Just be patient. Streaming is becoming pretty cable-esque. Ads, live sports, reality TV, consolidation, big price increases, bit-starved picture quality, etc. Pretty soon, there will be no meaningful difference.
The one response I have to this is I am actually watching less YouTube these days due to the AI slop. I am discovering fewer new, original creators. This coming year may be the last year I pay for YT Premium if the trend continues.
Yeah, it isn't a bandwidth issue on my end. This looks an awful lot like certain streaming services are trying to limit their bandwidth bills by reducing quality, just like cable and satellite have done.
I can see the difference in my bandwidth graphs on my router. The roughly 20-30Mb spike...
I gotta say, lately, it seems like they have been upping the compression or bit-starving the streams somewhat. I mainly see it on HBOMAX and Peacock, but I've seen it some on Paramount+ and Netflix as well. Disney+ and AppleTV+ still look great for the most part. Mostly what I see is...
Wasn't sure where to put this: MSNBC to Change Its Name—And Lose the Peacock Logo
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/msnbc-to-change-its-name-and-lose-the-peacock-logo-0c3e34a7?st=78WoKZ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Sadly, the $60 rebate I got through Sams for the annual sub last year seems to be gone. We actually get NBC OTA, so I am not sure why I would keep Peacock unless they offer me a sweetheart deal to renew. I will probably let it lapse to see if they do offer any discounted renewal.
I assume you're exaggerating here to make a point about the rising prices of food, but even if you just eat cheap, fast food, there is no way this is true. My wife and I spend about $150 per week on groceries, and we try to eat really healthy which is more expensive. If we ate out every meal...
The people who run the games know that people want to play for larger jackpots. Mega used to be $1 while PowerBall was $2. Then Mega went to $2, and now $5. The bigger the jackpot, the more people play because people don't make smart decisions.
They finally realized they need to compete on price. As for 5G broadband, it is fine for most people if you can get good signal, and not too many people sign up for it nearby.
This is only somewhat applicable to the topic, but since it includes unwanted ads, I figured I'd share it:
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/24/iphone-customers-upset-by-apple-wallet-ad-pushing-f1-movie/
I am already displeased with a number of things Apple has done over the past few years (along...
I have all of the following ad-free for the indicated monthly cost:
AppleTV+ ($10)
Netflix Premium ($25)
Disney+/Hulu ($20)
MAX Premium ($17.50)
Paramount+ ($10)
Peacock Premium Plus ($11.67)
Total: $94.17 (I actually pay less through gift card deals and other discounts)
Throw in the cost of...
There are several things we want to watch on Prime this month, so I paid the $3. At least they seems to have fixed the bug in the AppleTV app where if you paid for ad-free, it skips to the end of the episode whenever you reach the point at which an ad would have played.