To Subscribe Or Not To Subscribe, That Is The Question: Paid Streaming Services

[GHScorpiosRule]

I take it BACK! Season one is missing at least SIX episodes from Season 1!🤬🤬🤬

Original Episode 4-“The Princess and the Weiner King” the one where Michael and Grace KISS!!! the first time!

Episode 6-“Slum Enchanted Evening”

Episode 12:”Sidney, The Déad-Nosed Reindeer” 

Episode 15: “December Bribe”

Episode 21: “Oy Vey! Wilderness” and

Episode 22: “Pigmalion”

WHAT THE FUCK????!!!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

 

[Jaded]

4 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I take it BACK! Season one is missing at least SIX episodes from Season 1!🤬🤬🤬

Original Episode 4-“The Princess and the Weiner King” the one where Michael and Grace KISS!!! the first time!

Episode 6-“Slum Enchanted Evening”

Episode 12:”Sidney, The Déad-Nosed Reindeer” 

Episode 15: “December Bribe”

Episode 21: “Oy Vey! Wilderness” and

Episode 22: “Pigmalion”

WHAT THE FUCK????!!!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

 

This was on TVLine yesterday.

Quote

 

Always looking to dial down our readers’ disappointment, TVLine looked into the “missing” episodes and confirmed that 132 of them will indeed be made available today (“within the next few hours,” I was told at 1:30 pm ET).

We also heard that due to a delay in the delivery of the remaining 40 episodes, those will go up a bit later than the others.

 

https://tvline.com/news/how-to-watch-la-law-online-amazon-prime-video-streaming-1235021870/
 

[shapeshifter]

7 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I take it BACK! Season one is missing at least SIX episodes from Season 1!🤬🤬🤬

Original Episode 4-“The Princess and the Weiner King” the one where Michael and Grace KISS!!! the first time!

Episode 6-“Slum Enchanted Evening”

Episode 12:”Sidney, The Déad-Nosed Reindeer” 

Episode 15: “December Bribe”

Episode 21: “Oy Vey! Wilderness” and

Episode 22: “Pigmalion”

WHAT THE FUCK????!!!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

 

1 minute ago, Jaded said:

This was on TVLine yesterday.

Quote

Always looking to dial down our readers’ disappointment, TVLine looked into the “missing” episodes and confirmed that 132 of them will indeed be made available today (“within the next few hours,” I was told at 1:30 pm ET).

We also heard that due to a delay in the delivery of the remaining 40 episodes, those will go up a bit later than the others.

https://tvline.com/news/how-to-watch-la-law-online-amazon-prime-video-streaming-1235021870/

Also, as a backup, it looks like YouTube has them too, for example, Episode 6,“Slum Enchanted Evening” and Episode 12, “Sidney, The Dead-Nosed Reindeer,” both with captioning, which I prefer/need.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

This was on TVLine yesterday.

https://tvline.com/news/how-to-watch-la-law-online-amazon-prime-video-streaming-1235021870/
 

Yeah well. They’re still missing!!!!

I don’t understand why all weren’t available at the same time. This is a recent occurrence. I know, I know. First World Problems.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Still MISSING!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[GHScorpiosRule]

Season two is so f'd up! So Prime doesn't have the season finale of the first season, yet in the recap of season 2's premiere, they show scenes of Abby schmoozing Jonathan, to join the firm; Michael and Grace fighting over the tobacco case he lost, and Stuart and Anne fighting over wedding stuff.

BUT. We get the first three episodes, skip over the fourth, and the fifth episode has those scenes from the RECAP!!!! I mean, we already met Jonathan, and he's at Mackenzie, and has been for two episodes, but now we see Abby telling him about it-because he's still LOOKING! And we see the tail end of the tobacco case Michael lost.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just what the HELL is going on here?!

I'm so tempted to just get the first five seasons. It's beyond aggravating trying to watch this on Prime, when the missing episodes STILL have not been added.

[festivus]

I don't even understand that. Why not have all of them? I honestly would love to watch LA Law again, I was totally into it back in the day. I won't though if it's not the whole show.

[tessaray]

I liked LA Law back in the day, though I don't remember much about it. But in my experience from other shows, music rights are usually the culprit when shows are missing.

[GHScorpiosRule]

32 minutes ago, tessaray said:

I liked LA Law back in the day, though I don't remember much about it. But in my experience from other shows, music rights are usually the culprit when shows are missing.

