sounds like a mail-order dinnerware company from the 90s.

Well, had. Can't really say there is much difference any more thanks to AT&T. If Dish bought DirecTV, I am not sure which way they would go. If a third party owned both, they would probably go with DirecTV as you say.

I got an AppleTV 4k for our living room. If I just wanted to watch something that wasn't available on the Firestick or Roku without "hacking", I would pick up a cheap Chromecast.

Yeah, I was willing to try switching to AT&T TV Now to save $10/month, but my wife didn't want to change again. I haven't found anything that gives us what we need for less without serious loss of functionality.

I honestly get most Amazon deliveries faster than predicted these days, unless it is delivered end-to-end by USPS. We are enjoying The Boys season 2 right now and we liked The World's Toughest Race. Seems like they have as much new as any of the other platforms.