I do remember the missing season one episodes, and no music. Unless it's the actual score/music OF the show. It's stupid. Plus, as @Jaded posted up thread, the missing episodes were supposed to be added so that the complete series would be available last week.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Plus, as @Jaded posted up thread, the missing episodes were supposed to be added so that the complete series would be available last week.

The TV Line article is really vague. It says the remaining 40 would go up a “bit later” than the 132 episodes being released that day. Sounds like they are supposed to be added but it is anyone’s guess when that will actually happen. 

[shapeshifter]

13 hours ago, Dani said:

The TV Line article is really vague. It says the remaining 40 would go up a “bit later” than the 132 episodes being released that day. Sounds like they are supposed to be added but it is anyone’s guess when that will actually happen. 

A few years ago in a different part of the country, my local OTA affiliates used to only play certain seasons of The Listener, Numb3rs, the old Match Game, and a few other shows. So when I tuned into similar stations recently and caught episodes I hadn't seen previously, it was a pleasant surprise.

[Jaded]

Disney+ and Hulu Reveal Huge Price Increases

Edited August 9, 2023 by Jaded

[DearEvette]

Heh.  So I got Paramount+ in April for a .99 a month for three months promotion.  In July just a few days before it would auto-renew for the full price, I went to to cancel it. A pop up came up and said 'We don't like goodbyes, try two months free on us."  I said, ok!

So today I went to go cancel, again just a few days before the real price would kick in and I got that pop up again.  Two more months for free.  So by the end of this newest cycle I will have racked up 7 months of Paramount for $3.00.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Huh, maybe I’ll subscribe to them then. 😂

I just got word of the Hulu/Disney+ increases today (I watch Hulu every week and yet this just popped up, and U don’t really go looking for news on this stuff), and I’m thinking of just dropping down to Hulu, or cancelling altogether and getting Max so I can continue watching ER over there. And maybe see what else catches my mind.

I still haven’t resubscribed to Netflix. There are some Netflix exclusives I am missing out on but most of it is junk these days and I can’t justify the price. 

[meowmommy]

On 9/7/2023 at 8:01 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

I just got word of the Hulu/Disney+ increases today (I watch Hulu every week and yet this just popped up, and U don’t really go looking for news on this stuff), and I’m thinking of just dropping down to Hulu, or cancelling altogether and getting Max so I can continue watching ER over there. And maybe see what else catches my mind.

They had just announced a huge increase last November and suddenly offered a deal of Hulu with ads/Disney+ with no ads for $5/month.  We jumped on it.  We will not be renewing as there's just not enough interesting content.  Some movies that are obviously Disney products are not on Disney+.  If they offer a similar deal in November, we'll cancel my subscription and DD will start one.

Anybody else use HBO Max on Roku?  It's been horrible since they basically deleted the HBO app and pushed out the Max app.  Not only did we lose the ability to sort our watchlists and import our own avatars, but one glitch after another has made it just about unusable. 

A lot of programs in the Continue Watching will not advance from the episode you just finished.  So you either have to go back into the episode, re-finish it, and jump to the next episode, or go find it in your watchlist that you can't sort and select the next episode. 

Then there was the issue of the closed captioning.  You had to open an episode, turn off captions within the app, go out of it, go back in, and select captions, every time.  There was a workaround of switching to Spanish and back to English, too. Eventually that problem was seemingly resolved. 

Now there's an issue of several weeks now where if you hit the pause button and try to resume, it jumps back to the beginning, or jumps forward ten minutes, or jumps to the last place you paused.  Just anything but resume.  The workaround is to hit the quick rewind button and then play, but a lot of times I forget.  And it's made me conscious of not pausing, even in other apps.

It's only when directly accessing via Roku.  If I go through my cable to get to the app, it's very slow to load, but it doesn't have the issues with the captioning or the pausing.  Apparently people have complained to HBO, but they don't seem to care.  For the amount of money they get from subscribers, they need to care.

Maybe it's better than the Smithsonian app, which used to have a lot of cool content if you're into history or geography.  And maybe it still does, but it's hard to find and they don't let you build a watchlist or save your progress.  So every time you have to search or browse like it's your first visit.

Is GBBO back?  That might be the only thing that gets us to re-sub to Netflix.

[ABay]

I think GBBO restarts in the UK tomorrow, so maybe Friday on Netflix?

[Popples]

7 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Anybody else use HBO Max on Roku?  It's been horrible since they basically deleted the HBO app and pushed out the Max app.  Not only did we lose the ability to sort our watchlists and import our own avatars, but one glitch after another has made it just about unusable. 

A lot of programs in the Continue Watching will not advance from the episode you just finished.  So you either have to go back into the episode, re-finish it, and jump to the next episode, or go find it in your watchlist that you can't sort and select the next episode.

I thought I was the only one having this problem. I first noticed it a few months ago. At first, I thought that since I wouldn't sit through the credits, the app wouldn't recognize that I finished the episode, so I started watching all the way through to the preview scenes for the next episode, but it would still say I had a few minutes left on the previous episode. I haven't tried accessing it through cable, so I didn't realize the problem was with Roku. Changing the name and tampering with the existing app was an idiotic decision.

[Ceindreadh]

6 hours ago, ABay said:

I think GBBO restarts in the UK tomorrow, so maybe Friday on Netflix?

It doesn't appear to be starting in the UK until the 26th September.

[ABay]

Thanks for the heads up. I just checked the GBBO thread and see the episode thread has been hidden now until a new date is confirmed.

[possibilities]

What is  GBBO?

[Guest]

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

What is  GBBO?

Great British Bake Off. 

[AstridM]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:01 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

Huh, maybe I’ll subscribe to them then. 😂

I just got word of the Hulu/Disney+ increases today (I watch Hulu every week and yet this just popped up, and U don’t really go looking for news on this stuff), and I’m thinking of just dropping down to Hulu, or cancelling altogether and getting Max so I can continue watching ER over there. And maybe see what else catches my mind.

I still haven’t resubscribed to Netflix. There are some Netflix exclusives I am missing out on but most of it is junk these days and I can’t justify the price. 

I just canceled Netflix again. I’ll resubscribe again in a few months most likely. No reason to pay them every month, lol when there’s plenty of other stuff to watch.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I don’t understand why Paramount + has the original Hawaii 5-0’s pilot as the last two episodes. And they only have the first two seasons?!!! PFFFT. And it was a smart choice to recast Danny for the show. The one who was in the pilot just sucked.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I don’t understand why Paramount + has the original Hawaii 5-0’s pilot as the last two episodes. And they only have the first two seasons?!!! PFFFT. 

That’s weird. I just looked at all 12 seasons are there for me. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

18 minutes ago, Dani said:

That’s weird. I just looked at all 12 seasons are there for me. 

Thanks. Usually it tells you how many seasons and for the original, it just stated “2 seasons” just as JAG states “one season” when that show ran for 10 seasons.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Thanks. Usually it tells you how many seasons and for the original, it just stated “2 seasons” just as JAG states “one season” when that show ran for 10 seasons.

I’m not sure where you are talking about but JAG has all 10 season available. 
Edited to add- I was wrong, JAG has a few episodes from all 10 seasons but is missing a lot. 

[shapeshifter]

This was unexpected:

Perhaps somehow linked to the strikes?
I was going to cancel — in part because there are no new NBC episodes for me to watch after they air.

 

[Unclejosh]

No such offer for me, lol. Boooo

[opus]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:02 PM, shapeshifter said:

This was unexpected:

Perhaps somehow linked to the strikes?
I was going to cancel — in part because there are no new NBC episodes for me to watch after they air.

 

I have a year of free Peacock that ends next month. I'd probably re-up at those rates.

[Jaded]

Amazon is adding commercials ro Prime Video  outside of FreeVee which has some of the older Prime content.

 

[Unclejosh]

I barely watch stuff on Prime Video and I will just obtain any shows from other sources if I want to watch something without ads.

I already pay $180 bucks to Amazon Prime, plus another $120 a year for Kindle Unlimited and I am not paying them anything more to remove ads. That should be included.  If people just have Prime Video without actual Amazon prime then i have no problem with the increase. 

[SoMuchTV]

Charging for ad-free aside, has anyone else been seeing weirdities on the Prime interface recently?  This is mostly out of curiosity, because it seems to have fixed itself, but earlier today I went to the Prime app on my smart tv and it looked - odd.  Only a few popular shows across the top, and "My stuff" most definitely didn't have my stuff, even things I was in the process of watching.  I tried searching for shows I know I watched recently, and it would bring up suggested options, but clicking on them did nothing.  Not even the FreeVee stuff, which anyone should be able to access.

I tried my FireStick, thinking maybe my tv got a bad app update, but same thing there.  Did I need to log in again?  Did my Prime membership expire? None of that was the case.  I went back and forth from my smart tv to the Firestick a few times and eventually I got the old interface and all my stuff was back.  No idea what happened there.  Google didn't turn up any complaints about similar issues but if it was a today thing, it might not have shown up yet.

[AstridM]

2 hours ago, Jaded said:

Amazon is adding commercials ro Prime Video  outside of FreeVee which has some of the older Prime content.

 

Ugh. I just heard about this on NPR.

[Bastet]

End of an era -- Netflix shipped its last DVDs yesterday.  I didn't quite make it through my list, but fairly close.  I'll miss it; they had a good selection of things that aren't airing or streaming anywhere (or at least not on anything I have), things I don't want to buy on DVD, just want to see once (or maybe I'll wind up buying it, but won't know if I want to until I watch) or are no longer available on DVD.  They even had some old TV movies from the golden age of such productions. 

And I have to roll my eyes at shuttering an entire division, the one that put your company on the map, because its revenue is down to "only" $150 million.

[Ohiopirate02]

49 minutes ago, Bastet said:

End of an era -- Netflix shipped its last DVDs yesterday.  I didn't quite make it through my list, but fairly close.  I'll miss it; they had a good selection of things that aren't airing or streaming anywhere (or at least not on anything I have), things I don't want to buy on DVD, just want to see once (or maybe I'll wind up buying it, but won't know if I want to until I watch) or are no longer available on DVD.  They even had some old TV movies from the golden age of such productions. 

And I have to roll my eyes at shuttering an entire division, the one that put your company on the map, because its revenue is down to "only" $150 million.

I saw something where Netflix was going to randomly send subscribers DVDs to keep as a way to tackle their inventory problem.  If that is still a thing, you may just get those last few titles in your queue mailed to you.  

[Bastet]

29 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I saw something where Netflix was going to randomly send subscribers DVDs to keep as a way to tackle their inventory problem.  If that is still a thing, you may just get those last few titles in your queue mailed to you.  

Any we have as of today (or any that arrive after), we get to keep, and then among those who entered themselves in the contest (I did), they will select some (no idea how many) subscribers to send ten DVDs from their remaining list to. 

[michelec]

On 9/29/2023 at 3:37 PM, Bastet said:

End of an era -- Netflix shipped its last DVDs yesterday.  I didn't quite make it through my list, but fairly close.  I'll miss it; they had a good selection of things that aren't airing or streaming anywhere (or at least not on anything I have), things I don't want to buy on DVD, just want to see once (or maybe I'll wind up buying it, but won't know if I want to until I watch) or are no longer available on DVD.  They even had some old TV movies from the golden age of such productions. 

And I have to roll my eyes at shuttering an entire division, the one that put your company on the map, because its revenue is down to "only" $150 million.

I'll miss it too. I'm too cheap to pay for the premium channels like HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc., so I would watch their series when they came out on DVD. And I'm also sad that now when I see a trailer for a movie that looks good, I won't be able to go on the app to add it to my Save List.

[Jaded]

Netflix Reportedly Plans To Raise Its Prices Again After SAG-AFTRA Strike Ends

Frndly TV Adds MeTV+ a Day Early To Its Lineup

P.S: Pluto (I know it's free) added a Dynasty channel. Thought that may have been of interest to some other people here besides just me)

[Bastet]

As a long-time customer of Netflix's late great DVD rental service, now that it no longer exists (because, again, it "only" brought in $150 million annual revenue), I have ever so generously been offered three months free of Netflix's streaming service -- but the cheapest ad-supported plan.  Seriously?!  If you're going to offer a free preview of something you hope someone loves so much they'll pay to continue, why would you not make it the most-expensive, all the bells and whistles, plan, or at least something in the middle?

(As previously posted, I already have access to Netflix streaming via my parents' account, which is a minor nuisance to access now, due to Netflix's password sharing crackdown, but I can still do it enough to work for me.  So I have no interest.  But if I was starting from scratch, this would not entice me.)

[ABay]

My Xmas present to myself will be to resub to Netflix, MhZ, Disney+, Paramount+, and maybe one or two others. By then there might be enough across them to keep me entertained for a month.

[shapeshifter]

Perhaps of interest:
Spectrum has finally stopped letting my Roku TV be simultaneously logged into my internet-only Spectrum account while logging into my daughter's Spectrum account to access cable. 

Workaround: Download onto the Roku TV the individual channel app (e.g., NBC, ABC, etc.) and log into my daughter's Spectrum account. 
However, it's a bit glitchy. 

"Stay tuned" for updates on the success or lack thereof of this strategy.

[CrazyInAlabama]

For reasons too long to bother telling, I moved out of my house, and turned in my Spectrum gear.  Then, I'm moving back, and went to the Spectrum store again, and found out my previous tier of channels was grandfathered in, but once I gave it up, the channel lineup was history.    So, the best I could do was either get boxes, that only stream the Spectrum app, or get a certain tier of Spectrum One, and the entertainment package, but get Roku tvs. 

I opted for the steaming Spectrum package plus entertainment.   I added up the other services I would have to get for local channels, You Tube tv, Hulu plus, Philo or Peacock, and added up the price after intro fees, and decided the Spectrum TV app will probably be cheaper and easier.   I can always use my Amazon Prime video too.     I don't even need a box of any kind, and that means I can put the TVs where ever I want.    Being a big chicken, I'm getting the modem setup for $25.     

The worst part for me is I decided I need a better modem, so I have to program that in too.   

So, I guess I'm going to have to learn what to do.  Everyone says it's easy, and I guess I'll find out.   

[Guest]

I resubscribed to Netflix to watch Fall of the House of Usher and their price tiers are so stupid since they got rid of the basic plan. It’s too big of price gap between Standard with ads and without ads. It wouldn’t be so bad if they put any thought into ad placement. Ads pop up in the middle of scenes.

Plus I am having the hardest time finding anything else to watch and part 1 of The Crown’s final season drops just after my current month ends with part 2 being in the third month. I can’t even justify extending past my current month. 

[Bastet]

I clicked on Netflix yesterday (also for The Fall of the House of Usher, but I have a lot of other stuff on my list, too) for the first time in months, and was expecting the routine where I (as my mom) say I'm traveling, then call her to get the temporary access (I've been told it's one week) code they email to her, but it just worked normally.  Relief!  But then today, I got the "you're outside the household" (that's not what it says, but that's the jist) message and had to do the code thing.  Probably because my parents watched something on Netflix last night.  We're going to have to coordinate this better.  🙂  

[EtheltoTillie]

I haven't been reading this thread for a while. Now Netflix just announced a big price increase.  This after their remarkable "subscription increase" after their password sharing crackdown????

I have been able to log on to Netflix at both home locations without trouble.  I haven't been asked for the I'm traveling code lately. 

[Guest]

I wonder where the breaking point is for Netflix. How unfriendly to customers can they become and still be successful?

[Kel Varnsen]

38 minutes ago, Dani said:

I wonder where the breaking point is for Netflix. How unfriendly to customers can they become and still be successful?

Depending on how successful the password sharing crackdown was, it wouldn't surprise me if Netflix next implemented an activation charge. Something to discourage people from just signing up for a few months each year to watch a few shows then cancelling. I think they would probably need to have a run of really successful shows all in the same year if they wanted to try that.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Depending on how successful the password sharing crackdown was, it wouldn't surprise me if Netflix next implemented an activation charge. Something to discourage people from just signing up for a few months each year to watch a few shows then cancelling. I think they would probably need to have a run of really successful shows all in the same year if they wanted to try that.

The password sharing crackdown was very successful. My opinion of Netflix is very low but I don’t think they are stupid enough to go with an activation fee. You just piss off the people who already have one foot out the door and get more bad press. 

There are better ways to combat churn like strategic release timing and yearly subscriptions. 

[Kel Varnsen]

32 minutes ago, Dani said:

The password sharing crackdown was very successful. My opinion of Netflix is very low but I don’t think they are stupid enough to go with an activation fee. You just piss off the people who already have one foot out the door and get more bad press. 

There are better ways to combat churn like strategic release timing and yearly subscriptions. 

I am not sure. I mean logically all the price increases and the competition have probably pissed a bunch of people off and it would be stupid to try and do more stuff like that. At the same time though it is not hard for me to picture them making an announcement around when Stranger Things season 4 comes out that says that current subscribers are fine, but anyone who signs up after a certain date after that will have to start paying a fee to sign up. Basically daring people to cancel after they watch Stranger Things knowing that if they unsubscribe and want to come back it will cost even more.

[opus]

On 9/22/2023 at 3:42 PM, opus said:

I have a year of free Peacock that ends next month. I'd probably re-up at those rates.

They ended up offering 3 months at $1.99 per month. So I decided to stay a bit longer.